Professor Safrin will blog about her article Chain Reaction: How Property Begets Property, which is forthcoming in the Notre Dame Law Review. Drawing on contemporary case studies, the article argues that property rights evolve in reaction to each other. Safrin believes that the chain reaction theory of the evolution of intellectual and other property rights has considerable implications. Her article anticipates the development of unexpected, extensive, and ultimately undesirable property regimes.
Prior to joining Rutgers in September 2002, Professor Safrin was an Open Society Institute Fellow and a visiting scholar at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, DC. Her publications include Hyperownership in a Time of Biotechnological Promise: The International Conflict to Control the Building Blocks of Life (American Journal of International Law, 2004), which was awarded the 2005 American Society of International Law Francis Deak Prize.
Professor Safrin earned her J.D. from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley and her B.A. magna cum laude from Pomona College. She clerked for Chief Judge Mary M. Schroeder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. For eight years she was an attorney-adviser at the Office of the Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State. There she served as legal counsel for the Bureau of Oceans, International Environment, and Scientific Affairs, where she helped negotiate treaties and international instruments pertaining to biotechnology, biological diversity, and marine pollution.
Professor Safrin teaches Patent Law, Contracts, International Law and Science, and International Law and a Just World Order.