King's College London

Congratulations to Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Centre of Medical Law and Ethics, Penney Lewis, on being appointed as Commissioner for Criminal Law at the Law Commission.

The Ministry of Justice announced the appointment today which is effective from January 2020 for a term of five years and renewable once.

As Commissioner for Criminal Law, Professor Lewis will take forward current ongoing projects to protect victims of offensive and abusive online communications and from the taking, making and sharing of intimate images without consent. She will also lead on work to review the adequacy of protection offered by hate crime legislation and on the confiscation of the proceeds of crime.

Professor Gillian Douglas, Executive Dean for The Dickson Poon School of Law, said: “This is an amazing opportunity and richly deserved. Penney’s breadth of expertise and experience will be a real asset in helping to modernise and simplify both criminal law, and more widely in the fields of medical law and bioethics, regulation, and the interface between law and science.”

“Penney has an international reputation in the relationship between law, medicine and science and her research interests span medical law and bioethics, criminal evidence, and the intersection of criminal and medical law. Published reviews of her work on delayed prosecutions for childhood sexual abuse and assisted dying note the “extremely thorough and perceptive”, “thought-provoking” and “remarkably creative legal approach” which “poses novel questions and pushes the boundaries of understanding”. She has also given invited oral and written evidence to Select Committees of the UK, Scottish and Irish Parliaments.”

Professor Lewis joined the Law School and Centre of Medical Law and Ethics in 1995 and has played a leading role in developing postgraduate programmes in Medical Ethics and Law. Additionally, she has been a member of national ethics committees in the fields of organ donation, genomics and research ethics, and is currently a Member of the Human Tissue Authority.