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Professor Stewart Field

Professor Stewart Field

Professor of Law

Email
fieldsa@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44(0)29 2087 4363
Campuses
1.04, Law Building, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AX
Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

I became a lecturer at Cardiff in 1984 after doctoral research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford. I had previously obtained an M Phil in Criminology at Cambridge after a first degree in Law at Oxford University. My PhD `Legal Forms, Legal Ideology and the Early Factory Inspectorate' used an historical case-study to examine the interaction between social conflict and legal forms. In recent years, my research interests have focussed around comparative criminal justice. I have co-written two monographs and co-edited six collections of essays as well as publishing many articles on a variety of criminal justice topics. These include detailed bilateral studies comparing England and Wales with the Netherlands, France and Italy. My most recent published work was a 2019 special issue of the Journal of Law and Society that I co-edited with Dr Renaud Colson (University of Nantes, France): it examined whether and how it is possible to devise effective criminal justice policy by drawing on the experience of other jurisdictions.    I am currently co-leading (with Professor Cyrus Tata, University of Strathclyde, Scotland) an international comparative project on the role of remorse and the acceptance of responsibility in criminal justice. We are co-editing a volume based on the project for Hart Publishing The Ideal Defendant: Showing Remorse and Taking Responsibility. 

I have been a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Law and Society since 1989. For many years I was the Director of our Law and French degree programme and remain the Erasmus coordinator for our links with Amiens and Nantes. I have been Head of the Law Department since 2019.

Biography

Post-School Education

1989, D.Phil. Jurisprudence, Oxford University (Thesis: Legal Forms, Legal Ideology and the Early Factory Inspectorate)

1981-4: ESRC quota award DPhil Scholarship in Socio-Legal Studies, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford

1981, M Phil. Criminology, Cambridge University

1980, BA (Hons) Jurisprudence, Oxford University

External appointments, Visiting Lectureships etc.

    • Visiting Lecturer, Willem Pömpe Institute for Criminal Justice, University of Utrecht, Netherlands, 1992 and Buchmann Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv, Israel, 1998/99
    • Professeur Invité, Universities of Amiens (2000-), Nantes (2005 and 2009) and Rennes (2015)
    • Invited Lecturer on programme of continuing education for French judges, Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature, France 2008-2010
    • External examiner, Strathclyde University Law School 2008-2011 and 2015-2019, City University Law School 2012-2016 and Warwick Law School 2015-2019

    Honours and awards

    Grants

    1995 British Council Know How Fund for Bulgaria: £6,750 (Teaching Programme for Bulgarian Judges).

    1995/6 University of Wales Collaboration Fund: £2,500.

    Organisation and co-ordination of international group of scholars working on comparative perspectives on covert and proactive policing, securing financing from University of Wales Collaboration Fund for seminars in Grygnog (Wales) and Maastricht (Netherlands) and leading to edited collection published by Dartmouth

    1996 Economic and Social Research Council £79,825

    ESRC grant for project `Defence Lawyers in the French Criminal Process’. Lead investigator spending a year collecting empirical research

    2001: Economic and Social Research Council £72, 128

    ESRC grant for project `Early Intervention and Youth Justice in England and Wales and Italy' (with M Drakeford formerly SOCSI and D Nelken now King's College London. Lead investigator supervising gathering of empirical material (interviews and case-files)

    2008: British Academy, £11,507

    Host sponsor to enable Dr Renaud Colson (University of Nantes) to come to Cardiff to work together on ‘Fair Trial and Managerialism in Criminal Justice: an Anglo-French study in comparative law’ under BA Visiting Fellowship Award.

    2011: Arts and Humanities Research Council Fellowship, £40, 360

    6 month Fellowship for project: Making sense of youth justice: a comparative study of Italy and Wales.

