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Aisling McMahon is an Professor of Law, Maynooth University. Aisling joined Maynooth University in September 2018 from Durham University where she was an Assistant Professor in Biolaw and Co-Director of the Centre for Ethics Law and the Life Sciences (CELLS). Prior to that, she was a lecturer in law at Newcastle University and previously an AHRC research fellow on the 'Banking (On) the Brain' project at the University of Edinburgh.
Aisling is a specialist in health and intellectual property law. She is particularly interested in the regulation of emerging health-technologies and biotechnologies, and the relationship between intellectual property law and bioethics in the context of health-related technologies. She has published widely in leading international specialist and generalist peer reviewed law journals on these issues including: Medical Law Review, Legal Studies, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, the International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law (IIC) and the Intellectual Property Quarterly. Her work is informed by novel interdisciplinary approaches to develop policy solutions to ethical issues posed by intellectual property rights, and around the regulation of emerging health-technologies. She has also published in leading international journals in other disciplines including: the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, New Genetics and Society, and the Journal of Medical Ethics.
Aisling's work has been funded by sources including: the British Academy/Leverhulme, the Irish Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council, and the Society of Legal Scholars. In 2022, she was awarded a European Research Council Starting Grant (1.5million) for a 5-year project 'PatentsInHumans' which will examine the role of bioethics in the patenting and licensing of technologies related to the human body in Europe.
Aisling is regularly invited to participate in policy workshops, and has presented her research to leading international organisations, including: the World Health Organisation, the US National Academy of Sciences, and the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. She regularly speaks about the role and operation of intellectual property rights in the health context to a range of government, policy and civil society groups. Her work has been cited widely, including in the UK House of Commons and Irish Parliament in recent debates around patents and access to COVID-19 vaccines and other health-technologies. In 2022, based on her research acheivements she was awarded the Maynooth University Faculty of Social Science Early Career Research Achievement Award.
In 2018, she co-founded the UK and Ireland Patent Scholars Network (with Prof Naomi Hawkins and Dr Karen Walsh) which currently has over 40 members drawn from patent practice and academia in the UK and Ireland. Aisling has been a visiting researcher at the University of Oxford (Caroline Miles Visiting Scholar), the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, the Hastings Center New York, and most recently, was a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Law, EUI. She was Managing Editor (2012-2013) and Editor-in-Chief (2013-2015) of SCRIPTed Journal of Law, Technology and Society, and was the Book Reviews Editor for Medical Law International (2017-2021).
She holds a PhD in Law (University of Edinburgh), Bachelor of Civil Law and LLM (Law, Technology and Governance) (first class honours) degrees from the National University of Ireland Galway. Aisling currently teaches modules on medical law and intellectual property in Maynooth University. She would welcome enquiries from applicants for PhD supervision in topics related to patent law, copyright law, medical law or on the regulation of emerging technologies.
Research Interests
Aisling’s research specialises in medical and
intellectual property law. She is particularly interested in the
regulation of emerging health technologies and the relationship between
intellectual property and bioethical concerns relating to emerging
health-related technologies. Recent projects include work funded by the British
Academy examining the divergent legal approaches to gene patentability that
have emerged in the EU, US, and Canada. This research adopts a
comparative institutional approach to highlight the influences shaping these
legal approaches, the practical consequences of their adoption, and the factors
underlying their disjunction with social expectations on access to diagnostic
testing. Aisling’s PhD from the University of Edinburgh examined the
morality provisions in the European patent system for biotechnological
inventions.
Research Projects
Title
Role
Description
Start date
End date
Amount
The Legal & Ethical Impacts of Emerging Reproductive Technologies: A Human Rights-Based Analysis of Complete Ectogenesis from an Irish Perspective (GOI PhD Alanna Kells)
PI
01/09/2022
31/08/2026
110000
Law, Ethics and the Patient Experience of Advanced Cancer Therapies: A focus on CAR-T
PI
The project is currently at an early stage.The PI is exploring partnership with Breakthrough Cancer Research Ireland to work on the legal/ethical framework for access/delivery of advanced cancer therapies to Irish patients (focusing on CAR-T therapies as a case study). The project aims to work in conjunction with Breakthrough Cancer Research Ireland to examine Irish patients' experience of accessing such therapies in Ireland or abroad, and lessons which can be drawn from such experiences to feed into an evaluation of how current legal/ethical principles and reforms necessary to facilitate best interests of patients involved.
