Benjamin Hopper

Lecturer

Email ben.hopper@unimelb.edu.au

Overview

Ben Hopper is a lecturer at Melbourne Law School.  He teaches and researches in the areas of intellectual property, traditional knowledge, technology law, civil procedure, and legal ethics.  He examines doctrinal developments in these areas of law, with a focus on intellectual property law.  His research uses empirical methods to illuminate the “living law”, including people’s lived experiences of the law, and legal subjectivity.  He draws on both legal theory and broader social theory to explain the results of his empirical research.

Ben’s current research focus is China, the locus of his PhD on patenting of traditional knowledge, and where he has completed projects on geographical indications in the tea industry and internal migration in Xinjiang.  He has a J.D., B.A. (Hons), and D-Lang (German) from the University of Melbourne, and an LL.M. from Harvard University.

Ben has published on geographical indications (Whither (Wither?) Geographical indications?), civil procedure (Amici Curiae in the United States Supreme Court and the Australian High Court) and pharmaceutical patent regulation and litigation in Australia (Pharmaceutical Regulation and Litigation in Foreign Countries: Australia).

He was previously a senior associate in the intellectual property and technology group at Ashurst (formerly Blake Dawson).  He has appeared in cases before the Federal Court, Full Federal Court, and High Court of Australia.  He is admitted as a lawyer in the Supreme Court of Victoria and the State of New York.

Research Centres