    2016: Cardiff Incoming Visiting Fellows Scheme & International Collaboration Seedcorn Fund, £5,000 (research collaboration with Dr Renaud Colson)

    2016: Centre for Law and Society Research Theme Funding, series of workshops ‘Security and Justice: the challenge of the transnational’, £12,000, (coordination of series, organization of one workshop)

    2016: Conseil national des recherches scientifiques (France), Harmonizing European Criminal Justice Systems : values, drivers and limits, 18k euros, (with Dr Renaud Colson), submitted awaiting reply

    Professional memberships

    Socio-Legal Studies Association

    Society of Legal Scholars

    British Society of Criminology

    European Society of Criminology

    Academic positions

    2013- Professor

    2010-2013 Reader

    2001-2010 Senior Lecturer, University of Cardiff

    1984-2001 Lecturer (University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology, then University of Cardiff

    Speaking engagements

    Conference, Seminar and Workshop Papers 1995 onwards (External only)

    1. (with Chrisje Brants) `Participation Rights and Proactive Policing: Convergence and Drift in European Criminal Process’ Criminal Justice section group, SPTL Annual Conference (September 1995) and invited presentation, Dutch Association of Comparative Lawyers Annual Lecture (December 1995)
    2. (with Chrisje Brants) `Legal Cultures and Procedural Traditions: towards a comparative interpretation of covert and proactive policing in England and Wales and in the Netherlands’ Law and Society Association Annual Conference, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (July 1996)
    3. `La procédure pénale et l’avocat: quelques réflexions préliminaires d’Outre-Manche,’ invited presentations to Cercle Barreau/Faculté, Université de Nantes (March 1997) and Law Faculties, University of Picardy, Amiens (May 1997) and Toulouse (December 1998)
    4. `Defence Lawyers in the French Criminal Process’ Paper to SLSA Conference, Manchester Metropolitan University (April 1998)
    5. (with Pauline Roberts, Cardiff Law School) `Racism and Police Investigations: Individual Redress and Collective Change after The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000', Paper to Annual Conference, Socio-Legal Studies Association, Bristol 4-6 April 200
    6. `Responsabilité, Justice et La Procédure Pénale Comparée' invited paper to Colloque Louis Lorvellec: La Responsabilite: Sens et Essence, University of Nantes 15-16 November 200
    7. `The State, the Citizen and Criminal Responsibility in France' , Paper to Annual Conference, Socio-Legal Studies Association, Nottingham 14-16 April 2003
    8. `La responsabilité pénale de l'enfant: l'exemple brittanique', invited paper to Colloque L'europe et l'enfant, University of Rennes, 22-24 May 2003
    9. `Early intervention and Youth Justice in England and Wales and Italy’, invited seminar to South Wales Police and Youth Offending Teams, September 2004
    10. ‘Cultural Consensus and Conflict in Youth Justice’ invited paper to Annual Conference, Cynnydd (Wales Youth Justice Forum), April 2000
    11. ‘Early Intervention and the Cultures of Youth Justice: A Comparison of Wales and Italy’ (with Professor David Nelken) at European Ways of Law, First European Socio-Legal Conference, Onati International Institute for the Sociology of Law, July 2005
    12. ‘Empirical Research in Comparative Law’, invited workshop, UKNCCL Research Student Workshop in Methodologies of Comparative Law, Cambridge Law Faculty, January 2006
    13. ‘The Cultures of Youth Justice: a Comparison of Italy and Wales,’ Evolution or Rupture? Juvenile Justice in Question, Conference of International Association for Research in Juvenile Criminology, Paris, March 2006
    14. ‘The Cultures of the New Youth Justice (in England) and Wales’, Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, Stirling, March 2006
    15. State, citizen and character in French criminal process’ British Society of Criminology Annual Conference, Glasgow Caledonian, July 2006
    16. ‘Early Intervention and Court Involvement in Youth Justice,’ invited seminar to Conference organised by Children Law UK and the Interdisciplinary Child and Youth Focussed Research Centre, Brunel University, June 2007
    17. ‘Early Intervention and the Cultures of Youth Justice: A Comparison of Wales and Italy’, British Society of Criminology Annual Conference, LSE, September 2007
    18. ‘The legality principle in criminal law and the contractualisation of sanctions,’ invited paper given to Dutch Research School on Human Rights (criminal law cluster), Utrecht, November 2007
    19. ‘‘PSRs, Magistrates, YOTs and the discourses of the ‘new’ Youth Justice’, Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, Manchester, March 2008
    20. Reading and Writing the ‘New’ Youth Justice: Sentencing reports and relations between magistrates and YOTs in England and Wales, European Society of Criminology Annual Conference, Edinburgh, September 2008
    21. Reading and writing youth justice in Italy and Wales: a comparative analysis, British Society of Criminology Annual Conference, Cardiff, July 2009
    22. L’évolution de la défense pénale en Angleterre et au pays de Galles: tensions et contradictions, invited paper, Colloque de l’Association française du droit pénal, Lyon, November 2009
    23. Comparative youth justice and legal cultures, invited paper, Uses of Legal Culture Workshop (Journal of Comparative Law) Venice, May 2010
    24. (with David Nelken) invited seminar, British Society of Criminology Wales and West Group, ‘Comparing youth justice in Wales and Italy: some thoughts on comparing like with like’ Cardiff, February 2011.
    25. (with David Nelken) Seminar, Cardiff Centre for Crime, Law and Justice ‘Legal culture and comparative criminal justice, Cardiff February 2011.
