In his treatise ‘For Mercy’s Sake’, Geoffrey Robertson KC explains how the government has overlooked the constitutional importance of trial by jury. He suggests that the Bill will work to worsen delays in the court system and recommends alternative measures that can eliminate them.
About Geoffrey Robertson KC
Mr Robertson has himself defended in many celebrated trials, going back to Oz and Gay News and Salman Rushdie in the 1970s and he led Keir Starmer in Privy Council cases for men facing the death penalty. He acted for Michael Foot when he sued Rupert Murdoch personally for libel, winning a six-figure sum in settlement and has, more recently, succeeded in his defence of Lula in a UN Court, securing his release from prison and eventual presidency of Brazil. He served as a Recorder in London and as a UN appeal judge, President of its war crimes court in Sierra Leone. He has written a number of books on international law and on British history.
Mr Robertson was the lone silk when Doughty Street Chambers was established in 1990. It now has 50 and with 100 junior barristers all specialising in human rights law. After three of his members became government ministers, he joked that “Doughty Street has become Labour’s equivalent of Eton for the Tory Cabinet”.
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For Mercy's Sake
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