Dr. Emily Hudson

Biography

Emily Hudson joined the University of Oxford in September 2023, having previously held positions at the University of Queensland (2009-2012), the University of Oxford (2012-2015), and King’s College London (2015-2023). She completed undergraduate degrees in law and science at the University of Melbourne, including an Honours year in the Department of Genetics. After graduating, she worked as a solicitor at Minter Ellison before returning to Melbourne Law School as a research fellow and subsequently pursuing a doctorate. Her thesis won the Law School’s Harold Luntz Graduate Research Thesis Prize in 2012 and the university-wide Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in PhD Thesis in 2013. Her research spans intellectual property, personal property, trusts, and the law's relation to cultural institutions and creative industries. She is particularly interested in interrogating ‘law in action’: understanding how law is experienced by everyday actors, including regular citizens alongside legal experts like judges and lawyers. Emily uses empirical research techniques based on recent iterations of law and economics, and her work has been influenced by psychologists and behavioral economists who challenge traditional insights from the Chicago school of legal thought. Her longstanding collaboration with the cultural institution sector is highlighted in her monograph, "Drafting Copyright Exceptions: Law Books Law Action," published by Cambridge University Press in 2020. She has published extensively on copyright exceptions, including a notable article on the pastiche exception in the Intellectual Property Quarterly in 2017. In the 2024-25 academic year, she will be leading the copyright aspects of the FHS option, "Copyright, Trade Marks & Allied Rights," and convening the BCL/MJur half option, "Incentivising Aesthetic Progress: IP, Art & Design." She is also a long-time supporter of mooting in legal education, currently serving as the Director of the Oxford International Intellectual Property Moot.

Research Interests

Courses