Dr Titilayo Adebola

Biography

Dr Titilayo Adebola is the Theme Coordinator for International Intellectual Property and Information Law and Director of the Centre for Commercial Law at the University of Aberdeen (UoA) School of Law. She is an interdisciplinary scholar in international economic law and international intellectual property law with specialist interests in food, agriculture, environment, entertainment/creative industries, new/emerging technologies and health. Dr Adebola has advised intergovernmental organisations, regional institutions, national governments and private sector actors on matters related to her specialisations. She has conducted research, delivered lectured and organised events in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

Dr Adebola is the President of the African International Economic Law Network and a Senior Advisor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. She is the Founding Editor of Flora IP as well as an Editor on Afronomicslaw.org and the Journal of International Economic Law.  Dr Adebola is also a Collaborator on Open AIR African Innovation Research, a network committed to uncovering new insights about access to knowledge. 

Before joining the UoA, Dr Adebola taught at the University of Warwick. She also worked with foremost law firms in Lagos and London. She is a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and a Chartered Secretary and Administrator.

In addition to publishing high-quality articles, book chapters, book reviews, encyclopedia entries, interviews, reports, digital/visual tools and an edited book, Dr Adebola is currently writing a monograph entitled Plant Variety Protection: Global Regimes, Domestic Realities (Oxford University Press). 

Qualifications

• PhD. University of Warwick
• GradICSAN. ICSAN
• LLM. University of Warwick
• BL. Nigerian Law School
• LLB. Olabisi Onabanjo University

Research Overview

Dr Adebola's interdisciplinary research employs critical, contextual, empirical and theoretical tools to study her specialist interests in international intellectual property law and international economic law including food, agriculture, environment, entertainment/creative industries, new/emerging technologies and health. Her research often centres the power of law to effect social, economic and political changes, especially for marginalised constituencies. 

Dr Adebola has participated in high-level meetings or completed courses at institutions relevant to her specialist interests including the World Intellectual Property Organisation, the World Trade Organisation, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. She was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, from 21 to 26 January 2019 and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre from May to July 2023. 

Dr Adebola welcomes considered PhD proposals from applicants with interests in her research specialisations.

Current Research

• International Intellectual Property Law
• Geographical Indications
• Plant Variety Protection
• Traditional Knowledge
• Health and Medicines
• Food and Agriculture Law

Teaching Responsibilities

• LS553C World Trade Organisation: Applied Issues
• LS502L International Intellectual Property
• LS553Y International Food Law
• LS502P Copyright and Patents
• LS451K Copyright and Allied Rights
• LS2031 The Law of Property