Law academic receives highly acclaimed Visiting Scholar position in New Zealand

25th June 2018

A Northumbria University associate professor has been awarded the highly-acclaimed title of Kayes Fletcher Walker Visiting Scholar 2018 by New Zealand law practice, Kayes Fletcher Walker in conjunction with Auckland University of Technology (AUT), for her valued contribution to criminal law.

The honour is bestowed to only one individual annually. It was given to Dr. Nicola Wake, Associate Professor in Law and Deputy Director for the Centre of Evidence and Criminal Justice Studies at Northumbria, following her work in relation to the UK Government’s introduction of criminal law defences, including more recently, for those compelled to commit offences due to slavery or exploitation.

Dr. Wake, who has been fully supported in her work by Professor Warren Brookbanks from the Centre of Non-Adversarial Justice at AUT as well as Kayes, Fletcher and Walker, will now travel to Auckland University in New Zealand over the forthcoming weeks to deliver a public lecture.

Entitled ‘Trafficking victims compelled to commit offences: increasing the protection available in England, Wales and New Zealand’, she will explore how to better protect victims.

She commented, “It is an immense honour to be awarded the title and is indicative of the strong and close working partnership between myself, Northumbria University and Auckland University of Technology Law Schools. Delivering the lecture is a fantastic opportunity for people to engage and participate in a thought-provoking area of law that is, unfortunately, very topical and relevant worldwide.

“It’s an incredibly important issue that staff and law students at Northumbria have been researching for some time and the visit provides a great opportunity for us to explore real and often sensitive issues on a collaborative basis.”

Dr. Wake is widely published in criminal law with special interest in mental condition defences. She holds several editorial positions and is a research mentor to academic colleagues whilst supervising PhD students.

Northumbria Law School is the largest law school in North East of England with a national and international reputation for excellence in legal education. Its courses have been ranked in the top 300 in the world, for the first time, in the QS World University Rankings 2018.