Dr Daniel Acquah BA, MSc, LLM Dip, LLD

Personal Statement

Daniel Acquah is a Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at the School of Law and Social Justice and an Adjunct Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the University of Turku (UTU), Finland. Before joining the University of Liverpool, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies. He was also a Senior Research Associate at the Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). He has master’s degrees in Criminology and Criminal Justice (Glasgow Graduate School of Law), in Law (UTU), and double doctoral degrees in Law (UTU and VUB).

Daniel’s research interest and teaching lie in the areas of European and international intellectual property law and policy, intellectual property and development issues, Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) (colonialism, decolonisation, postcolonialism), and issues of global justice (such as access to medicines and knowledge). He has collaborated on many Academy of Finland projects, including the eCoherence project (2013-2016), the TranSip project (2013-2016), the Constitutional Hedges of Intellectual Property project (2016-2020), and the Digital Disruption of Industry project funded by the Strategic Research Council at the Academy of Finland (2015-2021).

Daniel was recently awarded a prestigious Academy of Finland grant as an Academy Research Fellow (2022-2027 [Decision number 350302]). The project investigates the central role of technical assistance in the constitutionalizing of intellectual property norms in Africa.

Daniel has taught intellectual property law at universities in Finland and abroad, including the University of Turku, the University of Eastern Finland, the Hanken School of Economics, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and the University of Szeged, Hungary. He has been visiting faculty at leading intellectual property and EU law research sites such as the Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI), the University of Strasbourg, the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute, and the Brussels School of Governance. He is a frequent speaker at international conferences and seminars and has published in respected international and European intellectual property law journals and edited book volumes.