01/03/2021
01/12/2021
11997.8
EI Supports for ERC StG 2021
PI
16/06/2020
15/06/2021
15612
Social and Sustainability Bonds –Funding a more sustainable future for healthcare?
Co-Investigator
The growing global focus on social, environmental and sustainability issues has shone a spotlight on whether sustainable finance products, including capital markets products such as bonds, can be used to alleviate such issues. This project brings together expertise within sustainable finance and global health. It will critically appraise the suitability of social and sustainability bonds as a mechanism for funding healthcare projects, assessing in particular how such instruments could facilitate the fulfilment by states of their right to health obligations as enshrined in international legal treaties. It will also establish the groundwork for longer-term collaboration between the Co-Is, and more broadly within the MUSSI community and externally by establishing a multidisciplinary sustainability research network.
01/03/2021
31/08/2021
2984
SLS Small Projects and Events Fund: Patent Scholars Network
Co-Investigator
Funding awarded by Society of Legal Scholars to support the continuation of a Patent Scholars Network for the UK and the Republic of Ireland(RoI), which we (Dr McMahon, Dr Hawkins and Dr Walsh) established in 2019.
20/05/2020
1880
Maynooth University Conference Support Fund
Co-Investigator
The UK and Ireland Patent Scholars Network conference was held in Maynooth University on 20th and 21st June 2019, organized by Dr Aisling McMahon (Maynooth University) together with co-founders of the network Dr Naomi Hawkins and Dr Karen Walsh (Exeter University). The conference attracted leading patent law scholars and practitioners working in the UK and Ireland over two days of works-in-progress papers and discussions on contemporary patent law issues.
20/06/2019
21/06/2019
1500
Patents, Biotechnology and Licensing for Ethical Consdierations
PI
Patents on health-related biotechnologies give rise to significant ethical issues. Patents give the patent holder control over the use of an invention for the duration of patent grant, facilitated through licensing. They can refuse licensing creating a monopoly over the technology or impose restrictions on licensing of patents for particular uses. The gives rise to three main ethical issues: (1) questions around access and quality of patented health technologies for individual patients and researchers; (2) ethical issues around whether certain types of biotechnologies, related to living material, should be patentable including questions of commodification of living, dignity etc; (3) questions around the role of patent holders as drivers/shapers of technology, and the appropriateness of this role, exacerbated by the fact that recently licensing is being used to include ‘ethical’ restrictions dictated by patent holders, e.g., in the Broad Institute’s licensing of CRISPR-Cas9 technologies it made licensees agree not to use the technologies for specific uses including gene drives. Limited attention has been given to the third category which is the core focus of this project, and relatedly, how rather than divesting such control to patent holders, instead overarching regulatory restrictions on patent-holder’s licensing practices for ethically contentious technology could address broader ethical issues.
01/05/2019
31/01/2020
4360
Caroline Miles Fellowship - Ethox Centre Oxford University
Awardee
01/04/2017
30/04/2017
2213
Gene Patentablity: A comparative institutional analysis of the US, Canadian and European Approaches.
Principal Investigator
Patents over genes and related diagnostic tests are highly controversial as they
can increase costs of diagnostic tests, reducing patients’ access to genetic testing
and access for researchers. There is little clarity on the merits of different legal
approaches to this issue. Against this background, this project examines the
divergent legal approaches to gene patentability that have emerged in the EU,
US, and Canada, using a comparative institutional approach to highlight both why
they emerged and what their practical consequences have been. Drawing on
interviews with key actors as well as a close analysis of the legal regimes and the
public controversies about those regimes (if any), it explores how each
jurisdiction’s institutional context – the patent and healthcare systems, and other
applicable formal and informal institutions – affected the evolution and success of
that jurisdiction’s approach to resolving issues of access, and its social reception
and consequences. This will fill a significant gap and has the potential to effect deep change in current approaches to this area
01/04/2017
01/04/2018
9810
ESRC Impact Accelerator Award - Public Law Reform Now
Co-Investigator
Funding for work on 'Public Law Reform Now 2016-2020' project, including symposium in University of Sussex on ‘Public Law Reform’.
