John Grant

Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus

Legal Research Center FC1

Biography

Professor Grant began his teaching career at the law school at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1967, subsequently moving to the University of Dundee and then the University of Glasgow. At Glasgow he served as Dean of Law for a total of 8 years. While there, he founded and directed the Lockerbie Trial Briefing Unit, analyzing and commenting on the legal aspects of the trial of the two Libyans accused of the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988. He attended substantial parts of the trial and appeal in the case, created a Web site, published a Lockerbie Trial Handbook (which ran to two editions) and has been a regular print and broadcast commentator on the trial. In 2004, he published The Lockerbie Trial: A Documentary History (Oceana), in 2012, an analysis of the Lockerbie trial was published in the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law and he is currently working on a major analysis of the international law dimension to the trial.

Grant has acted as a consultant in legal education and in international law. He was a juvenile judge in Scotland for 10 years. He was editor of Scotland’s most prestigious law journal, Juridical Review, from 1988 to 1999. He was a frequent visitor to the law school from 1984, an annual visitor from 1999 to 2003 and a Professor of Law from the fall semester of 2004.

Among Grant’s recent publications is the third edition (with Professor J.C. Barker of Sussex Law School in England) of their Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law, published by Oxford University Press in 2009. In 2010, Grant’s International Law Essentials, a Nutshell-style student text, was published by Dundee University Press. Also in 2010, again published by Dundee University Press, Grant and Professor Elaine E. Sutherland edited Scots Law Tales, a volume of expert chapters setting out the full, rounded story of leading Scots law cases, to which Grant contributed a chapter on the Lockerbie trial. In 2013, Grant and Sutherland edited a successor volume, Pronounced for Doom: Early Scots Law Tales, telling the stories of fourteen Scots cases before 1900, to which Grant contributed a chapter on Deacon William Brodie.

Grant is currently working on a book on the Final Settlement of the Oregon Question, involving a legal analysis of the joint occupation of the San Juan Islands from 1859 to 1872, the indemnity award to the Hudson’s Bay Company for its assets in what is now Washington state and the arbitral award determining the maritime boundary between Canada and the United States in the area around the San Juan Islands.

Specialty Areas and Course Descriptions

International Human Rights Seminar - Fall 2015

Public International Law - Fall 2015

Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Workshop - Fall 2015

Academic Credentials

  • LLB First Class Honors 1966 University of Edinburgh, Scotland (Lord President Cooper Prize for the top law graduate of class)
  • LLM 1967 University of Pennsylvania

Bibliography

Separately Published Works

  • PRONOUNCED FOR DOOM: EARLY SCOTS LAW TALES (with Sutherland, Avizandum, 2013)
  • INTERNATIONAL LAW ESSENTIALS (Dundee University Press, 2010)
  • SCOTS LAW TALES (with Sutherland, Dundee University Press, 2010)
  • ENCYCLOPEDIC DICTIONARY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, Third Edition (with Barker, Oxford University Press, 2009)
  • THE HARVARD RESEARCH IN INTERNATIONAL LAW: ORIGINAL MATERIALS (with Barker, compilers, 3 volumes, W.S. Hein, 2008)
  • THE HARVARD RESEARCH IN INTERNATIONAL LAW: CONTEMPORARY ANALYSIS AND APPRAISAL (with Barker, editors, W.S. Hein, 2007)
  • INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW DESKBOOK (with Barker, Cavendish, 2005)
  • THE LOCKERBIE TRIAL: A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY (Oceana, 2004)
  • ENCYCLOPEDIC DICTIONARY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, Second Edition (with Barker, Oceana, 2003)
  • LOCKERBIE TRIAL BRIEFING HANDBOOK (University of Glasgow/Law Society of Scotland/ Office for the Victims of Crime, 1999, 2d ed. 2000)
  • ENGLISH FOR LAWYERS (with Kostabi and Soobik, University of Tartu Press, 1994)
  • ENGLISH-ESTONIAN LAW GLOSSARY (with Soobik, University of Tartu Press, 1993)
  • LEGAL EDUCATION: 2000 (with Jagtenberg and Nijkerk, Gower Press, 1988)
  • ENCYCLOPEDIC DICTIONARY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW (with Parry, Oceana, 1986)
  • THE PROSECUTION OF CHILDREN IN SCOTLAND (with McLean and Docherty, Stationery Office, 1984)
  • THE IMPACT OF MARINE POLLUTION: LAW AND PRACTICE (with Cusine, Croom Helm, 1980)
  • INDEPENDENCE AND DEVOLUTION: THE LEGAL IMPLICATIONS FOR SCOTLAND (W. Green, 1976)

