Geoffrey Robertson

In this fresh edition of the book which has inspired the global justice movement, Geoffrey Robertson QC explains why we must hold political and military leaders accountable for genocide, torture and mass murder - the crimes against humanity that have disfigured the world. He shows how human rights standards can be enforced against cruel governments, armies and multi-national corporations. This seminal work now contains a critical perspective on recent events, such as the invasion of Iraq, the abuses at AbuGhraib, the killings in Darfur, the death of Milosevic and the trial of Saddam Hussein. Cautiously optimistic about ending impunity, but unsparingly critical of diplomats, politicians, Bush lawyers and others who evade international rules, this third edition will provide further guidance to a movement which aims to make justice predominant in world affairs. 'A beacon of clear-sighted commitment to the humanitarian cause. . . impassioned. . . exemplary. . . seminal' Observer

The Struggle For Global Justice

Crimes Against Humanity

The biggest question in the world of art and culture concerns the return of property taken without consent. Throughout history, conquerors or colonial masters have taken artefacts from subjugated peoples, who now want them returned from museums and private collections in Europe and the USA. The controversy rages on over the Elgin Marbles, and has been given immediacy by figures such as France’s President Macron, who says he will order French museums to return hundreds of artworks acquired by force or fraud in Africa, and by British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has pledged that a Labour government would return the Elgin Marbles to Greece. Elsewhere, there is a debate in Belgium about whether the Africa Museum, newly opened with 120,000 items acquired mainly by armed forces in the Congo, should close. Although there is an international convention dated 1970 that deals with the restoration of artefacts stolen since that time, there is no agreement on the rules of law or ethics which should govern the fate of objects forcefully or lawlessly acquired in previous centuries. Who Owns History? delves into the crucial debate over the Elgin Marbles, but also offers a system for the return of cultural property based on human rights law principles that are being developed by the courts. It is not a legal text, but rather an examination of how the past can be experienced by everyone, as well as by the people of the country of origin.

Elgin’s Loot and the Case for Returning Plundered Treasure

Who Owns History?

story of the man who sent Charles I to the scaffold

The tyrannicide brief

A biography of Geoff Robertson, who made his name as the fearless defender of "Oz" magazine, and has engaged in some of the most newsworthy cases in recent history. It gives accounts of the people and cases he has defended including Cynthia Payne, Salman Rushdie, Kate Adie, and Arthur Scargill.

The Justice Game

At a time when international criminal law is faltering, the global justice movement must look to local Magnitsky laws as a means of naming, blaming and shaming human rights violators. Sergei Magnitsky was a Moscow tax lawyer who was tortured and killed for exposing Russian state corruption. In 2012, President Obama ratified the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, but this applied only to Russian officials. Although several countries have extended the law to include all listed human rights abusers, no initiatives currently go far enough. In this powerful book, Geoffrey Robertson tells Magnitsky’s story and examines the connection between human rights abuses and corruption, and how both thrive on links with western financial institutions, casinos and even private schools. He argues for a comprehensive system of sanctions against individuals and corporations, rather than against states.

And How to Be Rid of Them: A Plan B for Human Rights

Bad People

The Australian people emerged from a polyglot mixture of nationalities and other races: a kind of human minestrone. Not only a race, but a race apart, thanks to the kindness of distance. What distinctive moral vision have we attained from the struggles and sacrifices of our forebears? If we are to preserve the part of our heritage to do with freedom, we must write down the entitlement of every citizen in a way that politicians and public servants will respect. That means they must be turned into law. If they are not capable of legal enforcement then they are not 'rights', they are empty promises. The Australian Attorney General is expected to announce a commission to examine the case for an Australian Bill of Rights in December 2008, on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It will be next year's big controversy and a huge political decision for the Rudd government. This short book by Geoffrey Robertson QC is sure to become the primer for this debate. He puts the case for an Australian Bill of Rights cogently and dramatically, proving with evidence from other countries how a statute of liberty helps ordinary citizens and improves standards of governance and public services. He exposes the lies and urban myths the Australian people face from opponents of the bill, and shows how the charter he has drafted reflects the history and real contemporary values of Australians. This is a provocative argument for change, which explains that real democracy only exists if politicians give the courts power to defend citizens against abuses of their human rights by governments and public servants.

How Australians Can Take Back Their Rights

The Statute of Liberty

A third collection of transcripts, comprising five from the ABC television series and the unscreened TMedia Hypothetical', made for commercial television. Robertson QC is an international human rights lawyer, Rhodes scholar, and director of the Institute for Contemporary Arts. The texts of three of Robertson's lectures are included as an appendix.