24/06/2016
6470
Newcastle University Seed Award - Gene Editing Law and Regulation
Co-Investigator
01/01/2016
1213
Post Doctoral Fellows / Research Team
Researcher Name
Project
Funding Body
Opeyemi Kolawole
ERC PatentsInHumans Project
Peer Reviewed Journal
Year
Publication
2022
Susi Geiger & Aisling McMahon (2022) 'An Analysis of the Institutional Landscape and Proliferation of Proposals for Global Vaccine Equity for COVID-19: Too Many Cooks or Too Many Recipes?'. Journal of Medical Ethics, .
2022
Siva Thambisetty, Aisling McMahon, Luke McDonagh, Hyo Yoon Kang & Graham Dutfield (2022) '‘Addressing Vaccine Inequity During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The TRIPS Intellectual Property Waiver Proposal & Beyond’'. The Cambridge law journal, .
2022
Emma Cave & Aisling McMahon (2022) 'Should States Restrict Recipient Choice Amongst Relevant and Available COVID-19 Vacccines?'. Medical Law Review, . [DOI]
Aisling McMahon (2021) 'Patents, Companies and Control: Ethics and the Patenting of Advanced Biotechnologies & Novel Beings?'. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 30 (3).
2021
Aisling McMahon (2021) 'Global equitable access to vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for Covid-19: The role of patents as private governance'. Journal of Medical Ethics, 47 (3):142-148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2020-106795 [Full-Text]
2020
Aisling McMahon (2020) 'Patents, access to health and COVID-19: The role of compulsory and government-use licensing in Ireland'. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, 71 (3):331-359. [Full-Text]
2020
Arvind, TT; McMahon, AM (2020) 'RESPONSIVENESS AND THE ROLE OF RIGHTS IN MEDICAL LAW: LESSONS FROM MONTGOMERY'. Medical Law Review, 28 :445-477. [DOI]
2020
J. Allen, D.M. Doyle, S. McCorristine and A. McMahon (2020) 'De-Extinction, Regulation and Nature Conservation'. Journal of Environmental Law, 32 :309-322. [DOI][Full-Text]
2020
Aisling McMahon (2020) 'Biotechnology, Health and Patents as Private Governance Tools: The Good, the Bad and the Potential for Ugly?'. Intellectual Property Quarterly, (3):161-179.
2020
Martin P.; Morrison M.; Turkmendag I.; Nerlich B.; McMahon A.; deSaille S.; Barlett A. (2020) 'Genome editing: the dynamics of continuity, convergence, and change in the engineering of life'. New Genetics and Society, 39 (2):2019-252. [DOI][Full-Text]
2020
Aisling McMahon, David M Doyle (2020) 'Patentability and De-extinct Animals in Europe: The Patented Woolly Mammoth'. Journal of Law and the Biosciences, . https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsaa017 [Full-Text]
2019
Aisling McMahon (2019) 'Gene Patents and the Marginalisation of Ethical Issues'. European Intellectual Property Review, 41 (10):608-620. [Full-Text]
2019
Aisling McMahon; Alena Buyx, Barbara Prainsack (2019) 'Big data governance needs more collective responsibility: The role of harm mitigation in the governance of data use in medicine and beyond'. Medical Law Review, 28 (1):155-182. [Full-Text]
2019
Bríd Ní Ghráinne & Aisling McMahon (2019) 'Access to Abortion in Cases of Fatal Fetal Abnormality: A New Direction for the European Court of Human Rights?''. Human Rights Law Review, 19 (3):561-584. [Full-Text]
2019
Bríd Ní Ghráinne & Aisling McMahon (2019) 'Abortion in Northern Ireland and the ECHR: Reflections from the UK Supreme Court'. International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 68 (2):477-494. [Full-Text]
2018
Aisling McMahon (2018) 'Brexit and the Unitary Patent Package: A Further Compromised Future?'. SCRIPted, 15 (2):175-208. [Link][Full-Text]
2017
