Professor John Finlay
- Professor of Scots Law (School of Law)
telephone:
5537
email:
John.Finlay@glasgow.ac.uk
R436, Level 3, 8 The Square, Glasgow G12 8QQ
Biography
John Finlay graduated LLB (Hons) in the University of Edinburgh in 1993 where he was winner of Lord Cooper Memorial Prize for Most Distinguished LLB (Honours) graduate. He then tutored at Edinburgh from 1993-1998 and, from 1995-6, was a lecturer in law. He completed his PhD in legal history in 1997, being joint winner of the Jeremiah Dalziel Prize in British History in the same year. John moved to Glasgow in 1998 as a lecturer in law. He was later promoted to senior lecturer and, in 2013, to a personal chair in Scots law. From 2006 until 2012 he was Chief Adviser of Studies in Law and acted as Deputy Chief Adviser from 2012-15. From 2013 he has been Student Mobility Officer in the College of Social Sciences.
John has been a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society since 2003 and of the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland since 2002. From 1997-2005, he was one of the honorary publication secretaries of the Scottish Legal History Society. John has served on the Council of the Stair Society and was twice, 2000-2004 and 2012-2014, secretary and treasurer of the Scottish History Group. He has also published with both the Stair Society and the Scottish Record Society. He has been involved in a number of international research collaborations, including three projects funded by the Gerda Henkl Stiftung and one by the Rheinisches Institut für Notarrecht.
John is a member of the AHRC Peer Review College and is a Research Assessor with the Carnegie Trust. He has published extensively in the area of legal history, including four books, the last of which appeared in July 2015 (aided by funding from the AHRC). He has also written a short text on the contemporary law of Trusts.
Research interests
John’s research interests lie primarily in legal history. He has published extensively on the development of the legal profession in Scotland and on the history of legal practice in local courts and in the Court of Session. Any prospective research students are very welcome to contact John to discuss their ideas.
Publications
Selected publications
Finlay, J. (2012) The Admission Register of Notaries Public in Scotland, 1700-1799 [2 vols.]. Scottish Record Society: Edinburgh.
Finlay, J. (2014) Tax the attornies!’ Stamp duty and the Scottish legal profession in the eighteenth century. Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, 34(2), pp. 141-166. (doi: 10.3366/jshs.2014.0118)
Finlay, J. (2012) The Community of the College of Justice: Edinburgh and the Court of Session 1687-1808. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh. ISBN 9780748645770
Finlay, J. (2015) Legal Practice in Eighteenth-century Scotland. Series: Legal history library, 18. Brill: Leiden. ISBN 9789004 294936
All publications
Grants
Professor Finlay has been awarded the following grant:
2012
Awarded the sum of £41,601 by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for research on Legal Practice in Eighteenth-century Scotland.
Supervision
- McKenna, Allan
James Wilson's Lectures on Law