Professor John Rason Spencer

By Lesley Dingle and Daniel Bates

Professor John Rason Spencer

  • 1946: Born Chelmsford, Essex. Father Donald Edward Spencer, district surveyor; mother Catherine Mary nee Cozens
  • 1950: Moved to rural Dorset,
  • 1956: Moved to Sturminster Newton.
  • 1957-64: Blandford Grammar School
  • 1965-68: Selwyn College, Cambridge; Law Tripos (2.1s),
  • 1968-9: LLB(I)
  • 1969-70: Temporary Lecturer, Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration, University of Vancouver.
  • 1970-73: Junior Fellowship, Selwyn College
    • 1973-76: University Assistant Lecturer
    • 1973: "Signature, Consent and the Rule in L' Estrange v. Graucob" Cambridge Law Journal 104-122 First publication
  • 1976-91: University Lecturer
    • 1978-1981: Faculty Secretary
    • 1990: The Evidence of Children - the Law and the Psychology, (with Rhona Flin) Blackstone Press, 362 pp.
    • 1990-91: Visiting lecturer, University of Paris I and II
    • Initiated Erasmus Exchange Programme
    • Double Mâitrise with Paris II
  • 1991-95: Reader
    • 1993: 2nd Edition, The Evidence of Children - the Law and the Psychology
  • 1995-2013: Professor of Law
    • 1995-1997: Faculty Chairman
    • 2002: European Criminal Procedures (with Mireille Delmas-Marty) (eds), Cambridge University Press, 775pp.
    • 2003: QC (hons)
    • 2003: Academic Bencher, Inner Temple
    • 2006: Evidence of Bad Character, Hart Publishing, 254pp.
    • 2006: LLD
    • 2008: Hearsay Evidence in Criminal Proceedings, Hart Publishing, 341pp
    • 2009: Honorary President, European Criminal Law Association (UK)
    • 2010: Criminal Law: Theory and Doctrine (with G.R. Sullivan, A.P. Simester, F Stark and G.J. Virgo) , Hart Publishing, 4th Edit.
    • (stand-in) Director of CELS
    • UL Syndicate Member
    • Board of Scrutiny (Chairman)
    • Exam Complaints Review Committee Member
    • Docteur en droit, University of Poitiers (hon)
    • Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes Academiques
  • 2013: Retired
    • 2013: Editor of Archbold Review
    • 2013 - present: Emeritus Fellow, Selwyn College
    • 2014: Noted but not invariably approved, Hart Publishing, 268pp
    • 2014-2020: Bye-Fellow, Murray Edwards College
    • 2014-2016: Vice-Chancellor's Deputy
    • 2017: CBE

Law Reform Committees etc

  • 1989-90: Calcutt Committee, Privacy and the Press
  • 1995-96: EU study group on fraud on EU finances: proposal for a European Public Prosecutor
  • 2001: Consultant to Sir Robin Auld's Review of the Criminal Courts