Bríd Ní Ghráinne; Aisling McMahon (2017) 'A Public International Law Approach to Safeguard Nationality for Surrogate-Born Children'. Legal Studies, 37 (2):324-342. [Link][DOI][Full-Text]
2017
Aisling McMahon (2017) 'An Institutional Examination of the Implications of the Unitary Patent Package for the Morality Provisions: A Fragmented future too Far?'. IIC International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law, 48 (1):42-70. [Link] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40319-016-0541-2 [Full-Text]
2014
Shawn Harmon & Aisling McMahon (2014) 'Banking (on) the Brain: From Consent to Authorisation and the Transformative Potential of Solidarity'. Medical Law Review, 22 (4):572-605. [Link] https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwu011
Book Chapter
Year
Publication
2023
Aisling McMahon (2023) 'Decision-Makers, Institutional Influences and the Role of Ethical issues in the Patenting of Biotechnological Inventions in Europe: Enter the Unitary Patent System' In: Research Handbook on European Patent Law: The European Patent Convention, the European Patent with Unitary Effect and Unified Patent Court. Germany : de Gruyter Publishing. [Full-Text]
2022
Aisling McMahon (2022) 'Institutions, Interpretive Communities and Legacy in Decision-Making' In: Law and Legacy in Medical Jurisprudence: Essays in Honour of Graeme Laurie. United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108903295.018
2022
Aisling McMahon (2022) 'The ‘Ethical’ Regulation of Novel Being Technologies: The Potential Role for Patents as Drivers, Blockers and Ethical Guiders' In: Novel Beings: Regulatory Approaches for a Future of New Intelligent Life. United Kingdom : Edward Elgar.
2022
Aisling McMahon (2022) 'Accounting for Ethical Considerations in the Licensing of Patented Biotechnologies and Health-Related Technologies: A Justification' In: Patenting Biotechnological Innovation: Eligibility, Ethics and Public Interest. Cheltenham, United Kingdom : Edward Elgar.
2021
Aisling McMahon (2021) 'Regulatory Authorities and Decision-Making in Health Research: The Institutional Dimension' In: Cambridge Handbook of Health Research Regulation. London : Cambridge University Press. [Link]
2020
Aisling McMahon (2020) 'Contractual Enforceability and Surrogacy Arrangements: Mapping the moral limits' In: Contract Law and the Legislature: Autonomy, Expectations and the Making of Legal Doctrine. London : Hart Publishing.
2020
TT Arvind and Aisling McMahon (2020) 'Commodification, control, and the contractualisation of the human body' In: The limits of the market: commodification of nature and body. Paris : Mare&Martin. [Full-Text]
2016
Aisling McMahon (2016) '‘Patents, Human Biobanks and Access to Health Benefits: Bridging the Public–Private Divide’' In: Intellectual Property and Access to Im/Material Goods. UK : Edward Elgar. [Link]
2014
Aisling McMahon (2014) 'Children and Social Networking : An Irish Perspective' In: Social Networking: Law, Rights and Policy. Dublin : Clarus Press.
Working Paper
Year
Publication
2021
Siva Thambisetty, Aisling McMahon, Luke McDonagh, Hyo Yoon Kang, Graham Dutfield (2021) The TRIPS Intellectual Property Waiver Proposal: Creating the Right Incentives in Patent Law and Politics to end the COVID-19 Pandemic. LSE, London: [Working Paper] [Link]
2021
Susi Geiger & Aisling McMahon (2021) Too Many Cooks or too many Recipes? An analysis of the institutional landscape and proliferation of proposals for Global Vaccine Equity for COVID-19. Geary Institute, UCD Working Paper Series, Dublin: [Working Paper] [Link]
Other Journal
Year
Publication
2022
Naomi Hawkins, Aisling McMahon, Karen Walsh (2022) 'Editorial: Special Issue: Patents in a Changing Europe'European Intellectual Property Review, .
