Death and Law

About Death and Law

This podcast explores death and law from a rich variety of disciplinary perspectives, including law, anthropology and philosophy. The podcast explores such issues as buried goods, data protection, dignity and memory. It forms part of a broader project in the University of Aberdeen's School of Law entitled, 'Death and Law – Interdisciplinary Explorations' and is generally sponsored by the Aberdeen Humanities Fund Staff Research Award 2024.

Publisher

University of Aberdeen

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

30 Jun 2025

Latest episode

4 Aug 2025

Latest episodes

7 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   4 Aug 2025

   Digital Afterlife

   Abstract In this episode, we explore the emerging world of technologies that allow individuals to continue existing in digital form even after death. From grief bots and posthumous avatars to AI-enabled holograms, we examine how people are preserving voices, memories, and personalities through the use of artificial intelligence. Typically, these digital personas are built from multimodal data, including voice recordings, videos, photos, written texts, and social media footprints, collected during a person’s lifetime. After death, this data is used to simulate responses, expressions, and even personality traits. The resulting avatars can appear eerily lifelike, engaging in conversations that feel authentic, even when discussing topics the deceased never directly addressed during their lifetime. Dr Leah Henrickson, Lecturer in Digital Media and Cultures at the University of Queensland, Dr Anna Puzio, Researcher at the University of Twente and UC Berkeley, and Dr Patricia Živković, Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Aberdeen, unpack pressing ethical, legal, and social questions raised in this rapidly evolving field. Whether viewed as comforting, uncanny, or controversial, these technologies are redefining our perspective on mortality and remembrance. Join us as we navigate the blurred lines between life, death, and the digital beyond. Death & Law - Interdisciplinary Explorations | School of Law | The University of Aberdeen (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/law/research/research-projects/death--law---interdisciplinary-explorations/) Biographies Dr Leah Henrickson Dr Leah Henrickson is Lecturer in Digital Media and Cultures at the University of Queensland. She is the author of Reading Computer-Generated Texts, published by Cambridge University Press (2021), and other peer-reviewed articles on how we understand text generation systems and output, artificial intelligence, and digital media ecosystems. Dr Henrickson also studies digital storytelling for critical self-reflection, community building, and commercial benefit, and is the author of Digital Storytelling: An Introduction, published by Polity (2025). Link to profile: https://communication-arts.uq.edu.au/profile/7352/leah-henrickson Dr Anna Puzio Dr Anna Puzio is a researcher at the University of Twente in the Netherlands and the University of California, Berkeley, USA. Before these positions, Dr Puzio worked in Frankfurt am Main, Vienna, Oxford, and Cambridge. Dr Puzio works at the intersection of ethics, emerging technologies, and the human-nonhuman relationship — including religion and AI — and is part of the Dutch research programme on the Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies. Dr Puzio studied Catholic theology, German studies, and philosophy in Münster and Munich, and received her doctorate from the Munich School of Philosophy in the doctoral program on the anthropology of transhumanism. Link to profile: https://www.anna-puzio.com/en Dr Patricia Živković Dr Patricia Živković is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Aberdeen. Before joining the University of Aberdeen, she served as Head of Legal at an IT company and worked as counsel at a law firm. Her research in the intersection of technology and law primarily focuses on the regulation of biometric data, neurotechnology, and artificial intelligence. She leads the Humanity and AI Research Group at the University of Aberdeen and co-leads the project on ‘Death in Law – Interdisciplinary Explorations’. Link to profile: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/patricia.zivkovic Additional Resources: ·       Henrickson, L. (2023). Chatting with the dead: The hermeneutics of thanabots. Media, Culture & Society, 45(5), 949-966. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221147626 (https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221147626) (Original work published 2023) ·       Puzio, Anna, 'AI and the Disruption of Personhood', in Philipp Hacker (ed.), Oxford Intersections: AI in Society (Oxford, online edn, Oxford Academic, 20 Mar. 2025), https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198945215.003.0016 (https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198945215.003.0016), ·       Puzio, Anna: When the Digital Continues After Death. Ethical Perspectives on Death Tech and the Digital Afterlife. In: Communicatio Socialis 56/3 (2023), 427–436. https://doi.org/ (https://doi.org/)10.5771/0010-3497-2023-3-427. Online: https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/0010-3497-2023-3/communicatio-socialis-comsoc-jahrgang-56-2023-heft-3?page=1 (https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/0010-3497-2023-3/communicatio-socialis-comsoc-jahrgang-56-2023-heft-3?page=1) ·       Iglesias, S., Earp, B. D., Voinea, C., Mann, S. P., Zahiu, A., Jecker, N. S., & Savulescu, J. (2024). Digital Doppelgängers and Lifespan Extension: What Matters? The American Journal of Bioethics, 25(2), 95–110. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2024.2416133 (https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1080%2F15265161.2024.2416133&data=05%7C02%7Cpatricia.zivkovic%40abdn.ac.uk%7C201fc8f5fe9a46c4244a08dd6d44450c%7C8c2b19ad5f9c49d490773ec3cfc52b3f%7C0%7C0%7C638786863534178674%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=fH39M0iFNKHzBdnr3WY0UWJta9RlH4Zk6gYGMIW0yaY%3D&reserved=0)

