Chris Arup is a professor adjunct to the Department of Business Law and Taxation.

Chris' legal research has been concerned with innovation, trade and labour.  His work endeavours to be inter-disciplinary and he has long-term experience in regulatory studies and socio-legal studies.  Chris has experience designing, evaluating, mentoring and editing research, including law, law and economy, and law and society research. 

Recent research investigated supermarket supply networks - both as a source of private regulation and a subject of public regulation.  Studies were made of food work, food production and food distribution.  Other ARC projects researched: (a) the regulation of carbon reduction credits and offsets internationally and (b) the regulation of employment restraints of trade in Australia.

Most recently, Chris has been researching how labour law is made, particularly with concern to employment and social security.  He also continues to research trade agreements, patent laws and access to medicines.

His publications include two monographs with Cambridge University Press, Innovation, Policy and Law (1993) and The World Trade Organization Knowledge Agreements (2000, 2008) (TRIPS and GATS).  He has co-edited several books, including Intellectual Property Policy Reform: Fostering Innovation and Development; Labour Law and Labour Market Regulation; and Competition Policy with Legal Form.  Chris was co-founder and co-editor (1977-2017) of the Cambridge University Press international monograph series, Studies in Law and Society.  He was an editor of the La Trobe journal Law in Context.

Chris has had visiting appointments at the Universities of Chicago, Durham, Melbourne, Onati, Sussex and Warwick.  He has undertaken consultancy and project work for such organisations as the Brotherhood of St. Laurence, the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department, the New South Wales Professional Standards Council, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Victorian Auditor-General, and the Victorian WorkCover and WorkCare agencies.  He is qualified to practise law and he has worked in community legal services and community legal education.

Chris has served as head of the law and legal studies schools at La Trobe and Victoria and the department of business law and taxation at Monash.  In his time, he has taught contract, civil procedure, commercial law, intellectual property, labour law, legal writing, professional conduct, research methods, trade law and tort law.  He has organised various academic and professional conferences in Australia, China and the United States.