Professor Findlay Stark

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. I have also published extensively in recent years on the law of homicide.

My research has 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).

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 and currently in its 9th edition (2026).

I serve on the editorial committees of 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, Wouter Wegkamp, Nicholas Tan, Ross Murdoch, and Matthew Putt. Previous supervisees of mine include Giordana Campagna, Khomotso Moshikaro, Anna Peters, Sara Trainor and Forest Yu, and I have acted as the Academic Advisor to a number of PhD students. 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 and only limited input into applications and proposals).