    26. ‘Legal cultures and youth justice, Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, Brighton April 2011 and invited seminar Centre for Crime, Law and Justice, Law School, Strathclyde University, Glasgow June 2011
    27. (with Renaud Colson) (Re)forming criminal justice discourses in France and England and Wales : change, continuity and convergence, Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, Brighton April 2011
    28. ‘Making sense of youth justice cultures: a comparative study of Italy and Wales’ British Society of Criminology Annual Conference, University of Northumbria, July 2011 and invited seminar City of London Law School, March 2012
    29. ‘(Re)forming discourses in criminal justice: a bilateral comparison of France and England and Wales’ European Society of Criminology Conference, Vilnius, September 2011
    30. ‘La procédure pénale anglaise et la tradition accusatoire’ invited paper, Journée d’étude, Centre de droit privé et de sciences criminelles d’Amiens : Les procédures pénales accusatoires, University of Picardy, Jules Verne, Amiens, December 2011
    31. ‘Making Sense of Cross-Cultural Research,’ invited paper to European Society of Criminology’s Working Group on Sentencing and Penal Decision-Making, Como, Italy, April 2012 and invited paper to Brunel Law School, April 2013
    32. ‘Understanding cultural differences in youth justice: a comparative study in Italy and Wales’, W G Hart Legal Workshop ‘Globalization, criminal law and criminal justice’ Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, June 2012
    33. ‘(Re)forming criminal justice discourses in France and England and Wales : similarity, difference and convergence’ W G Hart Legal Workshop, ‘Globalization, criminal law and criminal justice’ Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, June 2012
    34. ‘Fact-finding, procedural tradition and miscarriages of justice’, European Society of Criminology Annual Conference, Bilbao, September 2012 and Cardiff Centre for Crime Law and Justice May 2013.
    35. ‘Youth justice in Wales or Welsh youth justice?’, Invited seminar at Who Knows Best Workshop, London, February 2014
    36. ‘The vulnerability of different systems of criminal justice to wrongful conviction’ (with Chrisje Brants), invited Seminar, School of Law, Northumbria University, April 2014
    37. ‘Constructing a Welsh youth justice: unity, difference and aspiration in policy-making’ Annual Conference, Welsh Centre for Crime, Law and Social Justice, Gregynog, May 2014
    38. ‘Youth Justice in Wales or Welsh youth justice? Relations between policy and practice’, European Society of Criminology, Sentencing & Penal Decision-Making Working Group, Fourth Symposium, Inter-Professional Dynamics in the Sentencing and Penal Decision-Making Process, University of Reims, May 2014
    39. ‘Globalisation, Managerialism and Procedural Tradition in Criminal Procedure’, invited seminar, Workshop on Procedural Tradition and Global Transformation in Criminal Justice, Law School, University of Nottingham June 2014
    40. ‘Making sense in/of cross-cultural research in criminal justice’ Workshop, invited seminar, Exploring the comparative in socio-legal studies, Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford December 2014
    41. ‘Legal cultures and procedural traditions: thinking about legal diversity and harmonisation’ invited Plenary presentation, Conference ‘On the Road towards an EU criminal justice system : problems achievements and prospects’, Centre for Criminal Justice, School of Law, Limerick University, May 2015
    42. ‘Les cultures et les traditions juridiques dans l’harmonisation de la justice pénale: la construction de l’espace de liberté, de sécurité et de justice, invited seminar presentation to La Faculté de Droit, L’Université de Rennes 1, June 2015
    43. Les évolutions dans la procédure pénale anglaise, invited seminar presentation to La Faculté de Droit, L’Université de Rennes 1, June 2015
    44. L’enseignement des sciences criminelles au défi de la construction européenne, invited plenary presentation, Les défis intellectuels de l’enseignement des sciences criminelles dans les Facultés de Droit, Seminaire en l’Honneur du Doyen Georges Fournier, La Faculté de Droit, L’Université de Rennes 1, June 2015
    45. ‘Legal understandings’, invited plenary presentation to Colloquium, Harmonisation and Public Trust across European Criminal Procedural Traditions, Durham University July 2015
    46. ‘Truth-finding, procedural traditions and cultural trust in the Netherlands and England and Wales: when strengths become weaknesses’, Welsh Centre for Crime and Social Justice Annual conference, Gregynog May 2016 (also presented to Cardiff Centre for Crime Law and Justice, April 2016)
    47. ‘Truth-finding and the adversarial tradition: the experience of Cardiff Law School Innocence Project’, invited paper to seminar on Conviction and Sentencing : Truth, Legitimacy and Justice, Centre for Law, Crime and Justice, Law School, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, August 2016 and British Society of Criminology Annual Conference, July 2016.
    48. ‘Legal cultures in Europe and the construction of EU criminal justice’, presentation to European Society of Criminology Annual Conference, Münster, Germany September 2016
    49. ‘La législation anti-terroriste et son défi aux principes établis du droit pénal et de la procédure accusatoire au Royaume-Uni’, invited plenary presentation to Journée d’études, Centre universitaire de recherches sur l'action publique et le politique, Université de Picardie, Jules Verne, Amiens, France: Etat de droit et dispositifs juridiques relatifs à la lutte contre le terrorisme : la tension entre mesures exceptionnelles et droit commun, September 2016

