Professor Nicola Padfield

Position Bye Fellow
School Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty of Law
Email nmp21@cam.ac.uk
Department link Law

Nicola Padfield is Emeritus Professor of Criminal and Penal Justice at the Law Faculty, University of Cambridge and a Bye-Fellow at Wolfson.

After her first degree at St Anne's College, Oxford she came to Cambridge (Darwin College) to study for the Diploma in Criminology. Called to the Bar in 1978, she then spent a year at the University of Aix-Marseille. Her teaching and research have covered a broad canvas in criminal law and evidence, sentencing and criminal justice more generally. She sat as a Recorder (part-time judge) in the Crown Court from 2002-2014, is a Bencher of the Middle Temple and served as the University Advocate for several years. She was appointed as Honorary Queen's Counsel in 2018.

Her books include ‘The Criminal Justice Process: Text and Materials’ (5th edition, 2016); ‘Criminal Law’ (10th edition, 2016), and ‘Beyond the Tariff: Human rights and the release of life sentence prisoners’ (2002). She has edited and contributed to several more recent collections of essays on parole and early release (which have involved research in many European countries). Whilst maintaining a wide academic lens, her recent research has explored how the law on release from, and recall to, prison works in practice, and how it is perceived by offenders and those who work in the system. This under-researched area provides an important contribution to the understanding of how offenders are best supported in their attempts to desist from criminal lifestyles, and how the rehabilitation and resettlement of offenders can be better encouraged. She is also working on a project measuring the effectiveness of coroners’ inquests in reducing the number of deaths of people in custody and under probation supervision.

What's on

Event Type (field_event_type)

Two people walking away on a brick pathway lined with wisteria.

Poetry Trail

13/05/2024 at 12.00

Explore our new trail featuring extracts of poetry written by Wolfson staff and students for the forthcoming WolfWords Anthology Wild.

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Graduation Ceremony

17/05/2024 at 09.00

Graduation ceremonies are the culmination of students’ hard work and commitment, and a moment to celebrate the completion of their Cambridge degree.

A student speaker wearing a red top presenting on stage.

Postgraduate Research Soirée

17/05/2024 at 17.45

Join Wolfson postgraduate students as they talk about their research in an informal evening of interesting presentations and friendly discussion – complete with wine and cheese!