2019
Aisling McMahon & Bríd Ní Ghrainne (2019) 'After the 8th: Ireland, Abortion and International Law'Medico-Legal Journal of Ireland, 25 (1) :22-40. [Full-Text]
2011
Aisling McMahon (2011) 'The Legal Status of Embryos in vitro in Ireland- A ‘precarious’ position'Enterprise Systems and Technology, :17-7.
2010
Aisling McMahon (2010) 'Journalists' Privilege in light of Mahon v. Keena'Irish Law Times, 28 .
Published Report
Year
Publication
2012
A McMahon and S H E Harmon (2012) Banking (On) the Brain: A Report on the Legal and Regulatory Concerns. SCRIPTed Journal of Law and Society, . [Link]
Newspaper Articles
Year
Publication
2021
Luke McDonagh & Aisling McMahon (2021) Opinion: To solve Covid-19 vaccine inequity Ireland should support the TRIPS waiver. Ireland: [Newspaper Articles] [Link]
Blog
Year
Publication
2022
Aisling McMahon & Susi Geiger (2022) Securing a future without COVID-19: The need to prioritise concerted global action on global access to vaccines. [Blog] https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-ethics/2022/02/08/securing-a-future-without-covid-19-the-need-to-prioritise-concerted-global-action-on-global-access-to-vaccines/
2021
Aisling McMahon (2021) Why global access to vaccines is essential to end the pandemic. [Blog] [Link]
2020
Aisling McMahon (2020) How patents will affect pandemic vaccines and treatments. [Blog] [Link]
2020
Aisling McMahon (2020) Patents, private governance and access to vaccines and treatments for Covid-19. [Blog] [Link]
2019
Aisling McMahon, Alena Buyx and Barbara Prainsack (2019) How big data can affect your bank account – and life. UK: [Blog] [Link]
2019
Aisling McMahon (2019) Will a new policy mean more organ donations in Ireland?. Ireland: [Blog] [Link] https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2019/1023/1085196-organ-donations-ireland/
2018
Aisling McMahon & Bríd NíGhráinne (2018) Ireland’s 8th amendment is a breach of its own human rights commitments. [Blog] [Link]
2020
Aisling McMahon (2020) Access to COVID-19 vaccines and medicines: patents and compulsory licensing in the spotlight. [Blog] [Link]
2020
Aisling McMahon (2020) Covid-19, Patents & Healthcare: The Need for A (Bio)ethics Space within Patent Law. [Blog] [Link]
2017
Aisling McMahon (2017) Gene Patents and Access to Health: Speaking At But Not To Each Other?. Ethox Centre, University of Oxford: [Blog] [Link]
Editorial
Year
Publication
2013
Aisling McMahon and Laura Downey (2013) Editorial: SCRIPTed: News and Reflection. Edinburgh: [Editorial] [Link]
Electronic Article
Year
Publication
2020
Edana Richardson and Aisling McMahon (2020) Are social bonds an option for Ireland's coronavirus recovery?. [Electronic Article] [Link]
Report
Year
Publication
2012
Aisling McMahon & Shawn Harmon (2012) Banking (On) the Brain: A Report on the Legal and Regulatory Concerns. [Report] [Link]
Book Review
Year
Publication
2017
Aisling McMahon (2017) Book Review: Surrogacy, Law and Human Rights. [Book Review]
2012
Aisling McMahon (2012) Law and the Regulation of Medicines. [Book Review]
2012
Aisling McMahon (2012) Uma Suthersan, Graham Dutfield & Kit Boey Chen (Eds), Innovation without Patents: Harnessing the Creative Spirit in a Diverse World. [Book Review]
Policy Contribution
Year
Publication
2021
Response to the WHO Expert Advisory Committee on Developing Global Standards for Governance and Oversight of Human Genome Editing Reports Human Genome Editing: A Framework for Governance and Recommendations (2021) The Role of Patents and Licensing in the Governance of Human Genome Editing: A White Paper. [Policy Contribution] [Link] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3896308
2021
Aisling McMahon, Kieran Harkin, Access to Medicines Ireland (2021) Opening Statement Oireachtas Committee - Equitable Access to Covid-19 Vaccines for Low and Middle Income Countries: Access to Medicines Ireland. [Policy Contribution] [Link]
2020
Aisling McMahon & Access to Medicines Ireland (2020) Position Paper: Ireland should support the World Health Organization's Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (CTAP). [Policy Contribution] [Link]
2018
Bríd Ní Ghráinne; Aisling McMahon (2018) Ireland is Likely to Liberalise Abortion Laws. [Policy Contribution]
Conference Contribution
Year
Publication
2021
Aisling McMahon (2021) Intellectual Property Law Scholarship and Pedagogy in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic Panel Discussion on Intellectual Property Law Scholarship and Pedagogy in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic Virtual - Center for Social Critiques of Law, Kent Law School and International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP), 01/07/2021-01/07/2021.
