Matt Matravers

Professor Matt Matravers is a Professor of Law at the University of York's York Law School, where he also serves as Convenor of the LLM in Legal and Political Theory and Director of the Morrell Centre for Legal and Political Philosophy. He previously held roles in the Department of Politics and International Relations at York from 1995, including Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and Professor. His academic affiliations include membership in the AHRC Peer Review College, the Royal Institute of Philosophy Council, and the Academy of Social Sciences (elected as a Fellow in 2012).

Matravers’ research focuses on the philosophy of criminal law, responsibility in criminal justice, penal theory, dangerousness (particularly regarding personality disorders), and contemporary political philosophy. He has supervised PhD students on topics like international crimes, liability, and medical consent, many of whom have pursued academic careers globally. His current research explores the intersection of criminal justice and empirical evidence, including projects on state misconduct, penal justice in socially unjust contexts, and the obligations of the state toward those punished.

He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Criminal Law and Philosophy and has held visiting positions at institutions like Yale, UCL, and Cambridge. His work has been supported by grants from the British Academy and ESRC. Notable awards include the Academician title from the Academy of Social Sciences (2012). He actively engages in peer review for journals, publishers, and funding bodies such as the AHRC, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.