The internet’s promise of global access to information for research and education has fallen short in crucial areas. American University Washington College of Law’s (AUWCL) pioneering Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) is determined to correct that.  

Now in its final year of an initial three-year, $3.8 million grant from UK philanthropic fund Arcadia, a charitable foundation that supports work to preserve endangered ecosystems and cultural heritage and promote access to knowledge, AUWCL is a leading voice in the global push for the right to research.  

Arcadia calls access to knowledge “a fundamental human right vital to achieving greater equality and justice.” Its partnership with PIJIP helps promote this concept through research, teaching, and public service. PIJIP’s Right to Research in International Copyright Project defines fundamental rights to create and use research materials and the changes in domestic and international copyright law needed to ensure that those rights are respected, protected, and promoted in the context of rapidly changing technologies.  

Copyright laws in many countries block researchers, academics, or libraries from remotely accessing, using, or sharing materials. PIJIP envisions an international right to cross-border research that could allow a scholar in Europe to send a database to a colleague in the United States without worrying whether copyright law in either country expressly allows the exchange.  

Since the start of the project in 2021, PIJIP has contributed meaningfully to a shift in the trend in copyright reform towards recognizing rights to use copyrighted materials for research purposes.  

It reviewed copyright laws of 190 countries and, in work published in Science magazine, documented the failure of most countries to permit researchers to use modern text and data mining research methods. Based on this research, the project has been working with a newly formed Access to Knowledge Coalition of libraries, educators, and civil society to advocate for meaningful change in international and domestic law. 

“Our big, hairy, audacious goal is that every country would have an open, flexible research exception to copyright restrictions and that there would be an international law that allows cross-border use of research material, no matter what domestic laws say,” said PIJIP director Sean Flynn, the principal investigator on the project.  

Flynn, who teaches courses on the intersection of intellectual property, trade law, and human rights, said existing copyright law has not kept pace but the recent trend is positive. “By raising the voices of researchers in copyright reform processes, we are having a real effect. In all the 16 countries that engaged in copyright reform during the project period, the rights of researchers are expanding. We are winning.”  

Andrés Izquierdo, WCL/LLM ’19, a PIJIP senior research analyst whose work is funded through the Arcadia grant, said it is not possible to overestimate the importance of open access. “We’re advocating for changes that are going to improve the quality of life for billions of people around the world.”  

According to Flynn, the longer-term vision of the project includes launching a new Geneva-based center that will institutionalize the effective methodologies of the project and provide a vehicle for expanding the international impact of AU faculty, students, and service. 

Originally published in The Advocate, Summer 2022.