Her academic career started at the University of Dundee in 1975 where she was renowned for her diligence and her rapport with students (at least the hard-working ones). Indeed, her first legal publication was an article on nationality law published in Public Law, written jointly with two colleagues in Dundee. And with them, she started an honours course on nationality and immigration law, almost certainly the very first on the topic in the UK. She also taught Honours courses in public international law with a special focus on the law of armed conflict.

In 1983, she moved to the University of Essex where she further developed her interest in human rights, in particular with regard to armed conflict, a formerly neglected area which she developed considerably.

She not only argued cases before domestic courts, but also before the European Court of Human Rights. She was fluent in French as her mother was French, and had met her father (who became the first professor of history at the University of York), while he was a liaison officer with the Free French forces.

She was very much a hands-on academic, visiting places where possible war crimes had been committed, such as Serbia during the period of internecine strife which accompanied the break-up of Yugoslavia and teaching human rights law to military personnel at staff colleges in several counties.

She was also largely responsible for rape being accepted as torture, contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Unsurprisingly, she was named joint Human Rights Lawyer of the Year with Professor Kevin Boyle in 1998. She was awarded the OBE in 2005.

Those receiving the annual round-robin letters accompanying her Christmas cards could feel exhausted just reading about her exploits during the preceding year. Her intellectual rigour in all aspects of her work was complemented by her warmth and kindness towards all those who had the pleasure to know her.

She last visited Dundee in 2024, testament to how important these friendships with former students and colleagues in Dundee were to Françoise as they were to us.

Robin White and John Barnett