A New Collection from the Acclaimed ABC TV Series

Geoffrey Robertson's Hypotheticals

Charles I waged civil wars that cost one in ten Englishmen their lives. But in 1649 parliament was hard put to find a lawyer with the skill and daring to prosecute a King who was above the law: in the end the man they briefed was the radical barrister, John Cooke. Cooke was a plebeian, son of a poor farmer, but he had the courage to bring the King's trial to its dramatic conclusion: the English republic. Cromwell appointed him as a reforming Chief Justice in Ireland, but in 1660 he was dragged back to the Old Bailey, tried and brutally executed. John Cooke was the bravest of barristers, who risked his own life to make tyranny a crime. He originated the right to silence, the 'cab rank' rule of advocacy and the duty to act free-of-charge for the poor. He conducted the first trial of a Head of State for waging war on his own people - a forerunner of the prosecutions of Pinochet, Miloševic and Saddam Hussein, and a lasting inspiration to the modern world.

The Story of the Man who sent Charles I to the Scaffold

The Tyrannicide Brief

Freedom, the Individual and the Law

Andrew G. L. Nicol

This edition gives an overview of the disparate laws that impinge upon journalists' and broadcasters' freedom to publish. It analyses case law and statutory law such as the Human Rights Act.

Media Law

Twenty years ago Geoffrey Robertson inspired the global justice movement with his ground-breaking book, Crimes Against Humanity. Since then, the movement has stalled, as nationalism takes hold and populist governments retreat from international courts and refuse to comply with their rulings. But there is an alternative. The Plan B for human rights looks back to national laws to name, blame and shame abusers. It strips them of their right to enter democratic nations, and of ill-gotten funds they seek to deposit in global banks; and it bars them and their families from schools and hospitals in these countries. This book explains the background and potential of these laws, which have been called Magnitsky Laws, after Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died in a Russian jail after exposing state corruption. Early versions of them have been introduced in the US, Canada and Britain, and they are now being considered in Australia. Geoffrey Robertson argues in this book that the Magnitsky movement offers a potent solution to crimes being committed against humanity, whether in America, Russia, China or Belarus. These abuses are a concern for all human beings, and good people are no longer prepared to tolerate them, in their own country or elsewhere in the world. The Magnitsky laws can show the way forward for the global justice movement in the twenty-first century.

A Plan B for Human Rights

Bad People – and How to Be Rid of Them

An incisive and witty collection of Geoffrey Robertson's best writings and speeches. The satirical magazine Private Eye has described Geoffrey Robertson as 'an Australian who's had a voice transplant'. Robertson explains: 'In my first appearance at the Old Bailey I had to tell a prim and proper judge that I appeared on behalf of a company which manufactured T-shirts emblazoned with the 'F' word. I nervously mustered up the courage to tell him that the offending logo read 'F*** Art, let's Dance.' His eyebrows shot up in horror. 'F*** Art let's WHAT, Mr Robertson?' 'Let's dance, my Lord.' 'Oh I see. You're an Australian. What you mean to say is 'F*** Art, lets Darnce'. In these witty, wonderfully incisive essays, Geoffrey Robertson muses on a wide range of subjects: his illustrious career at the bar and as a champion of free speech and human rights around the world; the humanity and enlightenment of our first governor, Arthur Phillip; little-known Tom Curnow, whose courage Robertson compares to what he sees as the cruelty of Ned Kelly; the endemic problems facing Indigenous Australia; our war record; his relationship with Julian Assange, and much else. With his unmistakeably biting intelligence and humanity Robertson cuts through to what is brilliant and terrible about Australia in the twenty-first century.

Dreaming Too Loud

In this witty, engrossing and sometimes poignant memoir, a sequel to his best-selling The Justice Game, Australia's inimitable Geoffrey Robertson charts his progress from pimply state schoolboy to top Old Bailey barrister and thence onwards and upwards to a leading role in the struggle for human rights throughout the world. He wryly observes the absurdities of growing up as one of 'Ming's kids'; the passion of student protest in the sixties and his early crusades for 'Down Under-dogs', before leaving on a Rhodes Scholarship to combat the British establishment, with the help of John Mortimer of 'Rumpole' fame. There are dramatic accounts of fighting for lives on death rows, freeing dissidents and taking on tyrants, armed only with a unique mind and a passion for justice - on display whenever he boomeranged back to Australia to conduct Geoffrey Robertson's Hypotheticals. In this updated edition of his amazing life story, he tells of David and Goliath battle; tales that feature a cast of characters from Malcolm Turnbull to Mike Tyson; from Nigella Lawson to Kathy Lette and Julian Assange. Throughout his exploits - recounted here with irreverent humour and dashes of true wisdom - Geoffrey Robertson has remained determinedly independent and his own man. He has also, in respect of human rights, changed the way we think.

