Summary
Using law as a starting point, these projects draw on anthropology, theology, philosophy, medicine, museum studies and other disciplines to critically examine how society navigates human and non-human death, legacy, and the afterlife.
Overview
Death & Law re-examines legal perspectives on death using insights from other disciplines. It includes consideration of dignity and personality after death (extending to digital afterlife), posthumous ownership issues (e.g. buried goods), and wider non-anthropocentric concepts of death. It aims to reassess existing legal concepts and boundaries, e.g., delict/tort, succession, property, and data protection, and to incorporate diverse views from anthropology, philosophy, theology and beyond. Over 20 academics with a variety of disciplinary backgrounds are contributing to Death & Law – Interdisciplinary Explorations.
Several activities are encompassed by Death & Law, including interdisciplinary workshops, a podcast series (funded by the Aberdeen Humanities Fund), consultation responses, public engagement, and publications.
We received the Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Collaboration Grant in February 2026. This funding allows us to build on earlier successes to run a programme of interdisciplinary workshops and public-facing initiatives, including a Café Scientifique event at Aberdeen Art Gallery, and a Death & Law Book Club launching as part of the School of Law Research Festival in May 2026.
If you would like to learn more or to become involved, please contact us. Our respective roles and contact details are available below.
Edited Volume Editorial Board
RSE Research Collaboration Grant
The Death & Law: Interdisciplinary Explorations team is grateful for the generous support of a Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Collaboration Grant, which will run from March 2026 to March 2027. This will be one of the largest multi-institutional research undertakings within the School of Law at the 51cg.
Drawing on the work of over 20 researchers from four countries, it will develop innovative ways to combine traditional doctrinal scholarship with insights from non-legal disciplines to transform the legal understanding of death.
The funding will support a range of public engagement activities, including a Café Scientifique event at the Aberdeen Art Gallery and a Death & Law Book Club, which will launch as part of the School of Law Research Festival in May 2026. Additionally, the funding will facilitate a series of interdisciplinary workshops for academics and stakeholders. Further details about the funded public-facing activities conducted as part of the Death and Law RSE Research Collaboration Grant can be found by clicking on the tabs below.
Project Leads
Contributors
- Arnar Árnason, 51cg (Social Anthropology)
- , University of Strathclyde (Scots Private Law)
- , 51cg (Jurisprudence of Trauma)
- Rebecca Crozier, 51cg (Archaeology of Human Remains, Death and Burial)
- Neil Curtis, 51cg (Museum Studies)
- , University of Antwerp (Health Law and Private Law)
- , Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law (Private Law)
- Vikki Entwistle, 51cg (Philosophy)
- JP Fassnidge, 51cg (Law and Philosophy)
- , Treasure Trove Operations (Treasure Trove)
- , University of Birmingham (Law and Technology)
- , University of Queensland (Digital Media)
- , University of Bristol Law School (Social Welfare and Public Law)
- Fransiska Louwagie, 51cg (Languages and Cultures; Memory Studies)
- Thomas Muinzer, 51cg (Burial Law, Cultural Heritage Law and Policy)
- , Faculty of Law, University of Osijek (Private Law Theory, Biolaw and Bioethics, Animal Law and Ethics)
- Roderick Paisley, 51cg (Scots Private Law)
- , University of Leicester (Technology Law)
- , Loughborough University (Critical Trusts Law)
- , University of Twente (Ethics of Technology)
- Jennifer Riley, 51cg (Religious Studies)
- Hannah Reder, 51cg (Museum Studies)
- , University of Strathclyde (Law and Memory)
- , University of Strathclyde (Law, Anthropology and Cultural Studies)
- , University of Bath (Sociology and the Family)
- Zeray Yihdego, 51cg (Humanitarian Law)
Group activities
- Events
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Event: Workshop
Theme: Death and Law – Critical Perspectives from Other Disciplines 
Date: 20 November 2024 
Venue: The Sir Duncan Rice Library and MS Teams (hybrid event) 
Presentations:
- AI, Bots and LLMs: The Disruption of Personhood presented by Dr Anna Puzio (Philosophy); 
- Anthropology, Death and Law presented by Dr Arnar Arnarson (Anthropology); 
- Grave Goods in Contemporary Britain: Illustrating Legal Fuzziness and Reluctance presented by Dr Jennifer Riley (Divinity and Religious Studies / Death Studies). 
Event: Seminar
Topic: Representations of Death Between Law and Memory 
Presenter: (University of Strathclyde)
Date: 14 November 2024
Venue: 51cg and MS Teams (hybrid event)
Event: Interdisciplinary Workshops on Death and Law
Theme: Death and Harm
Date: 11 September 2024
Venue: 51cg and MS Teams (hybrid event)
Presentations:
- Remedies and the Dead, presented by Dr Jonathan Ainslie;
- Issues of Harm in Relation to Death, presented by Dr Euan West;
- Humanitarian Law and the Dead, presented by Professor Zeray Yihdego.
