Professor Fiona Leverick
- Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice (School of Law)
telephone: 6091
email: Fiona.Leverick@glasgow.ac.uk
Biography
Fiona Leverick has been the Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at the University of Glasgow since 2013. She joined the Law School in 2007 as a senior lecturer, having previously worked at the University of Aberdeen. She is currently (jointly with James Chalmers) REF Champion for the School of Law.
Fiona Leverick’s research interests lie in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure, criminal evidence and criminal justice. She is currently undertaking a major study of mock jury decision making for the Scottish Government (with Ipsos MORI Scotland, James Chalmers and Vanessa Munro), which will report in 2019. Other recent research projects include Resorting to Crime: The Practice of Criminalisation (a project investigating patterns of criminal offence creation from the 1950s to the present day) and Post-Corroboration Safeguards (a project exploring the causes of wrongful conviction and the safeguards that might be necessary to introduce in Scots law following the abolition of the requirement for corroboration in criminal cases).
Fiona Leverick has authored three books on criminal law: The fourth edition of Gerald Gordon’s The Criminal Law of Scotland (with James Chalmers, SULI/W. Green, 2017); Killing in Self-Defence (Oxford University Press, 2006); and Criminal Defences and Pleas in Bar of Trial (with James Chalmers, SULI/W. Green, 2006). She is happy to supervise research students in any aspect of criminal law, criminal evidence, criminal justice or criminal procedure.
More information about Fiona Leverick and her ongoing and completed research projects can be found on the Glasgow criminal law and criminal justice web pages.
Research interests
I am interested in all aspects of criminal law, criminal justice, criminal evidence and criminal procedure, but especially interested in the prevention of and responses to wrongful conviction, jury decision making, and modern and historical patterns of criminal offence creation. Further details about my past and ongoing research projects in these areas can be found on the Glasgow criminal law and criminal justice web pages.
I would be happy to supervise research students in any of these areas. Please do get in touch if you wish to discuss a proposal with me.
Selected publications
Chalmers, J. and Leverick, F. (2018) Criminal law in the shadows: creating offences in delegated legislation. Legal Studies, (Accepted for Publication)
Chalmers, J. and Leverick, F. (2017) A Comparative Analysis of Hate Crime Legislation: A Report to the Hate Crime Legislation Review. Other. Scottish Government, Edinburgh.
Chalmers, J. and Leverick, F. (2016) How should we go about jury research in Scotland? Criminal Law Review, 2016(10), pp. 697-713.
Leverick, F. (2016) Jury instructions on eyewitness identification evidence: a re-evaluation. Creighton Law Review, 49(3), pp. 555-588.
Chalmers, J. , Leverick, F. and Shaw, A. (2015) Is formal criminalisation really on the rise? Evidence from the 1950s. Criminal Law Review, 2015(3), pp. 177-191.
Grants
Professor Leverick has been awarded the following grants:
2017
£496,970 from the Scottish Government for a study of mock jury decision making (led by Ipsos Mori, with James Chalmers and Vanessa Munro of the University of Warwick).
£29,199 from the Scottish Government to undertake research into hate crime legislation (with James Chalmers).
£3,500.56 from the Clark Foundation for Legal Education to hold the tenth annual Sir Gerald Gordon Seminar in Criminal Law (with James Chalmers and Lindsay Farmer).
2016
£2,088.13 from the Clark Foundation for Legal Education to hold the ninth annual Sir Gerald Gordon Seminar in Criminal Law (with James Chalmers and Lindsay Farmer).
2015
£2,088.08 from the Clark Foundation for Legal Education to hold the eighth annual Sir Gerald Gordon Seminar in Criminal Law (with James Chalmers and Lindsay Farmer).
2014
£41,646 from the Scottish Government to investigate safeguards against wrongful conviction following the abolition of the requirement for corroboration (with James Chalmers and others).
£2,136.87 from the Clark Foundation for Legal Education to hold the seventh annual Sir Gerald Gordon Seminar in Criminal Law (with James Chalmers and Lindsay Farmer).
2013
£1,771.86 from the Clark Foundation for Legal Education to hold the sixth annual Sir Gerald Gordon Seminar in Criminal Law (with James Chalmers and Lindsay Farmer).
2012
£6,943 from the Clark Foundation for Legal Education to hold a public lecture and the fifth annual Sir Gerald Gordon Seminar in Criminal Law (with James Chalmers and Lindsay Farmer).
2011
£1,250 from the Clark Foundation for Legal Education to hold the fourth annual Sir Gerald Gordon Seminar in Criminal Law (with James Chalmers and Lindsay Farmer).
2010
£1,000 from the Clark Foundation for Legal Education to hold the third annual Sir Gerald Gordon Seminar in Criminal Law (with James Chalmers and Lindsay Farmer).
2008
£29,990 from the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to evaluate its first ten years of operation (June 2008 to April 2009) (with James Chalmers, Sarah Armstrong and Fergus McNeill).
£7,875 from the Clark Foundation for Legal Education to hold a public lecture, publish a Festschrift in honour of Sir Gerald Gordon and hold the inaugural and second Sir Gerald Gordon Seminar in Criminal Law (with James Chalmers and Lindsay Farmer).
2004
£94,900 from the (then) Scottish Executive to evaluate and monitor the reforms of the High Court arising from the Criminal Procedure (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2004 (with James Chalmers and Peter Duff of the University of Aberdeen).
2003
£99,420 from the (then) Scottish Executive to evaluate the pilot victim statement schemes in Scotland (with James Chalmers and Peter Duff of the University of Aberdeen).
Supervision
Research Students under supervision
Grant Barclay - 'Exploring the reactive defences of necessity and coercion in Scots law'
Elaine Ferguson - 'The Preventive Detention of High-Risk Mentally Disordered Offenders: a Critical Analysis of Scots Law'
Corsino San Miguel - 'Towards a Dogmatic Solution for Error of Law in Scotland'
Peter Reid - 'A Human Rights Based Approach to Scots Criminal Justice: Corroboration and the Effective Prosecution of Sexual Offences'
Javier Eduardo Velásquez Valenzuela - 'Doing Justice: Sentencing in Scottish Criminal Courts'
Research Students recently completed
Isla Callander, Improving the Statutory Regulation of Consensual Sexual Behaviour Between Adolescents in Scotland (PhD, 2017).
Karen Nicol, Plea Bargaining in International Criminal Courts: Dealing with the Devil (LLM by Research, 2016).
Andreas Kangur, Can Rules of Criminal Evidence be Devised that would be Uniform across Jurisdictions? (PhD, 2015).
Gasem Al-Own, The UN Security Council’s Assets- Freezing against Suspected Terrorists: Legality and Procedural Fairness in the UN, EU and UK and Lessons for Jordan (PhD, 2015).
Jenny Scott, From Presence to Participation: The Role of the Juror Re-imagined (PhD, 2014).
Louis Capaldi, Legal Assistance and the Protection of Suspects in a Post-Cadder World (LLM by Research, 2014).
Christine Kelly, Criminalisation of Children in Scotland 1840-1910 (PhD, 2012).
I am happy to supervise research students in any area of criminal justice, criminal evidence or criminal procedure. Please do get in touch if you wish to discuss a proposal with me.
Teaching
Criminal law and evidence (level 1) – an introductory course covering the basic concepts of Scottish criminal law and the rules of evidence.
Criminal justice (level 3) – an advanced course, covering all aspects of the Scottish criminal justice system from prosecution to appeals. We also examine a number of topical issues in criminal justice, such as the use of juries in criminal cases and the prosecution of sexual offences.
