Donna Walker McKenzie Skene
Donna W McKenzie Skene graduated from the University of Aberdeen with an LLB (Hons) degree in 1986 and a Diploma in Legal Practice in 1987. Having qualified as a solicitor, she practised in Aberdeen and Peterhead, specialising in civil court work, until 1992, when she returned to the University of Aberdeen to take up a lectureship in law. Now a senior lecturer in law, her main teaching and research interests are in the fields of domestic and international insolvency law and countryside law.
Dr Aylwin Pillai
Dr Aylwin Pillai has been a Lecturer in Law at the University of Aberdeen since 2005. Prior to that Aylwin held an AHRC funded postdoctoral research position at the University of Dundee examining the environmental regulation of hydro-electric developments in Scotland. Aylwin’s PhD research examined the role of the pronciple of sustainable development in Part 2 of the Land Reform (Scotland) act 2003. Aylwin’s interest in rural law stems from her farming background. Her family farms a 1000 acre, organic, beef and sheep stock farm in Angus. Aylwin’s main research interests are in land law, particularly land ownership and community rights of acquisition, and in rural land use and development, including renewable energy.
Aylwin is currently working on an assessment of Scotland’s progress in the promotion of onshore renewable energy for the Society of Legal Scholars conference in Cambridge in Spetember 2011, in addition to work on the implications of sustainable development in Scotland for landowners in Scotland for the Rural Law conference on Sustainable Rural Development.
Anne-Michelle Slater
Anne-Michelle Slater is a Senior Lecturer in Law. Anne-Michelle is the course co-ordinator for the Rural Law (Honours) course and she is a specialist in planning with a particular interest in marine and rural planning law and policy.
Anne-Michelle is an associate member of the University of Aberdeen Centre for Planning and Environmental Management
Dr Anatole Boute
Dr Anatole Boute specialises in energy, climate and investment law. His research focuses mainly on the legal aspects of the transition of the energy sector towards more sustainable and climate-friendly patterns, with a special interest for the Russian energy system. His PhD at the University of Groningen analysed the modernisation of the Russian electricity production sector by focusing on the protection of foreign investors in this sector.
In 2005, he was called to the Brussels bar where he practiced for almost four years in the energy law department of the law firms Lawfort and Janson Baugniet. He advised on and was involved in litigations concerning the liberalization of energy markets, the promotion of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions trading and nuclear energy.
Malcolm Combe
Malcolm Combe joined the School of Law at the University of Aberdeen following a period as a solicitor in private practice, during which time he spent eight months on secondment to the investment arm of a FTSE 100 company. He previously tutored on a part-time basis at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Aberdeen. His research interests include property law (particularly land reform) and commercial law.
Please click on the above links for biographies of the RLRG Team (PDF format).