Fernanda Pirie is Professor of the Anthropology of Law, at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford. She is an anthropologist specialising in the study of law, legalism and informal legal systems. Fernanda has carried out fieldwork among Tibetan populations in both India and China and collaborates with colleagues in anthropology and history in the Oxford Legalism Project.
She is currently working on a project entitled Legal Ideology in Tibet: Politics, Practice, and Religion, which is exploring and analysing legal sources and materials from medieval Tibet (10th to 17th centuries). Fernanda formerly practised as a barrister at 13 Old Square, before its merger to become Maitland Chambers.