2020
Aisling McMahon (2020) Comhlámh November First Wednesdays: Solidarity and justice treatments & vaccines for COVID19 Solidarity and justice treatments & vaccines for COVID19: Intellectual Property Virtual Event, 05/11/2020-05/11/2020.
2021
Aisling McMahon & Edana Richardson (2021) SASE Conference - Mini Conference Stream: Regulatory Stakeholders and Medicines Valuation Patents, Corporate Decision-Making & the Engaged Shareholder: A Pathway to Encourage Socially Responsible Patent Use in Healthcare Virtual - SASE Annual Conference 2021, 03/07/2021-03/07/2021.
2021
Edana Richardson and Aisling McMahon (2021) SASE: Conference - Mini Conference Stream: Financial Markets in Times of Instability and Authoritarianism The Use of Social and Sustainability Bonds in the Context of COVID-19 – Funding a More Sustainable Future for Healthcare? Virtual - SASE Annual Conference 2021, 03/07/2021-03/07/2021.
2021
Aisling McMahon (2021) Global Health and Pro Bono: The Universal Right to Health for COVID-19 How can pro bono support the right to Health and promote universal health coverage? Virtual - Advocates for International Development (A4ID), 25/06/2021-25/06/2021.
2021
Aisling McMahon (2021) Patents on Covid-19 Vaccines: A need for State intervention? Panel Discussion - Patents on Covid-19 Vaccines: A need for State intervention? Virtual - Amnesty International University Group, University of Passau, Germany, 09/06/2021-09/06/2021.
2021
Aisling McMahon (2021) Global inequity in COVID-19 vaccination Global Health Matters – Live Event Series - Global inequity in COVID-19 vaccination Virtual Recording Panel - Co hosted with Access to Medicines Ireland, SafetyNet Primary Care, Oxfam Ireland and Concern Worldwide, 19/03/2021-19/03/2021.
2021
Aisling McMahon & Kieran Harkin (2021) Oireachtas Joint Committee of Foreign Affairs and Defence - Committee Hearing Oireachtas Hearing: Access to Covid-19 vaccines for low and middle-income countries Appeared via video link - Oireachtas Committee, Dáil Chamber, 09/02/2021-09/02/2021.
2020
Aisling McMahon (2020) WEBINAR SERIES – Irish Global Health Network and ESTHER Alliance for Global Health Partnerships Webinar 20: Conversations on COVID-19 – Vaccines: the end of the Covid-19 Pandemic? Virtual Event: Live Streamed, 27/11/2020-27/11/2020.
2020
Aisling McMahon (2020) UK and Ireland Patent Scholars Network Patents, Access to Healthcare and Covid-19: The Role, Limits and Case for Reform of Compulsory Licensing Laws Virtual Event, 05/11/2020-05/11/2020.
2020
Aisling McMahon (2020) Comhlamh First Wednesday - Solidarity and justice in developing and delivering vaccines for COVID19 Panel Discussion: Solidarity and justice in developing and delivering vaccines for COVID19 Virtual Recorded Event - Co-hosted by Cómhlamh and the Department of International Development Maynooth University, 04/11/2020-04/11/2020.
2020
Aisling McMahon and Ilke Turkmendag (2020) Society of Legal Scholars Conference 2020 Mitochondrial Donation, CRISPR Gene Editing: Blurred Lines & Regulatory Boundaries Virtual Conference, 01/09/2020-04/09/2020.
