Bio
Jeremy de Beer is a CIGI senior fellow, a full professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa and a faculty member at the Centre for Law, Technology and Society. He holds the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Innovation and Intellectual Property Law, where he leads research on improving global intellectual property frameworks both nationally and internationally.
Jeremy is also a senior research associate at the University of Cape Town and a visiting researcher at the University of Johannesburg. His interdisciplinary scholarship spans law, political science, international relations, public policy and technology, and has shaped legal and policy debates in Canada and around the world.
A practising lawyer and expert consultant, Jeremy has argued numerous cases before the Supreme Court of Canada and frequently provides expert testimony to parliamentary committees on technology, trade and innovation policy. Internationally, he has advised governments, international organizations and multilateral bodies, including the United Nations, the African Union and the European Commission, and is recognized globally for his research and technical contributions in low- and middle-income countries across Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Jeremy is the co-founder and co-lead of Open African Innovation Research (Open AIR), an award-winning, pan-African research partnership that connects scholars across Canada and multiple African countries to support high-impact interdisciplinary and international research. His contributions have earned national and global recognition, including a 2023 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Impact Award, the 2017 Charles B. Seton Award from the Copyright Society of the USA and election to the Royal Society of Canada in 2024.
Jeremy holds a B.A. and an LL.B. from the University of Saskatchewan and a B.C.L. from the University of Oxford. He has authored and edited multiple books, including Innovation and Intellectual Property: Collaborative Dynamics in Africa, and has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.