![Dr Alisdair MacPherson Dr Alisdair MacPherson](/img/200x200/staffpages/uploads/s04ap8/Alisdair_rdax_450x579.jpg)
MA (Hons), LLB, DipLP, PhD, NP, Solicitor (Non-Practising), WS, FHEA
Senior Lecturer
- About
-
- Email Address
- alisdair.macpherson@abdn.ac.uk
- Telephone Number
- +44 (0)1224 272426
- Office Address
- School/Department
- School of Law
Biography
Alisdair joined the School of Law as a lecturer in June 2018, having previously been a teaching fellow at the University of Edinburgh. He carried out postgraduate research at the University of Edinburgh on floating charges and was awarded a PhD in 2018 for his thesis "The Attachment of the Floating Charge in Scots Law". This research has been published as a monograph, The Floating Charge, in the Studies in Scots Law series. Alisdair has continued to research in this area, and in related fields, and is a co-editor of Floating Charges in Scotland: New Perspectives and Current Issues, first published in hardback in 2022, and in paperback in 2024. He is also a co-author of Commercial Law in Scotland and Scottish Commercial Law Essentials and the editor of Avizandum Statutes in Scots Commercial and Consumer Law.
During his doctoral studies, Alisdair spent a year at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg. Prior to commencing his PhD research, he qualified as a solicitor and notary public in Scotland. In addition, he holds an MA (Hons) in history, LLB and Diploma in Legal Practice, all from the University of Edinburgh.
Alisdair was formerly a member of the Scottish Law Commission's Moveable Transactions Advisory Group. He was also on the Law Society of Scotland's Board of Examiners as examiner for Scots Commercial Law. Alisdair is currently on the Council of the WS Society and is a member of the European Law Institute.
Alisdair is co-director of the Centre for Scots Law and a member of the Centre for Commercial Law and the Centre for Energy Law at the University of Aberdeen. He regularly responds to consultations and calls for evidence. Alisdair also provides opinions, consultancy services and CPD in relation to his areas of research, especially insolvency law, debt enforcement and secured transactions.
In summer 2022 he was a visiting academic at the University of Oxford's Institute of European and Comparative Law.
Memberships and Affiliations
- Internal Memberships
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Personal Tutor
Co-Director of the Centre for Scots Law
Corporate Finance and Law LLM Coordinator
Employability, Entrepreneurship and Co-Curricular Committee Convenor
Enterprise and Innovation Lead (2023-2024)
Strategic Activity Lead for Public Policy Engagement (Centre for Scots Law) (2020-2023)
Library Committee Convenor (2021-2023)
Qatar LLM Programme Coordinator (2022)
Commercial Law Theme Coordinator (2022)
Honorary Secretary of the Aberdeen Student Law Review (2020-2022)
Athena SWAN SAT Member (2019-2022)
Employer Liaison Committee (2018-2020)
Deputy LLM Admissions Selector (2018-2020)
LLM International Commercial Law Co-ordinator (2019)
LLM Business Law and Sustainable Development Co-ordinator (2019)
Study Abroad Co-ordinator (2019-2020)
Digital Learning Representative (2019-2020)
- External Memberships
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External Examiner, University of Glasgow
Member of R3 (Association of Business Recovery Professionals) Scottish Technical Committee
Book Review Editor for Edinburgh Law Review (2019-2024)
Member of the Scottish Law Commission's Moveable Transactions Advisory Group (2016-2018)
Scots Commercial Law Examiner, Law Society of Scotland (2019-2023)
Member of the Banking, Company and Insolvency Law Sub-Committee, Law Society of Scotland
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Member of European Law Institute
Member of Ius Commune Research School
Member of the Stair Society
Associate Member of Society of Advocates in Aberdeen
Council Member of WS Society
Latest Publications
Mapping the Legal Landscape for Cryptoassets in Scotland: Report on Workshop 2
University of Aberdeen: School of LawBooks and Reports: Commissioned ReportsConsultation on Tenement Law: Compulsory Owners' Associations: Response by the Centre for Scots Law at the University of Aberdeen
.Other Contributions: Other ContributionsResponse to Stage 3 Review of Scotland’s Statutory Debt Solutions
University of Aberdeen: School of Law.Other Contributions: Other ContributionsAvizandum Statutes on Scots Commercial and Consumer Law: 2024-2025
Edinburgh University Press. 660 pagesBooks and Reports: BooksImplications of electronic trade documents law reform for Scotland
Non-textual Forms: Web Publications and Websites
Prizes and Awards
University of Aberdeen - Principal's Early Career Outstanding Researcher Award (Arts, Humanities and Social Science) (2022)
- Research
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Research Overview
Secured transactions, insolvency law, commercial law, company law, property law, law of trusts, comparative law, modern legal history.
Alisdair would be interested in supervising research students working in any of these areas. He is currently supervising PhD research on the following topics:
- Financial security instruments for decommissioning liabilities
- The protection of shareholders in company law
- Employee participation in corporate governance
- Electronic letters of credit
He has also previously supervised research on the law of securitisations and ex-ante protections for minority shareholders.
Research Areas
Accepting PhDs
I am currently accepting PhDs in Law.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.
Research Specialisms
- Business Law
- Law
- Scots Law
- Private Law
- Property Law
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Floating Charges in Scotland: New Perspectives and Current Issues
Alisdair is a co-editor of, and contributor to, Floating Charges in Scotland: New Perspectives and Current Issues. The book is an edited collection published by Edinburgh University Press in 2022. It contains chapters by leading experts, who examine various aspects of floating charges from a number of different perspectives. The chapters are grouped into three parts: The History of Floating Charges; Theoretical, Comparative and Policy Perspectives; and Practice, Doctrine and the Future.
