*New and expanded edition, with an extra chapter on the war in Ukraine* In Crimes Against Humanity, Geoffrey Robertson QC explains why we must hold political and military leaders accountable for genocide, torture and mass murder. He shows how human rights standards can be enforced against cruel governments, armies and multi-national corporations. This seminal work contains a critical perspective on events such as the invasion of Iraq, the abuses at Abu Ghraib, the killings in Darfur, the death of Milosevic and the trial of Saddam Hussein. Cautiously optimistic about ending impunity, but unsparingly critical of diplomats, politicians, Bush lawyers and others who evade international rules, this book will provide further guidance to a movement which aims to make justice predominant in world affairs. 'A beacon of clear-sighted commitment to the humanitarian cause ... impassioned ... exemplary ... seminal' Observer 'A devastating critique of the inadequate response of the international community to violations of basic freedoms ... a formidable achievement' Evening Standard

How Russians, the Rich and the Government Try to Prevent Free Speech and How to Stop Them. ‘ESSENTIAL’ Amal Clooney ‘AUTHORITATIVE’ Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC ‘IMPORTANT ’Baroness Helena Kennedy KC ‘COULD HARDLY BE MORE TIMELY’ Alan Rusbridger The British tradition of “free speech” is a myth. From the middle ages to the present, the law of defamation has worked to cover up misbehaviour by the rich and powerful, whose legal mercenaries intimidate investigative journalists. Now a new terror has been added through misguided judicial development of the laws of privacy, breach of confidence and data protection, to suppress the reporting of truths of public importance to tell. Drawing upon the author’s unparalleled experience of defending journalists and editors in English and Commonwealth courtrooms over the past half-century, the book describes the hidden world of lawfare, in which authors struggle against unfair rules that put them always on the defensive and against a costs burden that runs to millions. Law schools do not teach freedom of speech and judges in the Supreme Court do not understand it. This book identifies and advocates the reforms that will be necessary before Britain can truly boast that it is a land of free speech, rather than a place where free speech can come very expensive.

From the Nuremberg trials to the arrest of General Pinochet to the prosecution of barbarians of the Balkans, we have crafted a global human rights law to punish crimes against humanity. And yet today it is rarely applied: the International Criminal Court has faltered, populist governments refuse to cooperate, the UN Security Council is pole-axed and liberal democracy is on the defensive. When faced with the torture of Sergei Magnitsky, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the repression of the Uighurs, what recourse do we have? Distinguished human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson argues that our most powerful weapon is Magnitsky laws, by which not only perpetrators but their accomplices - lickspittle judges, doctors who assist in torture, corporations that profit from slave labour - are named, shamed and blamed. Though the UK and the EU have passed nascent Magnitsky laws, they are not deploying them effectively. It is only by developing a full-blooded system of coordinated sanctions - banning human rights violators from entering democratic countries to funnel their ill-gotten gains through Western banks and take advantage of our schools and hospitals - that we can fight back against cruelty and corruption. Bad People sets out a Plan B for human rights, offering a new blueprint for global justice in a post-pandemic world.

Geoffrey Robertson led students in the '60s to demand an end to racism and censorship. He went on to become a top human rights advocate, saving the lives of many death-row inmates, freeing dissidents and taking on tyrants in a career marked by courage, determination and a fierce independence. In this witty, honest and sometimes irreverent memoir, he recalls battles on behalf of George Harrison and Julian Assange, Salman Rushdie and Vaclav Havel, Mike Tyson and the Sex Pistols, and battles against General Pinochet, Lee Kuan Yew and Mrs Thatcher (the true story of Spycatcher is told for the first time). Interspersed with these forensic fireworks is the story of a pimply schoolboy from a state comprehensive, inspired by a banned book to become a barrister at the Old Bailey and who went on to found the UK's leading human rights practice (Doughty Street Chambers) and to defend troublemakers throughout the world. Rather His Own Man captures the drama of the trial, the thrill of victory and the feeling of `courtus interruptus' when a big case settles. Its cast of characters includes Princess Diana, Pee-Wee Herman, Dame Edna, the Queen and Rupert - the bear and the media mogul. It's a read that is both exhilarating and erudite - and very funny.

