Appointment of New Regius Chair

Issued: Fri, 28 Sep 2012 14:39:00 BST

James Chalmers who was formerly Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Edinburgh, having previously taught at the University of Aberdeen. He is currently Editor of the Edinburgh Law Review, a member of the Criminal Courts Rules Council and the Criminal Law Committee of the Law Society of Scotland, and a trustee of HIV Scotland, Scotland’s national HIV policy charity. He attended Inverurie Academy, in Aberdeenshire, and is a graduate of the University of Aberdeen and the Tulane University of Louisiana.

 
Professor Chalmers researches primarily in the area of criminal law, and is the author or co-author of a number of leading texts including The New Law of Sexual Offences in Scotland, Legal Responses to HIV and AIDS and Criminal Defences and Pleas in Bar of Trial (with Fiona Leverick). In 2011, he was named as one of the founding members of the Young Academy of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

The Chair is one of 13 Regius Professorships at Glasgow – positions created by the monarchy at the UK’s ancient universities – and was founded in December 1713. The first holder, William Forbes, was appointed in 1714. It has been held since by a long list of distinguished legal scholars, including John Millar, William Gloag, David Walker and the most recent holder, Joseph Thomson. The University of Glasgow will celebrate the Tercentenary of the Chair in 2013.

A Royal Warrant approving the appointment of Professor Chalmers was signed by the Queen and Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond.

Professor Chalmers said: “I am honoured to have been appointed to this Chair, particularly given the Tercentenary of its founding next year, and hope that I can live up to the standard set by its distinguished former holders.”

Glasgow has the highest number of Regius Professors in the British Isles; the other universities in the UK which have Regius Chairs are Aberdeen, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Oxford and St Andrews, as well as Dublin in the Republic of Ireland.

For more information contact Stuart Forsyth in the University of Glasgow Media Relations Office on 0141 330 4831 or email stuart.forsyth@glasgow.ac.uk

 For James Chalmers’ staff profile : www.gla.ac.uk/schools/law/staff/jameschalmers/