A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of Master of Laws (LL.M Commercial Law) of Mzumbe University
This research examines legal challenges in protecting Geographical Indications (GIs) for enhancing agricultural competitiveness where Kyela Rice has been chosen to be a case study due to its peculiar characteristics. The remarkable challenges have been drawn from Tanzania legal system. The Tanzania legal system has failed to guarantee Geographical Indications (GIs) protection in its Constitution and has also failed to encompass specific piece of legislation which would protect GI. In doing this research, the researcher has collected data by using both library research and field research. In library research, data were collected from legislations, documents, newspapers, articles, books and case law. In field research, the researcher employed interviews and questionnaires. The findings reveal GIs protection in Kyela Rice encounters several legal challenges which hinder agricultural competitiveness. The legal challenges include failure of the Constitution of United Republic of Tanzania to provide adequate protection in GIs, lack of both specific piece of legislation of GIs protection in Tanzania, lack of harmonized piece of legislation to cover EAC member States and lastly lack of awareness among citizens on the essence of GIs protection to Kyela Rice. This research report has been arranged in five chapters. The first describes the theoretical information on GIs in Tanzania, the second chapter describes Conceptual framework, chapter three describes the legal framework on the protection of GIs, chapter four describes research findings and data analysis, and the last chapter describes summary of findings, observations, conclusion and recommendations.