About the SCRIPT Centre
SCRIPT, the Scottish Research Centre for IP and Technology Law, explores the intersection between law, technology and society from a multidisciplinary and multi-jurisdiction perspective. Our research is about the synergetic relationship between law, social norms, ethics, technologies, commerce and society in the widest possible sense.
As well as the core areas of IP, IT and data protection law, we and our associates are concerned with the adjunct areas of artificial intelligence and algorithmic justice; Legal Tech, RegTech and their regulation; regulation of electronic commerce; the regulation of new media and the information society. We also consider law as it affects information management and cultural production and archiving.
SCRIPT was born as the Shepherd and Wedderburn Centre for Research in Intellectual Property and Technology at the University of Edinburgh in 1998 as a centre of excellence in the disciplines of intellectual property law (IP) and information technology law (IT). The Scottish Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law was established on 1 April 2002 with the generous support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and received stage 2 funding in from 2008-2012.
The Centre's original research vision was to examine the synergies between intellectual property law and information technology law as two main modes of legal control over data. Its remit was to consider the relationship between law, policy and technologies in the broadest sense.
Initially the purpose was to bring together and provide a coherent focus for work that was on-going at the University of Edinburgh, particularly within the School of Law, from which were drawn the four founding co-directors (Edwards, Laurie, MacQueen and Waelde). The Centre and its ambitions quickly grew, and today it serves as a crucial pivot that supports the digital strategy of the University of Edinburgh by connecting legal academics with research in computer science, design informatics, STS, political science, medicine and sociology, to name but the most active interconnections.
As examples of our varied and intensive cross-university activities, we are part of the Creative Informatics Research and Development Cluster and contribute the new doctoral training centre for bioinformatics. We work closely with the Edinburgh Futures Institute, but also the Bayes Centre and Science and Technology Studies at the School of Social and Political Science.
Beyond Edinburgh, our vision is to connect researchers across jurisdictions and disciplines. We are a member of the Global Network of Internet and Society Research Network, and are leading the University’s internationalisation strategy with the University of Amsterdam. Members of the Centre have been in recent years visiting professors at the universities of Sao Paolo, Leuven, and UNAM in Mexico.
Who we are
IT Law - Dr Lachlan D. Urquhart (Lecturer in Technology Law)
IP Law - Dr Smita Kheria (Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law)
Media Law - Dr Paolo Cavaliere (Lecturer in Digital Media & IT Law)
Professor Burkhard Schafer (Professor of Computational Legal Theory)
Jane Cornwell (Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law)
Dr Rachael Craufurd-Smith (Reader in EU Law)
Nicolas Jondet (Teaching Fellow in Information Technology Law)
Dr Amandine Léonard (Early Career Fellow in Intellectual Property Law)
Dr Emmanuel Oke (Lecturer in International Intellectual Property Law)
Gerard Porter (Lecturer in Medical Law and Ethics)
Dr Raphaele Xenidis (Lecturer in EU Law)
Professor Christine Bell (Professor of Constitutional Law)
Dr Devanjan Bhattacharya (MSCA TRAIN@ED Postdoctoral Fellow)
Professor Nehal Bhuta (Professor of Public International Law)
Professor Gillian Black (Professor of Scots Private Law)
Ms Luci Carey (Teaching Fellow in Commercial Law)
Dr Deval Desai (Lecturer in International Economic Law)
Dr Edward Dove (Lecturer in Health Law and Regulation)
Professor Anne-Maree Farrell (Professor of Medical Jurisprudence)
Professor David Fox (Professor of Common Law)
Dr Alistair Henry (Senior Lecturer in Criminology)
Niamh Henry (Data Engineer, Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PCREP))
Dr Richard Jones (Senior Lecturer in Criminology )
Dr Simone Lamont-Black (Senior Lecturer in International Trade Law)
Professor Hector MacQueen (Emeritus Professor of Private Law)
Dr Daria Onitiu (RA UKRI Governance & Regulation Node at TAS project)
Dr Emily Postan (Chancellor's Fellow in Bioethics)
Dr Gavin Sullivan (Reader in International Human Rights Law)
Desmond Agyekumhene
Naomi Korn
Zhoulei Peng
Chenghuai Li
Ayca Atabey
Yiwei Lu
Robbie Scarff
Aditi Surana (in Design too)
Matthew Jewell
Martina Cerna
Matthew Broderick (digital journalism)
Hashim Mude (Hate Speech)
Lamprini Georgiou
Ronny Bogani
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