Dr. Fiona E MacDonald
Lecturer in Law
The Open University
Research Areas: International Comparative Children’s Rights, Environmental Rights, Juvenile Justice, Discrimination against children
Education and legal experience: Fiona decided to change career and study law in her late 20’s seeing her called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple in 2005 and completing her LLM in Criminology and Criminal Justice in 2006 at the London School of Economics and Political Science. While studying in London Fiona was fortunate enough to be accepted into Goodenough College and London House, where she was the Chair of the Student Committee and received the Harold G. Fox Education Bursary.
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After the master’s degree she joined the Court Service as a Magistrate’s Legal Advisor in a busy London court. She has experience in working in the Adult and Youth Criminal courts and the Family court specialising in child protection cases. Fiona later cross qualified as a solicitor and in 2012 completed her Postgraduate Diploma in Research Law.
Fiona gave up legal practice to undertake her PhD, joining the University of South Wales in 2017 with a full scholarship and passing the viva in 2020.
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After completing the PhD Fiona initially joined the legal team at USW in 2020 as a lecturer in law. In 2022 she moved to The Open University joining the central academic team as a lecture in law. The areas of law she has taught at undergraduate, masters, and professional levels include: Criminal Law, Criminal Litigation, Criminal Evidence, the Youth Court System, Family Law, Solicitors Accounts, European Law and Land Law.
Fiona’s previous research includes focus on the historical evolution of the law to combat a specific type of behaviour, and the media representation of law and lawyers.
As a dyslexic herself, she is particularly interested in the overrepresentation of specific learning disabilities in children in conflict with the law.
Fiona frequently utilises social research methods such as content analysis in her legal research.
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Fiona tweets as:
@BlueCrimeBear - Crime, criminal law, justice and the legal system
Publications, Conferences & Engagement
Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference 2019, Leeds
Fiona presented her paper 'Violence against children: An international comparison searching for better implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child' at the 2019 SLSA Annual Conference, held at the University of Leeds.
Social Policy Wednesday@1 Seminar Series, University of South Wales, 2019
Fiona presented her paper 'Comparing Youth Justice Systems: searching for better implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child' at the Social Policy Wednesday@1 Seminar Series, University of Leeds.
Youth Justice and Children’s Rights Symposium, Swansea University, 2018
Fiona presented her paper 'Researching and Comparing Rights in International Youth Justice Systems: Searching for better practice of the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child' at the Youth Justice and Children's Rights Symposium at Swansea University.
Welsh Centre for Crime and Social Justice Annual Conference, 2018
Fiona presented her paper 'International Children’s Rights: A comparative analysis of 52 State parties’ implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child' at the Welsh Centre for Crime and Social Justice Annual Conference.