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Criminal Law and Criminal Justice

LSE Law School has a distinguished tradition of teaching and scholarship in criminal law and criminal justice, and current members of the criminal law group work across the fields of contemporary criminal law, the history and theory of criminal law, criminal evidence, criminology and criminal justice policy. The law school pioneered the study and teaching of criminology in the British Isles, when Hermann Mannheim was appointed to LSE in 1935. Mannheim had been a distinguished judge in Germany, and taught criminal law at the University of Berlin, before becoming a refugee from Hitler in 1934.  He was a forerunner of the projects of uniting empirical social science and doctrinal scholarship, bringing to bear a multi-disciplinary analysis – an approach which remains a hallmark of our distinctive approach. Mannheim was also concerned with contributing to the development of policy, and pioneered comparative study of crime and criminal justice. His legacy lives on in the LSE Mannheim Centre for Criminology, founded in 1990, which brings together the research and teaching of LSE Law School with a rich array of distinguished scholars in the field and in the LSE's Departments of Social Policy, Sociology and indeed across the School. Fuller details of the Mannheim Centre's activities can be found on the Mannheim website . Members of LSE Law School and the Mannheim Centre have been heavily involved in the editing and writing of The Oxford Handbook of Criminology, the leading text in the subject, now in its fifth edition. Our members have published widely in the areas of criminal law theory, comparative study of criminal justice, mentally disordered offenders, evidence, criminal procedure, policing, media and crime, political economy of crime and criminal justice policy. The law school's teaching and scholarship in criminal law is informed by this criminological and social science expertise, as it is by engagement with other disciplinary resources such as legal and political philosophy. Several of the law school's public international lawyers - notably Dr. Chaloka Beyani and Dr. Devika Hovell - have special interests in International Criminal Law (see Public International law). The Group runs the Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Theory Forum. There is also a monthly programme of distinguished outside speakers organised by the Mannheim Centre in conjunction with the British Society of Criminology. 

Faculty

Dr Abenaa Owusu-Bempah

Professor Jeremy Horder

Professor Nicola Lacey

Dr Richard Martin

Ms Maame Mensa-Bonsu (LSE Fellow)

Professor Jill Peay

Dr Federico Picinali

Dr Josh Pike (LSE Fellow)

Dr Peter Ramsay

Professor Robert Reiner (Emeritus Professor)

Dr Roxana Willis

Visiting Faculty

Jonathan Fisher KC (Visiting Professor)

Research Students

Stephanie Classmann

Pascual Cortés

Michelle Hughes

Dimitris Moragiorgas

Valeria Ruiz

 

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