Law and Disorder: News, politics and more, from a legal perspective

This April marks the 25th anniversary of a landmark case in which the British historian and Holocaust denier David Irving sued American Professor Deborah Libstadt, and her publisher Penguin Books, for defamation. What proceeded was a 9 week trial which established a definitive judgment on Irving's historiography – not to mention his anti-semitism. For this special episode of Law & Disorder , N...

This week, the Supreme Court passed its judgment on the case of For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers. The case challenged the assumed definitions of 'man' and 'woman' in the Equality Act 2010 and has provoked considerable commentary. The Supreme Court's verdict – delivered by Lord Hodge – appears to have vindicated the the campaigning of For Women Scotland, and other 'gender critical' o...

Our guest today, Barbara Mills KC, is the new Chair of the Bar Council, the first black woman to hold this post in the organisation's 131-year history. She is also one of the few family lawyers to assume this role, giving her a unique perspective of the challenges facing barristers in the present moment. She joins the Law & Disorder trio – Nicholas Mostyn, Helena Kennedy and Charlie Falconer –...

Our special guest on today's episode of Law & Disorder is Dr Charlotte Proudman, a family law barrister, campaigner, and author of a new book, He Said She Said: Truth, Trauma and the Struggle for Justice in Family Court . In this interview, Helena Kennedy, Nicholas Mostyn and Charlie Falconer explore Charlotte's history with the law, some of her most striking cases, and the key question of whe...

Sir Brian Leveson has been one of the most publicly prominent legal minds of the 21st century. From his early days prosecuting the likes of Ken Dodd and Rose West, Sir Brian became a household name when he chaired the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press. In this wide-ranging interview, he talks to Nicholas Mostyn, Helena Kennedy and Charlie Falconer about hi...

Our courts are in crisis, with a sentencing backlog stretching to unthinkable lengths. To discuss this issue, the Law & Disorder trio are joined by Alex Chalk KC , who was Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice until the summer, and Lord Thomas , a former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. They are proposed a radical new programme for dealing with this backlog, involving slim...

It's time for the Law and Disorder crew – Nicholas Mostyn , Charlie Falconer and Helena Kennedy – to plunge into the Mailbag once again and answer your correspondence. You've been appalled by Donald Trump's desecration of the rules-based order, delighted by Dan Neidle's forensic tax analysis, and otherwise moved to correspond on a wide range of issues. As ever, do keep the emails coming – we love...

With two upper chamber inhabitants amongst our hosting roster, it seems only right that the Law and Disorder crew discuss reform to the House of Lords. Lord Falconer , Baroness Kennedy and (meagre) Sir Nicholas are joined by Tom Strathclyde , 2nd Baron Strathclyde, to interrogate the purpose of our unelected chamber and whether, after a 27-year grace period, the last hereditary peers might, finall...

Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have been accused of serious crimes – including trafficking – in Romania, where they lived and have spent the past 2 years under a travel ban. Yet, this week the brothers flew to Florida after Romanian authorities returned their passports. Does this mean they will evade justice? How did the Romanian legal system allow this to happen? And what does this tell us a...

This week has seen further desecrations of the established order, led by President Trump, whose remarks about Russia and Ukraine have sent shockwaves across Europe and the world. Is the rules-based order collapsing? And can the law stand strong in the face of raw power being exerted so recklessly? Nicholas Mostyn, Helena Kennedy and Charlie Falconer convene to discuss an historic, and depressing,...

On this episode of Law & Disorder we welcome back Kenneth Roth, the distinguished former Executive Director of Human Rights Watch and author of the new book Righting Wrongs . Alongside Helena Kennedy, Charlie Falconer and Nicholas Mostyn, Professor Roth talks through the fraught legal situation surrounding the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and whether there's a resolution on th...

Dan Neidle – poacher turned gamekeeper (although not in his own estimation) – has gone from Head of Tax at Clifford Chance to the scourge of tax shy plutocrats. He joins this week's Law & Disorder to sit down with Nicholas Mostyn, Helena Kennedy and Charlie Falconer and discuss his successes in revealing the dodgy dealings of a former-Chancellor of the Exchequer, as well as a certain Italian j...

When the full, horrific details of the treatment of Sara Sharif, which culminated in her tragic death, came to light, an order was made to anonymised the family judges who had allowed her to return to her father's custody. The decision shocked the legal word and has been appealed by journalists and broadcasters, including Louse Tickle and Hannah Summers, who join Law & Disorder to discuss thei...

Donald Trump is back in the White House after his historic re-election in November. At his inaugural speech this week, he laid out a manifesto for reinventing America, starting with some fundamental changes to the way that the law operates in the United States. What does he mean? Can he does this? And will the courts intervene? From denying asylum claims to changing America's established views on...

Hot off the presses, the Law Commission has produced a new report on the financial remedies available to divorcing couples. The Law & Disorder trio – Nicholas Mostyn, Helena Kennedy and Charlie Falconer – are joined by Professor Nick Hopkins, the report's commissioner, and Holly Symonds, a barrister specialising in family law, to discuss how the law can evolve to help ensure more equitable sep...

In 2023, a 10-year-old girl named Sara Sharif was murdered by her father and stepmother, the culmination of longstanding abuse she received. This week, verdicts were passed down in court, but, along with the findings, serious questions have been raised. Could the courts have done more to prevent Sara being left in such a transparently violent environment? What do we do when the apparent rights of...

On this week's episode of Law & Disorder, Nicholas Mostyn, Helena Kennedy and Charlie Falconer are joined in the House of Lords by Martin Forde KC, a veteran barrister and former recorder, to discuss the role that race plays in the criminal justice system. Martin discusses his own experiences as a black British lawyer, and the crew piece through David Lammy's 2017 report into the disastrous ou...

This week we have a special episode recorded immediately after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued warrants against both leaders of Hamas and, more strikingly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. To discuss this, we've dialled up Kenneth Roth, an expert in international law and former executive director of Human Rights Watch. Nicholas Mostyn and Charlie Falconer probe him on wheth...

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – better know as the Assisted Dying Bill – will soon be debated in Parliament. It draws heavily from a previous bill proposed by Law & Disorder co-host Charlie Falconer, who, on this episode of the podcast, debates the ins and outs of Labour MP Kim Leadbeater's bill with his co-anchors, Nicholas Mostyn and Helena Kennedy. Nicholas thinks the bill do...

It's time, once again, to crack open the mailbag and see what listeners have made of episodes over the past few months. In this mailbag edition, Charlie Falconer, Helena Kennedy and Nicholas Mostyn look back on episodes such as the chinwag with Lord Sumption on the ECHR, the questions raised by the prosecution of rioters in the summer, and the NDA agreements foisted upon the alleged victims of Moh...

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...

The proceedings of the Court of Protection are not widely known or understood, but could, one day, prove of vital importance to you and your family. On this episode of Law and Disorder , Nicholas Mostyn introduces Charlie Falconer and Helena Kennedy to Vikram Sachdeva KC, a specialist in healthcare law with long experience of the Court of Protection, to discuss how the tricky issues of mental capa...

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 qu...

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 sov...

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 perpe...