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In this episode of LawPod UK, Lucy McCann is joined by Professor Valena Beety, legal scholar, innocence litigator and former federal prosecutor, to discuss her new book Pink Crime. Professor Beety explores her concept of ‘Pink Crime’ a distinctive category of wrongful convictions of women and queer people, often in cases where no crime actually occurred, by examining historic cases and contemporary prosecutions involving pregnancy loss, parenting decisions, and queer identity.
The conversation considers the impact of the US Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, including the growing criminalisation of miscarriage and stillbirth, as well as the ways in which similar assumptions about identity and deviance have shaped the treatment of LGBTQ+ people.
Lucy and Professor Beety also discuss the dangers of unreliable forensic evidence, the different approaches to equality in the US, Canada and the UK, and the role that lawyers can play in challenging unjust outcomes.
Law Pod UK is published by 1 Crown Office Row. Supporting articles are published on the UK Human Rights Blog. Follow and interact with the podcast team on Twitter.Contact us with feedback on LawPodUK@1cor.com
On 2nd June 2026 the Supreme Court handed down their judgment in Re Attorney General for Northern Ireland’s Reference (Deprivation of Liberty) [2026] UKSC 16. You can read the full analysis of the case by Anogika Souresh and Esme Cairns posted on 9th June. A brief reminder: the Attorney General for Northern Ireland referred to the Supreme Court whether proposed revisions to the region’s Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Code of Practice — allowing incapacitated adults’ expressed wishes and feelings to count as valid consent to care arrangements — would satisfy Article 5 ECHR, even though this diverged from Cheshire West’s approach.
In this episode of Law Pod UK Rosalind English discusses with Amelia Walker the unanimous decision by the Supreme Court to overturn Cheshire West’s rigid “acid test” which they said wrongly departed from Strasbourg jurisprudence, replacing it with a multifactorial approach weighing restriction type, setting, duration, and effect. Crucially, it held that lacking capacity doesn’t automatically preclude someone from validly consenting to arrangements that would otherwise be a deprivation of liberty.
Law Pod UK is published by 1 Crown Office Row. Supporting articles are published on the UK Human Rights Blog. Follow and interact with the podcast team on Twitter, and post feedback to LawPodUK@1cor.com
In Episode 239 Emma-Louise Fenelon speaks to John Whitting KC about expert evidence at trial, which will be of interest to first-time and seasoned experts alike. This episode is the third in our series on expert evidence, following Episode 177 with Margaret Bowron KC and Episode 100 with Neil Sheldon KC.
Any comments or feedback on this episode can be sent to LawPodUK@1cor.com Law Pod UK is published by 1 Crown Office Row. Supporting articles are published on the UK Human Rights Blog. Follow and interact with the podcast team on Twitter.
Join me and co-presenter and barrister Lucy McCann with public law specialist Jonathan Metzer as we take you on a journey over most significant cases that have been decided over the course of the year. This is Episode 232. Below are the citations of all the cases referred to in our discussion:
IA and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department EWCA Civ 1516
R (Al‑Haq) v Secretary of State for Business and Trade EWHC 173 (Admin); R (Al‑Haq) v Secretary of State for Business and Trade EWCA Civ 1433
R (Ammori) v Secretary of State for the Home Department EWHC 1920 (Admin).
Epping Forest District Council v Somani Hotels Ltd EWHC 2183 (KB); Somani Hotels Ltd v Epping Forest District Council & Anor EWCA Civ 113
TG and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department EWHC 596 (Admin)
Getty Images (US), Inc and others v Stability AI Ltd EWHC 2863 (Ch)
R (Bhupinder Iffat Rizvi) v HM Assistant Coroner for South London [2025] EWHC 3014 (Admin)
Georgia Barter: Prevention of Future Deaths Report (Ref: 2025‑0491), Dr Shirley Radcliffe, East London Coroner’s Court, 2 October 2025
PMC (a child by his mother and litigation friend FLR) v A Local Health Board EWCA Civ 1126
In Episode 231 of Law Pod UK Jim Duffy is joined by David D. Cole, Professor of Law and Public Policy at Georgetown University and former National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. They discuss the US President’s invocation of emergency powers to deport, to attack vessels on the high seas, and to impose sweeping international trade tariffs.
