Professor Jane Mair
- Head of School / Professor of Private Law (School of Law)
telephone:
01413306841
email:
Jane.Mair@glasgow.ac.uk
Room 434, Stair Building, 5 - 10 The Square, Glasgow, G12 8QQ
Biography
Jane Mair currently holds the position of Professor of Private Law, having joined the School of Law originally in 1989 as a lecturer. Following her LLB (Edinburgh 1984), she focused on labour law and discrimination for her LLM (Cambridge 1985) and then the regulation of marriage and matrimonial property for her PhD (Edinburgh 1992). Set against a broad background of private law, she continues to concentrate on research and teaching in the areas of employment law and family law. Unifying factors include her interests in the legal regulation of personal relationships; the interaction of work and family and the influence of gender in both areas.
Research interests
Contractualisation of family law
The Family Law (Scotland) Act 1985, provides an excellent statutory framework for financial provision on divorce. Yet although the Act has been in place for over 30 years, there has been relatively little detailed research into how it works in practice. The aim of this Nuffield Foundation project was to investigate, within the context of adjudicated cases, the ways in which the statutory provisions are used, how they operate in practice and the experience of those legal professionals involved in their use; solicitors, advocates and judges.
Principles in practice
Moving family law disputes out of court and encouraging negotiation and settlement instead has been a key focus for family law and family justice debate since the 1970s. More recently, there is emerging debate around the ‘contractualisation’ of family law. Sponsored by the ERSC, this project investigated legally binding separation agreements and private ordering in family law in Scotland, through the analysis of a sample of 600 separation agreements registered in 2010.
Religion and belief in family law
Stemming from an initial interest in the role of religion in marriage and marriage law, I have developed a broader research agenda around religion and law. I contribute regularly to European projects on religion and family law and, within the Scottish context she is working, together with Professor Callum Brown, a renowned expert on the history of secularism, on the development of an academic hub for research into humanism and non-religious belief more generally.
Religion in Scots Law: Report of an Audit at the University of Glasgow
by Professor Jane Mair, Professor Callum Brown and Dr Thomas Green
Sponsored by the Humanist Society Scotland
Publications
Selected publications
Mair, J. (2011) The place of religion in family law: a comparative search. In: Mair, J. and Örücü, E. (eds.) The Place of Religion in Family Law: A Comparative Search. Series: European family law series (30). Intersentia, pp. 359-385. ISBN 9781780680156
Mair, J. and Sharpe, I. (2010) Scots law and the CEFL principles regarding parental responsibilities: harmony in principle. In: Mair, J. and Orucu, E. (eds.) Juxtaposing Legal Systems and the Principles of European Family Law on Parental Responsibilities. Series: European Family Law (27). Intersentia: Antwerp, pp. 161-194. ISBN 9789050955775
Mair, J. (2009) Direct Discrimination: Limited by Definition? International Journal of Discrimination and the Law, 10(1), pp. 3-17. (doi: 10.1177/135822910901000102)
All publications
Grants
Professor Mair has been awarded the following grants:
2014
£38,750 by the Humanist Society, Scotland for a joint project with Professor Callum Brown, University of Glasgow, Modern History, to carry out an audit of religious privilege in the law and constitution of Scotland with a start date of October 2014.
£74,358 by the Nuffield Foundation for a project entitled Principles in Practice: financial provision on divorce in terms of the Family Law (Scotland) Act 1985 with a start date of April 2014.
2012
Dr Jane Mair with Prof Fran Wasoff, CRFR, University of Edinburgh was awarded (c£74,000) from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) small grants fund for a project entitled All Settled? Private ordering in Scots family law with a start date of 1 April 2012.
2010
Dr Jane Mair was successful in securing £950 of ASRF seedcorn funding for a workshop on Religion and Family Law.
Supervision
Research Students under supervision
- Michael Briggs - 'An Analysis of the Potential Impact of British Withdrawal from the European Union on the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006' (LLM by Research)
- Aude Cefaliello - 'Legal impact of matrix organisations in international companies on the employment relationship - Case study: French and British systems'
- Henrietta Consolo - 'A critique of the gift concept in organ transplantation'
- Elizabeth Schmulian - 'The Equalities Legislation: Challenging Religious Norms'
Supervision interests
I am happy to supervise students in all areas of family law and would particularly welcome proposals relating to marriage, cohabitation and family property. Within employment law, I am keen to discuss research ideas relating to discrimination, the work/family agenda and issues relating to the contractual regulation of work.
- Gammanpila Imiyage Don, Isankhya Udani
Concretization of Gender Inequality through Legalization of Discriminatory Gender Norms: A Critical Analysis on the State Obligation of Sri Lanka under CEDAW
Teaching
- Family Law (Level 1)
- Business Law (Level 1)
- Elements of Law for Engineers (Level 1)
- Labour Law (Level 2)
- Issues of Family Law (Level 4)
Additional information
Affiliations
Centre for Research on Families and Relationships - Associate Researcher
Commission for European Family Law - National Expert
Family Law Academic Network Scotland - Steering Group Member
Glasgow Humanist Studies Hub led by Professor Callum Brown (Professor of History)
Law Reform and Public Policy Research Group
External Responsibilities
Co-editor of Green’s Employment Law Bulletin
Editor of Avizandum Scots Family Law statutes
Member of the Law Society of Scotland’s Employment Law committee
Media Coverage of Religion in Scots Law: Report of an Audit at the University of Glasgow
The Herald: 'Landmark report: Influence of religion on Scottish schools increasing'
STV: 'Religious influence on schools 'strengthened significantly''
BBC: 'Humanists call for end to religious influence in schools'
The National: 'Religion is losing influence on Scottish life ... except in education'
CommonSpace: 'For God’s sake: University report identifies religious privileges in Scots law'
Christian Today: 'Religious influence increasing in Scottish schools'
Scottish Legal News: 'Religion’s influence on Scots law declining in every area except education'
School of Law Blog Posts