When it was first published in 1999, Crimes Against Humanity called for a radical shift from diplomacy to justice in international affairs. In vivid, non-legalese prose, leading human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson made a riveting case for holding political and military leaders accountable in international courts for genocide, torture, and mass murder. Since then, fearsome figures such as Charles Taylor, Laurent Gbagbo, and Ratko Mladic have been tried in international criminal court, and a global movement has rallied around the human rights framework of justice. Any such legal framework requires constant evolution in order to stay relevant, and this newly revised and expanded volume brings the conversation up to date. In substantial new chapters, Robertson covers the protection of war correspondents, the problem of piracy, crimes against humanity in Syria, nuclear armament in Iran, and other challenges we are grappling with today. He criticizes the Obama administration's policies around "targeted killing" and the trials of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other "high value" detainees. By rendering a complex debate accessible, Robertson once again provides an essential guide for anyone looking to understand human rights and how to work toward a more complete blueprint for justice.

The biggest question in the world of art and culture concerns the return of property taken without consent. Throughout history, conquerors or colonial masters have taken artefacts from subjugated peoples, who now want them returned from museums and private collections in Europe and the USA. The controversy rages on over the Elgin Marbles, and has been given immediacy by figures such as France's President Macron, who says he will order French museums to return hundreds of artworks acquired by force or fraud in Africa, and by British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has pledged that a Labour government would return the Elgin Marbles to Greece. Elsewhere, there is a debate in Belgium about whether the Africa Museum, newly opened with 120,000 items acquired mainly by armed forces in the Congo, should close. Although there is an international convention dated 1970 that deals with the restoration of artefacts stolen since that time, there is no agreement on the rules of law or ethics which should govern the fate of objects forcefully or lawlessly acquired in previous centuries. Who Owns History? delves into the crucial debate over the Elgin Marbles, but also offers a system for the return of cultural property based on human rights law principles that are being developed by the courts. It is not a legal text, but rather an examination of how the past can be experienced by everyone, as well as by the people of the country of origin.

On 24th April 2015 people around the world commemorated the centenary of the death of over one million Armenians. In their eyes, and in those of many around the world, they will be remembering a genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire. Turkey has always explained the dead as simply victims of a vicious civil war, and continues to this day to refuse to acknowledge the events as constituting genocide.This argument has become, in turn, an international issue. Twenty national parliaments in democratic countries have voted to recognise the genocide, but Britain and the USA continue to equivocate for fear, it would seem, of alienating their NATO ally.In this seminal book, Geoffrey Robertson QC, a former UN appeals judge, sets out to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that the massacres and deportations were a crime against humanity which amounted to genocide.

As the world wonders what can be done with the leaders of Iran, this report by a leading UN jurist establishes that many of them - including the Supreme Leader - committed an international crime when they approved and carried out a secret massacre of thousands of political prisoners. This atrocity in 1988, hidden at the time from UN investigators, is now revealed in its full scope and horror, inviting the question of whether the very men capable of his level of lawlessness and barbarity against their own people can be trusted with nuclear power. Geoffrey Robertson QC meticulously unravels the fanatic theocratic thinking that led to the mass murder and identifies the judges, diplomats and politicians (most of them still in positions of power in Iran) who carried out and covered up this "final solution" to the problem of political dissent. He tells how "thousands of prisoners were blindfolded and paraded before the death committee which directed them to a conga line leading straight to the gallows. They were hung from cranes, four at a time, or in groups of six from ropes hanging from the stage of the prison assembly hall. Their bodies were doused with disinfectant, packed in refrigerated trucks and buried by night in mass graves the locations of which were (and still are) withheld from their families." Mr Robertson concludes that these killings were of greater infamy than the Japanese death marches at the end of World War II or the slaughter at Srebrenica, and he urges the UN to set up a Special Court to ensure that their perpetrators are similarly punished.

The legend of the six rural labourers who were transported to Australia in 1834 for swearing an oath of solidarity is celebrated as the foundation of the modern trade union movement. The labourers suffered no violence 'save the extreme and horrible violence of the law itself'. The true lesson from the story demonstrates that societies need guarantees to prevent 'injustice within the law'.

