Felicity is a lecturer at the School of Law and teaches in the areas of family and criminal law. Her main research areas are:

• Civil and criminal approaches to Honour Abuse / Harmful Traditional Practices (Forced Marriage, Child Marriage, FGM)
• Legal Education.

Felicity was a criminal defence solicitor in Scotland for twelve years. She then migrated to Australia, requalified and practiced in civil litigation and immigration law for five years. During that time, she acquired a Graduate Entry B.Ed. (Legal Studies and Biology) and thereafter taught in schools, serving on the Queensland National Examination Panel. On completion of an LL.M. (Criminology) at Queensland University of Technology, she returned to Scotland. After lecturing at Edinburgh College, Felicity then worked as a Research & Teaching Associate with the Law Reform & Public Policy Research Group in the School of Law, University of Glasgow and took up her position as Lecturer in Private Law in 2019.

Her current research projects with other School of Law colleagues include: 

Combatting Forced Marriage: Strengthening Protection in Scots Law

Legally Wed (See also Legally Wed podcast)

• Legal Approaches to Honour Abuse / Harmful Traditional Practices (including Forced Marriage; Child Marriage; Female Genital Mutilation)
• Human Trafficking
• Belief Marriages.
• Children and the Criminal Justice System
• Legal Games
• Legal Studies in Schools
• Pre-Tertiary Legal Education and Access to Legal Education

List by: Type | Date

Combatting Forced Marriage: Strengthening Protection in Scots Law

Co-Investigator (50%) - £147,000

Funder:  Scottish Government’s Delivering Equally Safe programme.

October 2021 – March 2024

Past Projects

Co-Investigator (33%), ‘Lawful Gaming Project’ - Economic and Social Research Council Follow-on Fund (Community Engagement), July 2019 – September 2019

Co-Investigator (33%), ‘Lawful Gaming Project’ funds awarded by Economic and Social Research Council, October 2018 – March 2019

Felicity is interested in supervising students with an interest in:

• Legal approaches to honour abuse / harmful traditional practices, including forced marriage, child marriage, female genital mutilation.
• Belief Marriages
• Human Trafficking
• Legal Education

• Chen, Siyu
  Redefining Boundarires: Exploring the Implications of Raising the Marriage Age to 18 in Scotland

Completed Supervision

Cameron Gaw – LL.M. by Research - ‘Restorative Justice & Family Abuse: Extending a Socio-Legal Approach to Cases of Forced Marriage in Scotland’

Current Teaching

• Legal Responses to Domestic and Honour Abuse
• Adult Relationships and the Law
• Women, Law & Society
• Family Law
• Criminal Law & Evidence
• Criminal Law of England & Wales

Past Teaching Experience

University of Glasgow

• Issues of Family Law (Level 4)
• Children's Rights (Level 3)
• Property Trusts & Succession (level 2)
• Introduction to Legal Study (Level 1)
• Access to Law - Criminal Law & Family Law
• Legal Profession and Legal Ethics (Level 1)

Edinburgh College
HNC/HND courses

• Scots Law: An Introduction
• Law of Contract: An Introduction
• Property Law: An Introduction
• Market Operations and the Scottish Economy
• Business Law: An Introduction
• Business Contractual Relationships
• Company Law: An Introduction
• Scots Private Law I

Education Queensland, Australia
Senior Legal Studies (‘A’ level equivalent)

• Australian Legal System
• Criminal Law
• Contract
• Torts
• Family Law
• Environmental Law
• Legal Research Methods and Project
• Indigenous Legal Issues

Conference Presentations

‘Children and harmful traditional practices’  - Workshop on ‘Children on the Move ‘ – Exploring Issues of Participation and Protection Under Scots Law, University of Glasgow,24^th March 2023

‘Child Marriage and the Human Rights Landscape’ Child Marriage – the Legal Response in Scotland, University of Glasgow, 7^th February 2022

‘Reflections from a Scots law perspective on criminalisation of forced marriage’ Presentation to National Commission on Forced Marriage,23rd April 2021

‘Five Years after the Criminalisation of Forced Marriage: Reflections from Scotland’ Gerald Gordon Criminal Law Seminar, University of Glasgow, 11th June 2019

‘The View from the North: Recognition, Inclusivity, and Access to Legal Protections on Divorce’ - Relationship Breakdown – Informal and Legal Solutions Conference, International Network of Scholars Researching Unregistered Marriages (INSRUM), Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (London), 14th December 2018

'Does creating equal protection, via legislation, for 'religion' and 'belief' give some protection for non-religious beliefs?" - Formatting Non religion in Late Modern Societies - Institutional and Legal Perspectives Conference, EUREL/University of Oslo, 26-27 September 2018

‘Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Criminal Law and Punishment: A Researcher Led Discussion’ - Criminal Law Forum/ SCCJR Joint Event, University of Glasgow, 9th March 2018

‘Some Thoughts on Marriage in the Context of Sadovska’ –Issues on Marriage & Divorce, University of Glasgow, 11th December 2017

‘Seen and Unseen Victims: Forced Marriage and the Importance of Intersectionality’ – Reblaw Conference, University of Glasgow 11th November 2017

‘If It Ain’t Broke Don’t Fix It: Ratification of the Istanbul Convention and the Divergent Positions of Scotland and England regarding Forced Marriage’ – Devolved Nations and International Law, June 2017, Bangor University


‘Forced Marriage: a More Effective Approach within International Human Rights Law’ – Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference, April 2017, University of Newcastle

‘Forced Marriage: Beware the Stereotype’ – Humanist Society of Scotland Celebrants Conference 26th February 2017