The University of Sheffield
School of Law
Photo of Professor Aurora Plomer

Professor Aurora Plomer

Position: Professor of Law and Bioethics
Email: A.Plomer@sheffield.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)114 222 6755
Room No: EF11
Follow me on twitter: @AuroraPlomer

Academic Profile

Chair in Law and Bioethics, Director of SIBLE, School of Law, University of Sheffield (from 1st January 2007). Previously Reader and Lecturer in Law at the University of Nottingham (July 2003 - 2006), Lecturer in Law at the University of Leeds (1993 -2003), Philosophy Tutor (P/T) Open University (1988-1992).

eutopia law

Qualifications

Teaching and Learning

My teaching largely reflects my research interests and publications on the intersection between law, bioethics and human rights. The topics I teach draw on numerous articles and books which I have written on the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, Unesco’s Bioethics Declaration, research ethics and international human rights, consent, UK and EU regulation of IVF and new biotechnologies, stem cell research, stem cell patents, human rights and IP rights. Many of my publications form an integral part of my current teaching in postgraduate modules in the LLM in Biotechnology Law and Ethics and in my supervision of PhD students.

I am the module coordinator for Torts in the MA program. I have award winning experience of developing innovative teaching materials in core subjects of the LLB, having produced the first computer assisted tutorials in Torts with funding from the City Solicitors’ Education Trust.

Through my teaching, I aim to enthuse and inspire students and draw out the analytical and critical skills needed to understand and use law.

The modules I teach are:

Postgraduate and MA
Intellectual Property Law and the Biosciences
International Biolaw (Convenor)
Regulation of Human Tissue and Stem Cells (Convenor)
Principles of Bioethics and Biolaw (Convenor)
The Law of Torts (Convenor)

Research Interests

My research interests reflect my dual background in law and philosophy. My aim is to develop a framework which is supportive of research on emerging biotechnologies, ethically sensitive and respectful of the plurality and diversity of moral and religious cultures in democratic societies.

My studies and research have been funded by the British Academy, the Council of Europe, the Wellcome Trust, the ESRC and the European Commission. I was the PI of a major European project on moral exclusions to patents on human embryonic stem cells funded by the European Commission (2005-2006).

I have published widely on the intersection between human rights, bioethics and IP rights in Europe, particularly in connection with stem cells and emerging technologies in the life-sciences. My research on European law on biotechnological inventions and stem cell patents has been relied upon in the leading cases heard by the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Organization, the German Federal Supreme Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union. I also have active links with the legal profession, as a regular contributor to the Matrix Chambers blog on European Union law: Eutopia Law.

In 2008, I was a visiting fellow at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Stanford. The visits were funded by the ESRC. You can see a video of the lecture I gave at the University of California at Berkeley here. In 2011, I held a visiting fellowship funded by the Brocher Foundation in Geneva in connection with my forthcoming book on Human Rights, IP Rights and New Biotechnologies. In Hilary 2012, I was a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Intellectual Property and at the Uehiro Centre for Applied Ethics. The visit was funded by the Wellcome Trust. You can listen to podcasts of the lectures I delivered during my Oxford visit here.

I am a rapporteur and reviewer for major research funders and publishers in the UK, Europe and the USA. I am a member of the UK ESRC Impact Committee on the Stem Cell Initiative, the Hinxton Group, the AAAS´ Science and Human Rights Coalition working group on 'Science, Ethics and Human Rights’ and an advisor to the Stem Cell and Society Program at the University of Stanford.

Key Publications

Plomer, A & Tsarapatsanis, D "The Asymmetry of Human Dignity as a Constitutional Value and Fundamental Human Right in Europe" , in 12 Global Community YILJ (G. Ziccardi Capaldo ed., 2012)

Plomer, A "The Human Rights Paradox: Intellectual Property Rights and Rights of Access to Science' Human Rights Quarterly 35:1 (2013), pp. 143-175

Plomer, A 'After Brustle EU Accession to the ECHR and the Future of European Patent Law' Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property (2012) Vol. 2, no. 2, 110-135 (online open access)

Plomer, A 'EU Ban on Stem Cell Patents: Intended and Unintended Consequences', EUTOPIAlaw, 4th, November, 2011

Plomer, A. (2010) Stem Cell Patents in a Global Economy: the Legal Challenges. Stanford Journal of Law, Science and Policy. 3:5-15

Plomer, A. and P. Torremans (eds.) Embryonic Stem Cell Patents: European Law and Ethics, OUP (2009) ISBN13: 9780199543465I - Book Reviews

Favale, M. and Plomer, A. (eds) (2009) Fundamental Disjunctions in the EU Legal Order on Human Tissue, Cells and Regenerative Therapies' Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, 16(1), pp.89-112

Plomer, A. The European Group on Ethics: Law, Politics and the Limits of Moral Integration in Europe, European Law Journal, Volume 14 Issue 6, Pages 839 - 859
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0386.2008.00447.x

Key Projects/Grants

Wellcome Trust, £5000 – Visiting costs to the AAAS in Washington DC and the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford in 2011.

ESRC (UK Stem Cell Initiative), (£3000) – International Visiting Fellowship (2008-2009), University of Berkeley, Centre for Business, Law and the Economy and University of Stanford, Stem Cell & Society Programme.

BBSRC Synthetic Biology Research Network Initiative, (£160.000), Sheffield network: M.A.T.E.s Ethics and Law partner, PIs P. Wright and R. Poole – May 2008 – 2011. The aim of MATEs is to examine the issues arising from forward engineering tools to generate synthetic biological materials to mimic the basement membrane from an interdisciplinary perspective.

White Rose, (£13,350) – Sheffield PI. 'White Rose IPBio Project'. (2009-2010)
The aim is to raise the international standing of the Universities of Leeds, York and Sheffield on IPR and the biosciences, in the first instance via linkage with the newly created IPBio Network (including Harvard, Yale, MPI, CERMES (Paris) recently established by Dr Radick (Leeds) and to explore opportunities for further collaborative research.

Recent Invited Papers and Keynote Lectures

View full list of invited papers and keynote lectures

Professional Activities and Recognition

Advisory Posts

Areas of Research Supervision