Amy Kellam
Member, Centre for Law in Asia, SOAS, University of London
Co-Editor, Amicus Curiae—Journal of the Society of Advanced Legal Studies
I work on international law and the cultural commons. My research develops a jurisprudence of cultural works — asking how law might recognise a work as relational, collective, and event-based rather than as an ownable asset, and what is lost when the opposite premise prevails.
What I am working on now
Current work turns on two questions. The first is jurisdictional: how the legal status of a work is constituted differently across legal orders, and what that difference reveals about the ontology law assumes. The second is temporal: how copyright law binds a work to a commodifiable time—stabilising the gap between creation and market life—and what creative time looks like when it is released from that frame.
Projects
I participate in Eo1, a collective venture developing attribution without ownership. My contribution has been to articulate the distinction between recording and governing, and to build what follows from it: a non-discretionary register of works and their relations, with an attestation layer on the Celo network and a cluster model in which groups self-govern. Its demonstration cluster, Commoning, tests the precepts against law, technology, and practice, and is hosted separately as a cluster of the EO1 collective.
Working Papers
I also maintain the working papers: short notes on IPFS, attestation schemas, blockchain context, and the design choices that shape what a register can and cannot hold. They are written as the research proceeds, and revised as the argument develops.
Other Writing
Peer-reviewed articles and chapters on public international law, the history of international law in Europe and China, and the cultural commons. I am also the author of a novel, Mirrorhouse, long-listed for the 2026 McKitterick Award, and co-editor of Amicus Curiae.