The University of Western Australia

Asst/Prof Robert Cunningham

Assistant Professor
Law School

Contact details

Address

Law School
The University of Western Australia (M253)
35 Stirling Highway
CRAWLEY WA 6009
Australia

Phone

6488 2952

Fax

6488 1045

Email

robert.cunningham@uwa.edu.au

Personal homepage

http://works.bepress.com/robert_cunningham/

Qualifications

BBus LLB (Hons) LLM (Hons) Grad Cert LP Technol.Syd.

Biography

Throughout his professional career, Robert has engaged with the law in his capacity as both solicitor and academic. As a legal practitioner his efforts have largely concentrated on the provision of legal information, court advocacy and education within the Community Legal Centre sector. In academia his pursuits have primarily focused on the manner in which the law interfaces with sustainability, corporate accountability, international trade, and intellectual property rights. He is currently engaging in a doctorate in the latter field of endeavour.

Robert presently lectures in Intellectual Property: Creative Rights, and is Unit Coordinator of Corporations Law, International Trade Law and Corporate Finance & Securities Regulation within the UWA Faculty of Law.

Key research

International Trade Law, Intellectual Property, Competition Law and Open Source Licensing/Innovation

Publications

Select Publications Include:-

Book Chapter:

Cunningham R. (2007), The Road of Computer Code: Political Economic Dimensions of Copyleft and Legal Analysis of the General Public License, Handbook of Research on Open Source Software: Technological, Economic and Social Perspectives, Edited by St.Amant K. and Still B., Idea Group Inc., USA

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:

Cunningham R. (2010), The Separation of (Economic) Power: A Cultural Environmental Perspective of Social Production and the Networked Public Sphere, 11 Journal of High Technology Law 1

Cunningham R. (2010), The Tragedy of (Ignoring) the Information Semicommons: A Cultural Environmental Perspective, 4(1) Akron Intellectual Property Journal 1

Lucas T., Cunningham R. and Lamberton G. (2009), Small Business Engagement with Sustainability in Regional Australia, 13 (1) Journal of Economic and Social Policy 3

St. Amant K. and Cunningham R. (2009), Examining Open Source Software in Offshoring Contexts, 56(4) Technical Communication 361

Cunningham R. (2006), The Social Ecology of Information Ecosystems: Computer Code, Copyleft and the General Public Licence, 24(4) Copyright Reporter 208

Cunningham R. (2006), Predicting the Predicament: The World Trade Organisation and Biotechnological Agriculture via the EC - Biotech Case, 3 Macquarie Journal of Business Law 99

Cunningham R. (2005), The ABCs of GMOs, SPS & the WTO: a critical analysis of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement, 9 SCU Law Review 19

Cunningham R. and Lamberton G. (2005), Industrial Ecology and the Development of Eco-Industrial Estates, 3(1) Australasian Journal of Business and Social Inquiry

Book Review:

Cunningham R. (2010), Gifts: A Study in Comparative Law, 20(2) Anthropological Forum 171

Roles, responsibilities and expertise

Administrative Role: International Study Exchange Academic Adviser

Future research

Monograph concerning an information environmental perspective of Intellectual Property Rights.

Memberships

Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales
Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Western Australia
Law Society of New South Wales, Membership No: 43312

Honours and awards

LLB (Hons) and LLM (Hons)

Previous positions

Associate Lecturer, Southern Cross University
Editor-in-Chief, Southern Cross University Law Review
Generalist Solicitor, Northern Rivers Community Legal Centre

Teaching

Corporations Law, International Trade Law, Corporate Finance & Securities Regulation, and Intellectual Property: Creative Rights

Current projects

Doctorate dissertation concerning the application of several environmental analytical frameworks - namely, ecology, 'the commons', public choice theory, and welfare economics - to Intellectual Property Rights.

Research profile

Research profile and publications