Quanto custa o conhecimento tradicional? Análise das regras de acesso e de repartição de benefícios no Brasil.

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the Brazilian legal Acts on cases of biopiracy of traditional knowledge. Stemming from Axel Honneth´s critical propositions about freedom and recognition, an analytical framework of concepts is created, which, once applied on the object of the research through the analysis content procedure, enabled the visualization of some latent knowledge which is not revealed by the apparent language of the legislation. After the classification of requirements for access and benefit sharing under the headings "monetary" and "non-monetary", the conclusion is that those requirements, relating to access, reproduce a potentially guarantor space of freedom, whereas these, relating to sharing of benefits, incorporate a pathological dimension. The latter case is derived from the fact that its protection has been elaborated based on supposedly universal interests, similar to what occurs with the economic exchanges, which prevents the fulfillment of freedom in this social space.