Professor To Conduct Research at Cambridge as Thomas Jefferson Visiting Fellow

University of Virginia School of Law professor Darryl Brown ’90 will conduct research at the University of Cambridge as a Thomas Jefferson Visiting Fellow in spring 2021. 

Brown said the fellowship will be a valuable opportunity to pursue research projects focused on comparative studies of English and American criminal procedure law, as well as of the divergent approaches — despite a shared common law heritage — of English and American courts on these topics. 

“More generally, it will also be an ideal opportunity to engage with Cambridge faculty and institutions, to build foundations and to broaden networks for future work,” he said. 

Brown will present a paper in a faculty colloquium and participate in others at the Faculty of Law’s Cambridge Criminal Justice Centre. He said he shares similar research interests with criminal justice professor Jonathan Rogers, the center’s co-deputy director. 

Brown is the O. M. Vicars Professor of Law and Barron F. Black Research Professor of Law. He teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Adjudication and Evidence, among other courses. Before joining the law faculty in 2007, he was the Class of 1958 Alumni Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law, where he joined the faculty in 1998. He is the author of “Free Market Criminal Justice: How Democracy and Laissez Faire Undermine the Rule of Law” and co-author of “Adjudication of Criminal Justice: Cases and Problems.” 

Spearheaded by UVA President Edgar Shannon Jr. and longtime Downing Fellow John Treherne, the research fellowship launched in 1978. 

Over the past 40 years, UVA has sent faculty from the Schools of Law, Medicine, Architecture, Engineering, and Arts & Sciences. UVA Provost and former Law School Vice Dean M. Elizabeth Magill ’95 was a Thomas Jefferson Visiting Fellow in 2011. Charles McCurdy, now a professor of history and law emeritus, was a fellow in 2009.