Jane Ginsburg: Education, Career, and Contributions to Intellectual Property Law

Introduction

Jane C. Ginsburg is a prominent American attorney and legal scholar specializing in intellectual property law, particularly copyright and authors' rights. As the Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law at Columbia Law School and Director of its Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts, she has made significant contributions to the field through her teaching, scholarship, and advocacy. Ginsburg's work delves into the intricacies of copyright law, both domestically and internationally, with a focus on authors' rights, moral rights, and the challenges posed by new technologies.

Early Life and Education

Jane Carol Ginsburg was born on July 21, 1955, to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and Martin D. Ginsburg, a renowned tax attorney and professor. Her parents, both affiliated with Columbia Law School, instilled in her a strong academic foundation and a commitment to legal scholarship. The couple had married in June 1954, shortly before Jane's birth, and both pursued advanced legal careers that shaped the family's priorities around intellectual rigor and professional achievement.

Ginsburg pursued her higher education at the University of Chicago, earning a B.A. in 1976 and an M.A. in 1977. She then attended Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor and note editor for the Harvard Law Review and obtained her J.D. in 1980. Following law school, she clerked for Judge John J. Gibbons of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit from 1980 to 1981. Ginsburg furthered her studies in France, receiving a Diplôme d’études approfondies (DEA) in 1985 and a Doctor of Law degree in 1995 from the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas.

Career at Columbia Law School

After spending three years in private practice, Ginsburg joined the faculty of Columbia Law School. She commenced her teaching career as an adjunct assistant professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. She is now the Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law. She teaches Legal Methods, Copyright Law, and Trademarks Law. She is also the Director of its Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts, which contributes to a broader understanding of the legal aspects of creative works of authorship, including their dissemination and use. She has been the Co-director, Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts since 1999.

Ginsburg's contributions to Columbia Law School are multifaceted. As Columbia Law School’s first tenured female professor, Justice Ginsburg fought many well-known battles for gender equality. When she returned to Columbia Law School as a professor in 1972, Justice Ginsburg had taught courses at Rutgers and helped found the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. Within two years, she published the seminal casebook on the new subject of sex-based discrimination.

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Contributions to Intellectual Property Law

Jane C. Ginsburg is a leading scholar on intellectual property Law, comparative law, private international law, and legal methods.

Copyright Law

Ginsburg's scholarship focuses on copyright law, both domestically and internationally. She has co-authored influential casebooks, including Copyright Law with Robert A. Gorman and R. Anthony Reese, which is now in its 10th edition (Foundation Press, 2024). She has also written extensively on the evolution, interpretation, and global implementation of the Berne Convention, including updates on digital treaties like WIPO Copyright Treaty and exceptions for developing countries, in her monograph, International Copyright and Neighbouring Rights: The Berne Convention and Beyond (3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2022), co-authored with Sam Ricketson. She is also the co-author of COPYRIGHT: CONCEPTS AND INSIGHTS (Foundation Press 2012), with Professor Robert A. Gorman.

Ginsburg's expertise in copyright law extends to the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), technological advancements, and copyright law, emphasizing the requirement of human authorship for protection. She has analyzed the implications of AI-generated works for copyright, emphasizing the need for human creativity and control in the creation process. Her analyses address concerns about the scope of copyright protection for AI-generated works and the application of fair use caselaw.

Trademark Law

In trademark law, Ginsburg co-authored Trademark and Unfair Competition Law: Cases and Materials (7th ed., Carolina Academic Press, 2021) with Jessica Litman and Mary L. Kevlin. She also edited The Cambridge Handbook of International and Comparative Trademark Law (Cambridge University Press, 2020) with Irene Calboli, compiling chapters from international scholars on harmonization efforts, territoriality, and enforcement challenges across jurisdictions.

Moral Rights

A key strand of Ginsburg's contributions involves moral rights, particularly attribution and integrity, which she contends remain inadequately protected in the United States compared to civil law traditions like France's droit d'auteur. Ginsburg's comparative analyses underscore divergences between common law's economic focus and civil law's holistic protection of authorial personality, as explored in "The Concept of Authorship in Comparative Copyright Law," where she traces how continental systems grant perpetual moral rights to preserve the work's integrity beyond economic transfer. She has extensively analyzed the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), technological advancements, and copyright law, emphasizing the requirement of human authorship for protection.

