University Assistant Professor in Comparative Law, Co-Editor-in-Chief, Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies, and Fellow and Director of Studies in Law (King's College)
Interests
Comparative law, Comparative legal reasoning, Constitutional law, European Law, Judicial studies, The right to a fair trial, Empirical socio-legal research.
Most of Dr Turenne’s research and advisory work concerns the role of judges in the UK and Europe. She is particularly interested in the defining features of judicial independence, the beliefs and attitudes that influence the role and function of judges, the meaning of judicial impartiality, and the practices that condition the right to a fair trial in England and Wales and selected European jurisdictions. Her work sits at the intersection of constitutional law, civil procedure, and political science, and is often approached from a comparative perspective. She recently co-drafted the ELI–Mt Scopus European Standards of Judicial Independence (2024), which both describe and prescribe how to protect judicial independence and ensure access to impartial courts in Europe. Her Research Handbook on Judging and the Judiciary (2025), co-edited with Dr Mohamed Moussa, brings together legal, socio-legal, and political science perspectives on court adjudication.
Research centres and interest groups
CV / Biography
Dr Sophie Turenne is Associate Professor in Comparative Law, Director of Studies and Fellow in Law at King's College, and Fellow Emerita of Murray Edwards College. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies, an Associate Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law and President of the British Association of Comparative Law.
She previously served as the University Neil Allam/Clifford Chance Lecturer (2003–2010), Senior College Lecturer at Murray Edwards College (2010–2018; 2021–2023), Affiliated Lecturer (2010–2018), and University Lecturer in EU Law (2018–2021) at the Cambridge Law Faculty. A former ERASMUS student (Oxford–Paris II exchange), she completed her PhD in Law at the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas and was awarded several national doctoral scholarships, including the Lavoisier Scholarship (French Ministry of Foreign Affairs), the Entente Cordiale Scholarship (British Council), and the CNRS Mobilité Internationale scholarship.
Dr Turenne has served in expert roles for a range of institutions, including the French National School of the Judiciary, the Judicial Appointments Commission of England and Wales, the OECD, the OSCE-ODIHR, the UK Ministry of Justice, and the UK Senior Salaries Review Body.
At Cambridge, she has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses such as Comparative Law, Constitutional Law, Constitutional Law of the European Union, European Union Law, Public Law (seminar), and The Judiciary in a Comparative Perspective.
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