A parliamentary inquiry has just started work into the law around Joint enterprise. Joint enterprise is contentious because if a person is seen to be involved in a crime, from knowing about it, to egging someone on, being present, or even being able to predict that someone is likely to use a weapon like a gun - then they could be considered as guilty as the person who pulled the trigger. It has a long history, but in recent times, it has been used as a way of prosecuting murder, especially in ca...
Nov 27, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast The job of the Criminal Cases Review Commission - or CCRC - is to investigate cases where people may have been wrongfully convicted of a crime in the criminal courts of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The CCRC has faced criticism over it's actions - or lack of action - in a high-profile miscarriage of justice. In April this year, the CCRC offered an unreserved apology to Andrew Malkinson. He spent 17 years in prison following conviction for a rape in Salford that he didn’t commit. DNA test...
Nov 20, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last year, more than a quarter of a million cases started in Family Court in England and Wales. Yet, to most people, the way they work is a mystery. Traditionally, they were always held in private, because they discuss sensitive information about peoples' personal lives, and to protect children from harm. Since 2009 reporters have been allowed to attend hearings. But they weren't allowed to tell anyone what was said without the permission of the court, and judges could exclude them. Now, a pilot...
Nov 13, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this new series of the Law Show, Dr Joelle Grogan and guests look at the legislation that affects your life. One of the flagship pieces of legislation for the Labour Government is the Renters' Rights Bill - scrapping no-fault evictions, and imposing new obligations and penalties on rogue landlords. How will it benefit tenants and affect landlords? Also on the programme: a raft of new laws are coming into effect this autumn, but who decides when a law becomes active or is enforceable? And fami...
Nov 06, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Weekly conversation led by Dr Joelle Grogan to give you an in-depth understanding of the law stories making news and the legal decisions that could have a bearing on everyone in the UK. This week: Traumatised jurors: new research has found that as much as half of people who serve on the juries of gruesome criminal trials, such as child murders or rape, can suffer symptoms of vicarious psychological trauma as a result. A pilot scheme to offer free counselling to affected jurors has now been shelv...
Jun 14, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Weekly conversation led by Dr Joelle Grogan about the law stories making the news and the legal decisions that could have a bearing on everyone in the UK. Whether it’s explaining a new law or seeking clarity for you on a legal issue, The Law Show will be your guide. This week: Water: from the cryptosporidium outbreak in tap water in Devon, to E. coli bacteria in the Thames, and sewage in rivers, lakes and seas across the country - what does the law say about clean water? What obligations do wate...
Jun 05, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Weekly conversation led by Dr Joelle Grogan about the law stories making the news and the legal decisions that could have a bearing on everyone in the UK. Whether it’s unpicking a landmark legal ruling, explaining how laws are made or seeking clarity for you on a legal issue, The Law Show will be your guide. This week: Assisted dying. Jersey, the Isle of Man, and Scotland are all taking steps towards making it legal to help someone die, in very specific and limited circumstances. It's currently ...
May 29, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Weekly conversation led by Dr Joelle Grogan that gives you an in-depth understanding of the law stories making the news and the legal decisions that could have a bearing on everyone in the UK. Whether it’s unpicking a landmark legal ruling, explaining how laws are made or seeking clarity for you on a legal issue, The Law Show will be your guide. This week: Protest law has been tightened up a lot in the last year, giving the police more leeway to stop disruption. But parts of the new powers have ...
May 22, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s a practical guide to navigating the law. Each week Joelle will be joined by a family of experts to offer in-depth understanding of the legal issues making the headlines, and explain how they affect us. Whether it’s unpicking a landmark legal ruling, explaining how laws are made or seeking clarity for you on a legal issue, The Law Show will be your guide.
May 21, 2024•57 sec•Transcript available on Metacast Dame Sue Carr, Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, is the first Lady Chief Justice, the first woman to hold the role. She gives her first broadcast interview as head of the judiciary of England and Wales to Law in Action, for its farewell edition. She speaks about her priorities, hopes, and concerns, and marks the end of Law in Action by looking back at 40 years in the law. She also picks her favourite editions of the programme, and closes with a tribute to presenter Joshua Rozenberg. Lord Davi...
