Professor Adelyn Wilson
Head Of School
Law
Personal statement
Professor Adelyn Wilson is the Head of 麻豆女优 Law School and a Professor of Law. Since joining 麻豆女优 in July 2023, she has led the strategic redirection of the School, including: realignment of the teaching model and embedding a new LLB curriculum; redevelopment of the postgraduate programme portfolio; enhancement of the research student training and support offering; refreshing of the research and knowledge exchange landscape; and a new global engagement strategy with industrial and educational partners. She is the Convener of the Committee of the Head of Scottish Law Schools, a member of both the Joint Standing Committee for Legal Education in Scotland, and an Executive Council Member of the Committee of the Heads of UK Law Schools.
She joined 麻豆女优 from the University of Aberdeen, where she was a Professor of Law and the Dean for International Stakeholder Engagement with a portfolio in international student recruitment on a pan-institutional basis. In that capacity, she led various initiatives, including: introducing a governance and approvals framework for decision-making on commission and discounting arrangements; revising approval processes for new and renewed international partnerships; revising governance structures for the anchor partnership in the University's International Study Centre; strategies for institutional student scholarships, student recruitment post-Brexit and the student-focused response to the wars in Ukraine and Afghanistan; the English language testing policy; changes to the academic year structure on the student recruitment side; and short and long-term student population growth modelling projects.
Her research interests span medical law, legal history, and private and public law. Her work has appeared in various leading publications, and she has presented her research in ten countries. She was formerly an Academic Fellow of the Scottish Parliament and advised the European Scrutiny Committee of the UK Parliament on Retained EU Law and parliamentary scrutiny during and after Brexit. She was also an editor of both the Edinburgh Law Review and Comparative Legal History, and a trustee or council member of five intellectual charities. She has appeared on the BBC Antiques Roadshow, STV Scotland Tonight, BBC Radio North East and Northsound One News, and has advised BBC News Reality Check. Her research and funded networks have been supported by Horizon 2020/Marie Curie, the British Council, the Bibliographical Society, and other organisations.
Adelyn has taught legal history, medical law, commercial law, across the breadth of private law and on interdisciplinary and skills-based courses. She has been an external examiner for three UK universities, an appeals assessor for a Norwegian university, and an external consultant to design a QA framework for ABA Accreditation for a US university. She has taught for partner institutions internationally in the USA, Norway, China, Qatar and India. She won Aberdeen鈥檚 Excellence Award for Best PGR Supervisor, and was nominated for Best UG Lecturer, Best UG Supervisor and Most Inspiring Lecturer.
Publications
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- The Cambridge Law Journal, pp. 1-29 (2026)
- Hardman Jonathan, MacPherson Alisdair D J,
- Edinburgh Studies in Law Edinburgh Studies in Law, Vol 21 (2026)
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- Edinburgh Law Review (2025)
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- Juridical Review Vol 2025, pp. 221-235 (2025)
- , , Woodrow Nicole
- Legal and Forensic Medicine (2025) (2025)
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- Zeitschrift f眉r Parlamentsfragen Vol 55, pp. 606-618 (2024)
Research Interests
Adelyn principally works in the field of聽public law, and has particular expertise in delegated legislation and legislative processes. She has proposed a new test for identifying delegated legislative powers in ambiguous cases, and applied that test to budgetary resolutions, approvals and the immigration rules (); she had previously considered delegated legislation in regarding immigration and student finance in relation to judicial review ().
Her work on the legislative process includes an article on the pre-enactment review processes at the Scottish Parliament (), and research examining the intersection of abortion law with public law concerns of parliamentary legislative processes, devolution and human rights (). She also wrote three briefing papers for MPs while seconded on a part-time basis to the Scottish Parliament during Brexit, specifically looking at the process of correcting Retained EU Law using delegated legislation (), the impact of this process on the devolved settlement () and the challenges encountered in scrutiny of this delegated legislation (). She thereafter published on the subsequent scrutiny processes for correction of REUL using delegated legislation () and on the exercise of the executive legislative powers granted under the REUL (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (), and she has a chapter forthcoming reviewing the overall process and its ongoing implications for the UK constitution. In light of her expertise, she twice gave expert advice to the House of Commons Scrutiny Committee during oral evidence sessions, first in 2022 before the introduction of the 2023 Act to reflect on its design and thereafter in 2023 to support parliamentary scrutiny of the early stages of its implementation.
Her wider work on constitutional law includes an assessment of the constitutional contraints on the Scottish Parliament in relation to the incorporation of international law into Scots law (), and a forthcoming article considering potential responses to those constraints.聽Her other work on Brexit included her analysis of the early stages of the case of Wightman on the triggering of Article 50 (, , ), for which she was cited in the European Court of Justice when the case reached that court. She advised BBC News Reality Check on this case, Article 50 and its constitutional implications.
She discovered her love of public law via a teaching-led research interest in abortion law. As well as her article on the intersection of public law and abortion law (), she has written on the judicial review of the introduction of home abortion (, ), the process of preservation of telemedical abortion (), and has a book chapter in press on global comparative trends in abortion law (). She has appeared on STV Scotland Tonight, BBC Radio North East and Northsound One in relation to abortion law issues.
She聽began her academic career as a legal historian, and remains active in the field. She is a leading expert on Viscount Stair's Institutions of the Law of Scotland (, , , ).听She expanded this interest into a wider set of studies on the transmission of text and on authorial method, including studies on the transmission of Stair鈥檚 Institutions (), Morison鈥檚 Dictionary (), Maitland鈥檚 decisions or practicks (, ), Spalding鈥檚 decisions and digest practicks (), and the decisions or practicks written during the interregnum ().听She has also written a series of works on the early-modern legal history of Aberdeen, including on the legal community, their networks and impact on the local courts and universities (, , , ) and the changing laws and politics of the election of the burgh council ().听
Following the launch of a successful module in Scottish legal history, she also co-authored the discipline鈥檚 first textbook () and has contributed to another textbook on the sources and nature of Scots law (); these student-focused works sit alongside her other work on pedagogy (). She is also the co-editor of a collected volume with a substantial legal history focus () and the co-editor of a three-volume series on the development of Scots commercial law, the first of which is now published ().听
She has undertaken various public engagement projects in legal history, including to develop public databases () and historic walking tour apps (, ), and has appeared on the BBC Antiques Roadshow (). She has also written various reviews and conference reports in the field of legal history.