People at the Centre
Dr Abbe Brown
Lecturer in IT Law and Associate of SCRIPT
MA (Cantab), Dip IP (Bristol), Solicitor (non practising)
Biographical Details
Dr Abbe Brown has been a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh since 2006 and is an Associate of the AHRC/SCRIPT research centre. Previously, Abbe spent almost 10 years in practice in London, Melbourne and Edinburgh.
Abbe's research explores enabling access to essential technologies, by using the interface between intellectual property, competition and human rights. In 2010, she was awarded a British Academy Small Research Grant for her project "Obtaining, protecting and using essential environmental technologies: a holistic analysis". Her doctoral research "A legal solution to a real problem: the interface between intellectual property, competition and human rights" was completed in 2008. The project was supported by the Modern Law Review and the Clark Foundation for Legal Education, and formed part of a broader project of Phase 1 of the AHRC Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law, investigating IP, competition and human rights. Details of earlier work on this project and publications can be found here and the ongoing project blog ipedinburgh. Abbe held a workshop exploring the wider contribution of her research at the Internet Governance Forum in Egypt in November 2009 - for podcast see here and continues to "tweet" in these respects @igftowardaccess.
Abbe co-ordinates the Information Technology Think Tank under the auspices of the ARHC/SCRIPT centre. In 2009, she coached the two University of Edinburgh teams for the Oxford Intellectual Property Moot - both these teams performed well and one teached the final. Abbe also maintains a strong interest in public engagement: she was a member of the University of Edinburgh Creative Creative Industries Knowledge Transfer Steering Group, in 2008 she organised and co-chaired "Questions of Sport. What are the Legal Rights and Wrongs" at Murrayfield International Stadium and in 2009 and 2010 she gave "World IP Day" presentations to classes at Tynewater Primary School in Midlothian.
Abbe is Supervisory Editor (Information Technology) of SCRIPT-ed, A Journal of Law and Technology. She is a member of the Scottish Committee of the Licensing Executives Society, the Technology Committee of the Law Society of Scotland and of the Executive of BILETA. Abbe is a member of ATRIP, Society of Computers & Law, ILA, SLS, SLSA, Competition Law Scholars Forum, the Scottish Competition Law Forum and the Association for the Study of Sport and the European Union. She was a Research Associate for the RSA Adelphi Charter in 2005 and for 2008-9, Abbe was awarded the Christie Law Research Fellowship
More widely, Abbe has expertise in all aspects of information technology and intellectual property, and a strong interest in how this relates to other legal fields and modes of regulation. She pursues this with undergraduate and postgraduate students on campus, with postgraduate students by distance learning (see here and with visiting students, most recently from Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea and as part of the Chevenning Programme.
Abbe should be delighted to hear from potential PhD candidates interested in exploring any aspect of the legal challenges of information technology and intellectual property.
Contact Details
Email:
abbe.brown@ed.ac.uk
Tel: 0131 650 2031
Fax: 0131 650 6317
AHRC/SCRIPT
A Law & Technology Centre
School of Law
University of Edinburgh
Old College
Edinburgh
EH8 9YL
Scotland
