Adela (Zhixuan) Wang

Profile

Thesis title

Legal Transplants and Harmonisation of the Parody Exception in Copyright Law: International and Comparative Perspectives

Supervisors

• Professor Johanna Gibson
• Professor Guido Westkamp
• Professor Jonathan Griffiths

Summary of research

The parody exception in copyright law has sparked much controversy; yet, despite debates over its meaning, scope, and ability of being transplanted, the parody exception has been transplanted or proposed for transposition across jurisdictions and cultures. To ascertain factors driving its transposition, this research explores the evolution and transplantation of the parody exception in China, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union. The research aims to identify the conditions that determine the success or failure of a legal transplant, and thus to further understand the potential implications for harmonising copyright law.

Biography

Adela is a Herchel Smith PhD candidate at Queen Mary University of London, and her research looks into the implications of transplanting the parody exception in copyright law across jurisdictions. Adela holds an LLB (Hons) from SOAS University of London and graduated with distinction from the LLM programme at King’s College London. She received the award for the best dissertation/writing project on the LLM in Intellectual Property and Information Law. Adela formerly worked as a research assistant at King’s College London on projects relating to the drafting history of important UK Intellectual Property Law statutes and US plant patents. She is currently a teaching associate at Queen Mary University of London.

Research