Ginsburg emphasizes the right of attribution as the "most moral" and intuitive aspect of authors' rights, essential for preserving an author's reputational and expressive autonomy. She contrasts common law traditions, which subordinate moral rights to transferrable economic prerogatives, with civil law systems like France's droit moral, where inalienable rights of paternity and integrity protect against mutilation or commercialization detrimental to the author's honor.

International Law

Ginsburg is a leading scholar of international private law, and co-reporter for the American Law Institute's project on Intellectual Property-Principles Governing Jurisdiction, Choice of Law and Judgments in Transnational Disputes (2008). That project inspired similar efforts in Europe and Japan, and was the subject of several European doctoral theses. She has also been a visiting professor or fellow at a number of distinguished educational institutions, including the University of Paris, the University of Cambridge, the University of Auckland, Hebrew University, and the University of Melbourne. She held the Goodhart Visiting Chair of Legal Science at the University of Cambridge for the 2004-05 academic year and was the first woman to hold professorial rank in law at Cambridge.

Awards and Recognition

Jane C. Ginsburg's contributions to intellectual property law have been widely recognized. She was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society (APS) in 2013. According to APS, her membership creates what may be the first mother-daughter membership in the group’s history. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was elected a member in 2006. She was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015. In October of that year, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her daughter, Columbia Law School Professor Jane C. Ginsburg, were inducted into the ChIPs Hall of Fame for their significant individual contributions to the field of intellectual property law and their demonstrated commitment to the advancement of women in IP and technology careers.

Personal Life

Jane C. Ginsburg married George T. Spera Jr. in 1981. Her husband works for the law firm Shearman & Sterling. They have two children.

Selected Publications

Jane C. Ginsburg has published numerous books, articles, and book chapters on copyright, trademark, and international law. Some of her notable publications include:

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Books

Cases and Materials on Legal Methods, with David Louk (with Teacher’s Manual) (Foundation Press, 5th edition 2020) with 2024 Letter Update
International Copyright Law - US and EU Perspectives: Text and Cases, with Prof. Edouard Treppoz (Edward Elgar, 2015)
Intellectual Property at the Edge: The Contested Contours of IP, Editor, with Prof. Rochelle Dreyfuss (Cambridge University Press 2014)
Copyright Law: Concepts and Insights, with Prof. Robert A. Gorman (Foundation Press 2012)
Copyright and Piracy: An Interdisciplinary Critique, Editor, with Prof. Lionel Bently and Dr. Jennifer Davis (Cambridge University Press 2010)
Trade Marks and Brands: An Interdisciplinary Critique, Editor, with Prof. Lionel Bently and Dr. Jennifer Davis (Cambridge University Press 2008)
Intellectual Property Stories, Editor, with Prof. Rochelle Dreyfuss (Foundation Press, 2005)
Foundations of Intellectual Property Law, Editor, with Prof. R.P. Merges (Foundation Press, 2004)
Adjuncts and Alternatives to Copyright: Proceedings of the 2001 Congress of the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale, Editor, with June Besek, Esq. (Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts, 2002)
The Private International Law of Copyright in an Era of Technological Change, 1998 Recueil des cours of the Hague Academy of International Law, part 273, 239-405 (1999)

