@joshuarozenberg.bsky.social
KC (hon). UK's most experienced full-time legal commentator. Honorary bencher, Gray's Inn. Former solicitor (non-practising). Writes at https://rozenberg.substack.com
Despite endemic delays in the criminal justice system, the High Court has said that a judge at a busy London court should not have ordered a defendant to be held in custody for five months beyond the statutory time limit.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/the-laws-d...
Now updated with link to my column in the Law Society Gazette.
21.11.2025 06:11 β π 7 π 5 π¬ 0 π 0
Israel has asked the International Criminal Court to disqualify its prosecutor Karim Khan KC and cancel the arrest warrants he obtained last year against the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israelβs former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/khans-warr...
The rule of law must be protected against further erosion, a parliamentary committee warns us today. Failure to do so, says the House of Lords constitution committee, risks the rise of extremist political parties, ultimately creating space for dictatorship.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/tyranny-an...
The justice secretary David Lammy and his predecessor Shabana Mahmood were found by the High Court yesterday to have breached article 3 of the human rights convention, which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/inhuman-tr...
The Law Commission has responded to concerns raised by national policing organisations and the government that riots in Southport last year might have been quelled if the police had been able to release more information about the suspect.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/what-we-ca...
The home secretary is expected to outline reforms to the way article 8 of the human rights convention is interpreted by courts and tribunals. Article 8, which protects the right to private and family life, has been relied on by migrants challenging removal.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/article-8-...
The BBC has apologised to President Donald Trump and withdrawn the edition of Panorama over which he threatened to sue for $1 billion, apparently satisfying two of the three demands made in a letter from his lawyer last weekend.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/bbc-apolog...
Scottish judges have violated the rights of rape suspects, the UK Supreme Court decided yesterday. Scotland's courts must now modify their approach to the admissibility of evidence in sexual offences cases. The ruling affects past, current and future hearings.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/suspects-h...
Pablo Arredondo, who developed the precursor to CoCounsel and then sold it to Thomson Reuters for $650m, is not so sure about the choice of name now. And while he fizzes with excitement at finding what AI can do, he is more aware than most of its limitations.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/the-limits...
Will President Trump sue the BBC for $1 billion? As the US president no doubt intended, itβs a figure that appears in almost every front-page newspaper headline today.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/will-trump...
Tomorrow marks a full year since member states of the International Criminal Court announced an external investigation into allegations that the courtβs senior prosecutor had sexually assaulted a member of his staff.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/icc-probe-...
One of the strangest aspects of the recent China spy trial βdisappointmentβ is that prosecutors thought a judgment from the Court of Appeal in a similar case last year had made it harder for them to secure a conviction.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/whos-to-bl...
Tagging offenders will not provide an effective alternative to prison unless probation is better funded, according to peers. Meanwhile, police chiefs say reducing the prison population under the sentencing bill will lead to a short-term increase in crime.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/fighting-c...
Why was Tommy Robinson prosecuted under the Terrorism Act? Why, indeed, was he even arrested by an accredited counter-terrorism officer in Folkstone as he sought to leave the country in July last year?
rozenberg.substack.com/p/terror-cha...
βA decision to reject the #ECHR would be tremendously damaging to the #RuleOfLaw both in Europe but also more generally,β the UK judge at the European Court of Human Rights tells @joshuarozenberg.bsky.socialπ
π rozenberg.substack.com/p/judging-hu...
#HumanRights #ECHR #OurRightsAndFreedoms #ECHR75
Up to 44 million consumers came a little closer to claiming compensation estimated at between Β£45 and Β£70 each when the Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled that a litigation funder should pay additional costs incurred in the long-running Mastercard claim.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/mastercard...
Hugh Mercer KC has sat as the UK judge at the European Court of Human Rights for little more than a month. But two major political parties are seeking to have Judge Mercer kicked off the court. Does he still think applying for the post was a good career move?
rozenberg.substack.com/p/judging-hu...
Drug use in prisons has become normalised, the House of Commons justice committee says in a report published this morning. MPs call on the government to reintroduce regular testing in order to restore accountability and assess the extent of drug use.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/where-to-f...
Democracy is under challenge in the west, a former president of the UK Supreme Court told me this week. Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury said people were turning to populist alternatives and, he added, populism tends not to respect the rule of law.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/justice-fo...
Democracy is under challenge in the west, a former president of the Supreme Court told me this week. Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury said people were turning to populist alternatives and, he added, populism tends not to respect the rule of law.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/justice-fo...
The senior family judge of England and Wales is to retire next April. Sir Andrew McFarlane, 71, president of the High Court family division since 2018, told the Commons justice committee yesterday that he had given six monthsβ notice of his plan to stand down.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/family-fav...
βThere is a strong public interest in the home secretary being able to pursue her βone in, one outβ policy unless or until it is shown to be unlawful,β a High Court judge said at a late-night hearing last week.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/one-in-one...
The director of public prosecutions Stephen Parkinson will tell MPs and peers today that he gave the governmentβs deputy national security adviser every opportunity to testify that China was regarded by the last Conservative government as an enemy state.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/answers-at...
Apologies for the typo in today's email, rapidly corrected online.
24.10.2025 10:24 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
James Wray, 22, and William McKinney, 26, were murdered on Bloody Sunday, a judge at Belfast Crown Court concluded yesterday. The defendant, Soldier F, was one of those responsible, Judge Lynch KC continued.
Why, then, was Soldier F cleared of all charges?
rozenberg.substack.com/p/was-justic...
A diplomat who served in Beijing has cast doubt on whatβs thought to have been a major allegation in the failed China spying case. But as Ken Macdonald KC told me yesterday, the double scoop on his Double Jeopardy podcast raises more questions than it answers.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/secrets-ca...
The government is proposing to repeal the statutory presumption, introduced in 2014, that both parents should remain involved in their childrenβs upbringing following a separation. A report in 2020 suggested it was putting children at risk of domestic abuse.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/best-for-t...
As always from Joshua, a clear breakdown of what the ruling was (and was not about) and the possible implications.
20.10.2025 08:37 β π 4 π 5 π¬ 0 π 0
A Crown Court judge will deliver his verdict this week on a man accused of two murders. I can say βverdictβ because the defendant, a former soldier, was tried by the judge sitting in Northern Ireland without a jury.
rozenberg.substack.com/p/a-juryless...
