Mercedes Pérez Manzano, is Full Professor of Criminal Law at the Law School, Universidad Autónoma Madrid, since June 2008, where she obtained her Ph. D. in Criminal Law (1989) and where she previously hold both positions as an Assistant Professor and an Associate Professor of Criminal Law. She has been DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) scholar at the Ludwig-Maximiliam University –Munich-, and Visiting Fellow at the Columbia University -New York-, the California University –Berkeley-, and the American University -Washington D.C.-. To her academic experience it should be added her professional activity as law clerk at the Spanish Constitutional Court (by Chief Justice Casas Baamonde) and her legal advice activity in Criminal Law firms (of counsel).

She has led five research projects financially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education, the Observatory against Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE) and the Center of Political and Constitutional Studies –among other institutions-, and she has participated in more than ten others; she has written three monographs and numerous articles in Spanish and foreign academic journals, she is co-author of several Criminal Law handbooks and coordinator –with I. Borrajo- of The Spanish Constitution Commentaries in its XXX Anniversary, directed by Rodríguez Piñero and Casas Baamonde.

Currently, her main areas of research are: Constitutional Guaranties, Fundamental Rights and Criminal Law -in which context she has last edited the book Multilevel Protection of Legality Principle-; Neuroscience, Responsibility and Purposes of Criminal Punishment, in which framework she has published the paper “Ground and Purposes of the Criminal Law: a Revision from the Neuroscience”; and Gender and Criminal Law, were she has been doing research on partner femicide.

Finally, she was Vice-President of the Association of Law Clerks of the Constitutional Court, and she is a part of the advice and/or editorial board of some of the most prestigious scientific journals related to Criminal Law such as Anuario de Derecho Penal y Ciencias Penales; at the present, she is a member of the board of the School of Law and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.