Works Published As Part of a Collection

  • Pronounced for Doom: Deacon William Brodie, PRONOUNCED FOR DOOM: EARLY SCOTS LAW TALES (eds. Grant and Sutherland, Avizandum, 2013)
  • The Lockerbie Trial: Was it Independent, Dignified and Scrupulously Fair? 20(4) JURIDICA 257 (2013)
  • Lockerbie Trial, MAX PLANCK ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW (Oxford University Press, 2012).
  • Not Our Finest Hour: The Lockerbie Trial, SCOTS LAW TALES (eds. Grant and Sutherland, Dundee University Press, 2010)
  • Monitoring and Enforcing Children’s International Human Rights, CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN SCOTLAND (eds. Cleland and Sutherland, W. Green, 3d ed. 2009)
  • International Standards and Scots Law, CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN SCOTLAND (eds. Cleland and Sutherland, W. Green. 3d ed. 2009) (with Sutherland)
  • The Harvard Research: Genesis to Exodus and Beyond, (with Barker) in THE HARVARD RESEARCH IN INTERNATIONAL LAW: CONTEMPORARY ANALYSIS AND APPRAISAL (with Barker, editors, W.S. Hein, 2007)
  • Territorial Waters in THE HARVARD RESEARCH IN INTERNATIONAL LAW: CONTEMPORARY ANALYSIS AND APPRAISAL (with Barker, editors, W.S. Hein, 2007)
  • Beyond the Montreal Convention, 36 CASE W. RES. J. INT’L L. 453 (2004)
  • Monitoring and Enforcing Children’s International Human Rights, CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN SCOTLAND (eds. Cleland and Sutherland, W. Green, 2d ed. 2001)
  • Scots Law and International Conventions, CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN SCOTLAND (eds. Cleland and Sutherland, W. Green. 2d ed. 2001) (with Sutherland)
  • Happy Birthday IBA, 1997 JURIDICAL REVIEW 371
  • The Lockerbie Stalemate: Is an International Court the Answer?, 1996 JURIDICAL REVIEW 250 (with Dickinson)
  • A Paper Tiger. Monitoring and Enforcing the Convention, CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN SCOTLAND (eds Cleland and Sutherland, W. Green, 1996) 241
  • Could Do Better: The Report on the U.K.’s Compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1995 JURIDICAL REVIEW 534
  • The Diploma in Legal Practice Mark II, 1989 JURIDICAL REVIEW 91
  • The Under-Age Offender, 1987 SCOTS LAW TIMES 337
  • A Law School Charter, 32 JOURNAL OF THE LAW SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND 271 (1987)
  • International Law, MANUAL OF U.K. OIL AND GAS LAW (eds Daintith and Willoughby, Oyez, 2d ed. 1985)
  • Children’s Hearings: Procedural Aspects, THE SCOTTISH SYSTEM OF JUVENILE JUSTICE (eds. Martin and Murray, Scottish Academic Press, 1983) 266
  • Police Contact with Children under Eight Years: The Under-Age Offender, 1981 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE LAW 140 (with McLean)
  • More Bridge-Building: Four Decisions on Children’s Hearings, 1978 SCOTS LAW TIMES 301
  • The Conflict Between the Fishing and the Oil Industries in the North Sea: A Case Study, 4 OCEAN MANAGEMENT 137 (1978)
  • International Law, THE SHETLAND REPORT (The Nevis Institute, 1978)
  • Protecting the Rights of the Child, CHILDREN’S HEARINGS (eds. Martin and Murray, Scottish Academic Press, 1976)
  • The Children’s Hearings System in Scotland: Its Strengths and its Weaknesses, 10 IRISH JURIST 23 (1975)
  • The Legal Safeguards for the Rights of the Child in the Children’s Hearings System, 1975 JURIDICAL REVIEW 209
  • Statutory Havering, 20 JOURNAL OF THE LAW SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND 119 (1975)
  • Children’s Hearings: Some Legal and Practical Difficulties, JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN (CARE Discussion Paper 2, Dublin, 1974)
  • Orientation Course, 19 JOURNAL OF THE LAW SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND 44 (1974) (with Dawson)
  • Model Procedure for a Children’s Hearing, 1974 SCOTS LAW TIMES 229
  • More Bridges and More Gaps: Two Further Decisions on Children’s Hearings, 1974 SCOTS LAW TIMES 213
  • Bridging Gaps: Three Cases on Children’s Hearings, 1973 SCOTS LAW TIMES 190
  • “Social Work in Scotland”: An Unsatisfactory Report, 1973 SCOTS LAW TIMES 169
  • Juvenile Justice: Part III of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, 1971 JURIDICAL REVIEW 149
  • Ex Africa Semper Aliquid Nova, 1969 JURIDICAL REVIEW 1Monitoring and Enforcing Children’s International Human Rights, CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN SCOTLAND (eds. Cleland