LLB (Hons), PGCert, MBA, PhD, FSA Scot, FHEA
Personal Chair, Dean for International Stakeholder Engagement
- About
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Biography
Adelyn is the University's Dean for International Stakeholder Engagement, working with the Vice Principal for Global Engagement. In this capacity, she works with external partners and institutional stakeholders as well as internal colleagues to improve the University's strategic approach to international student recruitment.
As a Professor of Law, she teaches abortion law, legal history, commercial law and skills courses. She has been an external examiner for three universities in the UK, an appeals assessor for a Norwegian university, and an external consultant on ABA accreditation frameworks for a US university. She has previously taught for various partner institutions internationally, in the USA, Norway, China, Qatar and India. Please see the 'Teaching' tab above for full details.
Her research interests include Scottish legal history, private and public law, and the law of abortion. Her work has appeared in various leading publications, and she has presented her research in ten countries. She has been an Academic Fellow of the Scottish Parliament, and advised the European Scrutiny Committee of the UK Parliament on their report into the future of retained EU law. She has also been an editor of two journals and a trustee and/or council member of five intellectual charities. The offices she has held are listed below; please see the 'Research' tab above for her publication list and supervised research students.
She has appeared on the BBC Antiques Roadshow, STV Scotland Tonight, BBC Radio North East and Northsound 1 News, and has advised BBC News Reality Check.
Memberships and Affiliations
- Internal Memberships
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Adelyn has held roles across our executive, partnership management, student recruitment, education, research and staff development portfolios.
Selected current internal roles include:
- Co-Director, Centre for Scots Law
- Institutional lead, British Council Scholarships for Women in STEM
- Institutional lead, Warm Welcome Scholarship Scheme
- Chair, International Advisory Group
- Chair, Aberdeen-Study Group Partnership Management Board
- Chair, Sponsor Management Subgroup
- Senator
- External Memberships
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Selected current external roles include:
- Co-Director, Scottish Universities Law Institute
- Deputy Editor, Edinburgh Law Review
- Fellow, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
- Fellow, Higher Education Academy
Selected previous external roles include:
- Academic Fellow, Scottish Parliament (2020-21)
- Chair, Aberdeen Humanities Fund (2017-21)
- Council member, Friends of the Aberdeen University Library (2018-21)
- Secretary and Treasurer, Scottish Legal History Group (2014-19)
- Council member, Stair Society (2013-19)
- Editor, Comparative Legal History (2013-18)
- Private Law Analysis Editor, Edinburgh Law Review (2021-22)
- Council member, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (2015-17)
- University's '50 under 30' representative, National Centre for Universities and Business (2012-15)
- Research
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Research Overview
Adelyn's research expertise extends across legal history, medical law, private law and public law. Her research and student funding networks have been supported by Horizon 2020/Marie Curie, the British Council, the Bibliographical Society, the Research Institute for Irish and Scottish Studies, the Aberdeen Humanities Fund and other organisations.
Details of her previous publications are listed below. She is currently engaged on projects across her fields of specialism, including as co-editor of a three-volume collection on the history and development of Scots commercial law, forthcoming with Edinburgh University Press in 2024-26.
She is also the Deputy Editor for the Edinburgh Law Review, a Co-Director of the Scottish Universities Law Institute, a Co-Director of Aberdeen's Centre for Scots Law, and a member of Aberdeen's Centre for Constitutional and Public Law. She welcomes discussions with potential contributors to the journal, SULI publications series or the work of the Centres.
She also welcomes discussions with prospective research students in her research areas. She is honoured to have previously won the University Excellence award for Best PGR supervisor, in addition to other teaching award nominations. Details of her current research students can be found below.
