What's new
In the summer of 2020, I launched a new blog. You can read it here. If you sign up, you will receive updates by email as soon as I publis
h them. Some articles are reserved for paying customers.My latest book Enemies of the People? was published in April 2020. It looks at how judges make law and asks whether they can maintain public confidence while balancing conflicting interests. Enemies of the People? is book-ended with the two Brexit-related cases Gina Miller took to the UK Supreme Court.
Copies of Enemies of the People? are available from Bristol University Press at a discount. In the US, the book is distributed by the University of Chicago Press.
In 2019, I was appointed a non-executive board member of the Law Commission, the body that advises the government on reform of the law.
I am also involved with the Hamlyn Trust, which has sponsored an annual lecture series for more than 70 years.
What's different
What to do if you're chairing a public meeting and a heckler walks in:
What's not so new
The summer and autumn 2020 series of Law in Action were unusually challenging. Because of the coronavirus restrictions, my producer and I both worked from our respective homes: neither of us visited the BBC studios at any time during the four-week run or the preceding two months. Even so, we secured an interview with the senior military prosecutor that attracted widespread media interest. The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales told me that limiting the availabity of jury trials was a possibility he believed to be worthy of consideration by policymakers. The last programme in the autumn series was featured on Pick of the Week.
For the spring 2020 series of Law in Action, I watched a Parole Board panel decide whether it was safe to release a prisoner on licence. We also visited a tribunal in Glasgow that has has its own sensory room, designed to put children with autism at their ease.
The spring 2019 series of Law in Action took listeners behind the scenes of three courts and a prison. There were more such visits in the summer series. We visited two prisons and two courts in the autumn series.
For the autumn 2018 series of Law in Action, I recorded a number of interviews in the United States about the differences and similarities of two legal systems separated by a common law.
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, in partnership with the Bar of Northern Ireland, invited me to deliver its Annual Lecture in Belfast on 2 May 2018. The subject was: Are Judges "Enemies of the People"? The relationship between judges, media and politicians in the modern age. The full lecture can be seen here.
The last programme in the first series of 2018 included the now-traditional interview with the new lord chancellor, David Gauke.
The autumn 2017 series of Law in Action included the first interview ever given by lawyers working for a UK intelligence agency. We recorded the interviews at the signals monitoring service GCHQ and I was given a glimpse of its huge data centre.
I also interviewed Sir Richard Henriques, the retired judge who investigated Scotland Yard's handling of child abuse allegations against public figures, and Lord Burnett of Maldon, giving his first interview as lord chief justice of England and Wales. Both items were picked up by the Today programme on Radio 4.
Also in October 2017, I finally saw off Sir Peter Smith -- 10 years after I had called on him to resign.
In the June 2017 series of Law in Action, the newly-appointed lord chancellor, David Lidington, gave me his first interview since taking office a couple of weeks earlier.
The previous series of Law in Action began on 7 March 2017 with a full-length interview given to me by his predecessor, Elizabeth Truss.
On 22 February 2017 I delivered the first of three annual public lectures for Gresham College, called Justice Online: Just as Good? You can download the video, listen to an audio version and read the accompanying paper from the Gresham website.
An extended and updated version of my paper called The Online Court: Will IT Work? is available free of charge here.
The second lecture was delivered on Tuesday 20 February 2018 at the Museum of London. It's also available for download.
The third and final lecture in the series, delivered on 21 February 2019, can be viewed here.
In December 2016 I provided live commentary and analysis for Sky News on the Article 50 Brexit hearing in the UK Supreme Court. It was the first time a hearing had been covered in this way. I also helped present a programme of recorded highlights at the end of each day that the court sat.
In January 2016 the then lord chancellor announced that HM the Queen had approved my appointment as Queen's Counsel honoris causa. I was given my letters patent by Michael Gove at a ceremony in Westminster Hall on 22 February. The Ministry of Justice said:
Joshua Rozenberg is a non-practising solicitor. He has been recommended for his work as the pre-eminent legal analyst of modern times. He is an honorary bencher of Gray’s Inn, best known as a leading legal journalist and commentator. After taking a degree in law, he became the BBC’s first legal correspondent. He then joined the Daily Telegraph and is now a freelance writer and broadcaster, contributing to a range of outlets. He presents Law in Action on Radio 4 and his work includes four published books.
