Search our site
Search our site

Professor Penny Darbyshire

Professor

Penny Darbyshire

Contact

About

I am known as an expert in English Legal System (textbook 2017) and for my research with the judiciary and magistrates and my writings on the jury. I taught at Kingston for many years. I was a visiting scholar, then visiting lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley and a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge. I am an adjunct professor at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, at their London Law Centre. I have been thrilled to speak about my research at many UK universities and in 2016-17 in Israel, working with a research team, Germany, the USA and at the Hay Festival. 

I have appeared on Radio 4's Unreliable Evidence, Today and Law in Action, on BBC1's Breakfast, ITV1, RTE and ITV3 (Dublin) and in a BBC2 series made by Joan Bakewell. Many radio appearances include Nick Ross's The Commission, Radio 5 Live and Radio London.

Areas of specialism

  • English legal system
  • The judiciary
  • Juries
  • Magistrates
  • Criminal justice
  • Criminal case management
  • Criminal procedure

Qualifications

  • BA (Hons) law
  • MA criminology
  • PhD socio-legal studies

Professional membership

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

Law & Society Association

Socio Legal Studies Association

Society of Legal Scholars

Liberal Democrat Lawyers Association

I am a member of two LSA Collaborative Research Networks: Lay Participation in Legal Systems and Innovations in Judging.

Research

JUDGES: I had fun conducting the world's first in-depth study of judges' working lives 2002-10, work shadowing 40 judges and interviewing 77, from district judges to UK Supreme Court Justices,  I had unlimited access to information. I sat on the bench with the judges and travelled on circuit. I am one of only two people in the world permitted to observe appellate deliberations. See SITTING IN JUDGMENT (2011) a book which has sold in 33 countries, and many papers and articles. 

2014: a study of judicial case management of Crown Court cases.

JURIES: I published a 2001 meta-analysis of English-language research. I recommended that jury ineligibility and excuses as of right should be abolished. This became law in 2003, widening jury eligibility. My best known article is a 1991 comment, "The Lamp that shows that freedom lives - is it worth the candle?"

Also magistrates and criminal procedure.

Publications

Jump to: Article | Book | Book Section | Conference or Workshop Item | Monograph
Number of items: 45.

Article

Darbyshire, Penny (2015) The UK Supreme Court - is there anything left to think about? European Journal of Current Legal Issues, 21(1), ISSN (online) 2059-0881

Penny, Darbyshire (2014) Judicial case management in ten Crown courts. Criminal Law Review, 2014(1), pp. 30-50. ISSN (print) 0011-135X

Darbyshire, Penny (2013) The working lives of judges in England and Wales. Rechtstreeks(2), pp. 16-37. ISSN (print) 1573-5222

Darbyshire, Penny (2008) Letter: exposing the myths of jury service. Criminal Law Review(11), pp. 888-891. ISSN (print) 0011-135X

Darbyshire, Penny (2007) Where do English and Welsh judges come from? The Cambridge Law Journal, 66(2), pp. 365-388. ISSN (print) 0008-1973

Darbyshire, Penny (2006) Cameos from the world of district judges. Journal of Criminal Law, 70(5), pp. 443-457. ISSN (print) 0022-0183

Darbyshire, Penny (2006) Transparency in getting the accused to plead guilty early. The Cambridge Law Journal, 65(1), pp. 48-51. ISSN (print) 0008-1973

Darbyshire, Penny (2001) What can we learn from published jury research? Findings from the Criminal Courts Review 2001. Criminal Law Review, Dec, pp. 970-979. ISSN (print) 0011-135X

Darbyshire, Penny (2001) A refreshing change from the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice. Criminal Justice Matters, 46(1), pp. 14-15. ISSN (print) 0962-7251

Darbyshire, Penny (2000) The mischief of plea bargaining and sentencing rewards. Criminal Law Review, Nov, pp. 895-910. ISSN (print) 0011-135X

Darbyshire, Penny (1999) A comment on the powers of magistrates' clerks. Criminal Law Review, May, pp. 377-386. ISSN (print) 0011-135X

Darbyshire, Penny (1997) For the new Lord Chancellor - some causes for concern about magistrates. Criminal Law Review, Dec, pp. 861-874. ISSN (print) 0011-135X

Darbyshire, Penny (1997) Strengthening the argument in favour of the defendant's right to elect. Criminal Law Review, Dec, pp. 911-914. ISSN (print) 0011-135X

Darbyshire, Penny (1997) An essay on the importance and neglect of the magistracy. Criminal Law Review, Sep, pp. 627-643. ISSN (print) 0011-135X

Darbyshire, Penny (1997) The Law Commission Consultation Paper on previous misconduct: Part 3: Previous misconduct and magistrates' courts - some tales from the real world. Criminal Law Review, Feb, pp. 105-115. ISSN (print) 0011-135X

Darbyshire, Penny (1991) The lamp that shows that freedom lives - is it worth the candle? Criminal Law Review, Oct, pp. 740-752. ISSN (print) 0011-135X

Darbyshire, Penny (1990) Notes of a lawyer juror. New Law Journal, 140(6471), pp. 1264-1267. ISSN (print) 0306-6479

Book

Darbyshire, Penny (2014) Darbyshire on the English legal system. 11th ed. London, U.K. : Sweet & Maxwell. 520p. ISBN 9780414031333

Darbyshire, Penny (2011) Darbyshire on the English legal system. 10th ed. London, U.K. : Sweet & Maxwell. 634p. ISBN 9780414046023

Darbyshire, Penny (2011) Sitting in judgment: the working lives of judges. Oxford, U.K. : Hart Publishing Ltd. 466p. ISBN 9781849462396

Darbyshire, Penny (2008) Darbyshire on the English legal system. 9th ed. London : Sweet & Maxwell. 585p. ISBN 9781847032348

Book Section

Darbyshire, Penny (2015) The UK Supreme Court - is there anything left to think about? In: UNSPECIFIED, (ed.) The UK Supreme Court yearbook: legal year 2014-2015. Cambridge, U.K. : Appellate Press Ltd. pp. 148-168.

