Professor chidi oguamanam
Dr. Oguamanam joined the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law (Common Law Section) in 2011. He is currently affiliated with the Centre for Law, Technology and Society, the Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability, and the International Law Group. He teaches courses on Contracts, Intellectual Property and Human Rights, Agricultural Knowledge Systems, Biodiversity, Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge, Food Security and Sustainability, and Legal Theory.
Prior to his academic career, Dr. Oguamanam practiced intellectual property and corporate law. He began his academic career as a fellow of the Canada Institutes of Health Research Program in Health Law and Ethics at Dalhousie University. He subsequently joined the Dalhousie Law School (now Schulich School of Law), where he was the Director of the Law and Technology Institute. Dr. Oguamanam remains a member of the Nigerian Bar Association and the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society.
Professor Oguamanam belongs to diverse international research and professional networks committed to building bridges and influencing policies across the south-south and north-south geopolitical spheres. He has diverse interdisciplinary research interests in the areas of global knowledge governance in general, especially as manifested in the dynamics of intellectual property and technology law, with emphasis on biodiversity and biotechnology (including agricultural biotechnology). He identifies the policy and practical contexts for the exploration of the intersections of knowledge systems, particularly Western science and the traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, within the broader development discourse and paradigm. He is interested in the global institutional and regime dynamics for negotiating access and distributional challenges in regard to the optimization of benefits of innovation by stakeholders and the role of intellectual property in development.
Dr. Oguamanam is a sought-after speaker and a multimedia public commentator on global affairs from African perspectives. He also provides technical and expert consulting and support services for states and sub-state actors, NGOs, intergovernmental bodies, and Indigenous and local communities in developed and newly industrializing countries and elsewhere. Widely published in law and interdisciplinary platforms, he is the author or editor of several books, including:
International Law and Indigenous Knowledge: Intellectual Property, Plant Biodiversity, and Traditional Medicine (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006)
Intellectual Property in Global Governance: A Development Question (New York: Routledge, 2012)
Knowledge and Innovation in Africa: Scenarios for the Future (Cape Town: UCT Press, 2013), co-edited with Shirin Elahi, Jeremy de Beer, Dick Kawooya, Nagla Rizk, and the Open AIR network
Innovation and Intellectual Property: Collaborative Dynamics in Africa (Cape Town: UCT Press, 2014), co-edited with Jeremy de Beer, Chris Armstrong, and Tobias Schonwetter
Genetic Resources, Justice and Reconciliation: Canada and Global Access and Benefit Sharing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019)