51cg

Biography

Abbe's research and teaching explores intellectual property and its intersection with other legal fields, in addressing key societal challenges.  Abbe served as Chair (2021-2024) and 2021-3 NERC Constructing a Digital Environment   Abbe is elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2025).  

Abbe regularly responds to policy consultations and she is a signatory of 2025 .  

Abbe's 2018 inaugural "Saving the world and delivering equality? Law, innovation and power" is. 

Abbe spent almost 10 years in legal practice (London, Melbourne, Edinburgh) and maintains links with profession and industry. 

Abbe is involved in with Chemistry colleagues and IUCN, development of Song of the Ocean, led public engagement events with intergenerational focus in Tall Ships in Aberdeen (2025).  Abbe attended , WIPO Diplomatic Conference on Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge (2024, IUCN and 2025 and 2026, 51cg) is member of Expert Pool of UN Regular Process for third   and of the WMU MGR Scientific Advisory Committee. She contributed to the on the BBNJ Agreement, launched 2026 

Abbe served as University Dean for Student Support and Quality Enhancement institutional review (University of Iceland).  

PhD Supervision

Abbe supervises PhD in technology and innovation law. Present projects: incorporating governance and patents, traditional knowledge and medicines, investment and intellectual property, and postcolonial approaches to music.  

Visitor at IPRIA, University of Melbourne; Trinity College, University of Melbourne; Macquarie University; Queen Mary, University of London; SciencesPo.  

Office hours Tuesday 2-4 pm (in person or online - if not in room please email me) or at any time by arrangement abbe.brown@abdn.ac.uk. 

Prizes and Awards

51cg Principal's Outstanding Research Awards: 2022 (Individuals at Further Stages of Career Development (Arts, Humanities and Social Science) and 2026 Interdisciplinary with Marcel Jaspars 

Nominated for Green Gown Award 2022 ""

Fellow of Royal Society of Edinburgh 2025 

Research Overview

Abbe's research explores the interaction between legal fields relevant to innovation and creativity, with a strong interest on key societal challenges. She is a member of two of the School's Research Centres, the Centre for Commercial Law and the Centre for Energy Law. Abbe was the School of Law lead for REF2021.  

Abbe was part of the interdisciplinary interinstitutional team which won the Coventry University Research Team of the Year 2017 for the InVisible Difference project.  Abbe frequently contributes to public consultations relevant to her research, eg EU "Multilateral Reform of Investment Dispute Resolution" (2017), UK BEIS "Clean Growth Strategy" (2017), UK Human Rights Committee inquiry "Defending Rights: attitudes to enforcement" (2018), the Strategic Priorities of the Scottish Human Rights Commission (2019) and the UK Parliament International Relations and Defence Committee "UNCLOS: fit for purpose in the 21st century?" (2021).     

Since 2018 Abbe has been part of an interdisciplinary team exploring Marine Genetic Resources in the UN Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction negotiations and inspired by this has qualified as a PADI open water diver, and in 2021 engaged in new forms of public engagement through song at local and levels with the Song of the Ocean, and in through the Royal Society of Edinburgh's "Tea and Talk".       

Abbe published a monograph in 2012 with Edward Elgar , an edited collection in 2013 with Edward Elgar , with Charlotte Waelde an edited collection in 2018 with Edward Elgar Research and in 2019 a monograph with Edward Elgar    Her research has been supported by the Modern Law Review, the Clark Foundation for Legal Education, the British Academy (see ), the Carnegie Trust, the Wellcome Trust (see IGBE ), the British and Irish Law, Education and Technology Association and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (see eg InVisible Difference  and blog ).  

Abbe has also contributed to leading textbooks in the intellectual property and information technology field, notably with Oxford University Press.  

Current Research

Present projects involve culture, disability and heritage; innovation, energy and sustainability; access to marine genetic resources; and underpinning common themes and intertwining of relevant laws.  

She is a member of EU Horizon 2020-funded programme, a £6.37 million (€7.5 million), 5-year project that will develop new methods for the sustainable collection and use of biological resources from marine environments and assess their commercial potential; and , and see a 4 year project awarded 7.65 million euros under Horizon Europe and 1.54million Euros provided by UKRI and SERI to harness the vast potential for marine microbial resources and to develop novel tools and approaches. 

She was a part of "” funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and an  RSE project from 2022 "Ocean and Us: Intersecting scientific knowledge and local knowledge for a more equitable and just ocean policy" when led to an interdisciplinary edited collection launched in Brazil in 2026.  

She is a member of a UKRI-JSPS project exploring . 

Find her work via Google Scholar and Researchgate 

ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2222-4537

Abbe is delighted to receive requests regarding PhD supervision in any aspect of intellectual property and technology law. 

Knowledge Exchange

Abbe is interested in PhD supervision in any aspect of technology and innovation law. Abbe is supervising projects incorporate governance and patents, and IP and climate change. 

Funding and Grants

Teaching Responsibilities

Intellectual Property

Professional Skills in International Intellectual Property and Information