Book Chapters

AI Outputs “in the style of . . .” in Josefien Vanherpe, ed., Révérences to Marie-Christine Janssens (2024)
The Concept of the Creator in Copyright Law (forthcoming 2024, Encyclopedia of Intellectual Property)
Authors’ Copyright (?), in Susy Frankel, Margaret Chon, Graeme Dinwoodie, Barbara Lauriat and Jens Schovsbo, Improving Intellectual Property 191-203 (Edward Elgar 2023)
Where does the act of “making available” occur?, with Antonia von Appen, in Andrej Savin and Jan Trzaskowski eds., Research Handbook on EU Internet Law 194-214 (2d ed. 17, in Irini Stamatoudi and Paul Torremans, Eds., European Union Copyright Law: A Commentary (2d ed.
Alain Strowel, in Tanya Aplin, ed., Research Handbook on IP and Digital Technologies (forthcoming, Edward Elgar 2021)
Territoriality and Supranationality: Judicial and Legislative Competence in International Trademark Disputes, with Prof. Edouard Treppoz, in Irene Calboli and Jane C. Ginsburg, Eds., Cambridge Handbook on International and Comparative Trademark Law (Cambridge U. Press 2020)
Overlapping Copyright and Trademark Protection in the United States: More Protection and More Fair Use?, with Prof. Irene Calboli, in Irene Calboli and Jane C. Ginsburg, Eds., Cambridge Handbook on International and Comparative Trademark Law (Cambridge U. Press 2020)
People Not Machines: Who Is an Author Under the Berne Convention?, in Graeme Austin, et al. eds., Interconnected Intellectual Property: Essays in Honour of Sam Ricketson (Cambridge U. Press 2020)
Proto-proprietà intellettuale, letteraria ed artistica: i privilegi di stampa papali nel XVI secolo (trans.
(Non)Compliance with Its International Copyright Obligations under Berne, TRIPS and the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaties, in Tatiana-Eleni Synodinou, ed., Pluralism or Universalism in International Copyright Law 115 (WoutersKluwer 2019) (revised chapter for 2d ed.
Oxford Handbook of Intellectual Property, chapter on Copyright (Oxford U.
Sam Ricketson, in International Intellectual Property: A Handbook of Contemporary Research, Daniel Gervais, ed. (Edward Elgar 2013), 2d ed.
Ginsburg, eds., Cambridge University Press (2010)
Envisioning Intellectual Property Rights for a Global Market : Out-takes from the American Law Institute’s Project on Intellectual Property : Principles Governing Jurisdiction, Choice of Law, and Judgments in Transnational Disputes, with Prof.
Perspective, in Trade Marks and Brands: An Interdisciplinary Critique 92 (Lionel Bently, Jennifer Davis and Jane C. Ginsburg, eds., Cambridge University Press 2008)
Of Mutant Copyrights, Mangled Trademarks, and Barbie’s Beneficence: The Influence of Copyright on Trademark Law, Trademark Law and Theory: A Handbook of Contemporary Research 481 (Graeme B. Dinwoodie & Mark D.
R.A. Gorman, in An Unhurried View of Copyright Republished (and with contributions from friends) (2005)
The (New?) Right of “Making Available”, in Intellectual Property In the New Millennium: Essays In Honour of William R. Cornish 234 (Cambridge U.
Initiatives to Protect Works of “Low Authorship”, in Rochelle Dreyfuss, et al., Eds., Expanding the Bounds of Intellectual Property: Innovation Policy for the Knowledge Society 55 (Oxford University Press, 2001)

