For our Centenary Year we have engaged two visiting academic fellows who are staying here at St Leo’s for 3 months.

Professor Ronan Deazley is Professor of Copyright Law at Queen's University, Belfast. He is Internationally renowned for his research on the history and theory of copyright law, his work has been cited by the Australian High Court, the New York Court of Appeals, and by the US Supreme Court. In recent years, his academic work has taken more non-traditional forms, such as gallery exhibitions, comics, animated films, and open access educational resources (www.copyrightuser.org and www.copyrightcortex.org). His current research interests concern how copyright law impacts the way that libraries, archives and museums make our shared cultural heritage available online. Prof Deazley is also a qualified archivist.

Frankie McCarthy is a Senior Lecturer in Private Law at the University of Glasgow. She has published widely in the fields of property and family law, and currently acts as an adviser to the Scottish Government on the introduction of its extensive programme of land reform measures. Her present research focuses on the idea of property ownership as a constitutional right. Why do we protect ownership rights? Do we protect them too much? If we focused on the responsibilities of owners rather than their rights, would society be fairer? Dr McCarthy is also a qualified solicitor, and specialised in civil litigation when in private practice.

Professor Deazley is available to students on a couple of evenings a week and he is also presenting two seminars while he is here. The first one: Phantom Rights and Wrongs explores the positive case for copying and for the creative reuse of other people’s copyright work.