Dr Marie Hadley

Dr Marie Hadley is a researcher in intellectual property law, with expertise in copyright law and IP norms. Her work seeks to better understand the relationship between law and society, typically in the context of disputes over visual imagery. 

Marie adopts sociolegal methods in her research to investigate the legal, ethical, and cultural dimensions of controversies involving copyright law. She enjoys using interdisciplinary lens' and building methodological frameworks to unpack these controversies from multiple perspectives. Most recently, Marie has led an interdisciplinary art, law, justice collaboration with scholars from law, history, and creative industries, and a practising artist. An exhibition based on that research was on display at 107 Projects in Sydney in October 2022.

Marie is also a passionate educator. She currently teaches Legal System and Method, Intellectual Property Law, and Internet Law in the School of Law and Justice's undergraduate and postgraduate law programs.

Current research projects

Marie is currently working on research on the following areas: 

• university copyright and open access;
• copyright infringement and deepfake technology;
• tattoos and copyright law; and 
• the politics of artist objections to the public performance of their musical works at political rallies.

Postdoctoral research

Marie is a postdoctoral researcher on the ARC Discovery Project, 'Producing, Managing and Owning Knowledge in the 21st Century University' (DP200110578) (2020-2023). 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. A Conversation article based on some of this research can be accessed here. 

As part of this project, Marie was a Visiting Academic at UniSA Justice and Society, University of South Australia between 2020-2021.

Doctoral research

Marie's 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. It is available for download here.

Research affiliations and memberships

Marie is a member of the following research organisations and associations:

• Centre for Law and Social Justice, University of Newcastle
• Australia and New Zealand Law and History Society
• International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property
• Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand
• Law and Society Association (United States)
• Critical Interdisciplinary Approaches to Global Intellectual Property Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration
• Ethnography, Law, and Society Critical Research Network. 

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.

Possible topics could include:

• copyright law and visual imagery
• creative communities and copying norms
• protocols, ethics, and IP law
• studies of legal consciousness (ie how creators think about law
• law projects that use art or practice-based methodologies.

Teaching expertise

Marie is a dynamic award-winning educator with expertise in skills learning, creative resources, and critical and sociolegal approaches to law. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Marie's teaching expertise has been externally acknowledged through a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (Australian Award for University Teaching; 2022) and multiple University awards, including:

• University of Newcastle Teaching Excellence Award (2021)
• College of Human and Social Futures Excellence Award for Teaching Excellence (2021)
• Faculty of Business and Law Teaching Commendation (Team Award, 2020)

Marie also regularly releases videos on legal writing, research and referencing skills on her YouTube channel. 

Teaching and learning projects

Marie is currently undertaking a teaching and learning project that explores student perspectives on critical race intellectual property law and studying visual texts. This project has implications for curricular justice (click here for more information). 

Marie is a member of the Indigenous Pedagogy working party undertaking a whole-of-program curriculum revision of the undergraduate and postgraduate law programs in 2022-2023.

Media

Marie has contributed to print, radio, and online commentary on tattoo law, cultural appropriation, and public art and graffiti. She is available for media comments on topics including:

• copyright law
• tattoo law
• cultural appropriation
• protest art and intellectual property
• graffiti
• copying norms and creative communities
• legal education.