Events

Melbourne Law School

Featured events

The Future of Ownership

Apr

5:00pm - 7:30pm

Seminar or Forum

From your DNA to your data, ownership is being redefined.

Ownership shapes how we organise resources, assign rights, and understand value. As society evolves, new forms of ownership will continue to emerge, raising complex legal, technological, and ethical questions that will affect us all.

The Future of Ownership will explore key discussions, from Indigenous perspectives on land as custodianship, to the ownership of personal data, inventions, and knowledge in a digital world. It will also consider enduring questions. Who will own your DNA and the information it contains? What rights will define ownership in practice, and how far will they extend?

Panellists will examine how ownership operates across law, commerce, information technology, and the arts, including the role of copyright, patents, and privacy law in governing intangible assets. The discussion will also address emerging technologies such as blockchain, ownership tokens, and smart contracts, and their implications for financial systems and control.

Bringing together experts from academia, government, and industry, this research showcase offers a forward-looking exploration of one of the most fundamental concepts shaping our future.

The Future of 2026 series is presented in partnership with Lendlease.

Event Agenda
5pm: Doors Open

5.30pm - 7.30pm: Main Event

2026 Melbourne University Law Review Annual Lecture: Human rights and law reform

Apr

5:30pm - 7:00pm

Public Lecture

It is timely, in the context of current challenges faced by the rules-based international order, to reflect upon Australia’s international law obligations and the role those obligations play in the development of our domestic laws.

Do human rights continue to have a role? What is that role and how does it impact on law reform in Australia and, in particular, on the work of the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC)?

Federal Court Judge and current President of the ALRC, Justice Mordy Bromberg, will reflect on those issues and on the challenges presented by international law, in discussing recent ALRC inquiries.

Please join Melbourne Law School (MLS) and Melbourne University Law Review (MULR) from 5:30 pm with welcome drinks and light refreshments provided in the ground floor foyer. The lecture will start at 6:00 pm sharp in Ground Floor Theatre G08.

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