Obituary for Ken Russell

Abstract

Ken Russell, editor of this International Review for thirty years, died peacefully in October. After qualifying as a teacher Ken’s research led him to become a renowned criminologist working in areas involving police complaints and the role of technology in the criminal justice system, particularly the legal issues in and around the electronic tagging of individuals. An interest that made him the perfect fit for the Review. He will be remembered as the person who has quietly and efficiently been at the head of the journal for almost thirty years. Joining the journal as an associate editor at its inception in 1984, Ken has, in consequence, always been part of the Review. On becoming editor in 1989 on the retirement of Prof. Chris Arnold he was instrumental, in the journal’s early years, in establishing the journal on a sound publishing footing, then in the 1990s transitioning from a yearbook to a multi-edition journal. Recently he has overseen the incorporation of the journal into the age of electronic publishing. Throughout this time, Ken maintained the journal’s close relationship with BILETA, the professional organisation of academic lawyers, ensuring the publication of world-leading proceedings from the annual BILETA conference. Ken maintained his BILETA membership and was a regular attendee at conferences. He was always keen to engage in informed debate with his academic peers, something that he developed as a local politician. His lasting legacy will be that he moved and adapted the journal to the changing landscape that is the interaction of law, computers and technology. It is too easy to underestimate this transition. A brief foray into the journal’s early editions illustrates how significant the landscape has changed. Early pioneers in the discipline were often or worked with computer scientists examining the role of technology in the practice of law, and it’s teaching. Articles abounded on information retrieval, expert and teaching systems. Technology specialists now carry the mantle of system development and implementation whilst academic and practising lawyers moved to focus on the law and its interaction with the technology. Ken came from a poor background in Brierley Hill in England’s Black Country. He won a scholarship to grammar school, where he first developed his lifelong love of rugby. A man of many parts, in addition to his academic life, he was, for all his life, an active participant in local and national politics, being a local councillor in his hometown and then in his adopted town of Glenfield. He fought two parliamentary elections in Edgbaston and Shrewsbury. He established a news agency coordinating activities around his beloved rugby, became the rugby correspondent to the Sunday Telegraph and founded his local paper Glenfield Gazette. He also wrote extensively on local history. He is survived by his wife Nichola and son Anthony and leaves his daughter Nicola, son Simon, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren from an earlier marriage.