What's the Harm? Who's to Blame? Reflections on the Criminalization of HIV Transmission, Exposure and Non-Disclosure: Matthew Weait

Cambridge Socio-Legal Group (CSLG) Podcast

On 4 December 2013, Professor Matthew Weait (Birkbeck, University of London) delivered a guest lecture at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, as a guest of the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group.

This lecture explores, in comparative perspective but with a focus on English case law, the criminalisation of HIV. It focuses on the ways in which criminalisation provides more general insights into the construction of harm, responsibility and consent, especially with the progress made in treating and controlling HIV infection, and offers a critique of the law in this area.

Matthew Weait is Professor of Law and Policy and Pro-Vice-Master at Birkbeck, University of London. He studied law and criminology at the University of Cambridge before undertaking his DPhil research at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. His research centres on the impact of law on HIV prevention and on people living with HIV. He has been a consultant for UNAIDS and the WHO, was a member of the Advisory Group for the Global Commission on HIV and the Law (UNDP) and is an Expert Advisor to the European AIDS Treatment Group (the body which supports the European Commission in its HIV policy work). Matthew has published widely in this area, including Intimacy and Responsibility: the Criminalization of HIV Transmission (2007).