Personal statement

Dr Brown joined the law school as a lecturer in Scots private law in August 2019, having previously held the post of lecturer in law at Aberdeen's Robert Gordon University (2017-2019). Dr Brown considers himself to be a private law generalist and he has a keen interest in Scottish legal history. Drawing on the fact that Scotland exists as a 'mixed' legal jurisdiction, much of his work seeks to indicate the lessons that can be learned by drawing on the Civilian roots of the Scottish legal system. His publications range across a breadth of Scots law topics in both primary and contextual contexts; most recently (amongst other things), he has written on the 'intellectual superstructure' of the law of delict, the significance of properly ordering and categorising pecuniary remedies in Scots law and the (hitherto unexplored and prospective) relation of the Scots law of succession to business partnerships. In addition to his academic publications, Dr. Brown has continued to engage with the Scottish legal profession. In 2022, he worked as a part of an expert committee assembled by the Law Society of Scotland to develop 'proactive policy' in respect of medical decision-making in intensive care situations. This involved contributing to the eventual LSS Report, as well as authoring an appendix to that report. As present, partly related to this work conducted for the LSS, Dr. Brown is working on a project, funded by the Scottish Universities Law Institute, concerning the use of negotiorum gestio (lit. 'management of affairs' - sometimes nonliterally rendered as 'benevolent intervention') in modern legal practice. In terms of teaching, Dr Brown likewise works across the breadth of the Scots Private Law curriculum, covering the law of persons, property and obligations. He is also the module coordinator for the M9416 Issues in Healthcare Law and Ethics class and, having introduced the M9362 Roman Law module to Strathclyde, continues to lecture on this programme.