From 19 - 21 May 2022 the 11th conference in the series The Future of Adversarial and Inquisitorial System, a collaboration between the Universities of Warwick, North Carolina, Bologna, Basel and Duke University will be hosted at Scarman House, University of Warwick.

The conference draws upon what Ritzer has described as a kind of McDonaldization of criminal justice. As the trial becomes increasingly rare, along with opportunities to challenge the reliability of evidence, the accused finds herself encouraged to make an admission at the earliest opportunity based on the information gathered during the police investigation. The presence of defence counsel at strategic points in the process lends some legitimacy, but the practices of law reflect little of the safeguards and values so celebrated in the rhetoric of both adversarial and inquisitorial-type systems. Processes are being ‘simplified’ – not in ways that make the process clear and easy to navigate – but through the removal of fundamental safeguards deemed too costly and time-consuming such as juries, judicial investigation, or any form of trial or contestation of charges. Added to this are new types of evidence, gathered in as yet unregulated ways, the nature and provenance of which require careful scrutiny if they are to form the basis of prosecution and conviction.

Several conference panels will be devoted to discussion of these themes drawing on Hodgson’s The Metamorphosis of Criminal Justice (2020, OUP). In this work, through a comparative analysis of the potentially radical and fundamental changes taking place across two contrasting jurisdictions (England and Wales, and France), she explores the ways that criminal justice traditions continue to be shaped in different ways by broader policy and political concerns, and the ways in which different systems adapt, change and distort when faced with (sometimes conflicting) pressures domestically and externally. This comparative lens also illuminates the ways that, in England and Wales and in France, different procedural values may serve to structure or limit reform, and so work to facilitate or resist change.

Thursday 19th May is devoted to presentations from Early Career Researchers. View the programme.
Attendance is free, but participants must register via email first to secure a place.

The main conference takes place on Friday 20th and the morning of Saturday 21st May. View the programmeLink opens in a new window.
All are welcome but you must register via email and there is a small charge for attendance (£35 Friday, including lunch; £25 Saturday). You are also welcome to join the conference dinner on the evening of Friday 20th May at a cost of £35.

More details including conference programmes and registration details can be found here.

The Criminal Justice Centre will be hosting its third annual PhD research conference on Friday 29th April 2022.

The theme for this year is: 'Criminal Questions: Paths (and Shortcuts) within and beyond the Law'.

This one-day conference seeks to bring together PhD researchers at any stage of their programme who are interested in topics related to criminal justice, criminal law or criminology.

Submission of Abstract:

If you are interested in participting please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words to cjc@warwick.ac.uk .

When submitting this abstract include your name, institutional affiliation and department.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 15^th March 2022.

Successful applicants will be notified in the week commencing 28^th March 2022.

On the 9th and 10th September 2020, CJC’s Ana Aliverti and Ioana Vrăbiescu hosted an international workshop on the policing of mobility to explore the new configuration of policing under conditions of globalization and mass migration.

The Criminal Justice Centre hosted the launching of Dr. Henrique Carvalho's book ‘The Preventive Turn in Criminal Law’ last Thursday, November 30, 2017. ‘The Preventive Turn in Criminal Law’, offers the latest addition to the Oxford Monographs on Criminal Law and Justice published by OUP (Oxford University Press). This new book seeks to understand where the impulse for prevention in criminal law comes from, and why this preventive dimension seems to be expanding in recent times. The series aims to cover all aspects of criminal law and procedure including criminal evidence and encompassing both practical and theoretical works. The general idea of a ‘preventive turn’ in criminal law is a modern spate of new criminal offences that criminalise conduct that happens much earlier than the actual harm which they are trying to prevent.

The book launching ceremony was well attended by many members of the Law School family at Warwick and beyond. Professor Lucia Zedner (Oxford), Professor Peter Ramsay (LSE) and Professor Alan Norrie (Warwick) were present as discussants. The event concluded with a wine reception.

On November 03, 2017, Warwick's Criminal Justice Centre hosted a screening of the documentary film ‘Fallout’ which examines the stories of four different people who were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for serious offenses. The film was followed by a panel discussion involving Paddy Hill and Robert Brown, both wrongfully convicted of murder and who spent, respectively, 16 and 25 years in prison. The film's director Mark McLoughlin, as well as CJC researcher Dr. Juliet Horne and Jodie Blackstock from JUSTICE, spoke at the event. The discussions shed much-needed light on the often traumatic afterlife of those freed from prison following the admission of a miscarriage of justice.