Legal Research Skills

• Comparative legal research.
• Summaries of the relevant law pertaining to a topic.
• Summaries of the passage of specific legislation (consultations, law commission reports, parliamentary briefings, public petitions etc.)
• Systematic reviews of case law.
• Extraction of data from legal documents for quantitative analysis.

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Opinion informs Law & Legal Process

Dr Mackay's research based opinion has impacted on the following:
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• Cross Party Working Group on Children and Young People: In October 2018, Dr Mackay was invited to be part of a panel discussing ‘family contact’ at a meeting of the Scottish Parliament Cross Party Working Group on Children and Young People.
• Scottish Government: In July, 2018, Dr Mackay was invited by the Civil Law Division  of the Scottish Government to a ‘Roundtable with family law academics’ on the proposed reforms to Part 1 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. 
• Judicial Institute for Scotland:  Dr Mackay's report for Scotland's Commissioner for Children & Young People has been used for training within the Judicial Institute for Scotland by Dr Marsha Scott, Chief Executive of Scottish Women's Aid.
•  Family Law Committee of the Scottish Civil Justice Council. In 2016, Dr Mackay responded to a request for opinion on Form F9 (which is used by courts in Scotland to enable children to express a view in family actions).  The rules of court have been amended following this consultation to ensure children are not sent potentially distressing court papers.
• Scottish Parliament Public Petition PE1513. Dr Mackay's research informed opinion significantly informed the Scottish Government position not to force mothers to name the father of their child on the birth certificate.