Associate Professor Kayleen Manwaring
PhD, LLM (Media, Communications and Information Technology) (UNSW)
Grad Dip Communications, Grad Dip Legal Practice (UTS)
BA LLB (Hons Class I) (Syd)
Dr Kayleen Manwaring is Associate Professor in the School of Private and Commercial Law at the Faculty of Law & Justice. Kayleen teaches law and technology, contract law, online content regulation, cyber security and corporations law. She has taught as a visitor at the University of Zurich and Kings College London. She is also currently the Director of Undergraduate Studies (Law) and serves on UNSW's Academic Board.
Her research concentrates on the intersection of sociotechnical change and private and commercial law, with a particular focus on challenges arising out of cyber-physical technologies. She focuses on the law of contract, consumer protection, intellectual property, and corporations law. She has previously published work relating to the Internet of Things and ubiquitous/pervasive computing, quantum technologies, cyber security, insurance and AI, the right to repair, critical infrastructure regulation, online contracting, directors' duties, network neutrality, copyright and digital technologies, privacy, spam and communications. In 2025, she was appointed a Chinese University of Hong Kong Visiting Fellow, and in 2024, she was appointed Yong Pung How School of Law Visiting Scholar at Singapore Management University. In 2022-2023, she undertook a Senior Research Fellowship in the UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law & Innovation. She is also a member of the UNSW Institute for Cyber Security and the UNSW AI Institute.
Her work has been cited by the Australian and NSW Law Reform Commissions, the Organisation for Economic Development, the World Economic Forum, the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Australian Council of Learned Academies, the United States Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Austrian (EU) Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology, the Consumer Policy Research Centre and the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN). She is a member of the Research Committee of the Consumer Policy Research Centre.
Prior to becoming an academic, she spent many years working as a commercial lawyer, as in-house counsel and in law firm knowledge management, in Sydney and London, for Blake Dawson (now Ashurst), AMP, Freehills (now Herbert Smith Freehills) and SJ Berwin (later King & Wood Mallesons). Her work in practice primarily focused on commercial contracts in the area of technology acquisition and licensing, intellectual property, and communications. Her first professional job was as an information consultant for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
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IFCyber Seed Funding grant 2024 ($12 000) co-investigator for a project entitled 'Transition to Quantum Safe Technologies: Technical and Legal Challenges' lead applicant Sushmita Ruj, co-applicants Ron van der Mayden, Marc de Leeuw
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Singapore Management University Yong Pung How Law School Visiting Scholar grant 2024 (SGD 2500)
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UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law & Innovation Research Stream Grant 2023-2024 - for a research stream entitled 'Challenges for a Cyber-Physical World' ($15000)
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Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre 2023-24 - co-investigator for a research project entitled 'SOCRATES: Software Security with a Focus on Critical Technologies' co-investigators Apro Gustavo Batista, Apro Yang Song, Dr Arash Shaghaghi, Dr Helen Paik, Dr Siqi Ma, Dr Sushmita Ruj, Prof Lyria Bennett Moses, Prof Sanjay Jha ($172,836)
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UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law & Innovation Research Stream Grant 2023 - for a research stream entitled 'Challenges for a Cyber-Physical World' ($4963)
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Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre 2022 - for a research project entitled 'Complex regimes: mapping Australia's cyber security landscape for cloud services', Project Lead, co-investigators A/Prof Rob Nicholls and Dr Tyrone Berger
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UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law & Innovation Research Stream Grant 2022 - for a research stream entitled 'Challenges for a Cyber-Physical World' ($9946)
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UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law & Innovation Research Stream Grant 2021 - for a research stream entitled 'Challenges for a Cyber-Physical World' ($9550)
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UNSW Centre for Law, Markets and Regulation Research Grant 2020 - for a research project on AI, Big Data and Financial Services ($5000) with Zofia Bednarz
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International Association of Privacy Professionals – Australia/New Zealand Chapter Inc (iappANZ) Privacy Legacy Grant 2019 - for a research project entitled '(mis)Informed Consent: Privacy, Unfair Contract and Unconscionable Conduct' ($30,000) with Rob Nicholls and Katharine Kemp
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UNSW Business School Special Research Grant 2019 for a research project entitled ‘Autonomous ‘Intellectics’ and Accountability ($10,000)
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UNSW Centre for Law, Markets and Regulation Summer Research Grant 2019 - for a research project entitled ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and Cyber Security in Cyber-Physical Systems’ ($5000)
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UNSW Business School Summer Research Scholarship 2019 Research Project Supervisor for a research project entitled ‘To what extent can existing consumer protection laws protect consumers against cybersecurity threats inherent in emerging technologies?’ ($5000)
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UNSW PVCE Digital Uplift Grant 2018 - for the postgraduate course TABL5541 Corporations and Business Associations Law
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UNSW Business School Summer Research Scholarship 2016 Research Project Supervisor for a research project entitled ‘Network neutrality in the age of the Internet of Things’ ($4400)
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UNSW Business School Summer Research Scholarship 2016 Joint Research Project Supervisor for a research project entitled ‘A duty to secure? Cyber security breaches, directors’ duties and shareholder actions’ ($4400) with Pamela Hanrahan
Fellowships
- Chinese University of Hong Kong Law Short-term Visiting Fellow 2025
- Singapore Management University Yong Pung How Law School Visiting Scholar 2024
- UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law & Innovation Senior Research Fellowship 2022-2023
- UNSW Law & Justice Research Fellowship 2022 (not taken up)
Prizes
- Winner, Google Prize (best postgraduate paper), BILETA Conference, 10-11 April 2018, Aberdeen
Awards
- Shortlist, Best journal article/book chapter, Australian Legal Research Awards, 2023 (with Z Bednarz)
- Shortlist, Best ECR journal article/book chapter, Australian Legal Research Awards, 2022 (with Z Bednarz)
- ARC Postgraduate Council Course Coordinator of the Year Award 2021
- UNSW Business Staff Excellence Awards 2021: Values in Action Award (as part of the BCom project team)
- UNSW Business Staff Excellence Awards 2018: Research Achievement - School of Taxation and Business Law
- Best PhD Project, International Conference on Internet of Things and Big Data (Doctoral Consortium), April 2016, Rome
- UNSW Graduate Research School: 1 of 3 PhD candidates across UNSW granted fully paid participation in Universitas21 conference on ‘Our Digital Future’ in Shanghai, China, 2015
- Deans List for Best Performance in subject: E-commerce Law
- Deans List for Best Performance in subject: Law & the Culture Industries
Kayleen is currently working on a number of research projects relating to the legal implications of sociotechnical change:
* Challenges for a Cyber-Physical World
* right to repair: connected devices, medical devices and assistive technologies
* technological implementation of private law rules in smart devices
* quantum technologies, particularly quantum-safe encryption
My Research Supervision
Bruce Duncan, PhD candidate (with Professor Deborah Healey and Dr Lu Wang)
Shohini Sengupta, PhD candidate (with Professor Ross Buckley and Dr Natalia Jevglevskaja
Completed supervisions
Thomas Davie, Honours
Vanessa Ha, Honours
My Teaching
| Core | Specialist |
|---|---|
| Business Associations (LAWS1091/JURD7224) | Introduction to Law and Policy for Cyber Security (LAWS8398/LAWS9812) |
| Contracts (LAWS1075/JURD7175) | Law and Technology: Comparative Perspectives (LAWS3346/JURD7546/LAWS8346) |
| Online Content Regulation (LAWS8040/JURD7440) |