Appleman on the Psychedelic Renaissance and the Lingering Shadow of Eugenics

Laura I. Appleman, Willamette University School of Law, has published Psychedelic Renaissance and the Lingering Shadow of Eugenics. Here is the abstract.

This Essay situates the contemporary psychedelic renaissance within a long, cyclical history of psychoactive exploration, regulation, and exclusion. Tracing the intertwined genealogies of psychedelics, eugenics, and capitalism from the nineteenth century to the present, it argues that each “rebirth” of chemical enlightenment has carried with it the same shadow: anxieties about purity, hierarchy, and control. From early 19th-century nitrous oxide experiments through Progressive Era drug criminalization and the mid-century counterculture, the boundaries between “medicine” and “drug” have functioned as instruments of social stratification. Today’s techno-spiritual revival, shaped by transhumanism, corporadelics, and conspiritualist movements, reanimates these hierarchies under the guise of therapeutic innovation and human optimization. By recovering the eugenic foundations of prior psychedelic eras, this Essay warns that our latest renaissance risks reproducing the same inequities it professes to transcend.

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.

Call For Papers, Brazilian Journal of International Law @franca_marcilio

From Professor Marcilio Franca, a call for papers for a special issue of the Brazilian Journal of International Law:

BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW Call for Papers Vol. 21 n. 2 2024   Deadline for submissions: 1st June 2024   SPECIAL ISSUE   The Brazilian Journal of International Law, a SCOPUS-indexed review, invites submissions for a special issue on “International Food Law” to be published in October 2024. The issue will be edited by Professors Marcílio Toscano Franca Filho (Federal University of Paraíba) and Ardyllis Alves Soares (University Centre of Brasilia).   The relationships between food, flavor, taste, palate and law are as old as they are broad. For many centuries, legal norms have been responsible for regulating our ways of eating, drinking, producing food and consuming it, including rules on health protection, labelling, geographical demarcations, authenticity, international trade, food safety, human rights to food, religion (kosher and halal foods) and gastronomic cultural heritage. Private international law, in turn, in addition to many types of contracts on the production, consumption and transport of food, also deals with the “duty of food”. In Europe and the United States, an autonomous branch of Law called Food Law has long been well established, a transdisciplinary field located somewhere between Economic Law, Administrative Law, International Law and Consumer Law. It is also important to mention international organizations related to specific products, such as the “Association Internationale des Juristes pour le Droit de la Vigne et du Vin” (AIDV), founded in 1985 to analyze legal issues relating to the international wine trade. All these circumstances denote the current nature of the debate on Law & Food and legitimize the production of a Dossier on "Food and International Law", in the Brazilian Journal of International Law, which could host texts by Brazilian and foreign colleagues on the following topics:   - Human Right to Food - Food safety - Labeling, risks, precautions and traceability - New Foods (insects, flowers, GMOs, etc.) and international regulation - Intellectual property and food - ESG and international food trade - International regulation of certain foods in kind such as sugar, coffee, wine, spirits and cheese - International protection of food consumers - SDGs and food - Climate change and food - The protection of animals - Sanitary and phytosanitary measures - International organizations with influence on the agri-food sector: FAO, UNESCO, WHO, Codex Alimentarius, World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).   Formal aspects (requirements): 1) Manuscripts should be written in Times New Roman, size 12, space between lines 1,0 throughout the manuscript (including all quotations, endnotes and references). 2) Minimum degree: * Individual authorship: Doctor; * Co-authorship: Master, being in co-authorship with a Doctor. If there are three or more authors, only one co-author must be a non-doctor with the aforementioned minimum degree (Master). 3) Footnote citation (author-date will be rejected without review); 4) Do not use Latin expressions on footnotes (id., ibid., op. cit, supra, note…). Repeat the whole reference and the referred pages. 5) Reference list at the end; 6) 15-25 pages, including the reference list at the end. Link: https://www.publicacoesacademicas.uniceub.br/rdi   Important remarks: - Only International Law and Comparative Law approaches will be considered. National or majorly national approaches won't be considered.     REVISTA DE DIREITO INTERNACIONAL Chamada para submissão Vol. 21 n. 2 2024   Prazo para inscrições: 1º de junho de 2024   Dossiê Especial A Revista de Direito Internacional abre inscrições para um dossiê especial sobre “Direito Alimentar Internacional” a ser publicado em outubro de 2024. O número será editado pelos professores Marcílio Toscano Franca Filho (Universidade Federal da Paraíba) e Ardyllis Alves Soares (Centro Universitário de Brasília).   As relações entre alimento, sabor, gosto, paladar e direito são tão antigos quanto amplas. Há muitos séculos que as normas jurídicas cuidam de regular as nossas formas de comer, beber, produzir alimentos e consumi-los, nisso incluindo as regras sobre a proteção à saúde, rotulagem, demarcações geográficas, autenticidade, comércio internacional, segurança alimentar, direito humano à alimentação, religião (comidas kosher e halal) e patrimônio cultural gastronômico. O direito internacional privado, por seu turno, além de muitos tipos de contratos sobre a produção, o consumo e o transporte de alimentos, trata ainda do “dever de alimentos”. Na Europa e nos Estados Unidos, há tempos também já está bem estabelecido um ramo autônomo do Direito denominado Food Law (Direito da Alimentação), campo transdisciplinar localizado algures entre o Direito Econômico, o Direito Administrativo, o Direito Internacional e o Direito do Consumidor. Também importante mencionar organizações internacionais relacionadas a produtos específicos, como a “Association Internationale des Juristes pour le Droit de la Vigne et du Vin” (AIDV), fundada em 1985 com o objetivo de analisar as questões jurídicas relativas ao comércio internacional do vinho. Todas essas circunstâncias denotam a atualidade do debate sobre Direito & Alimentação e legitimam a produção de Dossiê sobre "Comida e Direito Internacional", na Revista de Direito Internacional, que poderia albergar textos de colegas brasileiros e estrangeiros sobre os seguintes temas:   - Direito Humano à Alimentação - Segurança alimentar - Rotulagem, riscos, precaução e rastreabilidade - Novos Alimentos (insetos, flores, OGM etc.) e regulação internacional - Propriedade Intelectual e alimentação - ESG e comércio internacional de alimentos - Regulação internacional de determinados alimentos em espécie como açúcar, café, vinho, destilados e queijo - Proteção internacional dos consumidores de alimentos - ODS e alimentação - Mudanças climáticas e alimentos - A proteção dos animais - Medidas sanitárias e fitossanitárias - As organizações internacionais com influência no setor agro-alimentar: FAO, UNESCO, OMS, Codex Alimentarius, World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).   Aspectos formais (requisitos): 1) Os manuscritos deverão ser escritos em Times New Roman, tamanho 12, espaço entre linhas 1,0 em todo o manuscrito (incluindo todas as citações, notas finais e referências). 2)Titulação mínima: * Autoria individual: Doutor; * Coautoria: Mestre, estando em coautoria com um Doutor. Havendo três ou mais autores, apenas um co-autor deverá ser não-doutor com a titulação mínima acima mencionada (Mestre). 3) Citação em nota de rodapé (texto com citação autor-data serão rejeitados sem avaliação); 4) Não use expressões latinas em notas de rodapé (id., ibid., op. cit, supra, nota…). Repita as informações da referência e as páginas referidas. 5) Lista de referências no final; 6) 15-25 páginas, incluindo lista de referências no final. Link: https://www.publicacoesacademicas.uniceub.br/rdi Importantes considerações: - Somente abordagens de Direito Internacional e de Direito Comparado serão consideradas. Abordagens exclusivamente ou majoritariamente nacionais não serão consideradas.