2. 

   28 Jul 2025

   Collective Memory

   Abstract This episode brings together a panel of scholars to explore the concept of collective memory and its deep connections to law, identity, and the dead. The episode unpacks the contours of collective memory, the idea of a "duty of memory"—a responsibility to remember and acknowledge past violence, injustice, or trauma, which plays a key role in shaping national identity and guiding public discourse  - and the role of law in shaping those memories. Dr Fransiska Louwagie (University of Aberdeen), Dr Miroslaw Sadowski (University of Strathclyde), and Professor Zeray Yihdego (University of Aberdeen), and Dr Nevena Jevremović (University of Aberdeen) reflect on how memory, law, and power intersect: Who decides what gets remembered? What role do legal systems play in shaping memory and justice? And how can literature, art, and the humanities challenge dominant narratives? This wide-ranging and thought-provoking discussion invites listeners to reflect on how societies engage with the past and with the memory of those who are no longer with us. Death & Law - Interdisciplinary Explorations | School of Law | The University of Aberdeen (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/law/research/research-projects/death--law---interdisciplinary-explorations/) Biographies Dr Miroslaw Sadowski Dr Sadowski is Lecturer at the School of Law, University of Strathclyde in Glasgow since August 2023. Dr Sadowski is also Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Global Studies, Aberta University in Lisbon, Portugal; Postdoctoral Fellow at CEBRAP – Brazilian Center of Analysis and Planning in São Paulo, Brazil; and Research Assistant at the Institute of Legal Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland. Dr Sadowski is a member of the British Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA), Canadian Law and Society Association (ACDS/CLSA), as well as the Richard Wagner Society of Wrocław, where Dr Sadowski serves as the Board Member responsible for International Relations, and CompaRes – International Society for Iberian-Slavonic Studies, where Dr Sadowski serves as Vice-President. Link to profile: https://www.strath.ac.uk/staff/sadowskimiroslawdr/ Dr Fransiska Louwagie Dr Fransiska Louwagie is a Senior Lecturer in French and Francophone studies at the University of Aberdeen School of Language, Literature, Music, and Visual Culture. Her research combines literary studies with a range of interdisciplinary perspectives. She has in particular worked on survivor narratives and the representation of the Holocaust in contemporary Francophone fiction and bande dessinée. Her research also focuses on issues of migration, bilingualism and translation. As part of her work, Dr Louwagie has undertaken various research collaborations in the field of drama and the visual arts, particularly graphic novels, post-Holocaust art and political cartooning. Link to profile: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/fransiska.louwagie/ Professor Zeray Yihdego Professor Yihdego joined Aberdeen Law School in January 2013. He held (2015/16) a Visiting Research Fellow position with the Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, University of Oxford and a Senior Visiting Member at Linacre College, University of Oxford. He has been researching and publishing on various aspects of public international law with emphasis on (conventional) arms control/trade, international humanitarian law, peace and security, democratic governance, development and human rights and the law of international watercourses issues relating to Africa. Professor Yihdego participates as a Principal Investigator in a 5.5 million Euro EU funded multidisciplinary  research project concerning the governance of the Zambezi and Omo River basins (details here  http://dafne-project.eu/) and collaborates on various projects with law experts, economists, hydrologists, environmental and  political scientists and policy experts that are working in Africa, Europe and the US. Link to profile: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/zeray.yihdego/ Additional resources Heritage and Memory Studies (PgCert), University of Aberdeen, Online Programme: https://on.abdn.ac.uk/degrees/heritage-and-memory-studies/ • Manuel Bragança and Fransiska Louwagie (eds), Ego-histories of France and the Second World War: Writing Vichy (Palgrave 2018) • Erin Jessee and David Mwambari, ‘Memory Law and the Duty to Remember the “1994 Genocide against the Tutsi” in Rwanda’ in Elazar Barkan and Ariella Lang (eds), Memory Laws and Historical Justice: The Politics of Criminalizing the Past (Palgrave Macmillan 2022) 291–319 • Sébastien Ledoux, Le devoir de mémoire : une formule et son histoire (CNRS Éditions 2016) • Fransiska Louwagie, Témoignage et littérature d’après Auschwitz (Rodopi/Brill 2020) Fransiska Louwagie and Manuel Bragança (eds), The Future of World War Two France in Academia: Contemporary Research Paradigms, Intellectual Trajectories and Challenges (Palgrave, forthcoming) • Henry Rousso, ‘French Laws for a Better Past’ in Elazar Barkan and Ariella Lang (eds), Memory Laws and Historical Justice: The Politics of Criminalizing the Past (Palgrave Macmillan 2022) 25–44

