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Professor Estella Baker

Job: Professor of European Criminal Law and Justice

Faculty: Business and Law

School/department: Leicester De Montfort Law School

Address: The Gateway, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, LE1 9BH

T: +44 (0)116 257 7256

E: ebaker@dmu.ac.uk

W: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/bal

 

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Personal profile

Professor of European Criminal Law and Justice.  Member of the European Commission's Expert Group on EU Criminal Policy.  Estella has previously held posts at the University of Sheffield and the University of Leicester, as well as visiting positions at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Penal Law, Freiburg; the School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia; and the Institute of Criminology, Cambridge.  She was a trustee of Fair Trials International from 2002-2008, and chaired the Board of Trustees from 2006-2008.

Estella's primary area of expertise is EU, transnational and comparative criminal law and justice, particularly the evolving penal competence of the EU and its role in governance and citizenship.  She also works in the field of punishment and sentencing.

Publications and outputs

  • Criminal Justice and the New, Deep and Special Partnership Between the EU and the UK: A Critical Test for the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice?
    Criminal Justice and the New, Deep and Special Partnership Between the EU and the UK: A Critical Test for the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice? Baker, Estella The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link
  • What price criminal justice in the EU?
    What price criminal justice in the EU? Baker, Estella Editorial discusses a variety of aspects of the EU's evolving criminal jurisdiction in the context of the issues of financial cost and constitutional accountability.
  • Crimes, remedies and videotape; An unhappy encounter with EU law?
    Crimes, remedies and videotape; An unhappy encounter with EU law? Baker, Estella The chapter uses the ruling of the Court of Appeal/Divisional Court in the joined cases of Interfact and Budimir to discuss the concept and phenomenon of national judicial resistance to the encroachment of European laws (EU and ECHR) into criminal procedure. Having provided a detailed analysis of the case, which distinguishes "substantive" from "rhetorical" resistance, it then proceeds to draw some broader lessons that apply in general to the reception of European laws by national criminal courts .
  • Great expectations: Sharing confidences in EU criminal justice
    Great expectations: Sharing confidences in EU criminal justice Baker, Estella This paper considers the evolution of the European Union's criminal justice competence using the analytical motif of "confidence". In order to explain why this approach was chosen the first part describes three confidence "vignettes" –situations or senses in which "confidence" forms a key part of the narrative of the Union's criminal justice development. Picking up upon the renaissance of interest among social scientists in the study of emotions, the paper then outlines the account of 'Action and confidence' that was provided by the sociologist, Jack Barbalet, in the context of his seminal work, Emotion, Social Theory, and Social Structure. This is then used to provide a series of reflections on the role of confidence (and emotion more generally) in relation to the Union's emergence as a criminal justice actor and, in turn, also on Barbalet's account. The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • A case of "nested enforcement": Article 83(2) TFEU, compliance and the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice post-Lisbon
    A case of "nested enforcement": Article 83(2) TFEU, compliance and the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice post-Lisbon Baker, Estella Article 83(2) TFEU confers legislative competence upon the EU to require Member States to use criminal law means to ensure the effective implementation of Union policies. The paper uses Anthony Bottoms' typology of compliance (2002) to analyse and reflect upon the enforcement mechanism that is involved in this so-called "annex competence" and considers the implications in terms of the potential for Article 83(2) to promote the constitutionalisation of the Union.
  • The Court of Justice of the EU and the "new" Lisbon environment five years on
    The Court of Justice of the EU and the "new" Lisbon environment five years on Baker, Estella The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • The United Kingdom and its protocol 36 opt-out: Is police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters within the EU losing momentum?
    The United Kingdom and its protocol 36 opt-out: Is police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters within the EU losing momentum? Baker, Estella
  • The EU as a Penal Actor
    The EU as a Penal Actor Baker, Estella
  • Governing Through Crime – the Case of the European Union
    Governing Through Crime – the Case of the European Union Baker, Estella
  • From past imperfect to future perfect? A longitudinal study of the third pillar.
    From past imperfect to future perfect? A longitudinal study of the third pillar. Baker, Estella; Harding, C. S.

Click here to view a full listing of Estella Baker's publications and outputs.

Research interests/expertise

  • EU, transnational and comparative criminal law and justice (including the "Area of Freedom, Security and Justice");
  • Punishment, sentencing and penal policy;
  • Governance, legitimacy and citizenship in the context of the above areas;
  • Criminal law

Areas of teaching

Freedom, Security and Criminal Justice in the EU; Identities, Citizens and Cultures in the EU; Issues in Comparative Penology; Penology and Sentencing (postgraduate)

Criminal Law; Criminology; EU Law; Punishment and Penal Policy (undergraduate)

Qualifications

BA Law Hons (Nottingham); MPhil Criminology (Cantab)

Courses taught

Advanced Criminal Law; Criminal Law; EU Law

Membership of external committees

Committee Member, European Criminal Law Association (UK)ECLA;

Membership of professional associations and societies

British Society of Criminology;

Centre for Crime and Justice Studies;

European Criminal Law Association (UK)ECLA;

European Criminal Lawyers Academic Network;

European Society of Criminology;

Howard League for Penal Reform;

Society of Legal Scholars

Forthcoming events

Conferences/festivals/campaigns

Conference attendance

Recent invited papers include:

  • 'The European Criminal Justice Jigsaw and its Relevance to Scotland', keynote address, to the Scottish Association for the Study of Offending (2011);
  • 'Opt Ins and the Transitional Period', Polish National School of the Judiciary and Public Prosecution, Krakow (2010);
  • 'The Emerging Role of the EU as a Penal Actor', workshop on European Penology? at the Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Spain (2010);
  • 'Without a Third Pillar: European Cooperation in Justice and Criminal Policy under Lisbon', keynote address, After Lisbon: The Future of European Law and Policy conference organised by the Institute of European Law, University of Birmingham (2010);
  • 'Challenges for the Court of Justice in Police and Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters', Swedish Ministry of Justice, Stockholm (2010);
  • 'Transitional Periods – How and When will the Third Pillar 'Dissolve'?', Academy of European Law, Trier, (2010)

Externally funded research grants information

'The EU as a Penal Actor: An Investigation of Policy-Making and Governance', Leverhulme Research Fellowship 2011-12

Professional esteem indicators

Reviewing: (grant proposals) the Belgian Science Policy Office; (book proposals/manuscripts) Oxford University Press, Sage; (journal articles) Criminology and Criminal Justice; the European Law Review, Evidence and Proof, Governance, the International and Comparative Law Quarterly, the International Journal of Risk, Security and Crime Prevention, the International Review of Victimology, the Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, the Journal of Law and Society.