Profile

First Name: Thorsten
Surname: Lauterbach
Telephone: +44 (0)1224 263410
Email:

Thorsten Lauterbach joined the Department of Law at Aberdeen Business School as a Lecturer in September 2004 and he is a Teaching Fellow in the Department now. Prior to joining RGU, he worked as Lecturer at The University of the West of Scotland (then Paisley) for five years. Thorsten holds a BA (Hons) European Business Law (Abertay Dundee) and an LL.M. by research (Aberdeen). He currently reads for a Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh.

Role and Responsibilities

Thorsten has fulfilled the role of ABS Learning Enhancement Co-ordinator (Postgraduate) since 2008. This has enabled him to contribute to teaching, learning and assessment developments through participating at conferences (HEA, UKCLE) across the UK, as well as a number of key institutional and faculty committees, programme validation and review events. Thorsten was awarded the title of Teaching Fellow in May 2012. He chairs the departmental Teaching & Learning Committee.

Until 2011 he acted as course leader for the MSc/LLM International Trade, LLM International Commercial Law and LLM International IT Law courses. At postgraduate level, he supervises Masters dissertations and teaches Intellectual Property Law. His undergraduate teaching commitments include Law of Contract, Consumer Law, Media Law and Intellectual Property Law. Supervision of undergraduate dissertations is also part of his teaching activities.

Having benefited from EU exchange opportunities as a student, Thorsten holds a keen interest in participating in teaching exchanges which ABS has with current partner institutions.

Research Interests

While Thorsten undertakes regular scholarly activities in all fields of his teaching schedule in order to maintain a high level of currency and expertise within those disciplines, his main research interests concern EU Constitutional Law and Intellectual Property Law. Within the former, further EU integration by means of treaties and the effective enforcement of judgments handed down by the Court of Justice of the EU are areas he finds particularly exciting. Within IP law, the notion of (joint) authorship in copyright law has had an even more gripping effect on his research preferences, culminating in the decision to embark on a Ph.D. – an often lonely and arduous journey, but one that is nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable!

In addition, Thorsten contributes regularly to IP/Copyright Law-related blogs, e.g. The IPKat, as well as acting as reviewer/editor for specific journals. While he had a function editing submissions to the Journal of International Trade Law & Policy until 2010, he is currently a member of the editing team of SCRIPTed (an online journal of Law, Technology & Society). Thorsten also edits contributions to the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice.

Finally, the role as ABS LEC sparked a growing interest in research into the provision of legal education in the UK. Here, the experience of international postgraduate students in respect of teaching, learning and assessment raise issues of particular concern.

Current Professional Affiliations

  • Higher Education Academy (Fellow)
  • eAssessment Association
  • European Intellectual Property Teachers’ Network
  • Association of Law Teachers
  • Society of Legal Scholars
  • Society for Computers and Law (incl. the specific Scottish branch)
  • British German Jurists Association
  • Deutsch-Schottische Juristenvereinigung e.V.

Publications

Refereed Articles

Lauterbach, T. (2012) “Copyright law trumps free movement of unlawfully distributed goods” Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, (forthcoming)

Lauterbach, T. (2012) “Author-architects and the moral right of integrity in copyright law” South African Journal of Art History, 26(1), 57-66

Lauterbach, T. (2011) “A narrow defeat is still a defeat: integrity clipped before its best-before date” Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, 6(6), 371-373

Lauterbach, T. (2009) “Intellectual Property” in: MacFadzean (ed), Introduction to Law and Legal Obligations, 2nd ed., Dundee University Press, Dundee

Lauterbach, T. (2009) "Clouseau would have been confounded: Ninth Circuit throws out 'The Pink Panther' joint authorship claim" (2009) Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, Vol. 4(6), pp. 402-403.

Lauterbach, T. (2005) (Case Comment) “Joint authorship in a copyright work revisited” European Intellectual Property Review, Vol 27(3), pp. 119-121

Lauterbach, T. (2005) “A celebrity fight-back "par excellence"” Computer Law & Security Report, Vol 21(1), pp. 74-77

Lauterbach, T. (2005) “Sweets, a TV channel and the "principle of comfort" - recent Community Trade Mark applications” Business Law Review, Vol 26(3), pp. 59-61

Conference Presentations

Lauterbach, T (2012) Developing and Supporting the Curriculum: embedding academic writing skills in taught postgraduate law courses. Poster to be presented at the Annual SLS Conference, University of Bristol, September 2012

Lauterbach, T. (2011) Posters as a summative assessment tool in IP law – skills over substance? Paper presented at the Fifth Annual Workshop, EIPTN, Charles University, Prague/Czech Republic, June 2011

Lauterbach, T. (2011) The measuring of contributions of wannabe joint authors in copyright law - has the onion been peeled too far to the detriment of non-dominant collaborators? Paper presented at the Law Student Colloquium, Trinity College Dublin, February 2011

Lauterbach, T. (2009) Of pleasure and pain: Teaching Intellectual Property Law to a multinational postgraduate cohort  Paper presented at the Third Annual Workshop, EIPTN, Queen Mary University of London, July 2009

Lauterbach, T. (2008) The collaborator at a time of copyright law convergence and globalisation – a neglected entity? Paper presented at a Colloquium on Intellectual Property and Globalisation, University Paul Verlaine, Metz, May 2008

Lauterbach, T. (2006), Article 228 EC - now an enforcement procedure with bite? Paper presented at Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) Conference, Stirling, May 2006

Lauterbach, T. (2005), US-style ‘personality’ right in the UK – en route from Strasbourg? Paper presented at BILETA Conference, Belfast, April 2005

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