Dr Jonathan Ainslie

Biography

I have been a Lecturer in Private Law at the University of Aberdeen since February 2022. I initially joined the School of Law as a Teaching Fellow in September 2021.

I was a Tutor in the Centre for Legal History at the University of Edinburgh from 2018 to 2021. I hold an LLB Hons (in law and politics), LLM (in comparative and European private law) and PhD (in legal history), all from the University of Edinburgh.

I am an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the Council of the Stair Society. Outside academia, I am a member of the Children's Panel for the City of Aberdeen. I grew up in Bridge of Earn, Perthshire. 

External Memberships

Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Member of the Council of the Stair Society 

Associate Member of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen

Prizes and Awards

Modern Law Review Scholarship 2018-2020

Research Overview

My research interests lie mainly in the law of obligations. Specific interests include good faith in contract, third party rights, unconscionability in English contract law, mutuality of obligation in Scots contract law, and the actio iniuriarum in Scotland. 

I am especially interested in the extent to which Scots law may have been influenced by ideas from the Roman-Dutch law of obligations. I follow developments in other modern jurisdictions with a Roman-Dutch influence, such as South Africa. 

Funding and Grants

I am grateful for the support of the Scottish Universities Law Institute Early Career Fellowship for my current research on Dutch-Roman obligations in Scotland. 

Teaching Responsibilities

I am currently the course coordinator for Law of Property, Tort in Comparative Context, and Law of Property Honours. I teach across the full curriculum of private law subjects, including for students studying both Scots and English law.