Nicola Lacey

Nicola Lacey is a School Professor of Law, Gender, and Social Policy at the LSE Law School. She previously held a Chair in Criminal Law and Legal Theory at LSE (1998–2010) and served as a Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, alongside a professorship at the University of Oxford. Her affiliations include the International Inequalities Institute, Phelan US Centre, and LSE Public Policy Review Editorial Board. Lacey's research spans criminal law, feminist legal theory, and comparative political economy of punishment, with notable works exploring criminal responsibility, gender, and legal history. She has been awarded the Hans Sigrist Prize (2011), a CBE (2017), and the Law and Society Association’s International Prize (2022). Her recent work examines inequality-crime-punishment linkages and US criminal justice exceptionalism. She contributes to public discourse through podcasts like LSE Law Ratio and has authored influential books such as In Search of Criminal Responsibility and Women, Crime and Character. Lacey’s scholarship integrates legal theory, history, and social science to address systemic injustices.