Matthew Simpson

Research Topic

'External Scrutiny of the 'Hidden' Parts of the Criminal Justice System'

Matthew  is looking at the accountability of the criminal justice system. The open justice principle requires that trial courtroom proceedings are conducted in public. The importance of such openness has long been recognised. Many parts of the criminal justice have, by contrast, tended to operate far less openly and subject to more limited external scrutiny. Such parts include: the development of policing policy; the investigation of crime by the police; the prosecution decision; the conduct of the jury; and the prison system.

Following developments in recent decades the courts, administrative bodies and the public now provide a jigsaw of effective external scrutiny of these 'hidden' parts. The scrutiny provided by a number of the jigsaw pieces is though, arguably inadequate. Further development of some of the external scrutiny mechanisms is required to complete the picture.

Research Supervisors

Professor Dirk van Zyl Smit and Professor Paul Roberts

Academic Qualifications

Academic qualifications	Awarding institutions
LLB	Newcastle
LLM Human Rights Law	University of Nottingham
PhD	University of Nottingham

 

 

 

Other Information

Matthew graduated in July 2008.