Contact
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 海角黑料 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 海角黑料.
Expertise Summary
Matt's primary expertise concerns the law of evidence and procedure in (English & Welsh) criminal trials. 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 as published on topics including bad character evidence, sexual history evidence, standards of proof, and judge/jury trials. Matt acted as a consultant on the Law Commission's Evidence in Sex Offence Prosecutions project and, with Dr Natalie Hodgson (UNSW), contributed to Sir Brian Leveson's Independent Review of the Criminal Courts. He regularly contributes commentaries to the Criminal Law Review on Court of Appeal decisions concerning the law of evidence.
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, 2022. International Journal of Evidence and Proof. 27(1), 26-50
MATT THOMASON, 2021. Criminal Law Review. 727-752
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 Co-Director of the MA in Criminology and Criminal Justice programme. At Postgraduate level, he teaches on the Fair Trials module.
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.