Dr Lesley-Anne Barnes Macfarlane
- Senior Lecturer (Law)
Biography
Lesley-Anne’s research and teaching interests are focused on the influence of international children’s human rights obligations on the development of law and legal practice in Scotland and in comparative jurisdictions. She has published on a wide range of issues including reform of the family court system, the child’s right to be heard, the parent-child relationship and perceptions of childhood capacity in law.
She is currently working on a research project about children, childhood and delict (tort law), for which she has been awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship. Her forthcoming monograph ('Childhood Negligence Proceedings and Children's Rights', Cambridge University Press, 2026) explores the relationship between law and other disciplines regarding paradigms of childhood understanding, capacity and responsibility.
Lesley-Anne also contributes to ongoing discussion and debate about reform in child and family law. She was commissioned by the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament to produce a report critically analysing the Bill that became the Children (Scotland) Act 2020. More recently, she gave evidence on children's participation in court decision-making to the Parliament's Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee. Lesley-Anne was a member of the Advisory Group to the Scottish Law Commission on cohabitation law reform and she is currently the Law Society of Scotland Examiner in family law. She was commissioned by the Judicial Institute for Scotland to produce a Judicial Briefing Paper on the 2020 Act, and she continues to deliver training on aspects of child and family law reform to Scotland’s judiciary.
Before becoming an academic Lesley-Anne specialised as a child and family lawyer, regularly representing children and adults in court. She has been accredited as a lawyer-mediator and her experience of working as a child welfare reporter and curator-ad-litem in complex court proceedings informs her research. She previously taught at Edinburgh Napier University, where she was the founding director of the Research Centre for Child & Family Law and Policy. She continues to engage in impact work, contributing to children's rights-based legal policy discussions in national and international contexts.
Research interests
Primarily (i) child law; (ii) family law; (iii) influence of children's rights on the development of law/legal policy in Scotland and in comparative jurisdictions; (iv) relationship between law and other disciplines.
Since 2014 Lesley-Anne has been a participant in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Implementation Project ('CRC-IP'), which evaluates implementation of the Convention in comparative contexts.
In 2024 she created the International Project on Childhood Contributory Negligence, which promotes the comparative study of the operation of the contributory negligence doctrine in legal proceedings raised by or on behalf of children (those aged 0-18) who have been injured or suffered loss following upon the wrongful behaviour of someone else.
Grants
- Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2023-2024): for research project entitled ‘Children, childhood and delict’
- The Clark Foundation for Legal Education (2021): family law student research internships
- Judicial Institute for Scotland (2020-): judicial briefing and training, Children (Scotland) Act 2020 and children's participation in family court cases
- Royal Society of Edinburgh (2020-2022): Research Network award, as PI, with Professor R Whitecross, Edinburgh Napier University
- Scottish Parliament (2019): research work/written report on Children (Scotland) Bill 2019, commissioned by Justice Committee
- Royal Society of Edinburgh (2018-2020): Research Workshop award to design/host multi-disciplinary workshop series on Scots child and family law, as PI, with Professor R Whitecross, Edinburgh Napier University
- The Clark Foundation for Legal Education (2015), with Professor EE Sutherland, University of Stirling: funding and support for organisation of 'Convention on the Rights of the Child Implementation Project Colloquium' from the Faculty of Advocates and the Law Society of Scotland
- The Clark Foundation for Legal Education (2009): research on civil remedies for victims of school bullying
Supervision
Lesley-Anne welcomes enquiries from potential PhD students across all areas of child and family law and children's rights and the law. She also welcomes applications from students seeking to study towards an LLM by Research.
Previous PhD supervisions (pre-University of Glasgow):
Gillian Baker - 'The absent voice: an examination of the experiences of women in Scottish civil courts in child contact cases involving domestic abuse'.
Teaching
Children’s Rights (honours): course convenor
Comparative Issues in Children's Rights (honours): course convenor
Issues of Family Law (honours): contributor
Family Law (Level 1): tutor
Obligations 1A, 1B (Level 1): tutor
Additional information
Lesley-Anne is experienced in organising academic conferences and workshops. She presents her work at national and international interdisciplinary events (e.g., University of Bergen, University of Cambridge, University College Cork, Stellenbosch University).
Education
University of Glasgow: LLB (Hons) 1st Class
Bennett Miller Prize for the most distinguished Honours graduate in Private Law
University of Glasgow: Diploma in Legal Practice (Distinction)
University of Strathclyde: LLM (by Research)
Edinburgh Napier University: PhD
Affiliations
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Implementation Project (‘CRC-IP’)
International Project on Childhood Contributory Negligence
International Society of Family Lawyers
Society of Legal Scholars
Higher Education Academy (Fellow)
Qualified solicitor (non-practising) in Scotland
Law Society of Scotland Examiner in Family Law; Board of Examiners member
External Examiner: Robert Gordon University Law School
Peer reviewer
International Journal of Human Rights
Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law
Juridical Review
25th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Leiden University publication