3. 

   21 Jul 2025

   Non-Anthropocentric Death

   Abstract Oxford dictionary defines anthropocentrism as a worldview that sees humans as the source of all value. As the concept of value itself is a human creation, nature has value merely as a means to the ends of human beings. As a result, legal framework evolved to legitimize and promote the view of nature as an object  - as something to be exploited, dominated and controlled. In this episode, we aim to challenge this narrative and explore the boundaries and limitation of human-centred understandings of death on how we perceive loss, extinction, or degradation in non-human beings and entities such as dead forests, extinct species, or contaminated rivers. Dr Saskia Vermeylen, a Reader at Law School, University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Dr Arnar Árnason, a Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology, University of Aberdeen, and Dr Nevena Jevremović, discuss intellectual history that shaped the human relationship with nature as reflected in law, alternative ways of conceptualising that relationship (such as rights of nature and Earth Jurisprudence), and the implications such alternatives may have in challenging the legal framework in this to recognise non-human centred concepts of death. Death & Law - Interdisciplinary Explorations | School of Law | The University of Aberdeen (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/law/research/research-projects/death--law---interdisciplinary-explorations/) Biographies Dr Saskia Vermeylen Dr Saskia Vermeylen is a Reader at the Law School, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, and a legal phenomenologist with over 20 years of experience working alongside Indigenous communities in Southern Africa. Saskia’s research explores law through a phenomenological and legal pluralist lens, focusing on themes of land and belonging which she studies through the lens of legal pluralism, Levinasian studies, and more recently visual anthropology. Saskia's work also explores the embodied dimensions of law through movement and performative arts. This research also intersects with Africanfuturism, Black Studies, and science fiction, and seeks to expanding the scope of legal inquiry to include arts and arts theory as a means of investigating and expressing complex legal themes. Finally, Saskia is also one of the pioneering legal theorists combining Michel Serres’s natural contract with material ecocriticism, and biosemiotics to develop a new materialist and embodied interpretation of law and the relationality between human and nonhuman agency Link to profile: https://www.strath.ac.uk/staff/vermeylensaskiadr/#personalstatement Dr Arnar Árnason Arnar Árnason was appointed lecturer in social anthropology in the Department in September 2004. He has a B.A. degree in Anthropology from the University of Iceland, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Social Anthropology from the University of Durham, England. He has carried out fieldwork in England, Japan, Iceland and Scotland. His research interests include: death, emotion, and psychotherapy and the politics thereof; trauma; subjectivities/subjection; narratives, memory and forgetting; embodiment; identity and landscape. Link to profile: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/arnar.arnason#about Dr Nevena Jevremović Dr Nevena Jevremović is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Aberdeen. Her research explores the structural relationship between (private) law, power, and capital in international trade and investment. Link to profile: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/nevena.jevremovic Additional Resources Books • Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution (Harper & Row 1989) • Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva, Ecofeminism (Spinifex Press 1993) • Thomas Berry, The Great Work: Our Way into the Future (Bell Tower 1999) • Cormac Cullinan, Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice (Green Books 2011) • Deborah Bird Rose, Wild Dog Dreaming: Love and Extinction (University of Virginia Press 2011) • Peter D Burdon, Earth Jurisprudence: Private Property and the Environment (Routledge 2015) • Kathryn Yusoff, A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None (University of Minnesota Press 2018) • Maxine Lavon Montgomery, The Postapocalyptic Black Female Imagination (Bloomsbury 2021) • Margaret Davies, EcoLaw: Legality, Life, and the Normativity of Nature (Routledge 2022) • Alessandro Pelizzon, Ecological Jurisprudence: The Law of Nature and the Nature of Law (Springer 2025) Journal Articles • Anna Grear, 'Deconstructing Anthropos: A Critical Legal Reflection on "Anthropocentric" Law and Anthropocene "Humanity"' (2015) 26 Law and Critique 225 • Klaus Bosselmann, 'The Framework of Ecological Law' (2020) 50 Environmental Policy and Law 479 Saskia Vermeylen, 'Relational Interdependence: Riffing on Margaret Davies’ EcoLaw: Legality, Life, and the Normativity of Nature through the Poetics of Relations and Symbiotic Knowing' (2024) 27(4) Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy 436