Knowledge Exchange
Selected Papers and Presentations
"The Concept of Commercial Law in Scotland" (with J Hardman (Edinburgh)), Development of Commercial Law in Scotland Conference, University of Strathclyde (26 January 2024)
"The Reform of Secured Transactions: Trends and Reflections", AFG College, University of Aberdeen (Doha) (20 November 2023)
"Reflections on the Future of Moveable Security in Scotland", Moveable Transactions Reform Conference, University of Edinburgh (21 April 2023)
"Floating Charges in Comparative Perspective", Institute of European and Comparative Law Seminar, University of Oxford (28 June 2022)
"Recent Developments in Corporate Insolvency Law: CIGA 2020 and Beyond", Insolvency Law Conference, Royal Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow (30 March 2022)
"The 'Pre-History' of Floating Charges in Scots Law", Scottish Property Law Discussion Group (28 October 2020)
"Consumer Sales Contracts: Transfer of Ownership", Scottish Law Commission Workshop on Consumer Contracts in Scotland: Reforming the Law of Transfer of Ownership (8 October 2020)
"The 'Pre-History' of Floating Charges in Scots Law", Scottish Legal History Group Conference (3 October 2020)
"Floating Charges in Comparative Perspective", Young Property Lawyers’ Forum Experts' Meeting, University of Glasgow (5 June 2019)
"The Reform of Security over Moveable Property in Scots Law", Young Property Lawyers’ Forum, University of Maastricht (28 May 2018)
"A Real Right Sui Generis? The Floating Charge in Scots Law", Young Property Lawyers' Forum, Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht, Hamburg (23 September 2016)
"Floating Charges and Trust Property in Scots Law", Scots Law Discussion Group, University of Edinburgh (24 June 2016)
"The Floating Charge in Scots Law and its Attachment to Property", Modern Studies in Property Law Postgraduate Conference, Queen’s University, Belfast (7 April 2016)
"A Tale of Two Mixed Systems: Assignation/Cession in Security in Scotland and South Africa", Young Property Lawyers’ Forum, University of Groningen (23 November 2015)
"The Floating Charge Attachment and Ranking Paradox in Scots Law", Aktuelle Stunde, Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht, Hamburg (21 October 2014)
Blog Posts
Datasets
J Hardman and A D J MacPherson, "Scottish Companies Who Have Filed Certain Insolvency Forms between 1 October 2019 and 30 September 2020" (2021) DOI: https://doi.org/10.7488/ds/3040
Datasets
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Scottish Companies Who Have Filed Certain Insolvency Forms between 1 October 2019 and 30 September 2020
This workbook contains a list of all of the Scottish companies who had filed certain insolvency related forms (WU15(Scot) or LIQ14(Scot)) between 1 October 2019 and 30 September 2020.- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.7488/ds/3040
- Publisher
- University of Edinburgh
- Date Made Available
- 17 August 2024
- Related Research Outputs
- Contributors
- Macpherson, A. (Creator), Hardman, J. (Creator)
- Teaching
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Teaching Responsibilities
LS2525 – Commercial Organisations and Insolvency (Course Co-ordinator)
LS4067/LX4067 – Corporate Finance Law (Honours) (Joint Course Co-ordinator)
LS4573/LX4573 – Corporate Insolvency Law (Honours) (Course Co-ordinator)
LS501G – Comparative and International Perspectives on Company Law (LLM)
LS501R – Advanced Research Skills for Postgraduate Researchers
LS504H – Corporate Finance Law
LS553L – Debt Finance Law (2021-2023)
LS553M – Equity Finance Law (2021-2023)
QL5007 – Comparative and International Perspectives on Company Law (LLM – Qatar) (Course Co-ordinator)
LS503N – Introduction to Corporate Finance Law (2020-2021)
LS2031 – Property Law (2019-2020)
LS2533 – Business Law (2018-2020)
LS3030 – Law of Equity and Trusts of England and Wales (2018-2023)
LS503D – Financing of International Sales - Distance Learning (2019-2020)
- Publications
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Page 10 of 13 Results 91 to 100 of 121
Response to Scottish Parliament Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee Inquiry on Reform of the Law on Moveable Transactions
University of Aberdeen: School of Law.Other Contributions: Other ContributionsResponse to Scottish Government Consultation on Changes Introduced by Bankruptcy and Debt Advice (Scotland) Act 2014
University of Aberdeen: School of Law.Other Contributions: Other ContributionsGerard McCormack & Reinhard Bork (eds), Security Rights and the European Insolvency Regulation
Edinburgh Law Review, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 166-169Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/elr.2020.0621
Response to Scottish Parliament Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee Inquiry on Protected Trust Deeds
University of Aberdeen: School of Law.Other Contributions: Other ContributionsResponse to Scottish Government Consultation on Judicial Factors
University of Aberdeen: School of Law.Other Contributions: Other ContributionsResponse to Scottish Government Consultation on Scottish Crown Estate: Strategic Management Plan
University of Aberdeen: School of Law.Other Contributions: Other ContributionsAvizandum Statutes on Scots Commercial and Consumer Law 2019-2020
Edinburgh University Press. 640 pagesBooks and Reports: BooksResponse to Insolvency Service Call for Evidence on Regulation of Insolvency Practitioners
University of Aberdeen: School of Law.Other Contributions: Other ContributionsResponse to Scottish Government Consultation on the Right to Buy Land to Further Sustainable Development
University of Aberdeen: School of Law.Other Contributions: Other ContributionsResponse to Scottish Law Commission Discussion Paper on Heritable Securities: Pre-default (DP No 168)
University of Aberdeen: School of Law.Other Contributions: Other Contributions