The BBC has apologised to President Donald Trump and withdrawn the edition of Panorama over which he threatened to sue for $1 billion, apparently satisfying two of the three demands made in a letter from his lawyer last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, it’s 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 court’s 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 “disappointment” 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...

“A decision to reject the #ECHR would be tremendously damaging to the #RuleOfLaw both in Europe but also more generally,” the UK judge at the European Court of Human Rights tells @joshuarozenberg.bsky.social👇 🔗 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 £45 and £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 months’ notice of his plan to stand down. rozenberg.substack.com/p/family-fav...

“There is a strong public interest in the home secretary being able to pursue her ‘one in, one out’ policy unless or until it is shown to be unlawful,” 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 government’s 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...

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 what’s 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 children’s 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.

A Crown Court judge will deliver his verdict this week on a man accused of two murders. I can say “verdict” because the defendant, a former soldier, was tried by the judge sitting in Northern Ireland without a jury. rozenberg.substack.com/p/a-juryless...

The Court of Appeal decision in favour of Palestine Action on Friday was not a “landmark victory”, as the protest group’s co-founder Huda Ammori claimed. But it was a significant pointer to the eventual outcome — not least for 2,000 placard-holding protestors. rozenberg.substack.com/p/palestine-...

“There is no offence of blasphemy in our law,” Mr Justice Bennathan ruled last Friday, clearing Hamit Coskun of a public order offence. An offence of blasphemy had existed for centuries. Some campaigners wanted it to be extended. Instead, it was scrapped: rozenberg.substack.com/p/blasphemy-...

“Politically motivated attacks on the legal profession are irresponsible and dangerous,” lawyers' representatives said this week. For a unique perspective on the challenges facing judges, I spoke to Professor Sir Ross Cranston, about his new book, Judging. rozenberg.substack.com/p/traducing-...

MPs have suggested that the director of public prosecutions did not inform the attorney general of his decision to stop the prosecution of two men accused of spying for China until after it had been taken. rozenberg.substack.com/p/when-was-a...

MPs ask DPP: "Is it correct that you informed the Attorney General that the [China] case was being dropped after the decision to do so had been made?" committees.parliament.uk/publications...

MPs put tough new questions on China to director of public prosecutions: committees.parliament.uk/publications...

As Sir Keir Starmer promised yesterday, the government has published three witness statements made by its deputy national security adviser Matthew Collins in preparation for a trial, now abandoned, of two men who were accused of spying for China. rozenberg.substack.com/p/china-the-...

The body that regulates solicitors is facing formal public censure over its failure to protect the public against a solicitors’ firm in Sheffield that left consumers owing thousands of pounds over compensation claims for supposed cavity wall insulation defects. rozenberg.substack.com/p/hollow-jus...

The Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner has intervened in a series of criminal prosecutions currently before the courts of England and Wales. rozenberg.substack.com/p/policing-p...

The Law Society, which represents solicitors in England and Wales, is advising lawyers to abandon the traditional salutation that many still use when writing letters to other law firms. rozenberg.substack.com/p/dear-readers

The much-criticised body that investigates suspected miscarriages of justice has commissioned an independent review of its casework. It’s thought to be the first time the Criminal Cases Review Commission has called in external inspectors since it started work. rozenberg.substack.com/p/an-inspect...

In explaining this week why he stopped the prosecution last month of two defendants accused of spying for China, the director of public prosecutions raised more questions than he answered. rozenberg.substack.com/p/china-the-...

The Crown Prosecution Service is to appeal against the acquittal of Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh after a high-profile terrorism case collapsed last month. It has also explained why it withdrew charges against two men who were suspected by MPs of spying for China. rozenberg.substack.com/p/why-cases-...

The next Conservative government will take the UK out of the ECHR and repeal the Human Rights Act. Kemi Badenoch announced her decision after taking advice from Lord Wolfson of Tredegar KC, who had warned her that withdrawal would not be a “silver bullet”. rozenberg.substack.com/p/how-uk-cou...

The attorney general, Lord Hermer KC, gave a sermon at North Western Reform Synagogue in London on Friday night. He expressed the government’s solidarity with the Jewish community and spoke about the unprecedented rise in antisemitism since 7 October 2023. rozenberg.substack.com/p/ag-says-pm...

Perhaps appropriately, given the terrorist attack in Manchester yesterday — which my wife analysed last night on her own Substack — terrorism and security are at issue in some of the most interesting appeals to be heard by the UK Supreme Court this term. rozenberg.substack.com/p/terrorism-...

The government is currently reviewing the opt-out collective actions regime in competition law, which enables consumers to claim compensation from corporations accused of market abuse. How should we calibrate the balance between corporations and consumers? rozenberg.substack.com/p/consumer-p...

Victims of crime in England and Wales will have greater protection from tomorrow. In specified circumstances, they will no longer be bound by non-disclosure agreements or confidentiality clauses they have signed. rozenberg.substack.com/p/gags-to-be...

Inner Temple, one of the four inns of court, has celebrated the appointment of its member Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill as the first lady chief justice of England and Wales by commissioning a more-than-lifesize portrait of her. rozenberg.substack.com/p/lcj-framed

The collapse on Friday of a high-profile terrorist prosecution could have been avoided if Scotland Yard had not put off a charging decision until what it believed was the last possible moment. rozenberg.substack.com/p/kneecap-wh...

Not for the first time, it seems I may be getting a national identity card. In today’s Telegraph, the prime minister says his "government will make a new, free-of-charge, digital ID that will be mandatory for the right to work by the end of this parliament". rozenberg.substack.com/p/no-id-no-w...

It would be “shame and a mistake” for the United Kingdom to leave the European convention on human rights, the UK’s former judge at the human rights court told me last week. Tim Eicke KC spoke to me from Essex Court Chambers, to which he returned this month. rozenberg.substack.com/p/dont-go-sa...

Reports in the Sunday Times and in The Times on Saturday that the speaker of the House of Commons was “weighing up” initiating a private prosecution of two men who were suspected by MPs of spying for China strike me as bizarre. rozenberg.substack.com/p/i-spy-stra...

David Lammy was back on his old beat this week. How dod he and the Ministry of Justice get on? rozenberg.substack.com/p/no-cuts

Did the attorney general really describe reform of the human rights convention as "a political trick"? rozenberg.substack.com/p/a-politica...

Attacks on the judiciary by opposition politicians and others are as misplaced as they are dangerous, the attorney general said last night. Lord Hermer KC made his remarks during a speech on the rule of law delivered in the hall of the Old Bailey. rozenberg.substack.com/p/attacks-on...

David Lammy’s Public Office (Accountability) Bill was published at lunchtime yesterday, a few minutes after the new justice secretary finished answering MPs’ questions. In this piece I offer an initial assessment of its main clauses and their likely impact. rozenberg.substack.com/p/candour-bi...

A duty of candour is to be imposed on more than 1.9 million public servants. The Ministry of Justice says that its bill, if passed, will mean that officials “must act with honesty and integrity at all times, with criminal sanctions for egregious breaches”. rozenberg.substack.com/p/candour-or...