Staff profile

Gemma joined Durham Law School as Associate Professor in Criminal Law in September 2022. Her research interests and expertise broadly lie at the intersection between criminal law and public international law. This includes exploring issues around transnational criminal law, extradition, European criminal law, Part Three of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, and criminal jurisdiction amongst others. Her work aims to understand barriers to criminal justice cooperation, particularly between the UK and other states and seeks to facilitate better cooperation which also adequately protects the privacy and fundamental rights of citizens. In recent years she has worked on two funded projects which considered the implications of Brexit for criminal justice cooperation between the UK and Ireland and policing of the dark web. She has most recently written on UK access to electronic evidence stored overseas and the continued role EU data protection rules play in cooperation with third states such as the U.S., even after Brexit.

Her focus is on producing research which engages with policy and practice. She draws on her background as a barrister practising in criminal law from 2005 to 2012 and her many years of experience teaching students undertaking the vocational stage of qualification as a barrister at Northumbria University. Maintaining links with the profession continues to be important to her work. She regularly contributes to Parliamentary inquiries and consultations and has twice given oral evidence to a Parliamentary Committee which can be seen here and here. She has experience of writing policy focused research papers aimed at a non-academic audience and has written for think tanks such as UK in a Changing Europe and the LSE Brexit blog. She has made media appearances on radio and been cited by the Guardian, the BBC, and the Irish Times and the Irish Law Commission. She has also provided training to the judiciary on the extradition provisions of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. 

Outside of the university Gemma currently sits on the advisory board of the Independent Commission on UK-EU Relations focusing on the post-Brexit relationship between the UK and EU in the field of criminal justice and security cooperation. She is also an elected committee member of the European Criminal Law Association (UK) which aims to study, discuss and provide information on the development of the criminal law in Europe by means of seminars and publications. She also founded the UK-Irish Criminal Justice Cooperation Network with funding from the AHRC and previously was a committee member of the Association of Law Teachers. She has been Principal Investigator, Co-investigator or team member in 7 funded research projects which have been funded by the European Commission, Nordsfork, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, the Society of Legal Scholars and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. She is book review editor of the International Journal of Evidence and Proof. She is currently the Bar Standards Board Lead External Examiner for Advocacy.

Selected Publications 

Davies, G., ‘Police Access to Electronic Evidence Stored Overseas: Cooperation between the EU and UK post-Brexit’ in Heffernan, L., Criminal Law and Justice in the European Union (forthcoming Clarus Press Spring 2022)

Davies, G., ‘Law Enforcement and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters’ in C. McCrudden, The Law and Practice of the Ireland-Northern Ireland Protocol (Cambridge University Press 2022)

Davies, G., Arnell, P., Bock, S., and Worner, L., ‘Police Cooperation and Exchange of Information under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA)’, (2021) 12(2) New Journal of European Criminal Law 262

Davies, G., Arnell, P., ‘The new UK-EU extradition arrangements’ (2021) 6 Scots Law Times 21

Davies, G., Arnell, P., ‘Extradition Between the UK and Ireland after Brexit – Understanding the
Past and Present to Prepare for the Future’, (2021) 85(2) Journal of Criminal Law 98

Davies, G., ‘Facilitating cross-border criminal justice cooperation between the UK and Ireland after Brexit: Keeping the lights on to ensure the safety of the Common Travel Area’, (2021) 85(2) Journal of Criminal Law 77

Davies, G., ‘Criminal Justice Cooperation Between the UK and Ireland After Brexit’, (2021) 85(2) Journal of Criminal Law 73

Davies, G., ‘Shining a Light on Policing of the Dark Web: An Analysis of UK Investigatory Powers’ (2020) 84(5) Journal of Criminal Law 407

Davies, G., with Arnell, P., ‘The Forum Bar in UK Extradition Law: An Unnecessary Failure’ (2020) 84(2) Journal of Criminal Law 142

