
Professor of Criminal Law
Interests
Criminal law, evidence, and procedure. Philosophy.
Research centres and interest groups
CV / Biography
My research focuses on criminal law, evidence, and procedure, often with reference to work in moral, legal and political philosophy. I am also interested in legal philosophy (legal theory, jurisprudence) more generally.
A list of my most significant publications is to be found below. Much of my research to date has focussed on mens rea – the fault element in crime – and particularly recklessness and negligence. My 2016 monograph, Culpable Carelessness: Recklessness and Negligence in the Criminal Law was published by Cambridge University Press. My research has also appeared in leading journals including the Cambridge Law Journal, Criminal Law and Philosophy, the Modern Law Review, and the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, as well as in edited collections of essays published by leading legal publishers such as Cambridge University Press, Hart Publishing, and Oxford University Press. My research has been cited by the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) (sexual behaviour evidence), the New Zealand Supreme Court (the mens rea of attempts), the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (the history of complicity liability), and in successive editions of the Scottish Jury Manual (breach of the peace).
Together with Professor Simester et al, I am an author/editor of Simester and Sullivan’s Criminal Law: Theory and Doctrine, an advanced textbook on criminal law published by Hart Publishing.
I serve on the editorial committees of the Cambridge Law Journal, Criminal Law Forum and the Criminal Law Review.
I am also an Academic Associate, at 23 Essex Street, a leading criminal law set.
My current research supervisees are James Browning, Anna Peters, Sara Trainor, and Forest Yu, and I am an Academic Advisor to Jeanne-Rose Arn, Harry Harland, and Carly Whelan. Previous supervisees of mine include Giordana Campagna and Khomotso Moshikaro. Although admission decisions are entirely at the discretion of the Degree Committee, not individual Faculty members, I am open to receiving initial inquiries about pursuing research under my supervision (but, again, can give no indications regarding potential admission).
Publications
Books
Simester and Sullivan's Criminal Law: Theory and Doctrine (with John Child, Andrew Simester, John Spencer, Graham Virgo) (Hart, 2022) 8th Edition

Simester and Sullivan’s Criminal Law: Theory and Doctrine (with Andrew Simester, John Spencer, Bob Sullivan and Graham Virgo) (Hart, 2019) 7th Edition

Culpable Carelessness: Recklessness and Negligence in the Criminal Law, 2018)

Culpable Carelessness: Recklessness and Negligence in the Criminal Law (Cambridge University Press, 2016)
Simester and Sullivan's Criminal Law: Theory and Doctrine (with Andrew Simester, John Spencer, Bob Sullivan and Graham Virgo) (Hart, 2016) 6th Edition

Articles
"Omissions, Non-Interventions and Causation: Andrew Simester's Account" Singapore Journal of Legal Studies
"Re-Reading Andrews v DPP" [2024] Criminal Law Review 831-850
"Standing and Pre-Trial Misconduct: Hypocrisy, 'Separation', Inconsistent Blame and Frustration" (2024) 18 Criminal Law and Philosophy 327-349
"Recycled Malice" (2023) 82 Cambridge Law Journal 509-529
"Deconstructing Constructive Liability" [2023] Criminal Law Review 118-135
"Judicial Development of the Criminal Law by the Supreme Court" (2021) 41 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 1-29
"The Reasonableness in Recklessness " (2020) 14 Criminal Law and Philosophy 9-29
"Reckless Manslaughter " [2017] Criminal Law Review 763-784
"The Demise of 'Parasitic Accessorial Liability': Substantive Judicial Law Reform, Not Common Law Housekeeping" (2016) 75(3) Cambridge Law Journal 550-579
"Necessity and Nicklinson" [2013] Criminal Law Review 949-965
"Wiping the Slate Clean: Reforming Scots Law's Approach to Evidence of the Accused's Bad Character" (2013) 76 Modern Law Review 346-369
"It's Only Words: On Meaning and Mens Rea" (2013) 72 Cambridge Law Journal 155-177
Book Chapters
"Jogee and the Mechanics of Criminal Law Development" in Lewis Graham and Jennifer Russell (ed(s)), The Supreme Court at 15: Reflections on Public Law), forthcoming
"Against Knowledge (in the Criminal Law)" in AP Simester (ed(s)), Modern Criminal Law: Essays in Honour of GR Sullivan (Hart, 2022), pp. 25-46
"Tort Law, Expression and Duplicative Wrongs " in Paul Miller and John Oberdiek (ed(s)), Civil Wrongs and Justice in Private Law (Oxford University Press, 2020), pp. 441-462
"Preparatory Offences" (with Stefanie Bock) in Antony Duff et al (ed(s)), Core Concepts in Criminal Law and Justice (Cambridge University Press, 2020), pp. 54-93
"R v Howe (1987)" (with Henry Mares, Ian Williams and Phil Handler (Eds),), Landmark Cases in Criminal Law (Hart Publishing, 2016)
