Clare Frances is lecturer in law at Aberdeen Law School, specialising in international criminal law. She holds degrees from Edinburgh Napier University (LLB Hons) and the universities of Edinburgh (LLM) and Glasgow (PhD). She has taught law in several Scottish universities, and has previously held visiting research positions at Columbia University, New York, and the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law. She is also a listed Assistant to Counsel at the International Criminal Court.

Clare Frances' research interests lie in the related areas of international criminal law, international humanitarian law, and international human rights law, and she has published widely in these areas.

Her research has engaged with ideas relevant to international criminal law, international humanitarian law, and international human rights law. She has published work on the role of defences in both domestic and the international criminal legal systems, the role of the International Criminal Court in prosecuting human trafficking, and the way in which international criminal law and human rights law can be used to support the rights of refugees. Her most recent project culminated in the publication of her first monograph, 'The Authority of International Criminal Law: A Controversial Concept', published in 2023 by Cambridge University Press. Her work has also engaged with the role of defences in both domestic and the international criminal legal systems, the role of the International Criminal Court in prosecuting human trafficking, and the way in which international criminal law and human rights law can be used to support the rights of refugees.