I am interested in research proposals from students writing dissertations or theses under the following headings:

Comparative criminal justice

Legal transition

Post-totalitarian law

Terrorism

I am on sabbatical leave during 2012/2013.

My research interests broadly lie within the areas of comparative constitutionalism and European human rights and transitional criminal justice.

My monograph, From Old Times to New Europe: the Polish Struggle for Democracy and Constitutionalism (Ashgate, 2010), considers Polish constitutional and legal developments and their legal philosophical contexts starting with the pre-war period in 1918. An analysis of Polish developments serves as a valuable blueprint for other post-dictatorial states.

My research on European human rights jurisprudence concerns the abolition of the death penalty in post-Communist states. I have lectured on European and US Approaches to the Death Penalty to Amnesty International (Lancaster branch) and published on the issue.

I have been successful in obtaining funding for my research on transitional justice has received funding. The British Academy Small Research Grant award (£7440) and the Socio-Legal Studies Association award (£1500) assisted in research on Romanian criminal justice. The work involved interviews with key agents in cases against members of the Romanian Communist Party and the security police. It was an important opportunity build links with colleagues at the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Romanian Exile (see http://www.crimelecomunismului.ro/en/) and collaborate on joint research projects, including an edited collection on transitional criminal justice.

The FASS Research and Development Fund award of £844 allowed me to carry out work on Polish de-communisation measures at Polish archives.

In 2012 I was awarded £2350 by the FASS Research Fund to carry out research on 'Transitional Criminal Justice Measures in Albania'. The first part of the project was undertaken on October 2012. A second trip is planned for Spring 2013, when I will continue to conduct interviews with key political and judicial officials, and research archival materials related to the former dictatorship’s legal framework. 

My sabbatical year 2012/2013 is devoted to building upon research and expertise on my on-going project on comparative transitional criminal justice.

Books

• From Old Times to New Europe: the Polish Struggle for Democracy and Constitutionalism (Ashgate, 2010): see From Old Times to New Europe (reviewed in Dignitas The Slovenian Journal of Human Rights, 53-54 (May 2012), pp. 397-398).

Book chapters

• ‘A Judge’s Identity’, in Shaping of Identity and Personality during Communist Rule: History in the Service of Totalitarian Regimes in Eastern Europe (Tallinn: Estonian Institute for Historical Memory, forthcoming, 2013), 6,763 words
• ‘European Policy on the Death Penalty’ in Is the Death Penalty Dying? European and American Perspectives, eds. Austin Sarat and Jürgen Martschukat (Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp. 268-291, see Is the Death Penalty Dying?
• ‘Capital Punishment in Poland’, in The Cultural Lives of Capital Punishment: Comparative Perspectives, ed. A. Sarat and C. Boulanger (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005), pp. 147-168, see http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/998/
• ‘Money Laundering and Drugs'’ in Handbook on European Enlargement, ed. A. Ott and K. Inglis (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2002), pp. 813-844
• ‘Der Abschaffung der Todesstrafe in Mittel- und Ost-europa’ (The Abolition of the Death Penalty in Central and Eastern Europe) in Zür Aktualität der Todesstrafe: Interdisziplinäre und Globale Perspektiven, ed. C. Boulanger, P. Hanfling, and V. Heyes (Berlin: Berlin Verlag Arno Spitz, 2002), pp. 331-356

Journal articles (peer-reviewed)

• ‘Retroactive Laws and Retrospective Justice: Key Aspects of the German and Polish Experiences’, Frontiers of Legal Research, 1 (2013), pp. 1-24
• 'Memories that Shape the Judicial Identity’, Dignitas-The Slovenian Journal of Human Rights, nr. 55-56, (December 2012), pp. 125-151
• ‘The Paradoxical Nature of Crime Control in Post-Communist Europe’, European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, 15 (2007), pp. 155-172 http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/995/
• ‘Abolition of the Death Penalty in Central and Eastern Europe’, Tilburg Foreign Law Review, 9 (2001), pp. 62-83 http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/996/