2020
Aisling McMahon (2020) Health law and ethics (Inaugural Seminar – Invited) Biotechnology, Patents and Licensing for ‘Ethical Use’: A Regulatory Opportunity? Queen’s University Belfast, 27/02/2020-27/02/2020.
2019
Aisling McMahon (2019) American Society of International Law ‘Patents and Ethically Contentious Biotechnologies: A Global Regulatory Approach via International Patent Law Brooklyn University New York, 07/11/2019-09/11/2019.
2019
Aisling McMahon (2019) Durham CELLS Research Seminar ‘Biotechnology and Patent Licensing for ‘Ethical’ Use’ Durham University, 30/10/2019-.
2019
Aisling McMahon (2019) Patents and Emerging Technologies Workshop Biotechnology & Patent Licensing for ‘Ethical’ Use: A Proposal for Regulatory Intervention Wellcome Trust, London, 19/11/2019-20/11/2019.
2019
TT Arvind and Aisling McMahon (2019) World Interdisciplinary Network for Institutional Research Contractualisation, commodification and the human body University of Lund, Sweden, 21/09/2019-.
2019
Aisling McMahon (2019) ATRIP “Patent licensing for ‘ethical’ use: A missed regulatory opportunity?” Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, 26/08/2019-.
2019
Aisling McMahon and David Doyle (2019) Patent Scholars Network Workshop Patents and De-extinction Maynooth University, 20/06/2019-21/06/2019.
2019
Aisling McMahon (2019) RIBS/CEBIL Symposium Gene Patents and the Marginalisation of Ethical Issues Centre for Advanced Studies in Biomedical Innovation Law (CEBIL), University of Copenhagen Faculty of Law, 12/06/2019-12/06/2019.
2019
Aisling McMahon (2019) Regulation and Innovation in the Biosciences(RIBS) Patent Licensing for ‘Ethical’ Use: A missed regulatory opportunity? Centre for Advanced Studies in Biomedical Innovation Law at the University of Copenhagen Faculty of Law, 10/06/2019-11/06/2019.
2019
Aisling McMahon (2019) Patent Scholars Network Workshop Biotechnology and Patents as Private Governance Tools? University of Exeter, United Kingdom, 11/04/2019-12/04/2019.
2019
Aisling McMahon (2019) Contract Law and the Legislature Workshop ‘Contracts and the Human Body: Mapping the moral limits’ University of York, United Kingdom, 11/01/2019-12/01/2019.
2018
Aisling McMahon (2018) American Society of International Law Research Forum ‘Emerging Biotechnologies, Morality & Overlapping Supra-national frameworks in the ‘European Patent System’ UCLA, Los Angeles, 09/11/2018-11/11/2018.
2018
Aisling McMahon (2018) Regulating the Tyrell Corporation: Company Law and the emergence of Novel Beings Patents as Private Governance Tools: The Good, The Bad and The Potential for Ugly? Wellcome Trust, London, 25/10/2018-26/10/2018.
2018
TT Arvind and Aisling McMahon (2018) The Limits of the Market: Commodification of nature and body (Interdisciplinary Workshop) Commodification, control, and the contractualisation of the human body University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, 13/09/2018-14/09/2018.
2018
Aisling McMahon (2018) Society of Legal Scholars Conference Emerging Biotechnologies, Morality and Overlapping Supra-national frameworks in the “European Patent System”: Too Many Cooks? Queen Mary University of London, 04/09/2018-04/09/2018.
2018
Aisling McMahon (2018) Works in Progress Intellectual Property Law Colloquium Gene Patents and Access to Health: A Critical Comparative Analysis Case Western University Ohio, 16/02/2018-.
2018
Aisling McMahon (2018) Oxford Intellectual Property Invited Speakers’ Series Gene Patents and Access to Health: Bridging an Institutional Divide’ St Peters College Oxford University, 01/02/2018-.
2018
Aisling McMahon and TT Arvind (2018) Durham CELLS Seminar Montgomery and the Limits of Autonomy Durham University, 29/01/2018-.