Davies, G., ‘Extradition, forum bar and concurrent jurisdiction: Is the case of Love a precedent for trying hackers in the UK?’ (2018) 82(4) Journal of Criminal Law

Davies, G., Woo, M., ‘Navigating Troubled Seas: the future of the Law School in the United Kingdom and the United States’ (2018) 5(1) Journal of International and Comparative Law 43

Davies, G and Jackson, A., ‘Making the Case for ECRIS: Post “Brexit” Sharing of Criminal Records Information between the EU and UK’ (2017) 21(4) International Journal of Evidence and Proof 330

Davies, G., and Welsh, J., ‘Advocacy 20 years on from Hampel: is it time we revisited the postgraduate teaching of advocacy?’ (2017) 51(4) The Law Teacher 401

Davies, G and Piasecki, E., ‘No more laissez faire? Expert evidence, rule changes and reliability: Can more effective training for the bar and judiciary prevent miscarriages of justice?’ (2016) 80(5) Journal of Criminal Law 327

Davies, G and Piasecki, E., ‘Article 8 and the Disclosure of Criminal Records: Time to Reconsider?’ (2016) 80(6) Journal of Criminal Law 399

Davies, G. ‘Balancing the interference with private and family life of the person whose extradition is sought with the public interest in extradition: Has the pendulum swung too far?’ (2015) 79(5) Journal of Criminal Law 309

Selected Conference Papers

Chair and organizer of the European Criminal Law Association seminar, ‘UK Law Enforcement access to electronic evidence stored overseas: the US and European context post Brexit’ (London, 08 February 2022)

Delivery of key research findings to research users involved in the Police Detectives on the Tor network project, ‘Gathering, interpreting and exchanging digital evidence: Are current rules and safeguards fit for purpose?’, with Adam Jackson (Newcastle, 14 January 2022)

Presenter, WG Hart Legal Conference 2021, ‘Jurisdiction and Extradition – the UK’s Forum Bar’ with Paul Arnell, Robert Gordan University (London, 28 April 2021)

Delivery of training to the judiciary, ‘The Surrender Provisions in Part III of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement’ with Paul Arnell, Robert Gordan University (Northern Ireland and Scotland 21 January and 22 April 2021)

Invited speaker at the European Criminal Law Association seminar, ‘Extradition with the EU 27 After Brexit’ (London, 23 February 2021)

Plenary invited speaker to the Association of Criminal Justice Research and Development conference, ‘Privacy and Crime Fighting: The European Context’ (Dublin. 11 December 2020)

Invited speaker to the Irish Centre for European Law, ‘Police and Judicial Cooperation Between the UK and Ireland Under Part III of the TCA’ (Dublin, 29 March 2021)

Presenter at 19th Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, ‘Policing of dark web marketplaces: A UK perspective’ (Ghent, 21 Sept 2019)

Invited speaker, Live Forensics final symposium, ‘Cross-border access to electronic evidence in the EU and US: A paradigm shift in the system of cross-border access to data in criminal investigations?’ (Barcelona, December 2018)

Presenter at the International Society for Law Reform Conference, ‘Tackling Human Trafficking in an Era of Isolationism: Consideration of the impact of Brexit on the policing of human trafficking’, (Montreal, July 2018)

Presenter at The Stockholm Criminology Symposium ‘Can the UK have her cake and eat it? Unpicking the Brexit fallacy in the area of criminal justice cooperation’ (Sweden, June 2018)

• Cooperation in criminal matters
• Criminal Jurisdiction
• Cybercrime
• European criminal law
• Extradition
• Part Three of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement
• Transnational Criminal Law
• mutual legal assistance
• suppression of transnational crime

Chapter in book

• Davies, G. (2022). Police Access to Electronic Evidence Stored Overseas: Cooperation between the EU and the UK Post-Brexit. In L. Heffernan (Ed.), Criminal Law and Justice in the European Union. Dublin: Clarus Press
• Davies, G. (2022). Law Enforcement and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters. In C. McCrudden (Ed.), The Law and Practice of the Ireland-Northern Ireland Protocol (285-295). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009109840.024

