Mark Dsouza (UCL)  |  Matthew Dyson (Oxford, Chair)  |  Paul Jarvis (CBA)  |  Rachel Tolley Clement (Cambridge)

The Assize Seminars 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 academia to criminal legal practice. Just like the Assize of old, the seminars are peripatetic, in this case rotating over the next 18 months between three leading academic institutions: Oxford, Cambridge and University College London, all with the support of the Criminal Bar Association. Each institution normally offers a speaker or commentator at each event, with the other half of the slots filled by academics, judges, practitioners, law reformers and others. Events attendance and speaker slots are open to all.


Previous events

May 2022: Hosted by the University of Cambridge.
Further information will be available here and on our sister institutions online in due course. 

The last event was hosted at UCL, and the videos of the presentations and the handouts are available
In addition, we had an interview with Fahima Sirat, former judge of the Afghan Anti-Corruption Court, which we cannot share as a recording.

14 May 2021: Hosted by the University of Oxford and held online. The timetable is below.

15:00 Introduction
15:10 Discussion session 1
Speaker: Dr Mark Dsouza, Associate Professor, UCL
Title: False beliefs and consent to sex


Commentator: David Emanuel QC, Garden Court Chambers
15:55 Break
16:00 Discussion session 2
Speaker: Dr Gabrielle Watson, Shaw Foundation Fellow in Law, Lincoln College, Oxford
Title: "Ethical Perspectives on the Guilty Plea"

Commentator: HHJ Farrell QC, Honorary Recorder of Cambridge and Peterborough
16:45 Break
16:50 Discussion session 3
Speaker: Abenaa Owusu-Bempah, Assistant Professor of Law, LSE
Title: "The irrelevance of rap"


Commentators: (double bill)
Kirsty Brimelow QC, Doughty Street Chambers
Joel Smith, Furnival Chambers and Junior Treasury Counsel at the Central Criminal Court
17:35 Breakout sessions for those interested in further discussion
18:00 Close

May 2020: This Cambridge event was postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. However, we decided to hold it remotely, via Zoom, on Friday 20th November. The papers were recorded in advance, and comments and discussion carried out in person on the day. For more details, please see:

www.cccj.law.cam.ac.uk/assize-seminars 

16th November 2019: Full details, including videos of the presentations and the materials available:

www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/2019/nov/assize-seminar-cutting-edge-criminal-law

17th May 2019: Hosted at the Criminal Cases Review Commission, in Birmingham.
Agenda

2:00 PM: Welcome by Dr Matt Dyson and CCRC
2:05 PM: CCRC Case study
3.00 PM Break
3:30 PM: Dr Lucy Welsh, University of Sussex, "Lawyers, the Criminal Cases Review Commission and Legal Aid cuts" with a comment by Dr Hannah Quirk, King's College London. The handout is available here
4:30 PM: Break
5:00 PM: Harpreet Sandhu, Number 5 Chambers Birmingham, "Drugs in court: the substance and procedure of the county lines cases?" with a comment by HHJ Mary Stacey. The handout is available here.
6:00 PM: Break
6:30 PM: Dr Adrian Hunt, University of Birmingham, "Counter-Terrorism Preparatory Offences: Special Cases or the New Normal?" with a comment by Joel Bennathan QC, Doughty Street Chambers. The handout is available here.
7:30 PM: Drinks Reception

November 2018: Hosted at Oxford University, with the following agenda:
15.10 Welcome, Dr Matt Dyson, University of Oxford
15.15 Dr Hannah Quirk, Reader in Criminal Law, King's College, London, “Limitations to Loss of Self Control.”

16.15 Break

16.45 Rudi Fortson QC, 25 Bedford Row and Visiting Professor, Queen Mary, University of London, “Making Dishonesty Fit the Crime”.
17.45 Break
18.15 Sir Tony Bottoms, Emeritus Wolfson Professor of Criminology at the University of Cambridge “The Role of Equity Factors in Sentencing”.
19.15-20.00pm Drinks

The launch event was held in Oxford on 12 May 2017 in Magdalen College Auditorium, with 45 academics, barristers, solicitors, prosecutors and judges attending. 

Agenda:
1. Dr Rebecca Williams, University of Oxford: “Why conditional intent should count as intent”

Comment by Mr Julian Knowles QC, Matrix Chambers.
2.Prof. John Spencer, University of Cambridge: “Is our criminal appeal system fit for purpose?
Comment by Prof. David Ormerod QC (Hon), Professor of Criminal Justice at UCL; Law Commissioner for England and Wales
3. Mr Paul Jarvis, 6KBW College Hill: “Are freedom, capacity and agreement always essential components of consent?
Comment by HH Peter Rook QC, Judge, Central Criminal Court; Judicial Fellow of the UCL Judicial Institute.

Third Assize Seminar, Cambridge, 27 April 2018

Archived here.


Agenda
1. Prof. Nicola Padfield, University of Cambridge: “What is a sentence?”
Comment by Prof. Andrew Ashworth, University of Oxford
2. Prof. Ian Dennis, UCL: “Disclosure"
 Comment by Alex Chalk MP
3. Mr Francis FitzGibbon, Doughty Street Chambers: “Conviction Appeals to the CACD – Barriers & Obstacles – ‘Substantial Injustice’
Comment by HH Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales

The second Assize Seminar was hosted by UCL on the 8th of November 2017

Details of the programme, including the handouts and videos from the event are available here.
Agenda:
1. Prof. Jeremy Horder, LSE: “Justifying the criminalisation of misconduct in public office: how far should we go?”
Comment by Prof. Peter Alldridge, Queen Mary University of London. 
Comment by Prof. David Ormerod QC (Hon), Professor of Criminal Justice at UCL; Law Commissioner for England and Wales
2. Prof. Julian Roberts, University of Oxford: “The evolution of sentencing law and practice as a result of the emerging sentencing guidelines” Comment by HH Judge Martin Picton, Circuit Judge and Judicial Member of the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee Comment by Prof. Loraine Gelsthorpe, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge.

Assize Seminars 2018. The Role of Equity Factors in Sentencing