The cp solves --- independent review PRIOR to enactment of the plan is necessary to protect the public domain

(Graham J. Reynolds University of British Columbia (UBC), Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, “The Precautionary Principle and its Application in the Intellectual Property Context: Towards a Public Domain Impact Assessment,” pg online @ https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2347922 //pa-ef)

D. Conclusion

This chapter assumes the importance of the public domain. If this assumption is correct, then it is necessary to explore different ways through which the public domain can be protected. Concepts, tools, and techniques developed by the environmental movement and drawn from environmental law and policy-making can play (and have played) an important role in this project. In this chapter, I have considered whether one concept originally developed in the context of environmental law – namely the precautionary principle – might usefully be applied in the intellectual property context in order to protect the public domain. I have suggested both that it is appropriate to apply a precautionary principle in the intellectual property context; and that the precautionary principle could be applied in the intellectual property context at the point at which proposals to reform intellectual property legislation are introduced. In the final section of this chapter, I have drawn upon the CEAA to suggest one possible instantiation of the precautionary principle in the context of intellectual property reform. Specifically, I have proposed the creation of a PDIA: a process through which proposals for intellectual property reform, prior to their enactment, are evaluated by an independent review panel in order to determine their potential impact on the public domain. The adoption of such an approach by legislative bodies would signal broad acceptance of the idea that the public domain is important; that it is valuable; and that, like the environment, action must be taken to ensure that it is protected. While the adoption of a Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2347922 22 PDIA may not prevent legislative bodies from enacting legislation that negatively impacts the public domain, it would, at a minimum, help to clearly articulate what is at stake (and what might be lost) should proposed reforms to intellectual property legislation be enacted into law.