Event: Interdisciplinary Workshops on Death and Law
Theme: Death and Property
Date: 29 August 2024
Venue: 51cg and MS Teams (hybrid event)
Presentations:
- Property and the Dead, presented by Dr Alisdair MacPherson;
- Property – Critical Perspectives in Death and Law, presented by Dr Nevena Jevremović;
- Post-Mortem Data as Property, presented by Dr Patricia Živković.
Event: Interdisciplinary Workshops on Death and Law
Theme: Personality of the Dead
Date: 22 August 2024
Venue: 51cg and MS Teams (hybrid event)
Presentations:
- Personality Rights of the Dead, presented by Dr Jonathan Ainslie;
- Post-Mortem Digital Avatars/Versioning, presented by Dr Patricia Živković;
- Remembering the Dead: Critical Perspectives in Death and Law, presented by Dr Nevena Jevremović.
- News
-
Interdisciplinary Workshops on Death and Law Successfully Hosted by Law School Academics
9 July 2025 - Death & Law scholars highlight legal perspectives on death at international conference in Antwerp
8 September 2025 - Death & Law project presented at the Critical Legal Conference 2025
30 June 2026 - Death & Law Research Project Celebrates a Successful Series of Interdisciplinary Events
- Relevant Publications
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Anna Puzio, 2025, 'AI and the Disruption of Personhood', in Philipp Hacker (ed.), Oxford Intersections: AI in Society (°¿³æ´Ú´Ç°ù»å, online edn, Oxford Academic), , 
Leah Henrickson & Dominique Carlon, 2024, ,
Leah Henrickson, 2023, Chatting with the dead: The hermeneutics of thanabots. Media, Culture & Society, 45(5), 949-966.  
Anna Puzio, 2023, When the Digital Continues After Death. Ethical Perspectives on Death Tech and the Digital Afterlife, Communicatio Socialis (ComSoc), Seite 427 – 436,
The Rationale and Fundamental Structure of the Conditio Si Testator Sine Liberis Decesserit in Scots Law, 2016, Paisley, R. R. M. Continuity, Change and Pragmatism in the Law: Essays in Memory of Professor Angelo Forte. Simpson, A. R. C., Styles, S. C., West, E., Wilson, A. L. M. (eds.). 51cg, pp. 280-338, 59 pages
- Consultations
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Response to Law Commission Consultation on Burial and Cremation, 2025, Macpherson, A., Zivkovic, P., Crilly, C., Fassnidge, J., Puzio, A., Riley, J. 51cg: School of Law (Online). 20 pages.[ONLINE]  Aberdeen University Centre for Scots Law- Law Reform & Public Policy Engagement
Response to Scottish Government Consultation on Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill – Removal of Unlawful Killers as Executors, 2023, Macpherson, A., Paisley, R. 51cg: School of Law. 3 pages.
Response to Scottish Parliament (Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee) Consultation on Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill, 2023, Macpherson, A., Paisley, R. 51cg: School of Law (Document). 4 pages. [ONLINE] /law/research/centre-for-scots-law/public-policy-engagement-1089.php
- Podcast series
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All Death and Law episodes are available at:Spotify –RSS Feed –Intro – Death and LawEpisode 1 - Human Remains Release date: Monday 30 June 2025Episode 2: Grave GoodsRelease date: Monday 7 July 2025Episode 3: Succession Release date: Monday 14 July 2025Episode 4 - Non-anthropocentric Death Release date: Monday 21 July 2025Episode 5 - Collective Memory Release date: Monday 28 July 2025
Episode 6 - Digital Afterlife Release date: Monday 4 August 2025
RSE activities
- Death & Law Book Club
-
The public will have the opportunity to engage in a monthly Death & Law Book Club to explore themes of the project through works of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and film. The Book Club will run monthly from September 2026 until March 2027.
If you can't wait until September, the Book Club will have a soft launch as part of the School of Law's Research Festival in May 2026, with a session entitled ‘Fictions of Death and the Legal Imagination: Why Literature Matters for Law?’ Come along to Room NKG7 in the New Kings building at 3.15 pm-4.45 pm on 28th May 2026. All members of the public are welcome!
Main contact: Nevena Jevremović
- Café Scientifique
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Coming very soon! Check back here in summer 2026 for further information about the Café Scientifique event we will be running in Aberdeen Art Gallery in November 2026.
Main contact: Jonathan Ainslie
- Workshops
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We will run a series of three one-day workshops centred around one of Death & Law’s three key themes: Death, Identity and the Posthuman Condition; Death and Culture; and Rights and Wrongs After Death. The workshops will allow participants to identify interrelations among their research, formulate key research questions for the edited collection of essays, and share methodologies and knowledge. This will enable the creation and maintenance of a new scholarly network centred on interdisciplinary expertise in exploring the relationship between law and death.
30 June 2026 - Death & Law RSE Project Launches First Workshop on Death, Identity and the Posthuman Condition