Law and Disorder

This week, we can't help but tackle the news story on everyone's lips: the re-election of Donald Trump as President of the United States. For an emergency episode, Nicholas Mostyn convenes with Charlie Falconer and Helena Kennedy to look at the implications for the rule of law and America's position as a beacon of the free world. If you have questions, criticisms, praise or other feedback, please do send your thoughts to us via lawanddisorderfeedback@gmail.com!Law and Disorder is a Podot podcast.Executive Producer and Editor: Nick Hilton.Associate Producer: Ewan Cameron.Music by Richard Strauss, arranged and performed by Anthony Willis & Brett Bailey.PR by Sally Jones.

This week, a jury found Sergeant Martyn Blake, a Metropolitan police armed officer, not guilty of the murder of Chris Kaba. Kaba had been shot after police pulled over the car he was driving, which had been linked to a shooting incident. After the verdict, information has been released about Kaba's criminal record and suspected involvement in a gun crime in Hackney. The fallout has asked severe questions of our legal system. Do police officers require more legal protection to do their jobs properly? Are juries too quick to protect emergency services workers? Why was Kaba's criminal record not submitted as evidence? And are the tabloids over-reacting to this week's disclosures? Nicholas Mostyn and Charlie Falconer look the case over before Helena Kennedy joins to give the criminal lawyer's perspective. If you have questions, criticisms, praise or other feedback, please do send your thoughts to us via lawanddisorderfeedback@gmail.com!Law and Disorder is a Podot podcast.Executive Producer and Editor: Nick Hilton.Associate Producer: Ewan Cameron.Music by Richard Strauss, arranged and performed by Anthony Willis & Brett Bailey.PR by Sally Jones.

Jonathan Sumption – one of Britain's foremost legal voices – joins Law & Disorder again, this time for a good ding dong. Should the UK withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (and its associated court)? Sumption goes head-to-head with a trio of critics – Nicholas Mostyn, Helena Kennedy, and Charlie Falconer – on this week's episode the gets to the heart of the balance between sovereignty and accountability, legislation versus the law, and what a 'human right' truly is.If you have questions, criticisms, praise or other feedback, please do send your thoughts to us via lawanddisorderfeedback@gmail.com!Law and Disorder is a Podot podcast.Executive Producer and Editor: Nick Hilton.Associate Producer: Ewan Cameron.Music by Richard Strauss, arranged and performed by Anthony Willis & Brett Bailey.PR by Sally Jones.

Over the past few weeks, new investigations have turned up a range of serious allegations against Mohamed Al-Fayed, the former owner of Harrods and Fulham FC. How does a man like Al-Fayed – about whom rumours were never far away – manage to go unchecked within his lifetime? What recompense can the law offer his victims? And is there more that the system can, and should, do in order to ensure perpetrators of abuse are brought to justice while they can still be held, personally, to account? Helena Kennedy, Nicholas Mostyn and Charlie Falconer gather to discuss.If you have questions, criticisms, praise or other feedback, please do send your thoughts to us via lawanddisorderfeedback@gmail.com!Law and Disorder is a Podot podcast.Executive Producer and Editor: Nick Hilton.Associate Producer: Ewan Cameron.Music by Richard Strauss, arranged and performed by Anthony Willis & Brett Bailey.PR by Sally Jones.

Our guest today – Jonathan Sumption – sat, until June of this year, as a Non-Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal. He left that role – "in high dudgeon" – as a critique of the creeping totalitarianism of pro-Beijing influences in the east Asian territory. In this wide-ranging discussion with Nicholas Mostyn, Helena Kennedy and Charlie Falconer, Lord Sumption discusses how he came to that decision and looks at how the remaining British judges ought to handle their continued work in the region.If you have questions, criticisms, praise or other feedback, please do send your thoughts to us via lawanddisorderfeedback@gmail.com!Law and Disorder is a Podot podcast.Executive Producer and Editor: Nick Hilton.Associate Producer: Ewan Cameron.Music by Richard Strauss, arranged and performed by Anthony Willis & Brett Bailey.PR by Sally Jones.

Caroline Norton was a sensation of 19th century London. A writer and social reformer, she hit the headlines in 1836 when she accused her husband, George Norton, of coercive behaviour. What proceeded was a legal case that embroiled the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, and, in some ways, changed women's place in the law. But how much did Norton really achieve? And has the dust really settled on women's equality in marriage? For a special dive into the past, join Helena Kennedy, Nicholas Mostyn and Charlie Falconer in the time machine for a journey back to Victorian England.If you have questions, criticisms, praise or other feedback, please do send your thoughts to us via lawanddisorderfeedback@gmail.com!Law and Disorder is a Podot podcast.Executive Producer and Editor: Nick Hilton.Associate Producer: Ewan Cameron.Music by Richard Strauss, arranged and performed by Anthony Willis & Brett Bailey.PR by Sally Jones.

James Pratt and John Smith: the last two men to be executed in Britain for the crime of homosexuality. It is a story recounted by politician and historian Chris Bryant in his book James and John: A True Story of Prejudice and Murder. But how far has the law come since the 19th century? Was the image that Charles Dickens painted the truth? And how did feminist historian Naomi Wolf come to misunderstand the term "death recorded"? These, and many more, issues will be tackled in this episode of Law & Disorder, where Nicholas Mostyn, Charlie Falconer and Helena Kennedy look at Britain's dark, and homophobic, legal history.This episode was generously sponsored by Harbottle & Lewis.If you have questions, criticisms, praise or other feedback, pelase do send your thoughts to us via lawanddisorderfeedback@gmail.com!Law and Disorder is a Podot podcast.Executive Producer and Editor: Nick Hilton.Associate Producer: Ewan Cameron.Music by Richard Strauss, arranged and performed by Anthony Willis & Brett Bailey.PR by Sally Jones.

Britain's prisons are in crisis. In the past week, we've seen the early release of some 1,500 prisoners in order to free up space in our nation's jails. But how did we get here? On this week's Law & Disorder, Charlie Falconer, Helena Kennedy and Nicholas Mostyn are joined by Ian Burnett, who served as Lord Chief Justice from 2017 to 2023. They have a candid and critical discussion about the state of our prisons, the nature of sentencing (and sentence inflation), and whether there are any remedies to hand.If you have questions, criticisms, praise or other feedback, pelase do send your thoughts to us via lawanddisorderfeedback@gmail.com!Law and Disorder is a Podot podcast.Executive Producer and Editor: Nick Hilton.Associate Producer: Ewan Cameron.Music by Richard Strauss, arranged and performed by Anthony Willis & Brett Bailey.PR by Sally Jones.