4. 

   14 Jul 2025

   Succession

   Abstract This podcast provides an overview of the law of succession, which regulates the passing of property on death. While Professor Roderick Paisley and Dr Alisdair MacPherson give their scholarly perspectives on succession law, especially in Scotland, Vanessa Holmes offers insights into how this legal area works in a specific context: namely, gifts left to universities. Succession is not only highly technical but endlessly fascinating. Listen to this podcast to find out why. Biographies Professor Roderick Paisley Professor Roderick Paisley holds the prestigious Chair of Scots Law at the University of Aberdeen. He is a longstanding member of the University of Aberdeen’s School of Law as well as a well-established legal practitioner. His specialisms include property law, conveyancing, trusts and succession. Notable publications include Servitudes and Rights of Way (1998) (co-authored with D J Cusine) and Rights Ancillary to Servitudes (2022). Link to Profile: Professor Roderick Paisley | The University of Aberdeen (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/r.paisley) Dr Alisdair MacPherson Dr Alisdair MacPherson is a Senior Lecturer in Commercial Law and Co-Director of the Centre for Scots Law at the University of Aberdeen. He joined the School of Law in 2018 after completing a PhD, and previously qualified as a solicitor (now non-practising). His specialisms include property law, the law of debt, and insolvency law, with various publications in these areas. Link to Profile: Dr Alisdair MacPherson | The University of Aberdeen (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/alisdair.macpherson) Mrs Vanessa Holmes Vanessa Holmes is the University of Aberdeen’s Legacy Giving Officer. She joined the University in 2019, within the Development and Alumni Relations team and moved into this role in January 2022. She manages the Legacy programme at the University, increasing the awareness that the University is a place to potentially leave a gift in your will. Link to Profile: Mrs Vanessa Holmes | The University of Aberdeen (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/vanessa.holmes) Dr Euan West Dr Euan West is a lecturer in Scots private law at the University of Aberdeen who joined the School of Law in 2019. His research interests include the law of personal security and non-contractual obligations. A monograph based on his PhD thesis, which focused on the rights of guarantors, is forthcoming. Link to Profile: Dr Euan West | The University of Aberdeen (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/euan.west) Additional Resources: George L Gretton and Andrew J M Steven, Property, Trusts and Succession (5th edn, 2024) D Ross MacDonald, Succession (3rd edn, 2001) Succession (Scotland) Act 1964 Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Act 2024 Alisdair MacPherson and Roddy Paisley, Response to Scottish Parliament (Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee) Consultation on Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill (March 2023) Alisdair MacPherson and Roddy Paisley, Scottish Government Consultation on Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill - Removal of Unlawful Killers as Executors (October 2023) Both of the above consultation responses are available at - https://www.abdn.ac.uk/law/research/centres/centre-for-scots-law/law-reform--public-policy-engagement/ (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/law/research/centres/centre-for-scots-law/law-reform--public-policy-engagement/)

5. 

   7 Jul 2025

   Grave Goods

   Abstract This podcast addresses the issue of grave goods in both a historical and contemporary context. Grave goods are material things which people leave in grave sites, usually in the knowledge they will never be returned. The first part of the podcast discusses ancient grave goods in Scotland, which fall to be addressed under the law of treasure trove. We are joined by Mr Neil Curtis, Head of Museums and Special Collections, for this part of the podcast. The second part of the podcast discusses the practice of leaving grave goods in a contemporary context. Grave goods have an ambiguous status in law, especially when mistakes are made and need to be reversed. For this part of the podcast we are joined by Dr Jennifer Riley, who is currently studying grave goods as part of a Leverhulme research project. This podcast is moderated by Dr Jonathan Ainslie of the School of Law. Biographies Mr Neil Curtis Neil Curtis is Head of Museums and Special Collections and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Social Science at the University of Aberdeen. He has studied Archaeology (Glasgow), Museum Studies (Leicester) and Education (Aberdeen), and has worked with the Aberdeen collections since 1988. He teaches across a range of subjects, including Archaeology, Anthropology, Art History, History, Law, Museum Studies and Scottish Ethnology. His published research includes current museum issues, including repatriation, decolonisation and ethics, the history of museums and exhibitions in Scotland, and the prehistory of North-East Scotland. He is a Fellow of the Museums Association. He has been a member of the Museums Associations’ Ethics Committee, the Scottish Museums Recognition Committee, Convenor of University Museums in Scotland, Vice President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vice-Chair of the Scottish Archaeological Finds Allocation Panel and Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Link to Profile: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/neil.curtis (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/neil.curtis) Dr Jennifer Riley Dr Jennifer Riley is a Leverhulme Trust Early Career fellow and interdisciplinary scholar, specializing in religious studies and the study of death and dying. Her current research explores ‘grave goods’ in contemporary Britain - the things people put in other people’s coffins or graves, knowing they will almost certainly never get them back. The project explores these objects and their associated meanings and motivations - especially in light of environmental concerns, and people’s afterlife beliefs (or their absence). This research was the subject of her TEDxAberdeen talk in November 2024, which was selected as an 'Editor's Pick' by the TEDx reviewers.  Dr Riley joined Aberdeen in 2021 as a research fellow on the ESRC-funded ‘Care in Funerals’ project, exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic affected UK funerals. The project was a collaboration across health services research, anthropology, religious studies, archaeology and philosophy, and benefitted from practitioner expertise. Link to Profile: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/jennifer.riley (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/jennifer.riley) Dr Jonathan Ainslie Dr Jonathan Ainslie has been a Lecturer in Private Law at the University of Aberdeen since February 2022. He initially joined the School of Law as a Teaching Fellow in September 2021. He holds an LLB Hons (in law and politics), LLM (in comparative and European private law) and PhD (in legal history), all from the University of Edinburgh. He is an Advance HE Associate Fellow, a member of the council of the Stair Society and an associate member of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen. Recent published articles have concerned duties of good faith in contract and the protection of privacy interests in delict. Current research includes work on the remedy of solatium in Scots law, which is available for pain, suffering and injury to emotions, as well as the boundary between persons and things in Scots private law. Jonathan teaches across a wide range of private law subjects. Link to Profile: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/jonathan.ainslie (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/jonathan.ainslie) Further Resources ·       D.L. Carey Miller, “St Ninian’s Treasure”, in J.P. Grant and E.E. Sutherland (eds), Scots Law Tales (2010): 111-35. ·       A.G. Guest, The Law of Treasure (2018): 1-55. ·       N.M. Dawson, A Modern Legal History of Treasure (2023): 361-440 (for Scotland), 251-360 (for England and Wales). ·       C. Bevan, “A New Definition of ‘Treasure’ under the Treasure Act 1996: Watershed Reform or Missed Opportunity?” Modern Law Review 87(2) (2024): 430-447. ·       Baggage for the Beyond? Contemporary UK grave goods practices and their meanings: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/dhpa/disciplines/divinity/research/ongoing-research-projects/baggage-for-the-beyond-contemporary-uk-grave-goods-practices-and-their-meanings/

6. 

