Dr Hamish MacDonald
Research Fellow
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
+61 7 336 58861
Researcher biography
Hamish MacDonald is a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland School of Law. His research interests include intellectual property law, international law, and law and technology. His recent work focuses on the international regulation of genetic resources, the technical and digital infrastructures underlying legal systems, and the use of standardisation and abstraction in the operation of regulatory regimes.
Publications
Book Chapter
MacDonald, Hamish and Jamali, Seyed Hossein (2024). Intellectual Property Over Mutant and Gene Edited Plants. Plant Mutagenesis: Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Landscapes. (pp. 43-54) Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-50729-8_4
Journal Articles
Macdonald, Hamish (2025). Conceptual Uncertainties and Practical Challenges in Voluntary Nagoya Protocol Compliance: The Australian Situation. Biopreservation and Biobanking, 23 (1), 23-30. doi: 10.1089/bio.2024.0090
MacDonald, Hamish (2024). Ownership and objectivity: judging varieties for plant breeder's rights in Australia. University of New South Wales Law Journal, 47 (1), 247-281. doi: 10.53637/nmto8625
MacDonald, Hamish (2023). Who judges plants? Scientific‐legal judgement of varieties for plant breeder's rights. The Journal of World Intellectual Property, 26 (3), 1-24. doi: 10.1111/jwip.12276
MacDonald, Hamish and Henry, Robert J. (2022). Balancing incentives for innovation in new plant varieties. Nature Plants, 8 (11), 1206-1208. doi: 10.1038/s41477-022-01246-3
Schloenhardt, Andreas and MacDonald, Hamish (2015). Barriers to ratification of the United Nations protocol against the smuggling of migrants. Asian Journal of International Law, 7 (1), 1-26. doi: 10.1017/S2044251315000211
Conference Papers
MacDonald, Hamish (2023). The Nagoya Protocol: Context, Operation, Uncertainties. Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria, Canberra, ACT, Australia, 27 November-1 December 2023.
MacDonald, Hamish (2023). Cultivating objectivity in plant breeder's rights systems. Society for Social Studies of Science, Honolulu, HI, United States, 8-11 November 2023.
MacDonald, Hamish (2023). Achieving Nagoya Protocol compliance without a legal framework. Australasian Biospecimen Network Association Annual Conference, Gold Coast, QLD Australia, 18-20 October 2023.
Seminar Paper
MacDonald, Hamish (2023). Databasing genetic resources: Considerations for access and benefit sharing. Te Tiriti-guided national DNA reference library wānanga series. Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research.
Research Reports
MacDonald, Hamish and Sherman, Brad (2022). Information Notice Systems and the Plant Breeder’s Rights Act 1994 (Cth). Plant Breeder's Rights - University of Queensland independent research reports Labrador, QLD, Australia: Black Jettie.
MacDonald, Hamish and Sherman, Brad (2022). Labelling Requirements and the Plant Breeder’s Rights Act 1994 (Cth). Plant Breeder's Rights - University of Queensland independent research reports Labrador, QLD, Australia: Black Jettie.
MacDonald, Hamish and Sherman, Brad (2022). Essentially derived varieties and the Plant Breeder’s Rights Act 1994 (Cth). Plant Breeder's Rights - University of Queensland independent research reports Labrador, QLD, Australia: Black Jettie.