2017
Aisling McMahon (2017) The Everyday Cyborg: Mapping Legal, Ethical, & Conceptual Workshop Patents, the Human Body, and the Biotechnology Directive 98/44EC’ Newcastle University, 08/12/2017-.
2017
Aisling McMahon (2017) World Interdisciplinary Network for Institutional Research Gene Patents and Access to Medicines’ Utrecht University, 15/09/2017-.
2017
Aisling McMahon & TT Arvind (2017) Society of Legal Scholars Conference Montgomery and the Limits of Autonomy’ University College Dublin, 07/09/2017-.
2016
Aisling McMahon; Bríd Ní Ghráinne (2016) Sheffield Law School Research Seminar Ireland, Abortion and the European Convention on Human Rights’ Sheffield Law School, 23/11/2016-.
2016
Aisling McMahon; Bríd Ní Ghráinne (2016) American Society of International Law, Mid-Year Meeting Ireland, Abortion, and International Law University of Washington, Seattle, 12/11/2016-.
2016
Aisling McMahon (2016) Public Law Reform Now Conference The Limits of Judicial Review for Transnational Governance: A Case Study of the European Patent Office University of Sussex, 21/09/2016-.
2016
Aisling McMahon (2016) International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP) Law Congress Embryonic Stem Cells, Morality and Overlapping Supra-national frameworks in the European Patent System: Too many cooks? Jagiellonian University, Kraków, 28/06/2016-.
2016
Aisling McMahon (2016) International Association of Bioethics (IAB) World Congress The Myriad Gene Patent Cases and Controversy: Balancing Public and Private Interests in the patentability of health-related inventions’ University of Edinburgh, 15/06/2016-.
2015
Aisling McMahon & Bríd Ní Ghráínne (2015) American Society of International Law, Research Forum Whose Subjects, and Subject to Whose Laws? Stateless Children’ American University Washington College of Law, 24/10/2015-.
2015
Bríd Ní Ghráinne; Aisling McMahon (2015) Transnational Law and Social Justice International Surrogacy Agreements: Statelessness and the Concept of the 'Family' in Transnational Contexts London School of Economics, UK, .
2015
Aisling McMahon (2015) Society of Legal Scholars Conference Stateless Children in the Context of International Surrogacy Agreements’ University of York, 03/09/2015-.
Maynooth University Faculty of Social Sciences Early Career Researcher of the Year
Maynooth University
01/10/2022
EUI Visiting Fellow
EUI
01/01/2017
British Academy/Leverhulme Grant
British Academy/Leverhulme
01/04/2017
Caroline Miles Visiting Scholarship
Ethox Centre, University of Oxford
01/01/2016
ESRC Impact Accelerator Fund, Newcastle University (Co-Investigator)
Economic Social and Research Council (ESRC) (UK)
01/01/2016
Faculty Research Fund, Newcastle University (Co-Investigator)
Newcastle University
01/09/2014
Principal's Career Development Scholarship
University of Edinburgh
01/01/2008
Michael MacNamara Scholarship for LLM Law, Technology & Governance (NUIG)
RDJ Glynn Solicitors, Galway
Teaching Interests
Aisling has taught law for over 14 years, and in this time has taught a range of law modules including: medical law, intellectual property law, contract law, advanced legal methods, criminal law and equity and trusts at both postgraduate and undergraduate level. She has also taught law in several institutions prior to joining Maynooth, including, Edinburgh University, Newcastle University and Durham University. She holds a Newcastle Teaching Award (2015) a teaching qualification comprising 40 credits at Masters level and she is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK). Aisling was nominated for Taught Supervisor of the Year and Innovative Teaching Methods awards in Newcastle University’s Teaching Excellence Awards.
In Maynooth University, Aisling teaches: LW469 Contemporary Issues in Medical Law, LW499 Intellectual Property Law and Disruptive Technologies, and LW610 Patents, Health and Biotechnologies. She has also previously taught: LW351 Equity and Trusts in Maynooth University. She has supervised research projects on a range of topics in the medical law, intellectual property and regulation of emerging technologies fields, and would welcome enquires from applicants considering Master by research, and PhD study in these fields.