The History and Theory of Food and Drug Law

Kara W. Swanson, Northeastern University School of Law, has published Food and Drug Law as Intellectual Property Law: Historical Reflections at 2011 Wisconsin Law Review 329. Here is the abstract.

This Article returns to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to consider food and drug law as intellectual property law. Today, Americans are engaged in two separate debates about food and drugs. One centers on the safety of these consumables, and the effectiveness of the Food and Drug Administration. The other is spurred by serious questions of equity involving the ownership and pricing of patented pharmaceuticals and crops, and centers on patent law and the Patent and Trademark Office. These debates were once part of a single broad conversation about food and drugs. This Article uses an historical perspective to understand the separation of these debates and to consider the opportunities that arise from considering food and drug law as intellectual property law. It argues both that early food and drug law was influenced by intellectual property concerns and that the separation of intellectual property policy from federal food and drug regulation was neither inevitable nor inconsequential. Drawing on the history of science, technology, and medicine, this Article reexamines the early pure-food-and-drug movement as, in part, an anti-intellectual-property movement. It uncovers the opposition to trade secrets that supported an alliance between medical opponents to proprietary medicines and agricultural opponents to artificial foods that successfully supported early federal food and drug regulation, and the simultaneous failure of a medical campaign against drug patents. By considering the historical shift in the pharmaceutical market from trade secrets to patents in relation to the recent trend toward patents in agribusiness, this Article considers the lessons from history for a reunification of food and drug policy with intellectual property policy.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.