In The Case of the Pope Geoffrey Robertson QC delivers a devastating indictment of the way the Vatican has run a secret legal system that shields paedophile priests from criminal trial around the world. Is the Pope morally or legally responsible for the negligence that has allowed so many terrible crimes to go unpunished? Should he and his seat of power, the Holy See, continue to enjoy an immunity that places them above the law? Geoffrey Robertson QC, a distinguished human rights lawyer and judge, evinces a deep respect for the good works of Catholics and their church. But, he argues, unless Pope Benedict XVI can divest himself of the beguilements of statehood and devotion to obsolescent canon law, the Vatican will remain a serious enemy to the advance of human rights. 'Robertson is an adept QC and this is a devastating case' Daily Telegraph 'Combines moral passion with steely forensic precision ... It is one of the most formidable demolition jobs one could imagine on a man who has done more to discredit the cause of religion than Rasputin and Pat Robertson put together' Terry Eagleton, Guardian 'Forceful, wide-ranging' The Tablet 'Robertson has not become a successful lawyer by muddling his arguments and distorting his facts ... He writes clearly, at times passionately, as counsel for the prosecution' John Lloyd, Financial Times Geoffrey Robertson QC is founder and head of Doughty Street Chambers, the largest human rights practice in the UK. In 2008, he was appointed as a distinguished jurist member of the UN Justice Council. His books include Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice, a memoir, The Justice Game and The Tyrannicide Brief, an award winning study of the trial of Charles I.

This Persian version of the report by a leading UN jurist establishes that many of the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran - including the Supreme Leader - committed an international crime when they approved and carried out a secret massacre of thousands of political prisoners. This atrocity in 1988, hidden at the time from UN investigators, is now revealed in its full scope and horror, inviting the question of whether the very men capable of his level of lawlessness and barbarity against their own people can be trusted with nuclear power. Geoffrey Robertson QC meticulously unravels the fanatic theocratic thinking that led to the mass murder and identifies the judges, diplomats and politicians (most of them still in positions of power in Iran) who carried out and covered up this "final solution" to the problem of political dissent. He tells how "thousands of prisoners were blindfolded and paraded before the death committee which directed them to a conga line leading straight to the gallows. They were hung from cranes, four at a time, or in groups of six from ropes hanging from the stage of the prison assembly hall. Their bodies were doused with disinfectant, packed in refrigerated trucks and buried by night in mass graves the locations of which were (and still are) withheld from their families." Mr Robertson concludes that these killings were of greater infamy than the Japanese death marches at the end of World War II or the slaughter at Srebrenica, and he urges the UN to set up a Special Court to ensure that their perpetrators are similarly punished.

Charles I waged civil wars that cost one in ten Englishmen their lives. But in 1649 Parliament was hard put to find a lawyer with the skill and daring to prosecute a king who claimed to be above the law. In the end, they chose the radical lawyer John Cooke, whose Puritan conscience, political vision, and love of civil liberties gave him the courage to bring the king to trial. As a result, Charles I was beheaded, but eleven years later Cooke himself was arrested, tried, and executed at the hands of Charles II.
Geoffrey Robertson, a renowned human rights lawyer, provides a vivid new reading of the tumultuous Civil War years, exposing long-hidden truths: that the king was guilty, that his execution was necessary to establish the sovereignty of Parliament, that the regicide trials were rigged and their victims should be seen as national heroes. Cooke's trial of Charles I, the first trial of a head of state for waging war on his own people, became a forerunner of the trials of Augusto Pinochet, Slobodan Milosevic, and Saddam Hussein. "The Tyrannicide Brief" is a superb work of history that casts a revelatory light on some of the most important issues of our time.

Charles I waged civil wars that cost one in ten Englishmen their lives. But in 1649 parliament was hard put to find a lawyer with the skill and daring to prosecute a King who was above the law: in the end the man they briefed was the radical barrister, John Cooke. Cooke was a plebeian, son of a poor farmer, but he had the courage to bring the King's trial to its dramatic conclusion: the English republic. Cromwell appointed him as a reforming Chief Justice in Ireland, but in 1660 he was dragged back to the Old Bailey, tried and brutally executed. John Cooke was the bravest of barristers, who risked his own life to make tyranny a crime. He originated the right to silence, the 'cab rank' rule of advocacy and the duty to act free-of-charge for the poor. He conducted the first trial of a Head of State for waging war on his own people - a forerunner of the prosecutions of Pinochet, Milosevic and Saddam Hussein, and a lasting inspiration to the modern world.

Geoff Robertson was born in Australia, bu came to London in 1970. He made his name as the fearless defender of Oz magazine at the celebrated trial and went on to engage in some of the most newsworthy cases in recent history. He has defended John Stonehouse, Cynthia Payne, Salman Rushdie, Kate Adie, Arthur Scargill, Daniel Sullivan, Gay News, 'The Romans of Britain', 'Niggaz with Attitude', and a pair of foetal earrings. The book includes accounts of recent cases including the defence of a West London gym owner against the Prince of Wales, the Matrix Churchill affair, and the defence of the Guardian in the cash-for-questions affair. Hugely readable, funny, scandalous, revelator, this will become one of the great books about the law.