Articles

The Role of National Copyright Law in an Era of International Norms in A. Laura Moscati, 278 Revue Internationale du Droit d’Auteur 133 (2023)
Commentary on Andy Warhol Foundation v. 2023), Auteurs et Media [Belgium] 8-17 (December 2023) (expanded version of commentary published in WIPO Magazine
In the Courts: The US Supreme Court’s Warhol decision revisits the boundaries of fair use (Nov.
Copyright: Toward a Law of Authors’ Rights?, 50 AIPLA QJ vol.
Berkelaar), Revue Internationale du Droit d’Auteur (Apr. 2022)
Letter from the US, Part I: The Fair Use Pendulum Oscillates, Revue Internationale du Droit d’Auteur (Oct.
Soc.
Copyright Protection for Applied Art After Star Athletica, 166 U.
PA.
L.
REV.
Filmspeler C-527/15 and Brein v.
Moving Toward a “Substantive” Registration-Based Trademark Regime [Response to Rebecca Tushnet, Registering Disagreement: Registration in Modern American Trademark Law, 130 Harv.
L.
Rev.
867 (2017)], 130 Harv.
L.
Rev.
F.
Mason J. of Int’l. Commercial L.
L.
Rev.
Pierre Sirinelli, 39 Colum.
J.L.
J.
L.
J.
J.L.
L.
J.
Copyright, with Prof.
L.
Rev.
577 (2008); also published in a revised version with Prof.
Sam Ricketson, as Separating the Sony Sheep from the Grokster (and Kazaa) Goats: Reckoning the Future Business Plans of Copyright-Dependent Technology Entrepreneurs, Media & Arts L.
Rev.
Rev.
Miller, Common Law Protection for Products of the Mind: An "Idea" Whose Time Has Come, 119 HARV.
L.
REV.
F.
L.
Rev.
L.
Rev.
Copyright Law, 50 J.
Copyr.
Soc.
J.
L.
& the Arts 201 (2003)
The Concept of Authorship in Comparative Copyright Law, 2002 Niro Lecture, 52 DePaul L.
Rochelle Dreyfuss, presented at WIPO Symposium on Intellectual Property and International Private Law (January 2001), revised version at Chicago-Kent Law School Symposium, Constructing International Intellectual Property Law: The Role of National Courts (October 2001), 77 Chi-Kent L.
Rev.
Review of Jessica Litman, Digital Copyright, 25 Colum.
J.
L.
L.
J.
9 (2001)
Copyright Use and Excuse on the Internet, 24 Colum.-VLA J.
L.
Copyr.
Soc.
& Tech.
L.
J.
347 (1999)
Copyright Legislation for the “Digital Millennium”, 23 Colum.-VLA J.
L.
& Arts 137 (1999); prior version in English, French and Spanish in 179 Revue internationale du droit d’auteur 143 (1999); shorter version published as Access to Copyrighted Works in the “Digital Millennium Copyright Act,” in Severine Dusollier, Ed.
Copyright: a right to control access to works? (Caselaw), 180 Revue internationale du droit d’auteur 127 (1999)
Copyright and Intermediate Users’ Rights, in Festschrift till Gunnar Karnell 227 (1999), also published in 23 Columbia-VLA J.
L.
& the Arts 67 (1999)
Authors as Licensors of “Intellectual Property Rights” Under Proposed Article 2B of the Uniform Commercial Code, 13 Berkeley Technology Law Journal 945 (1998)
An Analysis of H.R. 2652, the Collections of Information Antipiracy Act, 27 Computer Law Reporter (April 1998)
Symposium, Electronic Rights in International Perspective, general editor, and author of a comment on decisions from Belgium and France, and a comment on Electronic Rights and the Private International Law of Copyright, 22 Columbia-VLA J.
L.
& the Arts 127 (1998)
Copyr.
Soc.
1 (1998)
Copyright, Contract and Sui Generis Protection for Databases in the US and Abroad, 66 U.Cinn.
L.
Rev.
151 (1997)
The Celestial Jukebox and Earthbound Courts: Judicial Competence in the European Union and the United States Over Copyrignt Infringements in Cyberspace, 173 Revue internationale du droit d’auteur 3 (July 1997), with Myriam Gauthier, LLM
Extraterritoriality and Multi-territoriality in Copyright Infringement, 37 U.
Va.
J.
Int’l.
L.
601 (1997)
Copyright Without Borders? Choice of Forum and Choice of Law for Copyright Infringement in Cyberspace, based on the 1996 Tenzer Lecture, 15 Cardozo Arts & Entertainment L.J.
Federalism and Intellectual Property, 2 Columbia Journal of European Law 463 (1996)
Digital Libraries and Some of the Copyright Issues they Raise, 169 Revue internationale du droit d’auteur 5 (July 1996)
Putting Cars on the Information Superhighway: Authors, Exploiters and Copyright in Cyberspace, 95 Colum.
L.
Rev.
1466 (1995).
Global Use/Territorial Rights: Private International Law Questions of the Global Information Infrastructure, 42 J.
Copyr.
Soc.
318 (1995)
Domestic and International Copyright Issues Implicated in the Compilation of a Multimedia Product, 25 Seton Hall L.
Rev.
1397 (1995) (Symposium issue on “Traveling the Information Superhigway”), and in Spanish translation in Derecho de la Alta Tecnología (Argentina), No. 86, pp 12-20 (1995)
Exploiting the Artist’s Commercial Identity: The Merchandizing of Art Images, 19 Colum.-VLA J.
L.
