Dr Marie Hadley

Marie joined the Newcastle Law School in January, 2020. She is an interdisciplinary legal scholar whose research explores the creation, consumption, and regulation of culture and the politics of making rights claims. Her primary expertise relates to copyright law, cultural appropriation, and social norms. Marie particularly enjoys using a cultural, subcultural, or pop culture lens to investigate arts and entertainment law disputes, critical perspectives on intellectual property law and representation, and the engagement between informal systems of legality and the positive law. Prior to joining the Newcastle Law School, Marie worked at institutions including Macquarie University and the University of New South Wales. 

Marie is the author of publications on copyright, the cultural appropriation of Indigenous cultural imagery and arts styles, sports law, and inquest law. Her PhD thesis, 'The Politics of Cultural Appropriation Claims and Law Reform', was awarded a PhD Excellence Award and shortlisted for an inaugural Australian Legal Research Award (PhD category). The thesis explores in depth the argument for law reform to prevent the cultural appropriation of Māori and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, with a particular focus on the protection of cultural imagery and arts styles. In addition to academic publications on the western bias of intellectual property law and the historical and cultural contingency of cultural appropriation, Marie has contributed to media commentary on tattoo law and cultural appropriation. 

Marie is currently undertaking postdoctoral work on the ARC Discovery Project, 'Producing, Managing and Owning Knowledge in the 21st Century University) (DP200110578). The project seeks to understand the tension between research impact and the legal and policy framework that governs the ownership, management, and dissemination of research outputs in Australian research institutions. It investigates the impact of laws and policies on authorship and open access practices, the negotiation of licensing agreements with publishers and libraries, and the ways in which researchers and managers make decisions around competing imperatives. Marie was a Visiting Scholar at UniSA Justice and Society, University of South Australia, in November 2020.

Research interests

Marie's research agenda is the politics of copyright law and cultural and disputes involving creative communities. She is currently collaborating with legal practitioners and other scholars on research that involves:

• the law and policy framework for protecting First Nations art in Australia;
• copyright and moral rights implications of public art statue vandalism; and
• the politics of artist objections to the public performance of their musical works at political rallies.

Marie is also looking forward to disseminating more of her doctoral research in 2021, particularly on the performativity of cultural appropriation claims and socio-legal norms in the tattoo industry.

Research supervision

Marie welcomes applications from prospective research students interested in matters that sit at the nexus of law and  society, particularly in the fields of intellectual property, cultural rights, entertainment law, and legal history.

Teaching expertise

Marie is part of an award-winning Contract Law Teaching Team at the Newcastle Law School, with acknowledged expertise in embedding skills in the curriculum. This was recognised in 2020 with a Faculty of Business and Law Teaching Commendation. In addition to teaching Contracts I and Contracts II, Marie also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate law students Internet Law and Intellectual Property Law.