Tournament: Heart of Texas | Round: 2 | Opponent: Marlborough SL | Judge: Jordon Krauss
Plan Text: The member states of the European Union ought to reduce trade secret protections for medicines by requiring that plaintiffs prove that the acquisition, use, and disclosure of the trade secret did not pertain to revealing misconduct, wrongdoing, or illegal activity, or to protecting the general public interest.
HAI et al 14 — (Health Action International and a coalition of other NGOs, HAI works to expand health access in Europe, "EU trade secrets directive threat to health, environment, free speech and worker mobility", 12-17-14, Available Online at https://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/attachments/statement'-'eu'trade'secrets'directive'needs'amendments.pdf, accessed 9-8-21, HKR-AM)
AMSTERDAM—We strongly oppose the hasty push by the European Commission and Council for
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disseminate information should be the rule, and trade secret protection the exception.
CEO 17 — (Corporate Europe Observatory, non-profit research and campaign group whose declared aim is to "expose any effects of corporate lobbying on EU policy making"., "Adapting the EU Directive on Trade Secrets ‘Protection’ into National Law", February 2017, Available Online at https://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/attachments/trade'secrets'protection'directive'-'a'transposition'briefing.pdf, accessed 9-9-21, HKR-AM)
Indeed, whistleblowers denounce wrongdoing, either by using internal reporting mechanisms set up by
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in countries where legal protection for media sources is weak or even absent.
Effective protections for European medical whistleblowers are crucial to strengthening public health and prevent pandemics – COVID was the test run
Dreyfus and Galizzi 20 — (Suelette Dreyfus, PhD, Researcher at the University of Melbourne, and Bruno Galizzi, part of the Blueprint for Free Speech Spain, "Protect whistleblowers, protect everyone's health", 5-19-20, Blueprint for Free Speech, Available Online at https://www.blueprintforfreespeech.net/en/news/protect-whistleblowers-protect-everyones-health, accessed 9-8-21, HKR-AM)
The worldwide spread of coronavirus has highlighted the importance of whistleblowers like never before.
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operation of the institutions, in defense of our fundamental and human rights.
Mooney 21 — (Tom Mooney, Senior Communications and Advocacy Manager for the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, "Preparing for the next "Disease X"", CEPI, 2-1-21, Available Online at https://cepi.net/news'cepi/preparing-for-the-next-disease-x/, accessed 9-10-21, HKR-AM)
Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international pandemic could be caused by a
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, we could credibly aim to eliminate the risk of epidemics and pandemics.
Junge 16 — (Fabian Junge, Law @ Maastricht University, "THE NECESSITY OF EUROPEAN HARMONIZATION IN THE AREA OF TRADE SECRETS", MAASTRICHT EUROPEAN PRIVATE LAW INSTITUTE WORKING PAPER No. 2016/04, Available Online at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract'id=2839693, accessed 9-8-21, HKR-AM)
The EU and its Member States with their far-reaching economic, political and
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the EU’s and its Member States’ capacity for an effective enforcement mechanism.97
European consistency in trade secret whistleblowing laws is key – current legal vagueness create uncertainty for whistleblowers and businesses
Junge 16 — (Fabian Junge, Law @ Maastricht University, "THE NECESSITY OF EUROPEAN HARMONIZATION IN THE AREA OF TRADE SECRETS", MAASTRICHT EUROPEAN PRIVATE LAW INSTITUTE WORKING PAPER No. 2016/04, Available Online at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract'id=2839693, accessed 8-27-21, HKR-AM)
Art. 5 (b) in conjunction with Recital 20 Trade Secrets Directive embodies
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of national laws and to the aims targeted by the Trade Secrets Directive.
The status quo’s minimum harmonization approach is unsustainable – only the plan’s universal and maximal mandate solves
Junge 16 — (Fabian Junge, Law @ Maastricht University, "THE NECESSITY OF EUROPEAN HARMONIZATION IN THE AREA OF TRADE SECRETS", MAASTRICHT EUROPEAN PRIVATE LAW INSTITUTE WORKING PAPER No. 2016/04, Available Online at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract'id=2839693, accessed 9-8-21, HKR-AM)
Notwithstanding the fact that harmonization can be beneficial even when only achieving a minimum common
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the Trade Secrets Directive even more, but might have been politically unenforceable.
Independently, whistleblowing protections are key to preserving market dynamics and increasing investment.
Abazi 16 — (Vigjilenca Abazi, Assistant Professor @ Maastricht University, "Trade Secrets and Whistleblower Protection in the European Union", European Papers, Vol. 1, 2016, No 3, European Forum, Insight of 3 September 2016, pp. 1061-1072, Available Online at https://www.europeanpapers.eu/en/europeanforum/trade-secrets-and-whistleblower-protection-in-the-eu, accessed 9-9-21, HKR-AM)
Whistleblowing is a compound and complex instrument bringing together elements of accountability, freedom of
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the Commission would propose a legislative act on whistleblower protection in the EU.
Wright 12 ~Thomas Wright, fellow with the Managing Global Order at the Brookings Institution. What if Europe Fails? 2012. http://csis.org/files/publication/twq12SummerWright.pdf~~
Yet, verbal warnings from nervous leaders and economists aside, there has been remarkably
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crisis that could have been avoided had better decisions been taken earlier on.
Abazi 16 — (Vigjilenca Abazi, Assistant Professor @ Maastricht University, "Trade Secrets and Whistleblower Protection in the European Union", European Papers, Vol. 1, 2016, No 3, European Forum, Insight of 3 September 2016, pp. 1061-1072, Available Online at https://www.europeanpapers.eu/en/europeanforum/trade-secrets-and-whistleblower-protection-in-the-eu, accessed 9-9-21, HKR-AM)
The most disconcerting aspect of Art. 5, let. b), is that
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legal context of (the missing) whistleblower protection in EU Member States.
That expands the whistleblowing exception to trade secret protections by restricting employer discretion, which reduces the extent of trade secret protections.
Vandekerckhove 21 — (Wim Vandekerckhove, Professor of Business Ethics @ University of Greenwich and co-Director of the Centre for Research in Employment and Work, Phd in Applied Ethics from Ghent University, "Is It Freedom? The Coming About of the EU Directive on Whistleblower Protection", Journal of Business Ethics (2021), Available Online at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-021-04771-x, accessed 9-10-21, HKR-AM)
It is clear—albeit not explicit—that Art 5 (b) relates
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context of (the missing) whistleblower protection in EU Member States.’
the standard is maximizing expected wellbeing
Pummer 15 — (Theron Pummer, Junior Research Fellow in Philosophy at St. Anne's College, University of Oxford, "Moral Agreement on Saving the World", Practical Ethics University of Oxford, 5-18-2015, Available Online at http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2015/05/moral-agreement-on-saving-the-world/, accessed 7-2-2018, HKR-AM) we do not endorse ableist language=
There appears to be lot of disagreement in moral philosophy. Whether these many apparent
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be acting very wrongly." (From chapter 36 of On What Matters)