Roy Greenslade wrote it up for the Guardian.
The rank of Queen's Counsel has been awarded in various forms for around 400 years but honorary silks date only from the late 19th century.
The autumn 2016 series of Law in Action included a full-length interview with the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders. Another programme analysed the High Court decision in the Article 50 Brexit case.
The summer 2016 series of Law in Action started on 31 May 2016. We devoted the first programme to genocide and crimes against humanity. The programme was inspired by my review of a new book by Philippe Sands QC, East West Street, for Prospect magazine. We broadcast a special, live edition on 28 July, dedicated to Brexit.
The spring series of Law in Action started on 8 March 2016. On 29 March we devoted the entire programme to the "gay cake" case being heard in Northern Ireland.
On 13 October 2015 I delivered the opening keynote speech at a Council of Europe conference in Strasbourg on freedom of expression. My speaking note was published by the Council of Europe. I then moderated a lively discussion, which you should be able to watch online (starts 40 minutes in).
Catherine Baksi, who blogs as Legal Hackette, published an interview with me on 26 October 2015.
I spoke about media stereotypes and discrimination at a human rights conference in Helsinki on 10 December 2015. You can watch my presentation here, starting just over an hour from the start of the recording.
The June 2015 series of Law in Action concluded with an exclusive interview given to me by the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, about reform of the courts. The plans were subsequently confirmed by the Ministry of Justice.
2015 was marked by a number of events to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. I contributed a chapter to the book published by the British Library as part of its exhibition Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy. Some of my comments were recorded for a video presentation at the exhibition. There's a taster at the start of this promotional video.
You can read my chapter on Magna Carta in the Modern Age, view some of the British Library exhibits and watch the full video here. Law in Action was broadcast from the British Library on 3 February 2015.
I presented the first edition of Law in Action on 14 October 1984. On 14 October 2014, Radio Four broadcast a special programme to mark the 30th anniversary. In it, Lady Hale, Lord Judge and Sir Keir Starmer QC discussed the most significant legal developments over the past 30 years.
Nottingham Trent University awarded me an honorary LLD in July 2012 for what the dean of the law school described as my "highly significant contribution to the scrutiny and understanding of the law and the legal system". This was my second honorary degree; the first was from the University of Hertfordshire in 1999.
The University of Lincoln awarded me an honorary doctorate in law in September 2014. I was awarded my fourth honorary LLD by the University of Law in November 2014.
I was invited by the European Commission to deliver an introductory speech at a major conference in Brussels in November 2013. It was aimed at "shaping justice policies in Europe for the years to come". The other introductory speakers were ministers of justice, past and present. You can read my remarks here and watch the video (with translations into other languages if you prefer).
I was gratified to find that I was the only journalist to be included in the Times Law 100 list of most inflential lawyers for 2012. That list was the first and last of its kind to be compiled by The Times.
I started tweeting in 2011 and have 100,000 followers. I use Twitter both to break stories and to alert readers to my work published elsewhere. I occasionally cover court hearings on Twitter in real time. Follow @JoshuaRozenberg
I joined Mastodon in November 2022. You can follow me here: https://journa.host/@rozenberg
I write a column twice a month for the Law Society Gazette. I no longer write for the Guardian but my past columns are collected here.
My valedictory column for the Daily Telegraph appeared on 1 January 2009. You can search online for material I wrote for the Telegraph from 2000 to 2008.
My book Privacy and the Press has been published in a Chinese translation by the China Legal Publishing House. The ISBN is 978-7-5093-3455-3 and you can buy it here. Note the list of chapter headings towards the bottom of the page: one was untranslatable.
My email and postal addresses can be found at the bottom right-hand corner of this page.
20 December 2022