Mar 26, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Following a Court of Appeal ruling this week about a case referred to the senior judges by the Attorney General, those charged with criminal damage for actions like throwing red paint at a building as a protest, can no longer use a certain defence to be acquitted. Parliament had intended the defence for different circumstances. Protesters used to be able to claim that had the owners of the damaged property known of the reasons for the damage, such as to highlight climate change, they'd have agre...
Mar 19, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast How do we prevent young people from becoming involved in knife crime? Joshua speaks to 'Jay' who began carrying a knife in his early teens before being helped to change his perspective, and his life. We explore the link between school exclusions and crime, and hear that workshops using graphic evidence to deter young people from carrying a knife can be counterproductive. We also find out about innovative policing methods to deter young people from carrying knives, or, if they've been caught alre...
Mar 12, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Post Office scandal is one of the UK's most widespread miscarriages of justice, with hundreds of people wrongfully convicted of theft or false accounting. In most of these cases, the Post Office was the investigator, prosecutor and the alleged victim. Did Post Office lawyers act unethically by failing to disclose evidence that might have helped the people they were prosecuting? Might they face criminal proceedings for attempting to pervert the course of justice? The Post Office no longer bri...
Mar 05, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Can juries acquit a defendant as a matter of conscience? For example, if people are accused of causing criminal damage as part of a protest, could the jury find them innocent despite the judge's directions? Joshua speaks to Clive Dolphin from Defend our Juries; Richard Vogler, Professor of Comparative Criminal Law & Criminal Justice, University of Sussex, and Tana Adkin KC, Chair of the Criminal Bar Association. There are currently around 5000 active satellites in space and that's expected t...
Nov 14, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast What if someone uses AI to create a fake version of your voice for their own aims? Recently, the actor, broadcaster and writer Stephen Fry found that someone had recreated his voice to narrate a documentary without his knowledge. What does the law have to say about deepfakes? What are your rights, and in which circumstances could someone be sued, or prosecuted? Associate solicitor Oliver Lock of Farrer & Co explains what the law can, and can't do. Creating fakes with AI, and the software to ...
Nov 07, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last week, the House of Commons Justice Select Committee published a wide-ranging report about sentencing and public opinion. On the one hand, it said we shouldn't ignore what people think. On the other hand, MPs found that many people didn’t understand how sentencing worked. The justice committee's own research confirmed this lack of understanding. The committee's chair, the Conservative MP Sir Bob Neill, also points out the cost of longer sentences: £47,000 per prisoner per year. Despite that ...
Oct 31, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Following the events of the 7th October in which around 1400 people were killed in Israel and over 200 taken hostage, Israel has been striking back against Hamas in Gaza. What does international law say about self-defence and proportionate responses to attacks? Joshua Rozenberg asks expert Professor Guglielmo Verdirame KC of Kings College. The government is proposing to rent prison space abroad, due to a risk of prison overcrowding here. There is precedent: Norway sent prisoners to a Dutch priso...
Oct 24, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast The new Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor Alex Chalk KC MP speaks to Joshua Rozenberg. How does he respond to criticisms levelled at the reforms of the Parole Board proposed in the Victims and Prisoners Bill? And how does he reconcile his wish to "provide individuals with the due process which is the hallmark of our legal system" with some aspects of the Home Office's Illegal Migration Bill, that aims to stop people crossing to the UK in small boats? Mr Chalk also speaks about n...
Jun 13, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is the Parole Board getting it right with prisoner releases? Last year, the then Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Dominic Raab thought not, and introduced reform proposals to, as he saw it, re-prioritise public protection and trust in justice. These proposals are in the Victims and Prisoners Bill that's now before parliament. But the Parole Board tell Joshua Rozenberg that public protection is their top priority anyway, and that only 0.5% of those they release go on to commit o...
Jun 06, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast The law is having to deal with new challenges due to climate change. Is it a human right to be protected from global warming? Do the 46 member states of the Council of Europe have to reduce carbon emissions faster to protect their citizens' right to life? The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has been asked to rule on these questions. We hear about the case of the Swiss 'Klimaseniorinnen', elderly women arguing that climate change-induced heatwaves threaten their lives. The little-kno...
