Alison Cleland

Contact details
Building 803, room 3.22
17 Eden Crescent
Auckland

Phone: +64 9 923 2713
Email: alison.cleland@auckland.ac.nz

Available to students
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 2 - 3pm

Profile

Alison Cleland is a Scottish solicitor, enrolled in 1990. She has a commitment to ensuring that the voices of those who are disempowered are heard in legal matters affecting them. She was the Scottish Child Law Centre’s (equivalent of YouthLaw) first advice worker and developed a child law practice, representing young clients in family, delinquency and care and protection hearings in Scotland during the 1990s. She was advisor to the Scottish Parliament during its enquiry into the establishment of a Commissioner for Children and Young People. She began University teaching in 1999 and joined Auckland Faculty of Law in 2007. She is currently co-editor of the New Zealand Universities Law Review.

Research Interests

Alison's principle area of research is children's rights. She has a particular interest in how effectively children’s voices are heard in family and child care law proceedings and the procedures in place to assist child witnesses to give their evidence during criminal trials. She is currently researching child protection law, particularly the law’s response to the neglected child.

Courses Taught

• LAW 131 Legal Method
• LAW 241 Contract
• LAW 407 Advanced Family Law

Recent Publications

• Children's Rights in Scotland (2nd ed., Greens, 2001)
• 'Child and Family Law' Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia Reissue, (2004), LexisNexis UK/Law Society of Scotland (with K McK Norrie and E E Sutherland)
• Marshall, K., Tisdall, E.K.M., Cleland, A. with Plumtree, A. (2002) 'Voice of the Child' under the Children (Scotland) Act 1995: giving due regard to children's views in all matters that affect them, Volume 1 - Mapping Paper, Edinburgh: Scottish Executive Central Research Unit
• 'The Tyranny of Testing the Evidence: the need for reform of Scots law on child witnesses', 2002 Scottish Law and Practice Quarterly vol 7, no. 4, p232; 'The Antisocial Behaviour etc (Scotland) Act 2004: Exposing the Punitive Fault Line below the Children's Hearings System', 2005 Edin LR (Edinburgh Law Review) Vol 9, pp439-448
• 'The Challenge of Antisocial Behaviour: New relationships between the State, Children and Parents', (2005) IJLPF (International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family), Vol 19, pp395-420 (joint paper with K Tisdall)
• Child Abuse, Child Protection and the Law (Greens, April 2008)