CCR Seminar Series: Accountability and oversight in criminal justice: getting it right and getting it wrong

Event Title: Accountability and oversight in criminal justice: getting it right and getting it wrong

Date: Wednesday 4 December 2024

Time: 4pm - 6pm

Location: Hybrid

• On campus: Moot Court, Bartolomé House

• Online: Google Meet

The Centre for Criminological Research is hosting a series of seminars and events centred around the theme of ‘Accountability’. Our third event on Wednesday 4 December will be a hybrid panel discussion considering accountability and oversight in criminal justice.

This will be a seminar with two speakers, chaired by Chris Bennett and David Fonseca. The speakers will be: Dr Lucy Welsh (Sussex - in person) on criminal appeals and the role of the CCRC; and Professor José Ángel Brandariz García (Universidade da Coruña, Spain - online) on a comparative analysis of oversight of prison systems in different jurisdictions.

There are multiple options for the tickets of this event. Please ensure you have selected the ticket with the attendance you would prefer, and let Chris Bennett or David Fonseca know if there are any dietary requirements (tea and coffee will be served). A link will be provided on the day of the event to all those who have registered to attend virtually. On-campus ticket holders should be prepared to show their ticket on arrival at the event.

For further information, please contact either of the event coordinators, Prof Chris Bennett or Dr David Fonseca.

Speaker info:

Professor José Ángel Brandariz García: High visibility policing: New avenues for civil oversight?

Non-state actors are playing a variety of roles in the governance of policing. Civil society groups monitoring police practices and advocating for police reform are emerging across Europe, giving shape to new forms of civil oversight. This presentation scrutinises the diversity of these advocacy groups, which show significant cross-national differences in terms of its composition, impact and strategies. There are also differences with regard to the specific, over-policed population groups that are actively participating in these civil oversight developments. These changes are taking place in the framework of a policing scenario characterised by the ‘high visibility’ of police practices. In this respect, the presentation explores as well the proliferating forms of informal oversight carried out by lay people recording police stops, scrutinising if and to what extent these DIY oversight practices are reinforcing police accountability

Bio: José A. Brandariz is professor of law and criminology at the University of A Coruna, Spain, a former member of the Executive Board of the European Society of Criminology (ESC) and a former associate editor of the European Journal of Criminology. Prof Brandariz is currently the co-editor of the Routledge Series in Criminal Justice, Borders and Citizenship and the chair of the European Criminology Oral History project of the ESC. Amongst other international projects, he played various leading roles in the EU-funded COST Action 'Police Stops' and is the co-Principal Investigator of the Canada-funded 'Prison Transparency Project'.

Dr Lucy Welsh: Does the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) offer an effective post-appeal accountability mechanism for (suspected) miscarriages of justice?

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has recently come under increasing levels of scrutiny from parliament and campaign groups alike. That scrutiny has highlighted the perceived increasing ineffectiveness of the CCRC as an organisation which is capable of identifying and trying to remedy miscarriages of justice, culminating in an ongoing Law Commission consultation on appeals and the CCRC.

In this presentation, we will look at the origins of the CCRC to consider its effectiveness as an accountability mechanism in comparison to its predecessor, and at the CCRC’s powers and the ways it seems to use them (or not). We will also examine, based on recent empirical evidence, whether the CCRC is regarded as effective by those who interact with it and rely on it as an accountability mechanism: lawyers and CCRC applicants.

Bio: Lucy has a long-standing interest in all aspects of criminal law and criminal justice, including access to justice, magistrates’ courts, criminal appeals, and the legal profession. She has been awarded funding from the Research England Strategic Priority Fund, the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council, and the Nuffield Foundation to undertake work on access to justice and public funding cuts. She works alongside parliamentary and government bodies and practitioners to further her research, including the Criminal Appeal Lawyers' Association and the Magistrates' Association. At Sussex, Lucy is Director of Sussex Law Clinics/Sussex Clinical Legal Education. Prior to joining academia, she spent 10 years working as a criminal defence solicitor.

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