Dr Jonathan Ainslie

Biography

I have been a lecturer 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 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. Outside of academia, I am a member of the children's panel for the City of Aberdeen. I grew up in Bridge of Earn, Perthshire. 

I am currently actively seeking full time or part time PhD students in the areas of Scots private law and Scottish legal history.

External Memberships

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy 

Trustee of the Stair Society 

Associate Member of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen

Research Overview

My research interests relate broadly to the influence of the Roman/Civilian legal tradition on contemporary issues in Scots private law. 

Recent published articles have concerned contractual duties of good faith (bona fides), whether intrusions of privacy can be protected through the actio iniuriarum (the Roman legal action which is the ancestor of the modern Scottish delicts of assault and defamation) and the the history of third party rights (jus quaesitum tertio) in in Scots contract law.

I am currently working on a variety of topics, including payments by Scottish courts in solatium (to provide solace for the pain and suffering of an injured party) and the historical origins of the modern contractual remedy of retention in the Roman defence of the unperformed contract (exceptio non adimpleti contractus). I am also working on a comparison of the English doctrine of the unconscionable bargain as a basis for setting aside a contract and the Scottish doctrine of facility and circumvention, which has its roots in the Roman concept of dolus. 

I am heavily involved in the School of Law's Death and Law: Interdisciplinary Explorations research project. My focus within this project is on the legal status of human remains, which Scots law treats as res religiosae (sacred things). 

I am interested in the influence of the legal writings of Dutch jurists from the 17th and 18th centuries (the so-called "Dutch-Roman law") on Scots law doctrine. This was a period of time when most Scottish lawyers received their legal education in the Low Countries, Dutch legal writing circulated widely in Scottish legal libraries and Dutch authors were frequently cited before the Scottish courts. I have a long-term research project to explore this. 

Funding and Grants

Scottish Universities Law Institute Early Career Fellowship (2023) 

Aberdeen Humanities Fund Grant (Principal Investigator) (2025) 

Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Collaboration Grant (Principal Investigator) (2026) 

Teaching Responsibilities

I teach across a wide range of private law courses in all four years of the LLB programme. This includes both Scots and English law courses. I am currently the course coordinator for LS2031 Law of Property and LS453K Property Law (Honours). 

I am currently the senior personal tutor for the School of Law, with overall responsibility for the pastoral care of all law students.