Consent ― Domestic and Comparative Perspectives

This volume presents a leading contribution to the substantive arena relating to Consent in the criminal law. In broad terms, the ambit of legally valid consent in extant law is contestable and opaque, and reveals significant problems in adoption of consistent approaches to doctrinal and theoretical underpinnings of consent. This book seeks to provide a logical template to focus the debate. The overall concept addresses three specific elements within this arena, embracing an overarching synergy between them. This edifice engages in an examination of UK provisions, with specialist contributions on Irish and Scottish law, and in contrasting these provisions against alternative domestic jurisdictions as well as comparative contributions addressing a particularised research grid for content. The comparative chapters provide a wider background of how other legal systems treat a variety of specialised issues relating to consent in the context of the criminal law. The debate in relation to consent principles continues apace for academics, practitioners and within the criminal justice system. Having expert descriptions of the wider issues surrounding the particular discussion and of other legal systemsa€? approaches serves to stimulate and inform that debate. This collection will be a major source of reference for future discussion.

Alan Reed graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge University with a First Class Honours Degree in Law, and was awarded the Herbert Smith Prize for Conflict of Laws and the Dr Lancey Prize. Cambridge University awarded him a full Holland Scholarship to facilitate study in the United States and he obtained an LLM Master's of Law (Comparative Law) at the University of Virginia. After completion of the Law Society Finals Examinations he spent three years in practice in London at Addleshaw Goddard, and also acted as a Tutor in Criminal Law at Trinity College, Cambridge. He spent seven years as a lecturer in law at Leeds University, and from 2001-2012 was engaged as Professor of Criminal and Private International Law and Director of Research at Sunderland University. In April 2012 he commenced new roles as Associate Dean (Research and Innovation) and Professor of Law at Northumbria Law School. Alan has published over 200 monographs, textbooks and articles in the substantive arena in leading journals in England, Australia, New York, Florida and Los Angeles. For the last 10 years he has been editor of the Journal of Criminal Law. Professor Michael Bohlander is the Chair in Comparative and International Criminal Law at Durham Law School. From 1991 until joining Durham University in 2004, he had been a life-tenured member of the German judiciary, sitting in criminal and civil proceedings at trial and appellate level. From 1999 until 2001 he served as the senior legal officer of a Trial Chamber at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague. He also trained the prosecutors and judges of the Iraqi High Tribunal which tried Saddam Hussein. In 2010, Professor Bohlander was appointed to the Visiting Chair in Criminal Law at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in the Netherlands. He was the first non-Muslim visiting scholar ever to teach at the Faculty of Law of Al-Azhar University in Cairo in 2012. He has published 19 books and over 140 articles and comments. His work has been translated into Farsi, French, Spanish and Turkish. Professor Bohlander's publications have been cited widely by and before courts in several domestic and international jurisdictions. Nicola Wake teaches Trusts, Criminal Law, Litigation and Evidence at Northumbria University, UK. She is Criminal Justice Section Convenor for the Society of Legal Scholars and sits on the Society's Executive Committee and Council. She has published book chapters and journal articles at both national and international level and makes regular contributions to the Journal of Criminal Law as a result of her research. Emma Smith is a Lecturer in Law, and has a number of leading outputs in the areas of Criminal Law and Evidence.