      Committees and reviewing

      Director, Centre for Crime, Law and Justice 2014-

      Co-Director, French Academic Exchanges and Erasmus Co-ordinator for exchange links with Nantes University and University Jules Verne Picardy in Amiens, 2013-

      Executive Committee member, Centre for Law and Society 2015-

      Member, Senior Management Group, Cardiff Law School 2013-2015

      Director, People and Environment, Cardiff Law School 2013-2015

      Member School Board, Cardiff Law School 2013-2015

      Chair, Student Mobility Review Group 2013-2015

      International Representative, Cardiff Law School within AHSS College 2013-2015

      Chair, Integrated Board of Examiners 2013-2015

      Deputy Director, Cardiff Centre for Crime, Law and Justice 2009-2014

      Chair, Law and Languages Board of Examiners 2004-2013

      Director, French Academic Exchanges and Erasmus Co-ordinator for exchange Links with France 1994-2013 (intake 26 yearly, five French Erasmus partners: Nantes, Amiens, Toulouse, Rennes, Poitiers)

      Director, Law and French degree programme (yearly intake 24-26) 1994-2013

      Chair, Law and Languages Sub-Committee 2002-2013

      Member University Erasmus Coordinators Group and Strategy Review Sub-group 2010-2011

      Member, Working Group on Postgraduate Research and Study Skills module 2009-2010

      Director LLM European Legal Studies, 2006-2008

      Member, Assessment Sub-Committee, Board of Undergraduate Studies, 2005-7

      Member, Working Group LLM Reforms 2004-5

      Member, Working Group, LLM European Legal Studies Reforms 2004-5

      Elected Member, Law School Board 2004-2005

        • Member Curriculum Review Working Group 2002-2003
        • Member Integrated Degrees Board of Studies (converted to Law and Languages Sub-Committee) 1992-2002
        • Member, Teaching and Learning Quality Committee (previously Educational Development Panel) 1999-2002
        • Member, Study Leave Committee 2000-2002
        • Member, Educational Development Panel Sub-Committee on Assessment, 2000-2001
        • Member Steering Group, Centre for Crime, Law and Justice 1998-2001
        • Research Co-ordinator, Centre for Crime, Law and Justice, 1999-2000
        • Member, Law School Culture Working Group 1999-2000
        • Buildings Committee 1995-1996
        • Teaching Committee 1992-1995
        • Law Library Committee 1992-1993
        • Student Progress Monitoring Committee 1990-1993
        • Senate 1989-1991
        • Faculty Board 1988-1991
        • Academic Secretary to Law School and Board of Studies 1988-1991
        • SCR Committee 1985-1988
        • Staff Student Panel 1985-1987

      Publications

      We are currently unable to retrieve the list of publications. Visit our institutional repository.

