Adieu Terroir - The Global Drift of Geographical indications Law

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-7-2026

Citation / Publisher Attribution

64 Houston L. Rev. ___ (Forthcoming, 2026)

Abstract

The law of appellations of origin (appellations d’origine controle) was built on the mysterious, but intuitively appealing idea of terroir - that a particular place – its soil, climate, and agricultural traditions -- produces specific product characteristics that cannot be easily imitated elsewhere.  The terroir made each product protected by an appellation – and later a geographical indication – unique, even if consumers could not always tell the difference.  Of course, this implicitly supported thinking that some places and some products were inherently better than other places and other products.

When a framework for protection of geographical indications (GIs) was built into the 1994 TRIPS Agreement, the notion of terroir was still present, but was already fading.   But as GI proponents have advocated for sui generis GI laws globally, they have sought to generalize the appeal of such laws, moving GI law further and further away from a terroir foundation and ever closer to a kind of certification mark law in which the state plays a significant regulatory and often managerial role.  Nowhere is this conceptual shift more evident than in the move to protect artisanal works and handicrafts with GI law.

The paper explores both the indicia and reasons for this conceptual evolution, discussing the GI provisions of the European Union’s bilateral free trade agreements, GIs for crafts and industrial products, and the existential threat to terroir posed by climate change.  Overall the global shift is one in which GI law is becoming less mysterious, more egalitarian, and more akin to trademark law.

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