Members' Projects

Below is a list of projects that Members of the CCCJ are presently involved in.

Criminal Law Reform Now Network

CCCJ member Dr. Jonathan Rogers is a co-director (with Dr John Child of Birmingham University) of the Criminal Law Reform Now Network. This network was set up in June 2017 to co-ordinate interest academics and practitioners in law reform in criminal justice, including substantive law, evidence, procedure and sentencing. Its aim is to research areas of the law which are thought to be unsatisfactory but which are not already actively considered by the Law Commission or by government, and in which reform (including but not restricted to legislative reform) might nonetheless be possible. The Committee selected the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and private prosecutions as their first two subject areas. Work started on Computer Misuse at a symposium at Sussex University in September 2017 and written drafts will soon be considered at a workshop at Birmingham University (May 2019). A symposium on private prosecutions was held at UCL in April 2018 and written drafts are expected to be considered in early 2020. The Network benefits from finding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and more information can be found on the CLRNN website, http://www.clrnn.co.uk/.

Anglo-German Dialogue: Core Issues in Criminal Law and Procedure

CCCJ Members Dr. Antje du Bois-Pedain and Dr. Findlay Stark are involved in a project on the foundational principles and concepts of Anglo-German Criminal Law and Justice. The project participants come from Germanic and Anglo-American jurisdictions, and have been carefully selected to reflect a diversity of backgrounds with either a more theoretical/normative or a more empirical focus. The general editor of the project is Prof. Kai Ambos (Georg-August-University of Göttingen) and the editorial committee consists of Prof. Antony Duff (University of Stirling), Prof. Julian Roberts (University of Oxford) and Prof. Thomas Weigend (University of Cologne). The first edited collection produced by the project is now available via Cambridge University Press, and features chapters by du Bois-Pedain and (with Stefanie Bock (Marburg)) Stark. More information about the overall dialogue project can be found on the project's website, here.

Assize Seminars: Cutting Edge Criminal Law

The Assize Seminars, organised by Dr. Mark Dsouza (University College London), Dr. Matthew Dyson (University of Oxford), Paul Jarvis (6KBW College Hill and the CBA) and Dr. Findlay Stark (University of Cambridge and CCCJ), provide a space for cutting edge academic work to play a practical role in understanding and developing the law. They are a chance to challenge, debate and refine criminal justice, providing a bridge from academic to criminal legal practice. Just like the Assize of old, the seminars are peripatetic, in this case rotating over the next 18 months between Oxford, University College London and Cambridge, all with the support of the Criminal Bar Association.

The first Assize Seminar took place in Magdalen College, Oxford, on 12 May 2017, and included a presentation by Prof. John Spencer, University of Cambridge and CCCJ. Further information about the Oxford seminar, including the speakers' handouts, can be found on the Oxford website, here.

The second Assize Seminar will take place in London in November 2017, and further information will appear here in due course. Details of the third Assize Seminar, due to take place in Cambridge in 2018, will be published here when they become available. 

The Assize Seminars are also on Twitter: @AssizeSeminar