      Teaching

      Undergraduate

      Evidence: lectures (module leader)

      Postgraduate

      Criminal Justice in Europe: lectures and seminars (module leader)

      Research Interests

      • General subjects: criminal process, comparative law and legal culture, youth justice.
      • Particular interests: comparative criminal process, comparative youth justice, French law and legal cultureC

      Current project

      The Ideal Defendant: Showing Remorse and Taking Responsibility (Hart 2021)

      Editors: Stewart Field and Cyrus Tata

      Stewart Field (chapter):  Remorse, Responsibility and the Unique Individual:  the Enactment of Political Cultures before the French Cour d’Assises

      Grants

      1995 British Council Know How Fund for Bulgaria: £6,750 (Teaching Programme for Bulgarian Judges).

      1995/6 University of Wales Collaboration Fund: £2,500 (Organised and co-ordinated international group of scholars working on comparative perspectives on covert and proactive policing, securing financing from University of Wales Collaboration Fund for seminars in Grygnog (Wales) and Maastricht (Netherlands) and leading to edited collection published by Dartmouth

      1996 Economic and Social Research Council £79,825 )Obtained ESRC grant for project `Defence Lawyers in the French Criminal Process’. Lead investigator spending a year collecting empirical research

      2001: Economic and Social Research Council £72, 128 (Obtained ESRC grant for project `Early Intervention and Youth Justice in England and Wales and Italy' (with M Drakeford SOCSI and D Nelken CLAWs). Lead investigator supervising gathering of empirical material (interviews and case-files)

      2008: British Academy, £11,507 (Obtained funds as host sponsor to enable Dr Renaud Colson (University of Nantes) to come to Cardiff to work together on ‘Fair Trial and Managerialism in Criminal Justice: an Anglo-French study in comparative law’ under BA Visiting Fellowship Award)

      2011: Arts and Humanities Research Council Fellowship, £40, 360 (6 month Fellowship for project: Making sense of youth justice: a comparative study of Italy and Wales)

      2016: Cardiff Incoming Visiting Fellows Scheme & International Collaboration Seedcorn Fund, £5,000 (research collaboration with Dr Renaud Colson)

      2016: Centre for Law and Society Research Theme Funding, series of workshops ‘Security and Justice: the challenge of the transnational’, £12,000, (coordination of series, organization of one workshop)

      2017: Centre for Law and Society Research Theme Funding, ‘Remorse and Responsibility in the Constructions of the ‘Ideal’ Defendant: Comparing Cultural Expectations in Criminal Process (Cardiff September 2018) Funding of £4.5k

      Reports

      Early Intervention and Youth Justice in Italy and England and Wales (2005) , Research Report, Economic and Social Research Council.

      Defence Lawyers in the French Criminal Process (1998), Research Report, Economic and Social Research Council.

      (with Renaud COLSON) La fabrique des procédures pénales. Comparaison franco-anglaise des réformes de la justice répressive, Rapport, Mission de Recherche, Droit et Justice, novembre 2009 : http://www.gip-recherche-justice.fr/

      Supervision

      I am interested in supervising students in the area of criminal justice and youth justice particularly in a compartive context

      Past projects

      Past Phd supervisions

      • Ian Edwards `Victim Impact Statements’ PhD awarded 2001 (co-supervisor Professor David Miers).
      • Riccardo Montana ‘A Socio-Legal Study of the Italian Public Prosecutor’ PhD awarded 2009
      • Sophie Chambers (Elected police commissioners and citizen engagement) 2011-2017. PhD awarded 2017
      • Holly Greenwood (Innocence Projects) 2012 -2017. PhD awarded 2017

      External profiles

      Research links