School of Law

I have been a member of the Centre for Professional Ethics since it was founded in 2002, and was its Director between 2005 and 2009. Previously I was a Lecturer in Philosophy at Keele, Lecturer in Political Theory at Manchester and Research Fellow in Philosophy and Politics also at Manchester. I obtained a BA in Philosophy from the University of Bristol and a PhD in Political Theory from the University of Manchester. I also spent a few years outside academia, working in IT.

While I have a variety of interests in applied and professional ethics, my current work is focused on the ethics of policing and criminal justice. I am writing articles on several topics within this field, organising a workshop on ethical policing, funded by the British Academy and supported by the Association of Chief Police Officers’ Professional Ethics Portfolio, and I am Director of Keele’s unique MA in the Ethics of Policing and Criminal Justice.

I am editor of the European Textbook on Ethics in Research, which I co-authored with other members of PEAK under a competitive tender from the European Commission.

My research is currently focused on the ethics of policing and criminal justice, and on police ethics in particular. I am currently working on papers on the following topics:

•  Conscientious objection in policing
•  Professional standards and ethical policing
• Racial and ethnic profiling (joint authorship with Eve Garrard, University of Manchester)
• Investigating and prosecuting old crimes (joint authorship with Monique Jonas, University of Auckland)

In order to advance this area of research I am, with Philip Stenning, organising a workshop on ethical policing which will bring together academics from various disciplines, practitioners and others with an interest in this area. My work in this area supports various other activities including directing and teaching on the MA in the Ethics of Policing and Criminal Justice, a one-day training programme on Police Ethics currently under development, and a two-day training programme in Prison Research Ethics first delivered last year.

My work in police and criminal justice ethics draws upon various themes from previous phases of my work. In particular it touches upon issues of risk and precaution, and distributive justice, which I have explored in relation to bioethical and medical ethics issues such as xenotransplantation, genetic modification and resource allocation in palliative care. My work on genetic modification led to me being co-opted as a member of the Irish Council for Bioethics Working Group on GM Crops and Food.

My earliest research was in political philosophy, especially Marxism. My PhD (later developed into a book) examined the relation between Marx’s theory of history and the environment, and touched on issues including environmental ethics, the theory of needs, and the role of functional explanation in social science, as well as engaging in critical analysis of Marx and Engels' texts from the perspective of Analytical Marxism.

Postgraduate and undergraduate teaching

I have taught and supervised students on all of PEAK’s professional ethics postgraduate programmes, but currently the majority of my teaching is on the following programmes:

• MA in the Ethics of Policing and Criminal Justice
• MA in the Ethics of Social Welfare
• Professional Doctorate in Medical Ethics.

I also teach on the undergraduate module, ‘Life, Sex and Death: An Introduction to Practical Ethics’, and have in the past taught sessions and modules for the Masters in Medical Science (MMedSci) and the MBA (Health Executive) programmes.

In previous posts I have taught undergraduate and postgraduate political theory modules including ‘Modern Political Thought’ and ‘Theories of Rights’, and contributed to a wide variety of undergraduate philosophy modules.

Knowledge transfer

I have been involved in the development and delivery of PEAK’s training programmes on research ethics for members of NHS and university research ethics committees since its inception. While continuing to be involved in these programmes I have more recently developed and delivered new programmes on:

• Ethics and Resource Allocation
• Prison Research Ethics
• Police Ethics.

Doctoral supervision

I am primary supervisor to four doctoral students working on the following topics:

• The ethical demands on the developed world of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.
• An investigation of the ethics of Phase 1 cancer trials with respect to the Best Interests principle.
• How effective is the military necessity defence in justifying novel medical treatments?
• An examination of the ethics of resource allocation in relation to emergency care.

I am second supervisor to four doctoral students.

Course leadership and development

I developed and am Programme Director for the MA in the Ethics of Policing and Criminal Justice.

I was previously Programme Director for the MA in the Ethics of Social Welfare and the (now superseded) MA in Healthcare Ethics: Research and Biotechnology.

I undertook much of the initial development of the distance learning MA in Research Ethics.

External Examiner (since 2009) for the MA in Medical Ethics and Law, King’s College London.

European Textbook on Ethics in Research (2007-2009). A project funded (€145,000) by the European Commission under a contract awarded by competitive tender. I wrote the bid, and was fund-holder, editor, and co-author with Stephen Wilkinson, David Hunter, Anthony Wrigley and Mark Sheehan. Following publication by the Commission, the textbook will be used for the training of researchers and members of research ethics committees throughout Europe.

Irish Council for Bioethics Working Group on Genetically Modified Crops (2002-2005). I was a member of the Working Group that produced the report, Genetically Modified Crops and Food: Threat or Opportunity for Ireland?

Peer reviewer for journals including the Journal of Medical Ethics, Ethics and Social Welfare, Journal of Global Ethics, Clinical Ethics, Political Studies, Studies in Marxism, Ecological Economics, and Environmental Politics, and of book proposals for Sage Books, Springer, Manchester University Press, Oxford University Press and Bloomsbury.

Member of Keele University Research Ethics Committee (2005-2009).