Journal Article

• Arnell, P., & Davies, G. (2024). The extradition of Mike Lynch - should the forum bar be amended?. Criminal law review, 2024(2), 104-111
• Davies, G. (2021). Facilitating Cross-Border Criminal Justice Cooperation Between the UK and Ireland After Brexit: ‘Keeping the Lights On’ to Ensure the Safety of the Common Travel Area. Journal of Criminal Law, 85(2), 77-97. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022018320977528
• Davies, G. (2021). Criminal Justice Cooperation Between the UK and Ireland After Brexit: Special Edition. Journal of Criminal Law, 85(2), 73-76. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022018320977529
• Davies, G., & Arnell, P. (2021). Extradition Between the UK and Ireland After Brexit—Understanding the Past and Present to Prepare for the Future. Journal of Criminal Law, 85(2), 98-120. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022018320977531
• Arnell, P., & Davies, G. (2021). The new UK-EU extradition arrangements. Scots law times. Scots Law Times, 2021(6), 21-23
• Arnell, P., Bock, S., Davies, G., & Wörner, L. (2021). Police cooperation and exchange of information under the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. New Journal of European Criminal Law, 12(2), https://doi.org/10.1177/2032284421995572
• Davies, G. (2020). Shining a Light on Policing of the Dark Web: An Analysis of UK Investigatory Powers. Journal of Criminal Law, 84(5), 407-426. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022018320952557
• Arnell, P., & Davies, G. (2020). The Forum Bar in UK Extradition Law: An Unnecessary Failure. Journal of Criminal Law, 84(2), 142-162. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022018320902544
• Davies, G. (2018). Court of Appeal High Court: Extradition, forum bar and concurrent jurisdiction: Is the case of Love a precedent for trying hackers in the UK? Lauri Love v (1) The Government of the United States of America (2) Liberty [2018] EWHC 172. Journal of Criminal Law, 82(4), 296-300. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022018318791670
• Davies, G., & Woo, M. (2018). Navigating Troubled Seas: the future of the Law School in the United Kingdom and the United States. Journal of international and comparative law (Hong Kong), 5(1), 43-70
• Davies, G. L., & Welsh, J. (2017). Advocacy 20 years on from Hampel: is it time we revisited the postgraduate teaching of advocacy?. The Law Teacher, 51(4), 401-410. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2016.1201740
• Jackson, A. M., & Davies, G. L. (2017). Making the case for ECRIS: Post-‘Brexit’ sharing of criminal records information between the European Union and United Kingdom. The International Journal of Evidence and Proof, 21(4), 330-350. https://doi.org/10.1177/1365712717692813
• Davies, G., & Piasecki, E. (2016). Article 8 ECHR and the Disclosure of Criminal Records: Time to Reconsider R (on the application of P and A) v (1) Secretary of State for Justice (2) Secretary of State for the Home Department and Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police (Interested Party) [2016] EWHC 89 (Admin) R (on the application of G v (1) Chief Constable of Surrey Police (2) Secretary of State for the Home Department (3) Secretary of State for Justice [2016] EWHC 295 (Admin). Journal of Criminal Law, 80(6), 399-402. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022018316678968
• Davies, G., & Piasecki, E. (2016). No More Laissez Faire? Expert Evidence, Rule Changes and Reliability: Can More Effective Training for the Bar and Judiciary Prevent Miscarriages of Justice?. Journal of Criminal Law, 80(5), 327-343. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022018316670967
• Davies, G. (2015). Balancing the Interference with Private and Family Life of the Person whose Extradition is Sought with the Public Interest in Extradition: Has the Pendulum Swung Too Far? Polish Judicial Authorities v Celinski and Others [2015] EWHC 1274 (Admin). Journal of Criminal Law, 79(5), 309-313. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022018315605228