Professor Andrew Sanders has been appointed as the new Chair of Warwick Law School.

Andrew will formally take office on 1 January 2019 taking over from Vanessa Munro who has been chair of the department since January this year and doing a fantastic job.

Andrew joins us from the University of Sussex where he has been Head of the School of Law, Politics and Sociology since July 2015. He is a Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology and has previously worked at the University of Bristol, University of Manchester and University of Birmingham. At both Birmingham and Manchester he acted as Head of Department for a term of four years. He has also held academic positions at the University of Oxford and Manchester Metropolitan University.

Professor Sanders researches in the area of criminal justice: prosecutions, suspects rights, police powers, courts, victims of crime but has also done policy work and published on legal education. He is currently working on two projects law, policy and (non)prosecution of assisted dying (i.e. assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia); and the 5th edition of his jointly-authored Oxford University Press textbook on criminal justice.

When asked about taking on the role of Head of Warwick Law School, Andrew said: "I’m very excited to be joining Warwick and leading the Law School. It is daunting because the School, like the rest of Warwick, is a leader in its field with several distinguished Chairs before me, so I know that a lot will be expected of me.”

He told us, “two main things attracted me to Warwick. First, Warwick Law School was established in the late 1960s to be different from traditional Law Schools. From the start it led the ’law in context’ approach in the UK. This, and ‘socio-legalism’, which is a logical extension of ’law in context’, has been central to my life as a legal academic, so Warwick is a natural academic home for me.

“Second, my home is in Birmingham. So for the last 3 years or so I’ve split my life between Birmingham and Brighton. Moving to Warwick will enable me to have a normal family life again.

“I’m looking forward to joining up with old friends and making new ones, in the School and wider University. I’ve always had connections with Warwick Law School – I even did my LLB there – so I feel the wheel has turned full circle in a very satisfying way.”

Vanessa Munro shared, “it has been an honour to be entrusted with the role of Head of Department for the past year. During that time, we've recruited excellent new colleagues, welcomed another cohort of inquiring and engaged students and successfully launched a new joint degree programme (PPL), amongst other things, whilst cementing the School's reputation for world-leading research.

“There are exciting times ahead for the School as we work with students to refresh our curriculum. I am hugely grateful to my academic and professional services colleagues for supporting me during my time as the Head of Department, and I am delighted to be able to hand the post over to Professor Andrew Sanders, who now gets to come 'home' to WLS.”

Best of luck Andrew, we look forward to welcoming you in the New Year!