On Feb 12, catch Prof Antje du Bois-Pedain's (Cambridge) Current Legal Problems lecture: 'Against Pro-Tanto Wrongs in the Theoretical Armature of Criminal Liability'. Antje was my PhD Supervisor, and is a huge influence on me. Her ideas are always worth engaging with. Registration: shorturl.at/J5Fri

On 19-20 Feb, I'm co-organising this public event: www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/... Papers focus on issues of legal theory, in particular (though not exclusively) as they relate to the criminal law. All are welcome, but places are limited, so please book through the link.

The next Assize Seminar in Cutting Edge Criminal Law is on this Friday, 7 Nov, at UCL Laws, featuring talks by @jonathanherring.bsky.social, Findlay Stark (Cambridge), and Jessica Corsi (City St Georges). Join us Details and (free) tickets here: www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/...

With Matt Dyson (Oxford), Rachel Tolley (Cambridge), & Paul Jarvis (Criminal Bar Association), I will host the next Assize Seminar in Criminal Law at UCL Laws on 7 Nov. Speakers include: @jonathanherring.bsky.social, Jessica Corsi, Findlay Stark. Info + (free) tickets: www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/...

How should legal education respond to AI? Together with 11 UCL Laws colleagues, this paper is our vision for the sector. It's rooted in academic integrity, fundamental competences, and concerns around impacts on learning to learn and intellectual risk taking. (🧵) discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10...

The #LPW2025 program is live! Speakers include @shbarclay.bsky.social, Anna Lukina, Julian Davis, Suzanne Bloks, @apoama.bsky.social, @markedsouza1.bsky.social, and Tarek Yusari. @uvalawschool.bsky.social 🔗 Check the program and register: sites.google.com/site/legalph...

A little snippet into my upcoming monograph with Routledge...

This is now live at criminaljusticetheoryblog.wordpress.com/2025/04/11/v...

This is imminent!

In our next post, Sorcha Mc Cormack, @leedsbeckett.bsky.social argues that we are defined, in part, by our vulnerability to circumstances, and each other. Our autonomy-focused law of sexual consent should reflect this common vulnerability. Coming this Friday! criminaljusticetheoryblog.wordpress.com

And here it is: criminaljusticetheoryblog.wordpress.com/2025/03/28/i... Comments and reflections most welcome! Thanks to @marthe.bsky.social!

In our next post, @marthe.bsky.social (Max Planck, Freiburg) argues that the wrongfulness of image-based sexual abuse lies in its infringement of personhood, and this infringement is better captured using a relational definition of persons. Coming this Friday: criminaljusticetheoryblog.wordpress.com

🚨BOOK LAUNCH - The Criminal Justice Centre at QMUL is delighted to host the launch of @chloekennedy.bsky.social 's Inducing Intimacy: Deception, Consent and the Law with an amazing panel incl @markedsouza1.bsky.social 📍QMUL (hybrid) 🗓️ Wed 9 April at 6 pm www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launc...

Last autumn, I interviewed Andrew Simester (Dean, NUS Law, and leading Criminal Law academic) for The Art of Crime magazine. Here it is, out in print and free to read for all: theartofcrime.gr/interview-of...

Finally! 📢Our volume "Rights in Criminal Law" is out!📢 17 essays on a rights-based approach to criminal law, featuring @malcolmthorburn.bsky.social A. Duff @markedsouza1.bsky.social T. Hörnle @michellecoleman.bsky.social &more Best of all 🎉 it's OPEN ACCESS! 👉 www.bloomsbury.com/uk/rights-in...

This is imminent!

This Friday, @chloejskennedy.bsky.social outlines the argument in her recent book, Inducing Intimacy: we should consult the genealogy of legal responses to deceptively induced sexual/romantic relationships when evaluating how the law regulates such conduct: criminaljusticetheoryblog.wordpress.com

The collection on 'Rights in Criminal Law' edited by @phirsch.bsky.social and Elias Moser is now out and free to download at www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?do.... In my contribution, Ch 7, I argue that victims' rights should make no difference to whether someone can plead a justification.

And here is @adam-kolber.bsky.social's post: criminaljusticetheoryblog.wordpress.com/2025/01/31/k...

This is imminent!

This Friday, @adam-kolber.bsky.social argues: in our current non-ideal world, carceral punishment is better addressed through pure consequentialism (ie denying the value of deserved punishment) than standard retributivism (where desert justifies punishment): criminaljusticetheoryblog.wordpress.com

And here it is: @should-b-workin.bsky.social's post on whether actions can manifest traits or attitudes that are not actually present: criminaljusticetheoryblog.wordpress.com/2025/01/17/c... Enjoy!