Darbyshire, Penny (2009) The lamp that shows that freedom lives - is it worth the candle? In: Brooks, Thom, (ed.) The right to a fair trial. Aldershot, U.K. : Ashgate. pp. 251-264. (The international library of essays on rights) ISBN 9780754628088

Darbyshire, Penny (2008) Criminal procedure in England and Wales. In: Vogler, Richard and Huber, Barbara, (eds.) Criminal procedure in Europe. Berlin, Germany : Max-Planck Institute. pp. 39-169. (Schriftenreihe des Max-Planck-Instituts für Ausländisches und Internationales Strafrecht; 112) ISBN 9783861138655

Darbyshire, Penny (2002) Magistrates. In: McConville, Mike and Wilson, Geoffrey, (eds.) The handbook of the criminal justice process. Oxford : Oxford University Press. pp. 285-309. ISBN 0199253951

Darbyshire, Penny (2000) Raising concerns about magistrates' clerks. In: Doran, Sean and Jackson, John, (eds.) The judicial role in criminal proceedings. Oxford : Hart Publishing. pp. 183-194. ISBN 9781841130453

Conference or Workshop Item

Darbyshire, Penny [Speaker] (2016) Sitting in judgment : the working lives of judges. In: Judicial Conflict Resolution Research Group (JCR) Collaborator Circles Seminar; 14 Nov 2016, Ramat Gan, Israel. (Unpublished)

Darbyshire, Penny (2016) Observational study of youth courts: the planning stage. In: Law and Society Association (LSA) Annual Meeting 2016: At the Delta: Belonging, Place and Visions of Law and Social Change; 02-05 Jun 2016, New Orleans, U.S.. (Unpublished)

Darbyshire, Penny (2015) 'British justice is the finest in the world' - an examination of Anglo-American boasting. In: Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) Annual Conference 2015: Law’s Subjects: Subject to Law; 1-4 Sep 2015, York, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Darbyshire, Penny (2015) Jury reform in England and Wales - unfinished business. In: Law and Society Association (LSA) Annual Meeting 2015: Law’s Promise and Law's Pathos in the Global North and Global South; 28-31 May 2015, Seattle, U.S.. (Unpublished)

Darbyshire, Penny (2015) Civil case management: can lessons be learned from Wales and England? In: Case Management; 27-28 Apr 2015, Edinburgh, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Darbyshire, Penny (2014) Jury reform in England and Wales - unfinished business. In: The Third International Conference on Empirical Studies of Judicial Systems: Citizen Participation Around the World; 5-6 Sep 2014, Taipei, Taiwan. (Unpublished)

Darbyshire, Penny (2014) Judicial criminal case management in ten English Crown Courts. In: Law and Society Association (LSA) Annual Meeting 2014: Law and Inequalities: Global and Local; 29 May-01 Jun 2014, Minneapolis, U.S.. (Unpublished)

Darbyshire, Penny (2014) Sitting in judgment - the working lives of judges. In: Guest lecture; 3 Mar 2014, Birmingham, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Darbyshire, Penny (2012) Sitting in judgment: the working lives of judges (Hart, 2011): the story of the research project. In: 2012 International Conference on Law and Society: Joint Annual Meetings of the Law and Society Association (LSA) and the Research Committee on Sociology of Law (International Sociological Association): Sociolegal Conversations across a Sea of Islands; 5-8 Jun 2012, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.. (Unpublished)

Darbyshire, Penny (2012) Sitting in judgment: the working lives of judges (Hart, 2011): the story of the research project. In: Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Annual Conference 2012; 3-5 Apr 2012, Leicester, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Darbyshire, Penny (2011) Judging in the criminal courts in this age of austerity. In: Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) Annual Conference 2011: Law in politics, politics in law; 05 - 08 Sep 2011, Cambridge, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Darbyshire, Penny (2008) Judging in the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division). In: Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) Annual Conference 2008: The Impact of Legal Scholarship; 15 - 18 Sep 2008, London, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Darbyshire, Penny (2008) Brenda and the Law Lords. In: Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Annual Conference 2008; 18-20 Mar 2008, Manchester, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Darbyshire, Penny (2008) Judging in the Court of Appeal. In: Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Annual Conference 2008; 18-20 Mar 2008, Manchester, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Darbyshire, Penny (2008) Tales from the world of judges. In: Wolfson Philosophical Society: College Research Colloquium; 28 Feb 2008, Cambridge, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Darbyshire, Penny (2007) The 'family' of family judges: a guide for the complete stranger. In: Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Annual Conference 2007; 3-5 Apr 2007, Canterbury, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Darbyshire, Penny (2007) Where do English and Welsh judges come from? In: Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Annual Conference 2007; 03 - 05 Apr 2007, Canterbury, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Darbyshire, Penny (2007) Criminal business: cameos of district judges in the Magistrates' Court. In: Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Annual Conference 2007; 03 - 05 Apr 2007, Canterbury, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Monograph

Darbyshire, Penny, Maughan, Andy and Stewart, Angus (2002) What can the English Legal System learn from jury research published up to 2001? (Other) Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, U.K. : Kingston Business School/Kingston Law School, Kingston University. 90 p. (Occasional Paper Series 49) ISBN 1872058337

This list was generated on Fri Nov 16 09:50:41 2018 GMT.
>

Looking for academic staff in the Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education? Visit the Faculty website

Site menu