Rather His Own Man

Geoffrey Robertson led students in the ’60s to demand an end to racism and censorship. He went on to become a top human rights advocate, saving the lives of many death-row inmates, freeing dissidents and taking on tyrants in a career marked by courage, determination and a fierce independence. In this witty, honest and sometimes irreverent memoir, he recalls battles on behalf of George Harrison and Julian Assange, Salman Rushdie and Václav Havel, Mike Tyson and the Sex Pistols, and battles against General Pinochet, Lee Kuan Yew and Mrs Thatcher (the true story of Spycatcher is told for the first time). Interspersed with these forensic fireworks is the story of a pimply schoolboy from a state comprehensive, inspired by a banned book to become a barrister at the Old Bailey and who went on to found the UK’s leading human rights practice (Doughty Street Chambers) and to defend troublemakers throughout the world. Rather His Own Man captures the drama of the trial, the thrill of victory and the feeling of ‘courtus interruptus’ when a big case settles. Its cast of characters includes Princess Diana, Pee-Wee Herman, Dame Edna, the Queen and Rupert – the bear and the media mogul. It’s a read that is both exhilarating and erudite – and very funny.

In Court with Tyrants, Tarts and Troublemakers

Iran is just years away from building an atomic bomb. Should it succeed, a weapon of monstrous destructive capability will be in the hands of mullahs who should be put on trial for international crimes: massacring political prisoners, assassinating dissidents at home and abroad, and torturing and killing protestors - as Geoffrey Robertson demonstrates in this groundbreaking study. In Mullahs Without Mercy, Robertson explores the chilling consequences of allowing Iran, North Korea and other countries to develop nuclear weapons. With unquestioned legal authority and learning, and in vivid style, Robertson proposes a radical solution: making the production of nuclear weapons an international crime. Indeed he argues that acquiring nukes is already contrary to an international law of human rights: the bomb is an illegal weapon of terror, and the politicians, prelates and scientists who build it are guilty of crimes against humanity. The development of this doctrine will have profound implications for Britain - and for the world.

Human Rights and Nuclear Weapons

Mullahs Without Mercy

The most controversial question that is still being asked about the First World War - was there an Armenian genocide? - will come to a head on 24 April 2015, when Armenians worldwide will commemorate its centenary and Turkey will deny that it took place, claiming that the deaths of over half of the Armenian race were justified. This has become a vital international issue. Twenty national parliaments in democratic countries have voted to recognise the genocide, but Britain and the USA continue to equivocate for fear of alienating their NATO ally. Geoffrey Robertson QC condemns this hypocrisy, and in An Inconvenient Genocide he proves beyond reasonable doubt that the horrific events in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 constitute the crime against humanity that is today known as genocide. He explains how democracies can deal with genocide denial without infringing free speech, and makes a major contribution to understanding and preventing this worst of all crimes. His renowned powers of advocacy are on full display as he condemns all those - from Sri Lanka to the Sudan, from Old Anatolia to modern Syria and Iraq - who try to justify the mass murder of children and civilians in the name of military necessity or religious fervour.

Who Now Remembers the Armenians?

An Inconvenient Genocide

In the summer of '61 John Profumo, Minister for War, enjoyed a brief affair with Christine Keeler... Late in the afternoon of Wednesday 31 July 1963, Dr Stephen Ward was convicted at the Old Bailey on two counts alleging that he lived on the earnings of a prostitute. He was not in the dock but comatose in hospital. The previous night he had attempted suicide, because (as he said in a note) 'after Marshall's [the judge's] summing up, I've given up all hope'. He died on Saturday 3 August, without regaining consciousness. Many observers of the proceedings thought the convictions did not reflect the evidence and that the trial was unfair, and this book will show that it breached basic standards of justice. Geoffrey Robertson brings his forensic skills and a deeply felt sense of injustice to the case at the heart of the Profumo affair, the notorious scandal that brought down a government.

The Case for Overturning His Conviction

Stephen Ward Was Innocent, OK

Geoffrey Robertson QC has been at the centre of internationally high-profile legal cases for over three decades. From representing Princess Diana to Salman Rushdie, to his involvement in the celebrated criminal trials of Oz magazine and Gay News, Robertson is an unfailing champion of human rights, justice, freedom and democracy. In this captivating memoir, Robertson reveals what draws him to each case, his ingenious analysis and interpretation of the courtroom proceedings, and the legal and civic consequences – wrapping each case into a thrilling, rollercoaster sequence of events. Entertaining, scandalous and hugely insightful, The Justice Game provides a piercing behind-the-scenes look into courtroom cases, the practice of the law and the never-ending fight in striving to narrow the gap between the law and justice. A highly recommended read for those interested in current affairs, criminal and public law, legal history and the British legal system. ‘This wonderful book...reads like a John Grisham, infused with moral anger’ Independent

Geoffrey Robertson

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