In our next post, @should-b-workin.bsky.social argues that, to a limited extent, the criminal law can fairly take D’s actions to manifest traits/attitudes even when we know that D does not actually possess them! Under what conditions? Find out this Friday on criminaljusticetheoryblog.wordpress.com!

For some reason, links aren't working on Bluesky today, but there's a link to the general blog in the quoted post, and Valerij's blogpost is the first one.

New post by Valerij Zisman (MPI for Crime, Security and Law, Freiburg) now live on the Criminal Justice Theory Blog. Zisman addresses the relevance of empirical research into psychology on punishment theory. Comments/Qs welcome!

This will be out imminently.

In our next post on criminaljusticetheoryblog.wordpress.com, coming Friday, Valerij Zisman considers the use of empirical research in human psychology on punishment theory. He say that it can be an important yardstick for ethical and legal theories, but we must use it more carefully. Watch for that!

And... here's my post on why I don't think AI entities can ever be treated as responsible agents anything that is recognisably a system of criminal laws. criminaljusticetheoryblog.wordpress.com/2024/11/29/w... Comments/reactions welcome!

One of my favourite online spaces to find interesting new work. If you’re at all interested in criminal law/justice theory, check it out (and maybe give @dinesson.bsky.social and myself’s post a peek while you’re at it🤓)

In our next post on criminaljusticetheoryblog.wordpress.com, coming tomorrow, I argue against some recent suggestions that the criminal law should consider treating AI entities as autonomous agents, capable of being criminal defendants in their own rights. Watch for that!

Check out our very accessible posts on criminalisation, culpability, consent, moral luck, justifications and excuses, acts and omissions, mala prohibita, proof through statistics, negligence, immigration enforcement, punishment theory, recklessness, transferred malice, prison labour, and much more!

Since Oct 2021, Liat Levanon (KCL) and I have edited the criminaljusticetheoryblog.wordpress.com. Authors worldwide address complex ideas on the theory and philosophy of criminal justice, in simple terms for a generalist audience. Check it out, spread the word, and consider chipping in a post!

Check out @levinguever.bsky.social new post on the Criminal Justice Theory Blog on Criminalisation and its Limits: Here's the direct link: criminaljusticetheoryblog.wordpress.com/2024/11/15/c... Comments and questions welcome!

UCL Centre for Criminal Law presents Philipp-Alexander Hirsch (csl.mpg.de/en/philipp-a...) on 'Assessing mens rea: How Criminal Law Disapproves of Our Reasons for Action'. Comments by @levinguever.bsky.social. Nov 25, 6:00pm. Details, booking: eventbrite.co.uk/e/assessing-....

Whenever I mark criminal law scripts, I sigh at the damage done by westerners mangling 'Ghosh' into 'Gosh'. And then giving articles gimmicky titles like 'Oh my Ghosh...' I get it: 'Gh' is a hard sound to make. But for the rest of the name, just saying it like you'd say 'Gauche'!

Up next at UCL's Dworkin Colloquium, at 3:00pm on 30 Apr Dr Adam Etinson (St Andrews) on Anger and Remorse. Details and booking link here: www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/...

The Assize Seminars are back! The next one is on the 10th of May at the offices of the Crown Prosecution Service in London, and we have an exciting line-up (see pic). Places are limited, so sign up ASAP here: forms.office.com/e/ePbi3jP2ZV

Delighted to have received my copy of this collection of essays in honour of GR Sullivan, edited by Andrew Simester. My own (autobiographical) contribution asks the big questions: Can you steal a free newspaper? And can you steal your takeaway dinner out of absentmindedness? :-)

Early heads up so you can reserve your place. The wonderful Michelle Dempsey will be discussing (in person only) her new paper, Wrongs (and Related Concepts) in Moral, Political, and Legal Perspective UCL Laws, 6pm on 18 Jun. Book your place here: www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/...

This looks like a great initiative to me. What do people with more sector-specific expertise than me think? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Meanwhile, in India: www.theguardian.com/world/2024/f...

One unexpected benefit of being on sabbatical and having others teach stuff you usually teach is learning what others think you've been doing wrong, but have been too nice to point out! Getting so much out of listening to David Ormerod teach sexual offences this academic year!

Hello BlueSky world! Please be better than my X.