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Prof David Ormerod
Chair in Criminal Law
Faculty of Laws
UCL SLASH
- Joined UCL
- 1st Sep 2014
Research summary
As Director of the Criminal Law Centre at UCL, and a legal academic of 30 years, David has written a wide range of academic articles, practitioner text and teaching materials on the criminal law. His published work is widely cited by academics, frequently relied upon by practitioners and cited by the appellate courts in this jurisdiction and abroad.
David’s research interests are in all areas of criminal justice and related areas. He seeks to provide comprehensive and thorough doctrinal analysis of the current law and to identify practical and constructive reform. David’s research has always demonstrated a strong commitment to law reform. The focus of much of his research involves comprehensive analysis of case law and proposed or recently enacted legislation.
Teaching summary
David is currently involved in teachingundergraduate classes on criminal law, evidence and procedure as well as across faculty introduction to law. He teachespostgraduate seminars on “Criminal Justice and Human Rights” and “Judges,Courts and Judicial Decision-Making” as well as a course on the MSc in Securityand Crime Science - “Law and Expert Evidence”.
He has previously taught a wide range ofundergraduate and postgraduate courses including constitutional law, revenuelaw, human rights and tort.
He has also supervised numerous successful PhD and MPhil students and served as an externalexaminer at the Universities of Cambridge, Durham, Liverpool, Aberystwyth, Queen Mary University of London, LSE, Exeter, Northumbria and Brunel.
David has lecturedby invitation in Holland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Pakistan, Sweden, Singapore,Ukraine and the USA.
He has delivered hundreds of training courses to barristers,solicitors and Crown Prosecutors, as well as organisations including the ArmyLegal Services Corps, Service Prosecutions Authority, the police service and theCriminal Bar Association. David has acted as an adviser to the Criminal BarAssociation on a number of projects and contributed to their responses togovernment agencies.
Biography
Professor David Ormerod CBE, KC(Hon), DCL (Hon)
David is the General Editor of the Criminal Law Review (2012-date) and (jointly) Editor in Chief of Blackstone's Criminal Practice (2008-date).
He is in part time practice as a barrister (Tenant, Red Lion Chambers, London). He is a Bencher of the Middle Temple (2009) and Master Reader of the Inn (2022) and was made an Honorary Bencher of the Inn of the Court of Northern Ireland in 2017.
David was appointed Queen’s Counsel (Honoris Causa) in 2013, and as a Deputy High Court Judge in 2018 (Queen's Bench Division). In 2021 he was appointed a CBE in recognition of his services to criminal justice. In 2022 he was awarded a DCL (Doctor of Civil Law) Honoris Causa, by Northumbria University.
Between 2010-2019 David was the Criminal Law Commissioner for England and Wales. He was responsible for leading on all criminal law related projects produced by the Law Commission.
In 2014-15 he chaired a sub-committee of the Leveson Review of Efficiency in Criminal Justice (2015).
He regularly appears before Parliamentary Committees (including House of Lords Constitution Committee, on Legislative Standards (2017); Liaison Committee (2018); House of Lords Science and Technology Committee on Forensic Science (2018); Special Public Bill Committee on Sentencing (2019)).
David makes regular media appearances including Radio 4 Today Programme; Law in Action; Women’s Hour, BBC TV and radio for local and national broadcast and Sky TV interviews.
David lectures throughout the year on behalf of the Judicial College on Criminal Law, Expert Evidence, Hearsay, Bad Character, Fraud, Homicide and on Sexual Offences. His audiences range from Court of Appeal judges to part-time Recorders of the Crown Court and District Judges. In 2010 he was responsible with Lord Justice Pitchford for redrafting the Specimen Directions to be used by Crown Court judges in directing juries – see the Crown Court Bench Book (2010) and supplement (2011). He has also completed a manual on expert evidence for the Judicial Studies Board’s training purposes. Along with three judges David was responsible for drafting the Judicial College Bench Book – “The Crown Court Compendium” which is the daily guide for every judge sitting in criminal court. The Compendium published in 2016. It has been revised every 6 months since. David is one of the editors responsible for ongoing updates. Since February 2008 David has co-authored a monthly newsletter for all those judges sitting in criminal courts in England and Wales. The newsletter analyses recent developments in criminal law, evidence and procedure. He lectures regularly for the Northern Ireland Judicial Studies Board.