Mr Mark Mackarel

Mark joined Exeter Law School in Cornwall in August 2020 having previously taught law and criminal justice at Aberdeen, Dundee, St Mary's, Exeter and Portsmouth.

Mark has a background in teaching criminal law, international criminal justice and human rights. Mark has an interest in developing internationalised perspectives of the curriculum and study skills with students.

Mark's teaching has been informed by his work examining human rights protection under the European Convention on Human Rights and through the prosecution of crimes against international law. His research has also examined the development of legal co-operation in countering cross-border crime.

Other information:

Legal Heroes

During my postgraduate study, I began to take a special interest in the role of human rights and their dual role of building protections against terrible crimes against people and the way they build in transparency, accountability and prevent abuses of power in by the state.

In September 2019, the Supreme Court handed down a judgment that prevented the Government from proroguing Parliament (ending the Parliamentary session) in an apparent attempt to end parliamentary debate and opposition to its Brexit Withdrawal Bill. Whatever your feelings about Brexit, the attempt by the Government to artificially restrict debate and the parliamentary process was regrettable.

The judgment in this case was presented in the Supreme Court by Baroness Brenda Hale, the first woman to be appointed as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary at the United Kingdom's highest court of appeal, the House of Lords. The House of Lords was replaced as a judicial institution by the Supreme Court in 2009.

Baroness Hale is an inspiration in that aside from leading the way for the overdue process of increasing female representation amongst the senior judiciary, as President of the Supreme Court (2017-2020) she was central to legal decisions which held the UK Government to account. Baroness Hale begun her career as a legal academic (an inspiration to lecturers!), worked at the Law Commission and progressed through the ranks of the judiciary on merit. She has been an outspoken advocate of judicial diversity and was well known for her contribution to the development of family law and her accessibility to the public and law students (she would talk to groups visiting the Supreme Court and visited the Law School at Exeter in 2018).

Research supervision:

Mark would be pleased to hear from students with an interest in research projects examining aspects of international criminal justice, comparative criminal criminal justice and international co-operation in criminal matters.

Undergraduate Dissertations

Mark can supervise undergraduate Dissertations and Research Projects for students based at the Penryn campus in the subject areas of:

Criminal law and criminal justice, international criminal law, human rights, organised crime, international legal co-operation in criminal matters and the law of tort.

For 2021-22, students may wish to look at some of these current issues:

The work of the International Criminal Court following the appointment of a new prosecutor.

The future of the Human Rights Act 1998

The case load crisis at the European Court of Human Rights

The post-Brexit framework for international co-operation in relation to organised crime for UK law enforcement

Balancing privacy and freedom of expression

Post covid criminal justice blues - how will the system recover?

Mark is also happy to discuss with students forming their own proposals in these areas. Please email me to arrange a meeting: m.mackarel2@exeter.ac.uk