Matrix Podcasts

This week's podcast follows a panel discussion event organised by Hickman and Rose and Matrix Chambers. Since the virus arrived in the UK in February the Government has introduced a number of new criminal offences seeking to ensure compliance with its public health policies. Listen to our panel of the UK’s leading legal and political minds as they discuss the true impact of the Government’s legal...

This week Richard Hermer QC, Murray Hunt and Helen Mountfield QC speak to Lisa Nandy, Labour MP for Wigan. Listen as they discuss topics including the results of the US election, the UK’s international reputation and influence, when it is appropriate for the UK to intervene militarily overseas to prevent crimes against humanity and much more.

The US presidential election is fast approaching and the result could have wide-reaching consequences, not only for the citizens of the US but for all of us. Topics relating to the future of climate change action, the international legal order, the promotion of international human rights, press freedom and indeed the future of truth and decency in public discourse are all on the table. This week w...

Join Richard Hermer QC, Helen Mountfield QC and Murray Hunt for the first episode of season two this week, in which they discuss the rising ‘R’ rate; rights restrictions imposed without Parliamentary oversight; the government seeking to pass legislation in violation of international law obligations; judicial review under review and the death of one of the great liberal jurists in America. This epi...

This week we are joined by Bill Browder, the driving force behind the Magnitsky Act, the legislation being adopted in countries across the globe enforcing sanctions against foreign state officials involved in grave human rights abuses and systemic corruption. Bill is a financier by trade, and in the years spanning both sides of the turn of the millennium his business, the Hermitage Fund, was a maj...

Do Covid, Brexit And Black Lives Matter Present A Moment Of Constitutional Opportunity For The UK? In this week’s podcast, Murray Hunt and Helen Mountfield QC are joined by Kate O’Regan, former Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, and Alan Miller, Co-Chair of the Scottish National Taskforce on Human Rights Leadership, to discuss whether the concurrent crises of Covid, Brexit and Bl...

This week's podcast explores some of the wider themes exemplified by the Black Lives Matter protest through the lens of transitional justice. Transitional justice is a phrase used to describe how societies once torn apart by conflicts of many sorts, can deal with past legacies and move forward, whether through truth commissions, national apologies, compensation, monuments or a range of other mecha...

The brutal killing of George Floyd has led to a chain reaction in many countries not simply of protest but an increasing acknowledgement of the need to address the persistent and pervasive impact of systemic racism. This week we speak to David Lammy MP, one of the most prominent and thoughtful public figures on questions not just of the manifestations systemic racism on both sides of the Atlantic...

This week we return to Hong Kong to examine the human rights implications as China moves to implement new national security law. We speak to Patricia Ho about the recent developments and ask, what does this mean for the rule of law in Hong Kong?

The importance of the powers of the devolved administrations of the United Kingdom became clearer following the Prime Minister’s announcement that we were to begin relaxing the lockdown restrictions and each of the administrations adopted a slightly different approach. This week we speak to Prof Aileen McHarg, Dr Evelyn Collins CBE and Prof Daniel Wincott about the differing responses to the virus...

In this week's podcast, we speak to Professor David Cole, Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, about human rights and the rule of law in the USA. We examine the USA's response to the Covid crisis and what it tells us, not simply about the strength of the rule of law there but what the consequences of the US experience might be for the rest of us and the international legal order.

This week the Matrix Law Pod addresses the human rights implications of how Governments are increasingly turning to technology, not least data tracking, to help ease us out of lockdown. In countries such as South Korea and Taiwan, the authorities have been using location data from peoples phones to identify all those who have been in the close vicinity of a person diagnosed with Covid in order tha...

This week we speak to Afua Hirsch and Martha Spurrier about the impact on existing inequalities within our society, most particularly race, gender and poverty, in times of crisis. It is becomingly increasingly clear that whilst the coronavirus itself does not discriminate, its effect does and is cruelly amplifying existing inequalities. Afua is a barrister and well known author, journalist and bro...

The Sound Of Silence: The Vacuum In International Leadership And Its Impact On The World’s Poorest This week we are continuing to look at the international response to the coronavirus crisis but turning from examining the impact on wealthy, albeit troubled nations, to those toward the bottom end of the economic scale or at least in which a significant proportion of populations live in extreme pove...

This week's podcast focuses on how other countries are reacting and in particular how regimes governed by populist governments are coping. Richard Hermer QC, Phillippa Kaufmann QC and Murray Hunt are joined by human rights activists from around the world to discuss the situation in Hungary, Israel and the OPT, and Hong Kong.

Launching with ‘Public Emergencies and the Rule of Law’, Phillippa Kaufmann QC, Murray Hunt and Richard Hermer QC will discuss the UK’s approach to the Covid Crisis including whether all the government's measures are lawful and whether human rights are being sufficiently protected.