Reviews

• Of David Dyzenhaus, The Constitution of Law: Legality in a Time of Emergency (Cambridge University Press, 2007), for International Journal for Law in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 115-121
• Of Maria Los and Andrzej Zybertowicz, Privatizing the Police-State: The Case of Poland (Macmillan, 2000), Netherlands International Law Review, 49(1)(2002), pp. 143-148

WORK IN PROGRESS

Books (edited)

• With Raluca Grosescu, Transitional Criminal Justice in Post-Dictatorial and Post-Conflict Societies (manuscript is under review)

Articles (peer-reviewed)

• ‘The Fieldorf File: Politics and Justice in People's Poland’ (under review)

EXTERNAL ACTIVITIES

•    February 2006 - European Master's Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation, University of Seville, on ‘Transition to Democracy (II): the Central and East European Experience’

•    September 2005 - The European System of Human Rights Protection Summer School, Faculty of Law, Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, course on ‘Terrorism and Human Rights’

•    April 2004 - Transcrime, University of Trento, Italy, Advanced Criminology course on ‘Money Laundering in Europe and Eastern Europe’

•    November 2003 - Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, Human Rights series on the ‘Abolition of Capital Punishment in Central and Eastern Europe’

•    July 2003 - Faculty of Law, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany in a ‘Justice as Procedure’ seminar, on rights' adjudication in Central and Eastern Europe

•    September 2002 - The European System of Human Rights Protection Summer School, Faculty of Law, Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, course on ‘Terrorism and Human Rights’

•    September 2001 - The European System of Human Rights Protection Summer School, Faculty of Law, Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, course on ‘The Abolition of Capital Punishment in Central and Eastern Europe’

CONFERENCES/WORKSHOPS

• December 2013 – ‘Transitional Justice in the Balkans’, presented at The City Law School seminar series, City University London;
• January 2013 – ‘Comparative Perspectives: Poland and the Balkans’, presented the School of Sociology and Criminology seminar series, University of Keele;
• December 2012 – ‘Silences and Perspectives: Film, Memories and Representations of Katyń’, presented at ‘Silences and Perspectives: Film, Memories and Representations of War’ workshop, Dynamics of Memory, Lancaster University;
• December 2011 – ‘The Polish Hangover’, presented at ‘Burdens and Opportunities of the Past’ (along with Andreja Valic, the Head of Slovenian Study Centre for National Reconciliation) sponsored by the School of Government and European Studies in Brdo, Slovenia (see http://www.fds.si/dejavnosti/akademski-forum/821-evropsko-drzavljanstvo-bremena-in-priloznosti-preteklosti);
• October 2010 – ‘Transitional Criminal Justice: the Polish Way’, presented at the ‘Transitional Criminal Justice in Post-Dictatorial Societies’ workshop, Bucharest (see http://www.crimelecomunismului.ro/en/). Research for this paper was funded by the FASS Research and Development Fund;
• April 2010 – ‘American and European Perspectives on Capital Punishment’, at Amherst College, with Professors Austin Sarat and Jürgen Martschukat;
• May 2009 – ‘Transitional Justice in Romania’, presented at ‘Memory and Justice’, Dynamics of Memory seminar, Lancaster University.

I am a member of the Law and Society Association's Collaborative Network (CRN) on ‘The Cultural Lives of Capital Punishment’. I have presented papers on various aspects of capital punishment in Central and Eastern Europe at the following Law and Society Association meetings:

•    ‘Constitutional Court Jurisprudence Concerning Capital Punishment in Central and Eastern Europe’ (Baltimore, MD 2005)

•    ‘Crime and Punishment in post-Communist Poland’ (Chicago, IL 2004)

•    ‘Cultural Life of Capital Punishment in Poland’ (Pittsburgh, PA 2003)

•    ‘Abolition of Capital Punishment in Central and Eastern Europe’ (Vancouver, BC 2002)

•    ‘Struggle Towards Judicial Independence in Poland’ (Budapest, Hungary 2001)