Law
The unparalleled entertainment – and heartbreaking reality – of watching a court hearing
‘Barristers’ speeches vanish quicker than Chinese dinners, and even the greatest victory in court rarely survives longer than the next…
How verbal and physical abuse drove me out of the police
The past decade has not been kind to those we entrust, in the words of Sir Robert Peel, ‘to give…
Boris Johnson may have found an advocate in ancient Greece
Boris Johnson is to be tried at the Crown Court on the grounds that, during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign,…
Forget the The Reith Lectures. To understand the world listen to George the Poet
At last a podcast that takes the medium to its limit, created by someone who loves listening, understands how it…
As a QC, I believe the time has come to legalise drugs
I have been a defence lawyer for more than 25 years. I have defended clients charged with almost every crime…
Crackles with nylon, self-regard and unearned privilege: On the Basis of Sex reviewed
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is too ill to sit on the Supreme Court. When she saw On the Basis of Sex,…
Why former prisoners make the best lawyers
Kampala I am terrified of being with former death-row prisoner Susan Kigula. This is because she qualified for her…
Victims of crime should not decide justice
Hard cases make bad law. The release on parole of the ‘black cab rapist’, John Worboys, is a hard case.…
A top criminal lawyer’s guide to cocaine
Drug-taking is less glamorous when you know how the trade really works
Britain’s fight with European law goes back 750 years
It is no surprise that the laws imposed on the UK by a European parliament in Brussels should so infuriate…
Take it from a QC – you won’t get away with murder
Technology has made murderers much easier to catch
What does it take to have someone declared dead? £480, for a start
Matters of life and death Lord Lucan is now officially presumed dead. How do you have someone declared dead? In…
A Supreme Court justice and the scary plan to outlaw climate change
How do you make an imaginary problem so painfully real that everyone suffers? It’s an odd question to ask, you…
For me and an increasing number of young people, each abortion is a death
Young people are becoming more pro-life
The other terrorists we have trouble naming
Naming terror David Cameron and the BBC argued over what to call the terror group most papers refer to as…
Why lawyers deserve Michael Gove
A great test of political leadership is how well you deal with vested interests on your own side. In his…
We should celebrate Magna Carta by abolishing the European Arrest Warrant
The European Arrest Warrant is incompatible with our tradition of justice
Meet the Skype Dads: a new sorrow of divorce in the internet age
What happens when a divorce court accepts video calls as a substitute for visiting your children
My request to see my medical notes has sparked all-out panic at my GP surgery
My request to see my medical notes has sparked all-out panic at the GP surgery. ‘What do you mean?’ said…
I don’t know why I’m against tax avoidance (and I bet you don’t either)
On the face of it, the moral case against tax avoidance seems pretty straightforward. If you’re a UK taxpayer and…
Ched Evans: law vs people power
‘This was the rule for men that Zeus established: whereas fish, beasts and birds eat each other, since there is…
The Krays, Dennis Nilsen – and Chris Grayling: a conversation with Sir Ivan Lawrence QC
Sir Ivan Lawrence QC on the Krays, Dennis Nilsen – and Chris Grayling
Fort Lauderdale’s law against feeding the homeless still isn’t America’s dumbest
States of criminality A 90-year-old Florida man feeding the homeless was arrested under a Fort Lauderdale law which makes it…
If you thought this World Cup was weird, take a look at Brazil 1950
Old world Brazil has struggled to get ready for the World Cup, even though it hosted it before, in 1950.…
The starchy, conservative lawyer who freed every slave in England
Slavery was ended in England not through blood and glory, but by the common law