& the Arts 1 (1995), shorter version published at 163 Revue internationale du droit d’auteur (Jan. 1995) 3
Four Reasons and a Paradox: The Manifest Superiority of Copyright over Sui Generis Protection for Computer Software, 94 Colum.
L.
Rev.
2559 (1994)
Surveying the Borders of Copyright, 41 J.
Copyr.
Soc.
322 (1994)
Conflicts of Copyright Ownership Between Authors and Owners of Original Artworks: An Essay in Comparative and International Private Law, 17 Colum.-VLA J.
L.
& the Arts 387 (1993)
Copyright Without Walls? Speculations on Literary Property in the “Library of the Future” 42 Representations 53 (1993)
No Sweat? Copyright and Other Protection for Works of Information After Feist v. Rural Telephone, 92 Colum.
L.
Rev.
338 (1992)
Computer Programs in Europe: A Comparative Analysis of the EC Software Directive, with Professor Jérôme Huet, 30 Colum.
J.
Transnat.
L.
328 (1992)
Reproductions of Protected Works for University Research and Teaching, 39 J.
Copyr.
Soc.
181 (1992)
Authors and Exploitations in International Private Law: The French Supreme Court and the Huston Film Colorization Controversy, with Professor Pierre Sirinelli, 15 Colum.-VLA J.
Law & the Arts 135 (1991)
Creation and Commercial Value: Copyright Protection of Works of Information, 90 Colum.
L.
Rev.
1865 (November 1990); condensed versions in COPYRIGHT IN INFORMATION 41 (E.
Dommering & P.B.
Hugenholtz, ed., Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam, 1991) and in 1991/2 Droit de l'informatique et des télécoms 6
Copyright in the 101st Congress: Commentary on the Visual Artists Rights Act and the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act of 1990, 14 Colum.-VLA J.
Law & the Arts 477 (1990); and in 152 RIDA 97 (April 1992)
Moral Rights in a Common Law System, 1 Ent.
L.
Rev.
121 (U.K.) (1990), also published in MORAL RIGHTS PROTECTION IN A COPYRIGHT SYSTEM, (P.
Anderson and D.
Saunders, eds., Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia (1992), and in German in Gewerblicher Rechtsschutz und Urheberrecht (GRUR) (publication of the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Patent, Copyright and Competition Law, Munich, Federal Republic of Germany) (1991)
A Tale of Two Copyrights: Literary Property in Revolutionary France and America, 64 Tul.
L.
Rev.
991 (1990); also published in 147 Revue Internationale du Droit d’Auteur 125 (Jan. 1991); revised version published in OF AUTHORS AND ORIGINS (an internationally-authored collection of essays on copyright theory) (B.
Sherman and A.
Strowel, eds., Oxford U.
Press 1994)
French Copyright Law: A Comparative Overview, 36 J.
Copyr.
Soc.
Joins the Berne Convention, with Prof.
John M.
Kernochan, 13 Colum.-V.L.A.
J.
Motion Pictures, 36 J.
Copyr.
Soc.
Seton Award for 1988
The Right of Integrity in United States Audiovisual Works, in MELANGES OFFERTS A JOSEPH VOYAME 119 (festschrift) (Lausanne, 1989) (expanded version of Colors in Conflicts)
Federalism and Intellectual Property, published in French translation in L’ETAT EN AMERIQUE (Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques 1989), and in 138 Revue internationale du droit d’auteur (Jan. 1989) 19
Reforms and Innovations Regarding Authors’ and Performers’ Rights in France: Commentary on the Law of July 3, 1985, 10 Colum.-VLA J.
Law & Arts 83 (1985)
Authors’ Rights in France: The Moral Right of the Creator of a Commissioned Work to Compel the Commissioning Party to Complete the Work, with Prof.
André Françon, 9 Colum.-VLA J.
Art & the Law 381 (1985)
A Proposal for Evaluating Genericism After “Anti-Monopoly,” with Arthur J.
Greenbaum and Steven M.
Weinberg, 73 Trademark Reptr.
101 (1983)
Sabotaging and Reconstructing History: A Comment on the Scope of Copyright Protection in Works of History After Hoehling v. Universal City Studios, 29 J.
Copyr.
Soc.
647 (1982)
The Teaching of Copyright Law in the United States of America, UNESCO Copyright Bulletin, vol.
XX, No. 2/3, p. 52 (1986) (French, Spanish and Russian translations of this article appeared in 1986 and 1987 UNESCO publications)
Judicial Developments in United States Copyright Law (1983-84), with David Goldberg, Esq., 123 Revue internationale du droit d’auteur (January 1985) p. 3; revised in 1984 Annual Survey of American Law 515; abridged in LVI Diritto di Autore 345 (1985)
Note [unsigned], An Author’s Artistic Reputation Under the Copyright Act of 1976, 92 Harv.
L.
Rev.
Art.
Rochelle Dreyfuss and Prof.
François Dessemontet, American Law Institute 2008
“The Author’s Place in XXI Century Copyright as Updated by the TRIPs and WIPO Treaties,” General Report to the 2007 Congress of the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale (ALAI), Punta del Este, Uruguay, November 2007.

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