Professor David Nelken, ST Lee Visiting Professorial Fellow (September 2008 to February 2009)
David Nelken is Professor of Law at the the Cardiff Law School , of Cardiff University and has been awarded the STLEE Visiting Professorial Fellowship at the School of Advanced Study for 6 months, between September 2008 until February 2009.
After teaching at Edinburgh University and University College, London Law faculties he is now Distinguished Professor of Legal Institutions and Social Change at the University of Macerata, Italy, Distinguished Research Professor of Law at Cardiff University, and Honourary Visiting Professor of Law at LSE.
Professor Nelken can be contacted by email at sen4144@iperbole.bologna.it
Professor Nelken is a prolific author and his scholarly work, particularly is published work in sociology of Law - including socio-legal studies - over the past thirty years - is extremely valued among his peers and is regarded as a primary reference resource in the field. His writing in criminology and criminal justice is highly and warmly welcomed by reviewers and regarded as cutting edge in these areas. His award-winning 1983 book The Limits of the Law: A Study of Landlords, Law and Crime received a Distinguished Scholar award from the American Sociological Association (criminology secion). The Limits of Law was remarkable for combining some rare ethnographic work on white-collar crime with very influential mapping of the issues facing theoretical criminology, provoking many debates. His chapters on "Corporate and White-Collar Crime" and on "Comparing Criminal Justice" have been amongst the most referred-to in successive editions of The Oxford Handbook of Criminology. Professor Nelken has written many much-cited papers in major academic journals and edited collections and has edited numerous key works on comparative criminal justice and law, on corporate crime and on theoretical criminology.
Professor Nelken is a socio-legal scholar whose intellectual formation has been in the Anglophone world, but who lives and works mainly in Italy, though he is in heavy demand as a writer, speaker and teacher in many countries and has been a keynote speaker at prestigious conferences around the world. His own cross-cultural experience has inspired him to address the often previously neglected challenge of developing socio-legal inquiries capable of bridging different national cultures and the popular and professional experience of different legal systems.
More recently, Professor Nelken has contributed to the development of the concept of legal culture to make it an effective vehicle for comparative research. His analyses have been widely discussed by comparative lawyers, as well as socio-legal scholars working in many fields.
The two books, that he is working on and that will be the main focus of his fellowship, are focused on two themes: Comparative Criminal Justice - Making Sense of Difference and Understanding Legal Culture. These books are the culmination of long-gestating theoretical trajectories and will make a huge impact on debates
