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Email

fgs23@cam.ac.uk

Professor of Criminal Law; Chair of the Degree Committee

Interests

Criminal law, evidence, and procedure. Philosophy.

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. It was reviewed by Dr Andrew Cornford (Edinburgh) in the Criminal Law Review, Professor Kimberly Kessler Ferzan (Virginia) in the Modern Law Review, Professor Jonathan Herring (Oxford) in the Law Quarterly Review, and Professor Alexander Sarch (Surrey) in Criminal Law and Philosophy. 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 New Zealand Supreme Court (the mens rea of attempts) and 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 JournalCriminal 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

Co-Author/s:
John Child, Andrew Simester, John Spencer, Graham Virgo
Publisher:
ISBN 13:
9781509964277
Published Aug 2022

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

Co-Author/s:
Andrew Simester, John Spencer, Bob Sullivan and Graham Virgo
Publisher:
ISBN 13:
9781509926688
Published Aug 2019

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

Co-Author/s:
Andrew Simester, John Spencer, Bob Sullivan and Graham Virgo
Publisher:
ISBN 13:
9781849467223
Published Sep 2016

Articles

"Standing and Pre-Trial Misconduct: Hypocrisy, 'Separation', Inconsistent Blame and Frustration" (2024) 18 Criminal Law and Philosophy 327-349

Citation:
(2024) 18 Criminal Law and Philosophy 327-349
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11572-023-09688-2
Published: May 2024

"Recycled Malice" (2023) 82 Cambridge Law Journal 509-529

Citation:
(2023) 82 Cambridge Law Journal 509-529
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008197323000442
Published: Sep 2023

"Deconstructing Constructive Liability" [2023] Criminal Law Review 118-135

Citation:
[2023] Criminal Law Review 118-135
Published: Nov 2022

"Judicial Development of the Criminal Law by the Supreme Court" (2021) 41 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 1-29

Citation:
(2021) 41 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 1-29
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1093/ojls/gqaa031
Published: Jan 2021

"The Reasonableness in Recklessness " (2020) 14 Criminal Law and Philosophy 9-29

"Reckless Manslaughter " [2017] Criminal Law Review 763-784

Citation:
[2017] Criminal Law Review 763-784
Published: Oct 2017

"The Demise of 'Parasitic Accessorial Liability': Substantive Judicial Law Reform, Not Common Law Housekeeping" (2016) 75(3) Cambridge Law Journal 550-579

Citation:
(2016) 75(3) Cambridge Law Journal 550-579
DOI:
10.1017/S0008197316000611
Published: Nov 2016

"Necessity and Nicklinson" [2013] Criminal Law Review 949-965

Citation:
[2013] Criminal Law Review 949-965
Published: Dec 2013

"Wiping the Slate Clean: Reforming Scots Law's Approach to Evidence of the Accused's Bad Character" (2013) 76 Modern Law Review 346-369

Citation:
(2013) 76 Modern Law Review 346-369
Published: Mar 2013

"It's Only Words: On Meaning and Mens Rea" (2013) 72 Cambridge Law Journal 155-177

Citation:
(2013) 72 Cambridge Law Journal 155-177
Published: Mar 2013

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

Publisher:
Published 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

Publisher:
Pages:
25-46
ISBN 13:
978-1-5099-5614-2
Published Aug 2022

"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

Pages:
54-93
Published Jan 2020

"R v Howe (1987)" (with Henry Mares, Ian Williams and Phil Handler (Eds),), Landmark Cases in Criminal Law (Hart Publishing, 2016)

Publisher:
ISBN 13:
9781849466899
Co-Author/s:
Henry Mares, Ian Williams and Phil Handler (Eds),
Published Dec 2016

Reports

Post-corroboration Safeguards Review: Report of the Academic Expert Group

Co-Author/s:
James Chalmers, Fraser Davidson, Peter Duff, Pamela Ferguson, Fiona Leverick and Alasdair Shaw
Published: Oct 2014