Professor Richard Taylor

Richard's work in criminal law has had substantial impact on the development of the law in a variety of ways including being consulted and cited by the Ministry of Justice in areas such as homicide/complicity and by the Law Commission on hate crimes. His ongoing contribution of six chapters to each annual edition of Blackstone's Criminal Practice (of which he was one of the founding authors in 1991) continues to be frequently cited in trial and appellate courts at all levels, both in the UK and in other jurisdictions. His innovative student textbook, Contract Law Directions (OUP 8th edition 2021, jointly written with his son who is a solicitor in a leading City practice), remains popular with students for its clear explanations and accessible style and has been adopted by a broad range of law schools.

Richard has undertaken numerous roles within the University of Central Lancashire, including Head of the Law School and Director of Research but also outside the University he has had a wide variety of experience through influential and prestigious external appointments. He was a member of the UK funding councils' Law Panel for the 1996 and 2001 Research Assessment Exercises and has given invited papers or lectured at many different universities and institutes in Europe and further afield including in Hong Kong, Montreal, New Delhi and Manila. He has been an external examiner for the Bar Vocational Course and for many other courses in Universities both in the UK and abroad and has been a visiting professor at the University of Poitiers. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Heads of University Law Schools and a member of the Steering Committee of the National Centre for Legal Education. He was an external member of the Academic Quality Council and Academic Board of the College of Law (2003-2009) and an independent member of the Academic Council of BPP University (2016 -2020). Richard also served as a part-time tribunal judge from 2002 -2020. From 2009 -2011 he was the Chair of the Legal Education Committee of the Society of Legal Scholars, which is the Learned Society for University lawyers in the UK and Ireland, with over 3000 members. From 2011 to 2016 he was the Hon Secretary of the Society and in 2018-19 was President of the Society which included hosting its highly successful Annual Conference at the University of Central Lancashire's Preston campus in September 2019.