First Reading: Ellie Cumbo on her
Ground of Divorce and Dissolution Bill

I met the campaigner Ellie Cumbo earlier this week to discuss her Ground of Divorce and Dissolution Bill, published here yesterday. We talked about why she wants to bring in “no fault” divorce, how her model would work, and why she thinks divorce reform is such a difficult subject. She says – Where I think […]

First Reading: Ellie Cumbo’s
Ground of Divorce and Dissolution Bill

First Reading is a new regular feature in which I ask campaigners, writers and thinkers what law they’d change, if they could table their own “private person’s bill” in Parliament. My first guest is the campaigner and policy researcher Ellie Cumbo – and here’s her Ground of Divorce and Dissolution Bill, to radically reform the law […]

John Cooper QC on the Global Law Summit: “By going there, we are tacitly endorsing what Grayling is doing”

The Criminal Bar Association’s acceptance of an invitation to speak at the government’s Global Law Summit next month is “pandering” to the Lord Chancellor’s “political opportunism”, John Cooper QC said today in an interview for this website. going to this jamboree in my opinion is copping out said the leading criminal barrister. We should not […]

Without Prejudice

On Without Prejudice this week, Charon QC, David Allen Green and I discuss: Labour’s “Leveson” bill, and what the editors have been up to in Downing Street; the government’s proposals on extending marriage to same-sex couples – and the relationship between the Church, bishops and the law; the Justice and Security Bill (or “secret courts […]

Without Prejudice: the Leveson report

Without Prejudice returns – today from Gray’s Inn – to discuss the Leveson report and political reaction to it. Charon QC chairs as media lawyer and journalist David Allen Green, mature law student (and Without Prejudice sound consultant!) Jez Hindmarsh and I talk about: the legal basis of the inquiry; Leveson’s recommendations for a new kind of press self-regulation; the nature of […]

Charon QC podcast: Abu Qatada

I spoke to Charon QC earlier today, for the seventh report of his Law Tour. Unsurprisingly we spoke about Abu Qatada, the big legal story of the week and something that’s been on my mind since his successful appeal yesterday to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission. We discuss yesterday’s judgment of course, whether there’s any […]

Legal Cheek interview: how to become a legal commentator

Last week I was invited to sit round the famous kitchen table of Legal Cheek‘s Alex Aldridge. Over about forty minutes he asked about my career, the state of legal blogging and journalism, how to start up as a legal commentator – and the future of media. It was a lot of fun to talk […]

Charon QC podcast: asylum for Julian Assange

This afternoon I spoke to Charon QC about Ecuador’s decision to grant asylum to Julian Assange. The interview deals with a number of myths that have attached to this case – including the idea that what he’s suspected of in Sweden wouldn’t amount to rape in England, and the idea that his not having been […]

Charon QC podcast: the new Supreme Court president, and House of Lords reform

Yesterday I spoke to Charon QC about Lord Neuberger’s appointment as President of the Supreme Court – explaining why I welcome his appointment and why I’d have been concerned had Lady Hale been chosen – and about the House of Lords Reform Bill and the second reading in the Commons this week. Listen to the […]

Without Prejudice “Twitter joke” appeal special

Today I’ve been live-tweeting from the appeal hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in the “Twitter joke trial” case, where Paul Chambers is appealing his conviction under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 for sending a tweet of a “menacing character”. Yesterday Charon QC interviewed Paul Chambers’s solicitor David Allen Green about the […]