Dr. Robert Dunbar

Position: Reader in Law and Celtic
 
Education: BA, MA (Toronto), LLB/MBA (Osgoode Hall/York), LLM (London), PhD (Edin)
 
Profile: Rob joined the University of Aberdeen in October 2004, and is based in the School of Law and in the Department of Celtic in the School of Language and Literature. Within the School of Law, Rob teaches two courses, International Economic Law: The World Trade Organization, and Peoples, Indigenous Peoples and Minorities in International Law, at both honours and LLM level.

Rob researches primarily in the area of international law, and has a particular interest and expertise in minorities, and particularly linguistic minorities, as well as in international economic law. He has also developed considerable expertise in the area of language policy and planning, and particularly legal regimes for the protection of linguistic minorities in international and national legal systems. Rob is an Expert of the Council of Europe, and frequently works with the Secretariat for the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. He is a Senior Non-Resident Research Associate of the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI), in Flensburg, Germany, and is an expert on ECMI’s Minority Ombudsperson Project. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Human Rights and Social Justice Research Unit, London Metropolitan University. He has advised governments, human rights bodies, and non-governmental organisations in a number of countries on language and human rights issues.

Rob is a fluent speaker of Scottish Gaelic, and has advised a range of Gaelic organisations in Scotland on language issues. As Chairperson of the Comunn na Gàidhlig (CNAG) Working Group on Status, he helped draft CNAG’s proposals for a Gaelic Language Act. In January, 2004, Rob was appointed by the Scottish Executive to Bòrd na Gàidhlig, the non-departmental public body responsible for Gaelic language development in Scotland, and by OFCOM and the Secretary of State for Scotland to the board of Seirbhis nam Meadhanan Gàidhlig, the Gaelic Media Service, the non-governmental public body which oversees Gaelic broadcasting.

Originally from Canada, Rob earned a BA and an MA from the University of Toronto in International Relations, an LLB/MBA from Osgoode Hall Law School/The Faculty of Administrative Studies, York University, Canada, and an LLM at the London School of Economics. He worked in Toronto for several years at Fasken Martineau, one of Canada’s leading law firms. Rob comes to us from the Faculty of Law, the University of Glasgow, where he was a Senior Lecturer in Law.
 
PhD Supervision Interests :

Dr Dunbar is interested in supervising research students in the following areas: comparative law (comparative language legislation, comparative systems of minority protection); human rights (International Human Rights (especially UN and Council of Europe standards), language rights, minority rights, economic and cultural rights); and public international law (protection of minorities, indigenous peoples, international human rights, international economic law, culture in international law).
 
Publications in the RAE period 2008-2012:

(Dunbar R.& Kristin Henrard eds.), Synergies in Minority Protection: European and International Law Perspectives,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
(Dunbar R.), The Council of Europe European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Synergies in Minority Protection: European and International Law PerspectivesCambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Kristin Henrard and Robert Dunbar eds.
(Dunbar R.Gwynedd Parry and Simone Klinge eds.), The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages: Legal Challenges and OpportunitiesStrasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing, 2008.
(Dunbar R.), Definitively Interpreting the Charter: The Legal Challenges, The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages: Legal Challenges and OpportunitiesStrasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing, 2008. Robert Dunbar, Gwynedd Parry and Simone Klinge eds.
(Dunbar R.), Language Rights in Comparative Perspective: Europe, Official Languages of Canada: New Essays, pp.431-483, Markham: LexisNexis Canada, 2008. Joseph Eliot Magnet ed.
 
Publications in the RAE period 2001-2007: (Dunbar R.Eduardo J. Ruiz Vieytez eds.), Human Rights and Diversity: New Challenges for Plural SocietiesBilbao: Humanitarian Net, University of Deusto, 2007.
(Dunbar R.), European Traditional Linguistic Diversity and Human Rights: A Critical Assessment of International Instruments, Human Rights and Diversity: New Challenges for Plural Societies, pp.85-110, Bilbao: Humanitarian Net, University of Deusto, 2007. Eduardo J. Ruiz Vieytez and Robert Dunbar eds.
(Dunbar R.), Diversity in Addressing Diversity: Canadian and British Legislative Approaches to Linguistic Minorities, and Their International Legal Context, Language and GovernanceCardiff: University of Wales Press, 2007. Colin Williams ed.
(Dunbar R.), Is there a duty to legislate for linguistic minorities?, Journal of Law and Society, 33(1), pp.181-198, 2006.
(Dunbar R.), Gaelic in Scotland: the legal and institutional framework, Revitalising Gaelic in Scotland: Policy, Planning and Public Discourse, pp.1-23, Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press, 2006. Wilson McLeod ed.
(Dunbar R.), The Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, Edinburgh Law Review, 9(3), pp.466-479, 2005.
(Dunbar R.), The BBC, Charter Renewal, and Gaelic, The Future of the BBC: Perspectives on Public Sector Broadcasting 2004.
(Dunbar R.), Gaelic-Medium Broadcasting: Reflections on the Legal Framework for a Socio-Linguistic Perspective, Towards our Goals in Broadcasting, the Press, the Performing Arts and the Economy: Minority Languages in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Scotland, pp.73-83, 2004. John Kirk and Donall O Baoill eds.
(Dunbar R.), The Framework Convention within the Context of the Council of Europe: The Relationship with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, Filling the Frame: Five years of monitoring the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, pp.37-44, 2004.
(Dunbar R.), Language Legislation and Language Rights in the United Kingdom, 2002/03 European Yearbook of Minority Issues, pp.95-126, 2003.
(Dunbar R.), Legislating for Language: Facing the Challenges in Scotland and Wales, Language and Law in Northern Ireland, pp.133-158, 2003. Donall O Riagain ed.
(Dunbar R.), The Ratification by the United Kingdom of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, Mercator Linguistic Rights and Legislation, Working Paper No. 10 2003.
(Dunbar R.McKay F.), Denial of a Language: Kurdish Language Rights in Turkey 2002. A Kurdish Human Rights Project Fact-Finding Mission Report.
(Dunbar R.), Legislating for Diversity: Minorities in the New Scotland, The State of Scots Law, pp.37-57, 2001. L Farmer and S Veitch eds.
(Dunbar R.), Minority Language Rights Regimes: An Analytical Framework, Scotland, and Emerging European Norms, Linguistic Politics: Language Policies for Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Scotland, pp.237-260, 2001. JM Kirk and DP O Baoill eds.
(Dunbar R.), Minority Language Rights in International Law, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 50, pp.90-120, 2001.
 
Publications in the RAE period 1996-2000:

(Dunbar R.), Legal and Institutional Aspects of Gaelic Development, Aithne na nGael/Gaelic Identities, pp.67-87, 2000. Gordon McCoy and Maolcholaim Scott eds.
(Dunbar R.), Implications of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages for British Linguistic Minorities, European Law Review, Human Rights Survey 2000, 25, pp.46-69, 2000.
(Dunbar R.), Tax as a regulatory tool: the case of the proposed climate change levy, Regulation and Markets Beyond 2000, pp.195-219, 2000. L Macgregor, T Prosser and C Villiers eds.
(Dunbar R.), The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages: some issues from a Scottish Gaelic perspective, Minority and Group Rights in the New Millennium, pp.119-139, 1999. Deirdre Fottrell and Bill Bowring eds.
(Dunbar R.), Scotland: Language Legislation for Gaelic, Cambrian Law Review, 38, pp.39-82, 0.