   30 Jun 2025

   Human Remains

   Abstract This podcast is concerned with the legal, moral and social status of human remains in a variety of different contexts. We begin with a discussion of interred human remains, the right of sepulchre (or burial), and the criminal offence of violation of sepulchres in Scotland. We then move on to discuss human remains which ought to have been buried but were not. For this part of the podcast, we are joined by Dr Thomas Muinzer, whose research covers burial law and laws relating to human remains, to discuss the case of Charles Byrne. We then move on to discuss the treatment of human remains in hospital or morgue settings, as well as in museums or collections once they have been excavated from the ground. For this part of the podcast we are joined by Professor Vikki Entwistle, to discuss whether a deceased person can be said to suffer harm when their remains are treated disrespectfully. Biographies Dr Thomas Muinzer Dr Thomas L Muinzer is from Northern Ireland, and undertook his qualifying law degree and other legal qualifications at Queen's University Belfast. In 2020 he joined the Law School at the University of Aberdeen as Senior Lecturer in Energy Transition Law. Dr Muinzer’s academic research focuses most pointedly on the Low Carbon Transition, with particular reference to climate law and governance and issues around decarbonisation of the energy sector.  He has written the first monograph on the world’s first example of national framework climate legislation, the UK’s pioneering Climate Change Act:  Climate and Energy Governance for the UK Low Carbon Transition: The Climate Change Act 2008 (Palgrave: UK, 2018).  He also occasionally endeavours to explore somewhat obscure or frequently neglected spheres of law in his work (to date, most particularly burial law, broader laws relating to the ‘dead body’/corpse, national monuments law, and cultural heritage). Link to Profile: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/thomas.muinzer (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/thomas.muinzer) Professor Vikki Entwistle Professor Vikki Entwistle is Professor of Health Services Research and Philosophy, with academic homes in both the Aberdeen Centre for Evaluation within the Institute of Applied Health Sciences on the University’s Foresterhill campus and Philosophy (School of Divinity, History, Philosophy & Art History) on the Old Aberdeen campus. She uses philosophy and social research to understand and address concerns about quality, ethics and social justice in health care, public health and (more recently) funeral provision and work with the dead and bereaved. She is particularly interested in what are sometimes called person-centred approaches to service provision - the humanity in health and social care provision. She teaches on the Death! course at the University of Aberdeen, which explores death in human society from the earliest formal burials to diverse modern practices worldwide, incorporating archaeological studies of skeletons and mortuary sites as well as legal, anthropological and forensic perspectives. Link to Profile: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/vikki.entwistle (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/vikki.entwistle) Dr Jonathan Ainslie Dr Jonathan Ainslie has been a Lecturer in Private Law at the University of Aberdeen since February 2022. He initially joined the School of Law as a Teaching Fellow in September 2021. He holds an LLB Hons (in law and politics), LLM (in comparative and European private law) and PhD (in legal history), all from the University of Edinburgh. He is an Advance HE Associate Fellow, a member of the council of the Stair Society and an associate member of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen. Recent published articles have concerned duties of good faith in contract and the protection of privacy interests in delict. Current research includes work on the remedy of solatium in Scots law, which is available for pain, suffering and injury to emotions, as well as the boundary between persons and things in Scots private law. Jonathan teaches across a wide range of private law subjects. Link to Profile: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/jonathan.ainslie (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/jonathan.ainslie) Additional Resources: ·       J. Brown, “Res Religiosae and the Roman Roots of the Crime of Violation of Sepulchres” (2018) 22(3) Edinburgh Law Review 347-367 ·       T. Muinzer, “A Grave Situation: An Examination of the Legal Issues Raised by the Life and Death of Charles Byrne, the ‘Irish Giant’” (2013) 20 International Journal of Cultural Property 23-48. ·       M. Lowth, “Charles Byrne, Last Victim of the Bodysnatchers; the Legal Case for Burial” (2021) 29(2) Medical Law Review 252–283. ·       J. Ainslie, “Intrusion of Privacy and the Actio Iniuriarum”, 2023(3-4) Juridical Review 139-159. ·       Scottish Funeral Director Code of Practice: https://www.gov.scot/publications/funeral-director-code-practice-2/pages/5/

7. 

   30 Jun 2025

   Death and Law

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