May 30, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Conviction rates for rape trials are lower than those for other criminal trials, and the court experience can be intrusive and harrowing for survivors. The Law Commission of England and Wales (the independent body that advises the government on law reform), has just published a new consultation paper for how to change this. Criminal law commissioner Prof Penney Lewis, and before her Independent Sexual Violence Adviser Annabelle Edwards of Rape Crisis, speak about the reforms they'd like to see. ...
May 23, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast For a special edition recorded on location in Belfast, Joshua Rozenberg returns to Northern Ireland 25 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, which he reported on at the time. Meeting old contacts and new, he finds out what it took to get the negotiations over the line and what legacy the ground-breaking peace deal has had. He also hears about the challenges involved in achieving justice for the murders that remain unsolved; what problems remain with paramilitaries; and the UK gov...
Mar 28, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast New evidence shows that if a rape case actually comes to court, then - despite popular perceptions - juries are more likely to convict than not, says Professor Cheryl Thomas of UCL. The UK’s forensic science used to be considered the gold standard, but no longer. The risk of miscarriages of justice is growing. And now a new Westminster Commission is trying to find out what went wrong. Joshua talks to its co-chair, leading forensic scientist Dr Angela Gallop CBE, and to criminal defence barrister...
Mar 21, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast There are strikes again this week, by junior doctors, and train and tube drivers. The government's Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) bill aims to require sectors like health, education and transport to provide a "minimum" of services even on strike days. It would let employers, including government departments, issue "work notices" - lists of which staff have to work on strike days. But how will they decide who should be on the "work notice"? When someone is seriously ill, they or their family ar...
Mar 14, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast A year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Joshua asks Attorney General Victoria Prentis MP and Professor Philippe Sands KC how the law can help to deliver justice for Ukraine. Could Russia's leaders be tried for the crime of aggression? What can be done about the form of potentially abusive litigation known as a SLAPP? Plus, we meet the Ukrainian lawyers brining their skills to the UK. Presenter: Joshua Rozenberg Producer: Diane Richardson Editor: Simon Watts Production Co-ordinators: Maria Ogu...
Mar 07, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast The international lawyer Robert Spano, originally from Iceland, has just completed his nine-year stint as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. For the last two and half of those nine years, he was the president of the court. In an exclusive interview with Joshua Rozenberg, he shares his thoughts on the relationship between the UK and the ECHR, on the Justice Secretary Dominic Raab’s planned Bill of Rights, and on the future of democracy in Europe. Photo credit: Picture Cr...
Nov 18, 2022•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is the UK on a collision course with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg? So far the UK's relationship with the ECHR has been a good one, and the UK has proportionately fewer cases before the court than the other 45 member states. But might Justice Secretary Dominic Raab's Bill of Rights bill change that? Former judge Robert Spano, the president of the ECHR until last month, speaks to Joshua Rozenberg. Is it time to improve the legal protection of the UK's 3.6 million cohabiting cou...
Nov 15, 2022•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Climate change activists have caused a lot of disruption over the past year, and recently also made headlines with stunts like throwing tomato soup at a Van Gogh painting in the National Gallery. The government's response has been to tighten up protest law; first in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and now in the Public Order bill currently going through Parliament. What is and isn't illegal now? What could become illegal soon? And how are the police interpreting new laws that r...
Nov 08, 2022•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast The government is currently committed to a bonfire of laws which were inherited from the EU after Brexit - including things like the right to four weeks' paid annual leave. The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022 requires government departments to check over 2400 laws; then decide which ones to keep, which ones to amend, and which ones to let disappear from the statute books. Those chosen to be kept or amended will have to get through parliament by the end of next year, if they are...
Nov 01, 2022•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast How can a court decide that a young woman is to have medical treatment without her knowledge or that of her mother or guardian? The Court of Protection - which rules on cases involving 'protected' persons who lack the mental capacity to make decisions for themselves - sometimes holds 'closed hearings' that are secret to one or more of the parties, and to the public. Why are those hearings used, and can it ever be justified for the secrecy to lead to public misinformation? The law now treats anim...
Oct 25, 2022•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
