Hector Lewis MacQueen was born on 13 June 1956. He is the son of John MacQueen, Professor Emeritus, Scottish Literature and Oral Tradition, Edinburgh University. He was educated at George Heriot's School, Edinburgh, and then at Edinburgh University where he graduated LLB in 1978. The following year he married Frances Mary Young, and also in 1979 he became a Lecturer at Edinburgh University. In 1985 he was awarded a Ph.D., Edinburgh University, and then in 1991 he became a Senior Lecturer. In 1994, MacQueen became Reader and then Professor in Private Law at Edinburgh University. His research and teaching focus has been in the areas of intellectual property, the private law of obligations, and the history of law.

Professor Hector L. MacQueen has also been a Visiting Professor at Cornell University (USA) 1991, at Utrecht University (Netherlands) 1997, and at Stetson U.C. of Law, Florida, 2007-2009. He has been a member of the Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information, Cabinet Office, from 2004, and a member of the Co-ordinating Committee, European Civil Code Study Group, 1999-2008. In 2009 he was appointed to the Scottish Law Commission for a period of five years. MacQueen has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh since 1995 and he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2006.

His publications include: Common law and feudal society in medieval Scotland (1993), Atlas of Scottish history to 1707 (1996), Copyright, competition and industrial design (1989, 1995), Studying Scots law (1993, 2004), and Unjustified enrichment (2004). With J. Thomson he wrote Contract law in Scotland (2000, 2007), and he jointly wrote Contemporary intellectual property: law and policy (2007).

Frances Mary Young was a student at Edinburgh University from 1974, graduating LLB (Honours) in 1978. She married Hector L. MacQueen in 1979. After graduation she had begun a solicitor's apprenticeship with Allan McNeil and Son WS of Edinburgh, and completed it with A. C. Bennett and Fairweather WS, also of Edinburgh, in 1980. She became an Assistant with the same firm and continued in legal practice until 1982. A career break followed until 1995, although she had been able to carry out conveyancing work for Bennet's from time to time. Between 1995 and 1997 she was a Company Secretary with Optical Flow Systems Ltd, and then from 1997 to 2001 a Co-ordinator with Planning Aid for Scotland. Since 2001 she has been a Policy Officer at the Scottish Executive.