David Nelken PHD, LLD (Cambridge) taught at Cambridge, Edinburgh and University College, London before moving to Italy in 1989 as Distinguished Professor of Legal Institutions and Social Change at the University of Macerata. From 1995 to 2013 he was Distinguished Research Professor of Law at Cardiff University, and since 2010 he has been the Visiting Professor of Criminology at Oxford University. His work, covering both theoretical enquiry and empirical investigation, is in the areas of comparative sociology of law, criminology, and legal and social theory. Professor Nelken is teaching Jurisprudence (LLB), Law & Social Theory (LLB) and Sociology of Law ( LLM).

Professor Nelken received several awards, including the American Sociological Association Distinguished Scholar Award (1985), th Sellin-Glueck International award of the American Criminological Society (2009), the Podgorecki Distinguished senior scholar award from the International Sociological Association (2011) and the Law & Society (USA) International Scholar Award (2013).