Theory and practice of intellectual property
№ 4 / 2025

ISSN (Print) 2308-0361
ISSN (Online) 2519-2744

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33731/42025.346583

Submitted     2025-11-04
Accepted      2025-11-18
Published      2025-12-15

Author’s moral rights in the EU: legal features

Serhii Butnik-Siverskyi
PhD (Law), Patent Attorney, Acting Leading Researcher of the Copyright and Related Rights Department of the Intellectual Property Scientific Research Institute of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine
Ukraine
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3242-6583

Abstract
The article examines the regulation of the author’s personal non-property (moral) rights under international law, analyzes primary and secondary EU legislation and indirectly related practice of the CJEU in this aspect, reveals the features of the dualistic and monistic models of copyright in the EU on the example of France and Germany, considers the regulation of moral rights in Ireland (a common law country).

It is concluded that EU legislation, both primary and secondary, does not contain the regulation of the author’s moral rights, leaving this to the legislation of the EU Member States, taking into account international regulatory legal acts.

The practice of the CJEU is not directly related to the moral rights of the author, but concerns related issues, namely: a fair balance between the protection of copyright and freedom of expression, the legitimate interest of copyright holders that the work is not associated with a parody that conveys a discriminatory message, as well as considering a work as a reflection of the personality of its author.

In the dualistic model of copyright, moral rights are separated from the author’s economic rights and are generally valid indefinitely, in contrast to the monistic model, where the term of protection is limited in time, since moral and economic rights are considered as a single copyright. In both models, there is a right to disclose a work and a right to withdraw a work (although not in all countries), but the monistic model links them to the exercise of the economic right to use, in contrast to the dualistic model.

In Ireland, it is separately distinguished the right to counteract false attribution of authorship to a work; the possibility to waive the moral rights, and the limitation of their validity in time are provided.

The legal features of the author’s moral rights regulation in different EU countries necessitate their consideration when using works and protecting the author’s moral rights in the territories of different states. They can be used in the legislative process in Ukraine by borrowing the relevant legal provisions, taking into account national approaches to legislative regulation in the copyright field.

Keywords: moral rights, author’s personal rights, copyright, European Union

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