Can We Give it Away? Transferability of Author’s Personal Rights via Contractual Agreement

Abstract

Author’s personal right – a right streaming from the vision that the work is the author’s “spiritual child”, declaring that the former shouldbe the one who always decides the non-economic fate of the latter, was a significant acquirement of last centuries’ legislation. However,international acknowledgement of this right in the Berne Convention and its incorporation in national laws created diversity in its applicationon a country to country basis. One of the most important issues about this right, debatable until today, is the question of its transferability.Civil and common law approaches disagree about the fact whether third persons should be able to acquire an author’s personalright via contractual agreement. The paper will address this issue, discuss the right from historical and comparative perspective, and try tocome up with the answer whether it is transferable by nature, and whether transferability via contractual arrangement should be allowed.