Andrew Ashworth

Vinerian Professor of English Law*

Andrew Ashworth is the Vinerian Professor of English Law. He obtained his LL.B. from the London School of Economics (1968), and then took the B.C.L. at Oxford (1970). He obtained a Ph.D. from Manchester University (1973). In 1993 he was awarded the degree of D.C.L. at Oxford and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. In 1997 he was appointed a Q.C. Honoris causa. In 1999 he was appointed a member of the Sentencing Advisory Panel,becoming its chair in 2007 until its abolition in 2010. He was awarded the degree of LL.D.honoris causa at De Montfort University in 1998, and the degree of Jur. D. honoris causa at Uppsala University in 2003. His first teaching position was as Lecturer (1970-76) then Senior Lecturer (1976-78) at Manchester University. From 1978 to 1988 he was Fellow and Tutor in Law at Worcester College, Oxford, and he served as Acting Director of the University's Centre for Criminological Research from 1982 to 1983. In 1988 he was appointed Edmund-Davies Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at King's College London, and held that post until moving to All Souls College to take up the Vinerian chair in 1997.

Publications

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A Ashworth, A Change of Normative Position: Determining the Contours of Culpability in Criminal Law (11, New Criminal Law Review 2008) [...]

DOI: 10.1525/nclr.2008.II.2.232

Critical re-examination of the doctrine of 'change of normative position' in criminal law theory, comparing it with forms of constructive liability.

ISBN: 1933-4206

A Ashworth and L H Zedner, Defending the Criminal Law: Reflections on the Changing Character of Crime, Procedure and Sanctions (2, Criminal Law and Philosophy 2008) [...]

DOI: 10.1007/s11572-007-9033-2

Re-assessment of the trend away from traditional criminal law and criminal procedure, and re-assertion of the normative significance of criminal law principles and protections.

ISBN: 1871-9791

A Ashworth, 'Departures from the Sentencing Guidelines' [2012] Criminal Law Review [...]

A critique of the law and practice relating to departues from the sentencing guidelines in England and Wales

ISBN: 0011-135X

A Ashworth, 'Ignorance of the Criminal Law, and Duties to Avoid it' (2011) 74 Modern Law Review 1 [...]

A critique of the doctrine that ignorance of the criminal law is no excuse, showing how preposterous the doctrine is and arguing that, even if it should continue in a muted form, it should be accompanied by positive duties on the State to publicise its criminal laws.

ISBN: 0026-7961

A Ashworth, 'Should Strict Liability be Removed from all Imprisonable Offences?' (2010) 45 Irish Jurist 1 [...]

This is a principled attack on the propensity of the English and Irish legislatures to impose strict liability for criminal offences that carry a sentence of imprisonment.

ISBN: 0021-1273

A Ashworth, 'The Unfairness of Risk-Based Possession Offences' (2011) 5 Criminal Law and Philosophy 237 [...]

The article argues that certain criminal offences of possession, i.e. 'risk-based possession offences', cannot be justified within current criminal law doctrines.

ISBN: 1871-9791

News

The Roger Hood Public Lecture 23 May 2013

Criminology has had a home in Oxford for over fifty years and has thrived under the leadership of Professor Roger Hood since 1973, first as an independent unit within the University and, since 1991 as an integral department of the Faculty of Law [more…]

Festschrift for Professor Andrew Ashworth

Over a hundred colleagues and students came together in November in a celebration for Professor Andrew Ashworth CBE QC FBA, Vinerian Professor of English Law at All Souls College and the Faculty of Law [more…]