PROFILE
Associate Professor Jani McCutcheon
Started at UWA: 1999
Lecturer and specialist in copyright and moral rights, and intersections between literature, art and law
I love being able to pursue my interests in the arts and intellectual property law, deepen my knowledge and understanding of how these interface, and then to share that passion, knowledge and understanding with students and the broader community. Associate Professor Jani McCutcheon
Associate Professor Jani McCutcheon is a law lecturer specialising in intellectual property law. She focuses on copyright and moral rights, and intersections between literature and law and art and law. Associate Professor McCutcheon initially landed into this area of the law through her strong interest in the arts and the creative industries, which later caused her to explore their connection with the law.
Prior to joining UWA, Associate Professor McCutcheon practised as a lawyer, and as a legal research officer for a member of the WA Parliament. She has lived in Australia, France and Canada (where she was originally born) and has studied in Perth and Melbourne.
Associate Professor McCutcheon’s current major project is a monograph, Literary Characters and Intellectual Property Law (Edward Elgar, late 2020), which will be a comprehensive comparative analysis of how intellectual property law relates to literary characters.
She is also completing the co-editing of International Perspectives on Disability Exceptions in Copyright and the Visual Arts: Feeling Art(Routledge), which interrogates the international intellectual property and human rights landscape relating to disability access to art.
As a regular thought leader in this area, she is working on an article on how the law does and should regulate misleading art, and completing an article on how copyright law accommodates modern photography.
Associate Professor McCutcheon’s monograph will be the world’s first comparative overview of the subject. Feeling Art ascertains whether the law hampers the human right of persons with visual impairment to access culture.
Qualifications:
- BA(Hons), Monash University
- LLB, Monash University
- LLM (research), UWA
Co-convening and participating in the international experts workshop for Feeling Art: Crafting Intellectual Property Law to Enhance Disability Access To Artistic Works, 2018
Co-editing, co-writing and publication of a Research Handbook on Art and Law (Edward Elgar), 2018 – 2020
Co-editing, co-writing and publication of International Perspectives on Disability Exceptions in Copyright and the Visual Arts: Feeling Art (Routledge), 2019 – 2020
Funding
2018
The University of Western Australia
- Educational Enhancement Unit for modifying LAWS5227 as a flipped learning mode unit
McCutcheon, J., McGaughey, F.
Maastricht University Law School travel grant
- Feeling Art: Enhancing Disability Access to Artistic Works – International Experts Workshop
McCutcheon, J.
2017
Law School Teaching-Research Nexus grant
- A Pilot Study Ascertaining The Extent Of Intellectual Property Law Teaching To Australia’s Future Creators And Innovators’
McCutcheon, J.
Teaching
I love watching students’ knowledge and understanding evolve through the process of teaching, and I value what they can teach me, as they question and explore the law.Associate Professor Jani McCutcheon
Supervisor opportunities
Associate Professor McCutcheon has been a supervisor of PhD students for six years. She has supervised numerous Honours, Advanced Legal Research and supervised research students on topics relating to intellectual property law.
She welcomes expressions of interest from prospective postgraduate students interested in intellectual property law. For more information, contact Associate Professor McCutcheon using the details below.
