Rather His Own Man: In Court with Tyrants, Tarts and Troublemakers

Geoffrey Robertson QC has had a distinguished career as a trial counsel, human rights advocate and United Nations judge. He has appeared in many celebrated Old Bailey trials, defending the editors of Oz magazine and Gay News, the National Theatre over its staging of The Romans in Britain, and the directors of Matrix Churchill in the case that exposed the ‘Iraqgate’ scandal that helped to bring down John Major’s government. He has argued many death penalty appeals at the Privy Council, defended Salman Rushdie and Julian Assange, prosecuted Hastings Banda and represented Human Rights Watch in the proceedings against General Pinochet. He served as first president of the UN war crimes court in Sierra Leone and as a ‘distinguished jurist’ on the UN Justice Council (2008-12).Mr Robertson is founder and co-head of Doughty Street Chambers. He held the office of Recorder (part-time judge) for many years and is a Master of the Middle Temple and a visiting professor in human rights. His books include Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice (a textbook on the development of human rights law); The Tyrannicide Brief (the story of how Cromwell’s lawyers mounted the trial of Charles I); an acclaimed memoir, The Justice Game; Mullahs without Mercy: Human Rights and Nuclear Weapons; and Stephen Ward Was Innocent, OK. In 2011 he received the Award for Distinction in International Law and Affairs from the New York State Bar Association.