Authors’ Moral Rights in Non-European Nations: International Agreements, Economics, Mannu Bhandari, and the Dead Sea Scrolls

This note undertakes to examine authors’ moral rights in non-European countries. Section I will provide a brief comparative description of moral rights. Section II will discuss the treatment of moral rights in the Berne convention and the TRIPS agreement. Section III will then examine moral rights law in India and Israel, and two important cases from these nations, Mannu Bhandari v. Kala Vikas Pictures from India, and Qimron v. Shanks, from Israel. Mannu Bhandari deals with an author’s moral right in the film adaptation of her work, Qimron with the moral rights of a scholar in the reconstruction of one of the Dead Sea Scroll texts. Finally, Section IV will discuss the economic rationale for moral rights and the role of moral rights in non-European countries