Elected: 2007
Discipline: Philosophy, Theology and Law
Professor John Cairns
Professor of Civil Law, University of Edinburgh
John W. Cairns is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, where he now occupies the Chair of Civil Law. He has taught at the Queen’s University of Belfast (1980-1984) and served as a Visiting Professor at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, and the University of Miami, Florida, as well as a Professeur Invité at the École normale supérieure, Paris. His research has focused on the history of Scots law (particularly legal literature, legal education, and the legal profession in the eighteenth century) slavery and the law (particularly in the eighteenth century), and the legal history of Louisiana and Quebec.