Past Research
Books
ARC Simpson and ALM Wilson, Scottish Legal History: Volume 1: 1000-1707 (Edinburgh University Press, 2017)
Edited books
ARC Simpson, SC Styles, E West and ALM Wilson (eds), Continuity, Change and Pragmatism in the Law: Essays in Memory of Professor Angelo Forte (Aberdeen University Press, 2016)
Book chapters
“Notaries and advocates in early modern Aberdeen”, in J Armstrong and E Frankot (eds), Culture of Law in Urban Northern Europe: Scotland and its Neighbours, c.1350-c.1700 (Routledge, 2020) 267-283
S Dropuljic and ALM Wilson, “Elections and local governance in early modern Aberdeen”, in M Godfrey (ed), Miscellanry VIII (Stair Society annual publications series vol 68, 2020) 231-263
“Men of law and legal networks in Aberdeen, principally in 1600-1650”, in M Lobban and I Williams (eds), Networks and Connections: Papers of the British Legal History Conference (Cambridge University Press, 2020) 33-59
“The nature and sources of Scots law”, in G Black (ed), Business Law in Scotland (W Green, 2019) 1-22
“The ‘authentick practique bookes’ of Alexander Spalding”, in ARC Simpson et al (eds), Continuity, Change and Pragmatism in the Law: Essays in Memory of Professor Angelo Forte (Aberdeen University Press, 2016) 175-236
“The textual tradition of Stair’s Institutions, with reference to the title 'Of Liberty and Servitude'”, in HL MacQueen (ed), Miscellany VII (Stair Society annual publications series vol 62, 2015) 1-124
Scottish Parliament briefing papers
RB Taylor and ALM Wilson, “Brexit Statutory Instruments: Identifying the challenges”, SPICe briefing SB 21-53 (19 August 2021), available via HTML or pdf
RB Taylor and ALM Wilson, “Brexit Statutory Instruments: Impact on the devolved settlement and future policy direction”, SPICe briefing SB 21-52 (18 August 2021), available via HTML or pdf
RB Taylor and ALM Wilson, “Brexit Statutory Instruments: Powers and parliamentary processes”, SPICe briefing SB 21-45 (8 August 2021), available via HTML or pdf
Journal articles
“Practicks in Scotland’s interregnum” (2012) Juridical Review 319-352
“Stair and the Inleydinge of Grotius” (2010) 14:2 Edinburgh Law Review 259-268
Online analyses
Book reviews
“Ideas of Equity, by Daniel J Carr” (2018) 22:2 Edinburgh Law Review 314-315
“The Roman Law of Obligations, edited by T A J McGinn” (2014) 64:1 Classical Review 254-255
“Principles of Equity, by Henry Home, Lord Kames with a new introduction by Andreas Rahmatian” (2012) Juridical Review 353-354
Reports
“Scottish Legal History Group Report 2019” (2020) 41:1 Journal of Legal History 78-81
“Scottish Legal History Group Report 2018” (2019) 40:1 Journal of Legal History 69-71
“Scottish Legal History Group Report 2017” (2018) 39:1 Journal of Legal History 88-91
“Scottish Legal History Group Report 2016” (2017) 38:1 Journal of Legal History 80-83
“Scottish Legal History Group Report 2015” (2016) 37:1 Journal of Legal History 72-74
Knowledge Exchange
Times Higher Education training webinar, "Creating greater equity, access and employability through digital assessment in the UK", 27 October 2022
STV Scotland Tonight, episode “Challenging the law: Should abortion up until birth be allowed after a Down's syndrome diagnosis?”, 7 October 2021
BBC Antiques Roadshow, invited expert, series 41, episode “Crathes Castle 1”
F Inch et al, “Discover: Old Aberdeen” historical walking tour (Apple app, 2016)
F Inch et al, “Discover: Old Aberdeen” historical walking tour (Android app, 2016)
J Armstrong et al, The Aberdeen Burgh Records Database (2014)
Supervision
Supervisees
- MR MITCHELL SKILLING
- MS STEPHANIE DROPULJIC
- MR VAUGHN FEUER
- MR TOM LAWRIE
- Teaching
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Courses
Course coordinator
Course coordinator, teaching with Dr Tom Green and Dr Jonathan Ainslie
Course coordinator, teaching with Dr Tom Green, Dr Alice Krzanich and Professor Sören Koch (University of Bergen, Norway)
Teaching Responsibilities
Adelyn teaches legal history, medical law, commercial law and skills courses. She has previously taught across the breadth of private law as well as on interdisciplinary courses.
She has won the University Excellence Award for Best PGR Supervisor, and has been nominated for Best UG Lecturer, Best UG Supervisor and Most Inspiring Lecturer.
She has previously taught courses or guest lectures for various partner institutions internationally, including:
- University of Maryland and the University of Baltimore, USA
- University of Bergen, Norway
- Shandong University, China
- AFG with the University of Aberdeen, Qatar
- Alliance University, India
- National University of Advanced Legal Studies, India
She is currently an external examiner for the University of Edinburgh, and was formerly an external examiner for Robert Gordon University and the University of Dundee, an external appeals assessor for the University of Bergen, and an external consultant on ABA accreditation frameworks for a US university.
