Anne Griffiths is Professor of Anthropology of Law at the School of Law, University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on anthropology of law, comparative and family law, African law, gender, culture and rights. In pursuit of these interests Anne has carried out fieldwork in Botswana, southern Africa in the 1980s and more recently, in Scotland in the 1990s on 'The Child's Voice in Legal Proceedings.'

Anne's work has explored the study of law through an anthropological perspective based on ethnography grounded in detailed field studies. This perspective highlights people’s understandings, experiences and use of law in everyday life. Her analysis focuses on social persons perspectives on law, providing a counterpoint to textual and doctrinal analyses of law promoted by formal models and challenges conventional legal theory by extending the scope of what constitutes a legitimate focus for legal inquiry. By drawing together the threads of ‘public’ and ‘private’ dimensions of social life Anne Griffiths' work has not only contributed to feminist scholarship on law but as well to broader debates in the social sciences concerning the relationship between power, law, and discourse that govern people’s lives. Her aim is to stress the importance law has in interdisciplinary shaping of transnational issues, such as human rights, whether relating to women and gender, or in relation to children. Thus it urges the centrality of law in its own rights, and not simply as an aspect of political or economic life, while exploring law as a dimension of political, economic, and cultural organisation and as well the legitimation of power through political and economic processes.

Her research has emphasised the specific, concrete, lived-experiences that inform people’s lives. This standpoint critically examines questions about law’s legitimacy and authority from the perspective of social actors who are often marginalized in mainstream legal discourse, stressing their views of law, the circumstances under which they do or do not have access to legal forums, and the conditions under which individuals find themselves silenced or unable to negotiate with others in daily life.

Anne Griffiths' major publications include In the Shadow of Marriage: Gender and Justice in an African Community published in 1997; Family Law (Scotland) with Lilian Edwards in 1997, revised second edition in 2006; Mobile People, Mobile Law: Expanding Legal Relations in a Contracting World (co-edited with Franz and Keebet von Benda-Beckmann) in 2005; 'Using Ethnography as a Tool in Legal Research: An Anthropological Perspective', in Theory and Method in Socio-Legal Research in 2005; and 'Localising the Global: Rights of Participation in the Scottish Children’s Hearings System and Hearing Children in Children’s Hearings', with Randy Kandel in 2000 and 2005.

She has held visiting appointments at various institutions including distinguished visiting professor at the faculty of Law, University of Toronto, visiting fellow ar the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany, International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Oñati – Gipuzkoa, Spain, The University of Texas at Austin, School of Law, the Southern and Eastern African Regional Centre for Women’s Law at the University of Zimbabwe and the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. Anne Griffiths has held major research grants from the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (USA), Annenberg Foundation (USA) and the ESRC, among other bodies, and has undertaken consultancy work for various organisations including the British Council and NORAD (the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation).

Anne Griffiths is a past President of the Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism, a branch of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. Information about conferences held by the Commission is available here.

She welcomes enquiries from prospective doctoral applicants in her fields of interest, and also welcomes enquiries from prospective postdoctoral candidates.