Biography

Sarah Summers (LL.B Hons, Glasgow, 2000; Dr. iur., Zurich, 2006) is Professor of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law and Criminology at the Faculty of Law of the University of Zurich. She studied law at the University of Glasgow, UK and received both her doctorate and habilitiation from the University of Zurich. She was previously an Assistant Professor of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law and Criminology (2017-2022) and prior to that SNF Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law (2012-2017) at the University of Zurich. She was a member of the Panel Humanities at the Swiss Research Council (SNF) from 2018 until 2023.

Her research interests lie in the field of criminal law and human rights. Her research concerns consideration of the empirical realities of criminal justice and of the importance of normative principles underpinning systems of criminal justice in the rule of law.

She is co-director of the Digital Society Initiative (DSI) commission member of the Criminal Institute of the Canton of Zurich, a member of the Prosecutorial Regulatory Oversight Commission of the Canton of Basel City and a Member of the Board of Trustees of the kihz (daycare center) of the University of Zurich and ETHZ. She is also on the Editorial Committee of Quaestio Facti: International Journal on Evidential Reasoning and is on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Evidence and Proof.