Professor Kathleen Liddell

 D.Phil (Oxon), LLB (hons) (Melb), BSc (Melb), MBioeth (Monash) Director Centre for Law, Medicine and Life Sciences; University Senior Lecturer CV / Biography

 

Kathy Liddell is the Herschel Smith Senior Lecturer of Intellectual Property Law.

She is also the Founding Director of the Cambridge Centre for Law, Medicine and Life Sciences, and a member of the Cambridge Centre for IP and Information Law.

Kathy undertook her doctorate in law at the University of Oxford focussing on the regulation of controversial genetic technologies in morally pluralist societies. In addition to substantial experience in academia, Dr Liddell has worked in private legal practice and in public sector legal services for a health department. This work history has provided her with a solid knowledge of commercial realities and needs, as well as experience in legal policymaking. She has degrees in law and science from the University of Melbourne and bioethics from Monash University, and is a strong advocate of interdisciplinary research.

Dr Liddell’s research focuses on health, medicine and society, with the aim of understanding and improving the legal frameworks that govern and support innovation in this field. A key theme in her research is to examine ways in which intellectual property rights help and hinder the translation of medical discoveries into effective, affordable clinical treatments and diagnoses, and how such frameworks could be modified to be more effective and just. Currently, Dr Liddell is involved with an international collaboration which aims to investigate intellectual property law in five areas of bioinnovation: (i) repurposing pharmaceuticals; (ii) antibiotics; (iii) biologics; (iv) rare diseases; and (v) machine-learning based precision medicine. 

Another key theme in Dr Liddell's research is to identify and address legal lacunae and 'pinch points'  that impede clinically useful and ethically responsible healthcare. A current example of this work is in the field of pre-mortem interventions to improve the success of DCD organ transplantation. A third theme is to improve empirical evidence for legal policy, and a fouth theme is to use leading theoretical insights from regulatory and political/moral theory to shift opinions about the regulation of biomedical controversies. Dr Liddell was also the principal investigator in a large research project examining intellectual property rights, precision medicine and genomic medicine (2015-2018). Other research, not currently the focus of large grants, includes regulation of diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, clinical trials, precision medicine, biobanks and bioresources, machine learning in healthcare, stem cells and other regenerative technologies, gene editing, the use of biomaterials and biodata in medical research, and human enhancement. 

Dr Liddell uses a wide range of legal methodologies in her research including in-depth statutory and case law analysis, normative analysis drawing on moral and political philosophy, policy development drawing on regulatory theory, empirical investigations (including interviews, surveys and patent mapping), and expert meetings.

Dr Liddell has taught on a variety of courses iincluding Law and Ethics of Medicine (tripos seminar); Law, Medicine and Life Sciences (LLM Paper 1); Intellectual Property (LLM Paper 12), Intellectual Property (tripos Paper 45) International Intellectual Property (LLM), Tort law supervisions (Downing college) and the Law PhD Research Methodologies course. She also supervises research theses at all levels includng PhD students.

Dr Liddell is also a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne where she teaches 'Law and Emerging Health Technologies' (intensive LLM course).

 

Note: Publications can be accessed by clicking 'triangles' below.

 

 Publications  Books"The Limits of Consent" (Oxford University Press) Articles"Mayo's impact on patent applications related to biotech, diagnostics, and personalized medicine" WORK IN PROGRESS"Continental Drift? Has Europe developed a gene patent problem?" UNDER REVIEW"Was the Myriad decision a 'surgical strike' on isolated DNA patents, or does it have wider impacts?" (2018) 36 Nature Biotechnology 1146"After Myriad, what makes a gene patent claim 'markedly different' from nature?" (2017) 35(9) Nature Biotechnology 820"Myriad's impact on gene patents" (2016) 34(11) Nature Biotechnology 1119"Fair and Equitable Treatment and National Patent Law Flexibilities" (2016) 19(1) Journal of International Economic Law 145-174"Transplanting suboptimum organs: medico-legal implications" (2015) 386 Lancet 719-721"Drug-resistance mechanisms and tuberculosis drugs" (2015) 385 (9965) Lancet 305-7"Should healthy volunteers in clinical trials be paid according to risk? Yes." (2009) 339:b4142 British Medical Journal"The phantom menace of gene patents" (2009) 458 (7237) Nature 407-9"Patents as Incentives for Translational and Evaluative Research: the case of genetic tests and their improved clinical performance" (2008) 3 Intellectual Property Quarterly 286-327"Genetic tests for common diseases: new insights, old concerns" (2008) 336 (7644) British Medical Journal 590-3"Closing the gaps - enhancing the regulation of genetic tests using responsive regulation" (2007) 62(4) Food and Drug Law Journal 831-48"Medical Research Involving Incapacitated Adults: Implications of the EU Clinical Trials Directive 2001/20/EC" (2006) 14 Medical Law Review 367-417"The European Clinical Trials Directive Revisited: The VISEAR Recommendations" (2006) 69(1) Resuscitation 9-14"Beyond Bristol and Alder Hey: The Future Regulation of Human Tissue" (2005) 13(2) Medical Law Review 170-223"Emerging Regulatory Issues for Human Stem Cell Medicine" (2005) 1(1) Genomics Society and Policy 54"Biolaw and Deliberative Democracy: Regulating Human Genetic Technology in a Morally Pluralist Society" D.Phil thesis, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, 2003 Book Chapters"Morality, Religion and Patents" in , Patents on Life: Religious, Moral and Social Justice Aspects of Biotechnology and Intellectual Property (FORTHCOMING 2019) (Cambridge University Press)"IP Policies for Large Bioresources: the fiction, fantasy and future of openness (FORTHCOMING 2019)" in , Global Genes, Local Concerns: Legal, Ethical and Scientific Challenges in International Biobanking (Edward Elgar)"The Origins and Structure of the TRIPS Agreement" in H Ullrich, RM Hilty, M Lamping, J Drexl, TRIPS plus 20: From Trade Rules to Market Principles (Springer), pp. 3-51"Immorality and Patents: the exclusion of patents contrary to ordre public and morality" in , New Frontiers in the Philosophy of Intellectual Property (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 140"The Health Impact Fund: A Critique" in T Pogge, M Rimmer, K Rubenstein, Incentives for Global Health (Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010.)"Litigation: Effects on Medical Research" in N. J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes, International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioural Sciences (Pergamon Oxford, 2001), pp. 8995-8999 Conference Papers"Should we change EU law to disallow DNA patents?" (Philomathia Forum, Third Annual Symposium, 'Body politics: the dilemmas of regulating new technologies' (8 Nov 2016)) ReportsPrecision Medicine: Legal and Ethical ChallengesOpen Innovation with Large Bioresources: Goals, Challenges and Proposals (Workshop Report)Realising Genomic Medicine: Intellectual Property Issues (Workshop Report)Human Bodies in Medicine and Research: Regulatory frameworks and their impact: a comparative report on the literature. A Report for the Nuffield Council on Bioethics for use in its report on Human Bodies in Medicine and Research (Working paper 2011)Regulating Pharmacogenomics: An overview of developments in various countries and industry response to regulatory initiatives: A report for Health CanadaLegal and Governance Framework for 'Personal Data for Public Good: Using Health Information in Medical Research'Ethical, Legal and Social Issues in Stem Cell Research and Therapy