Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is a vital cog in the UK legal system but both before and after the catalogue of failures in handling of the Andrew Malkinson case were laid out in great detail in Chris Henley KC’s 2024 Report (https://cdn.websitebuilder.service.justice.gov.uk/uploads/sites/5/2024/10 henleyreport.pdf) it was widely regarded as an institution in permanent crisis, badly m...

With the tenth anniversary of the Brexit referendum upon us, Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC begin the episode with a reminder of actor Danny Dyer’s memorable thoughts on “this whole Brexit thing” and his unflattering assessment of David Cameron’s role in enabling our departure from the EU, before they reflect on what the impact of Brexit has been on the UK legal system. Ken and Tim then discuss...

Last week two parallel Private Bills were introduced in the House of Commons and House of Lords by Baroness Stowell of Beeston and Sir John Whittingdale MP (https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/4163) with the aim of expanding the existing law to tackle so-called SLAPP litigation – Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation – defined by the Solicitors Regulation Authority as “a misuse of the lega...

The last three episodes of Double Jeopardy covering the media ban on convicted murderer Jeremy Bamber, the Fordingbridge rape sentences and the murder of Henry Nowak have generated big audiences and plenty of comments and questions from listeners. And so in this week’s episode Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC respond to a range of listeners’ questions including – why bother to debate the rights an...

The bodycam footage released by the Hampshire Constabulary following the conviction of Vickrum Singh Digwa depicts the moments immediately following the stabbing by Digwa of 18 year old Henry Nowak in Southampton on 3rd December 2025. Influenced by Digwa’s lying claims that Henry had racially abused and assaulted him, officers treated Henry as a suspect rather than a victim and initially ignored h...

The non-custodial Youth Rehabilitation Orders handed down by Judge Nicholas Rowland at Southampton Crown Court on 21st May 2026 on 3 teenage boys (aged 14 and 13 at the date of their crimes) for the gang rape of two lone girls aged 14 and 15 in Fordingbridge, Hampshire in 2024 and 2025 has triggered a major public outcry, generating public intervention by the Prime Minister and a decision by Attor...

Why has the Prison Service banned the convicted murderer Jeremy Bamber from any contact with the media, whether by letter, email, phone calls or face to face visits? And is such a ban lawful? Bamber was convicted in October 1986 of the cold-blooded murders of his adoptive parents, Neville and June Bamber, his adoptive sister Sheila Caffell and Sheila’s 6 year old twin sons Daniel and Nicholas, mak...

After a year of political pressure from a growing number of Member States concerned to counter populist anti-ECHR rhetoric over asylum, illegal migration and deportation of foreign criminals, the 46 members of the Council of Europe issued the Chisinau Declaration on 15th May 2026 (https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/-/council-of-europe-foreign-ministers-adopt-political-declaration-on-the-echr-and-mi...

Is the Serious Fraud Office “on the ropes” as the headline in a recent Financial Times article declared? Was the former anti-corruption tsar Ken Clarke right in 2014 when he told SFO Director David Green that he had “always thought the SFO was a load of crap”? And if so, why is it that the UK is so poor at investigating financial crimes in comparison with other countries? Does the recent announcem...

On 21st April, almost two months since the US launched Operation Epic Fury “to destroy Iranian offensive missiles, destroy Iranian missile production, destroy Iran’s navy and other security infrastructure” and “finally ensure that Iran will never have nuclear weapons”, the Office of the Legal Adviser to the State Department issued a detailed justification of the legality of the attack, asserting t...

How far away is the reality of an artificial "legal brain” thanks to the extraordinary speed of developments in AI? With the CEOs of the key frontier labs (Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepMind) predicting that “lift off” (meaning the point at which AI is sufficiently autonomous to improve itself faster than humans can improve it) may be here within 1-2 years what are the implications for the law and the re...

With numerous former senior civil servants attacking Keir Starmer for his decision to sack Sir Olly Robbins – former Cabinet Secretary Lord Gus O'Donnell says the sacking “risks having a serious and sustained chilling effect on serving and prospective civil servants” - Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC examine the claim by those defending Robbins that he was forbidden by law from disclosing to Star...

With Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill apparently doomed to extinction thanks to the co-ordinated efforts of a handful of Peers determined to ensure it cannot complete scrutiny in the House of Lords, the future looks bleak for any form of assisted dying legislation to become law in the UK any time soon. To discuss the arguments for and against the Leadbeater Bill, Ken and T...

On 19th March 2026 the Chief Inspector of Prisons issued an Urgent Notification placing Woodhill Prison into special measures (https://hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmipris_reports/hmp-woodhill-urgent-notification-2/).     On the same day he published a truly shocking report into HMP Swaleside (https://hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmipris_reports/hmp-swaleside-5/), another jail...

The 2026 US/Israel war against Iran is a rapidly evolving, multi-front war.  What started as a massive joint air campaign (Operation Epic Fury) and involved the execution of Ayatollah Ali Khameini and some 40 other senior Iranian leaders and key military commanders has expanded into a regional confrontation involving cyber warfare, energy blockades and direct missile exchanges without any current...

With world events continuing to dominate the domestic news agenda, Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC respond to a range of listeners’ questions generated by recent episodes.     What explains the huge gap which has emerged between the broad consensus among international lawyers that the US/Israel attack on Iran was illegal and the mild or even supportive reactions given to Operation Epic Fury by ma...

Undaunted by near unanimous opposition from the legal profession, the Government last week published the Courts and Tribunals Bill which, if enacted, will mean that roughly half of cases currently tried by juries will be decided either by magistrates or a single Crown Court Judge. And to discuss the content and implications of the bill, Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC are joined by the Chief Exec...

With Operation Epic Fury, the US/Israel attack on Iran, triggering reprisals by Iran that risk the stability of the entire Gulf Region, what are the shifting international law justifications for the initial attack? And was the Starmer/Hermer explanation for the UK’s cautious approach to involvement in “offensive” action an example of weakness or wise restraint?  To answer these and other questions...

Is Misconduct in Public Office “one of the most notoriously difficult offences to define in England and Wales” as the Law Commission observed in its 2020 Report into the history of the offence? And what reforms are needed for it to satisfy 21st century requirements of legal certainty according to the Commission’s conclusions ? To answer these and other questions, Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC a...

Why did the High Court quash the Home Secretary’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation? And what are the prospects of the Home Secretary winning on appeal?    With Ken Macdonald KC refraining from public comment on public order/protest issues while he leads the independent review commissioned by Shabana Mahmood into existing public order and hate crime legislation, Ti...

The second Part of Sir Brian Leveson’s Independent Review of the Criminal Courts was published last week but largely overlooked in light of the Mandelson scandal.    In this week’s episode Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC are joined by Sir Brian to discuss the details of his mammoth, Part 2 Report and to get his response to the very strong criticisms from both the legal profession, the judiciary a...

What is the future of anti-SLAPP laws in the UK?  And what are the implications of the recent High Court Judgment in Hurst v Solicitors Regulation Authority (https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/082-Hurst-v-SRA-002.pdf)in which the SRA was heavily criticised for holding that the experienced Osborne Clarke media solicitor, Ashley Hurst, was guilty of professional misconduct on the ba...

Are the Government’s plans to reduce the shameful backlog of some 80,000 cases awaiting trial in the Crown Court built on sand? Is the prediction in Part 1 of Sir Brian Leveson's Independent Review of Criminal Courts reliable? Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC are joined by Cassia Rowland. Cassia is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Government (IFG) and the author of the IFG's Report “Trial...

In this week’s episode Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC discuss a wide range of issues affecting UK law and politics and answer some listeners’ questions.     Does Elon Musk’s climbdown over Grok’s image generator represent a victory for online safety campaigners and have Ken and Tim been unfair about Ofcom’s record of enforcing the Online Safety Act ?    Will the US Supreme Court’s imminent rulin...

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton says of President Trump that “the part he likes about the phrase ‘Donroe Doctrine” is the word ‘Don’ -  he doesn’t do doctrine” but the abduction of the sitting Venezuelan President Maduro and repeated explicit threats to acquire Greenland, by force if necessary, from Trump, Vance and the increasingly unhinged US Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller...