Emily Hudson

I grew up in Melbourne, Victoria, and completed undergraduate degrees in law and science at the University of Melbourne. After graduating, I spent three years as a solicitor at Minter Ellison before returning to the Melbourne Law School as a research fellow and, subsequently, doctoral candidate. I have previously held posts at the University of Queensland (2009-2012), University of Oxford (2012-2015) and King’s College London (2015-2023).

My research spans many areas, including intellectual property, personal property, trusts, and law as it relates to cultural institutions and the creative industries. I have a particular interest in interrogating the ‘law in action’ – that is, law as understood by everyday actors. This reflects the idea that law has multiple audiences, only some of which are legal experts (judges, lawyers and the like). How do regular folk understand and engage with the law? In exploring these questions, I have drawn from more recent iterations of law and economics, being scholarship informed by psychologists, behavioural economists and others who have challenged and built on the insights of the Chicago school and its legal offshoots.

My longstanding work with the cultural institution sector is showcased in my monograph, Drafting Copyright Exceptions: From the Law in Books to the Law in Action, published by Cambridge University Press in 2020.