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Biography
Dr Matt Thomason is an Assistant Professor in Law, having joined the School of Law as a member of staff in August 2020.
Matt completed his LLB and LLM (Criminal Justice) at the University of Nottingham in 2011-14 and 2014-15 respectively. In 2015, Matt was awarded a 1+3 scholarship by the Economic and Social Research Council in order to undertake his MA (Socio-Legal and Criminological Research Methods) in 2015-16 and PhD in 2016-20, also at the University of Nottingham.
Expertise Summary
Matt's primary expertise concerns the law of evidence and procedure in (English & Welsh) criminal trials, especially the rules relating to evidence of bad character and sexual history/behaviour. His research draws heavily on both theory and practice in examining the relationship between rules of evidence and the underlying purpose(s) of criminal trials, and how that relationship can be disrupted by the day-to-day reality of trial practice. He regularly contributes commentaries to the Criminal Law Review on Court of Appeal decisions concerning the law of evidence, and recently acted as a consultant on the Law Commission's Evidence in Sex Offence Prosecutions project.
More generally, Matt's research interests concern the entire criminal justice process, studied from theoretical, doctrinal, and empirical perspectives. In addition to criminal trial procedure, he has a particular interest in theories of criminalisation and the limits of the criminal law.
Teaching Summary
On the Undergraduate programme, Matt primarily teaches optional modules on criminal evidence law. Matt has also contributed teaching on the core criminal law module, and other optional modules… read more
Recent Publications
MATT THOMASON, 2019. The Criminal Bar Association Study and Section 41:
Dousing or Stoking the Flames? Archbold Review. 4-6
MATT THOMASON, 2019. R v Moody (Macaulay) (Case Comment) Criminal Law Review. 975-979
On the Undergraduate programme, Matt primarily teaches optional modules on criminal evidence law. Matt has also contributed teaching on the core criminal law module, and other optional modules concerning criminal justice.
Matt is the Director of the LLM (Criminal Justice) programme. On the LLM, he teaches two modules: Fair Trials, Human Rights & Criminal Justice, and Principles of Criminalisation.
Matt is able to supervise PhDs and LLB/LLM dissertations on any of the following topics:
- Criminal evidence and trial procedure;
- Criminal law (primarily criminal law theory);
- Pre- and post-trial procedure.