Episode 227: It’s been an interesting year in the law, with Richard Hermer KC and the Shadow Attorney General Lord Wolfson of Tredegar joining battle on what constitutes the “thin” or “thick” concept of the rule of law. We interview Lady Hale on her long career in the law, the Law Commission and the Supreme Court. Lord Sumption speaks out on the need to withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights and Freedoms. We have speculations on the Assisted Dying Bill which has yet to make its way through the House of Lords, and an interview with a former barrister of 1 Crown Office Row and now MP on the potential implications of the Employee Rights Bill, also in the Lords.
Of course there are many more episodes to come as summer descends into autumn, but sit back and enjoy a leisurely review of the wide range of topics we have covered since 2025 was in its infancy.
In this episode, Lucy McCann is joined by Professor Steven Gunn, historian at Merton College, Oxford to discuss his recent book, An Accidental History of Tudor England (co-authored with Tomasz Gromelski). They explore the world of the sixteenth century Coroners’ Court, examine what records of inquest reveal, and consider about how people died and what this can tell us about everyday life at the time, to draw comparisons with modern day inquest proceedings and coronial statistics.
During our conversation Lord Wolfson addresses the political sensitivities involved in reforming the ECtHR, particularly where it comes to the balance between national sovereignty and international human rights obligations, a topic on which he has been in public disagreement with the current government’s Attorney General Lord Hermer KC. We explore the legal questions that predate and would arise from those reforms, including the implications for the rule of law and the long term relationship between the UK and Strasbourg.
Lord Wolfson emphasises the importance of careful legal analysis and the need for clear, principled leadership in this sensitive area, since he is now tasked with reviewing how to prevent the ECtHR from blocking government policies, especially on contentious issues like immigration and climate change mitigation. Above all, he stresses that the rule of law must be observed by asserting parliamentary sovereignty over Strasbourg and other decisions by international institutions.
In this episode Lucy and Kiran explore the themes of belonging and community at the Bar. How does imposter syndrome manifest itself? Why are role models important? How can we strengthen networks to encourage other women?
In Episode 214 Emma-Louise Fenelon speaks to Rachel Marcus of 1, Crown Office Row and Dr Anna Colton, an experienced Clinical Psychologist, about vicarious trauma and trauma-informed lawyering.
Dr Colton’s book How to Talk to Children about Food, is available here:
· More information about Dr Colton is available here
The episode mentions:
· Counsel magazine article: “The use of clinical supervision” by Mark Mason available here
· Law Pod Episode 147, Vicarious Trauma in the Legal Profession available here
· Vicarious Trauma in the Legal Profession: a practical guide to trauma, burnout and collective care by Rachel Francis and Joanna Fleck available here
· The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel Van Der Kolk available here
Law Pod UK aims to inform and enlighten our audience on important developments in civil and public law with a range of guests from 1 Crown Office Row and other legal experts. Law Pod UK is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audioboom, Player FM, ListenNotes, Podbean, iHeart, Radio Public, Deezer or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Please remember to rate and review us if you like what you hear.
In Episode 213 of Law Pod UK, Alasdair Henderson of 1 Crown Office Row joins Labour MP Henry Tufnell (formerly of 1 Crown Office Row) to discuss some of the salient and problematic proposals in Labour’s most sweeping changes to employment law in decades. They consider the proposed restrictions on zero hours contracts, the radical reduction of the qualifying period for unfair dismissal and that most controversial part of the bill, Clauses 15 and 16, which impose liability on the employer for third party harassment (as defined under the 2010 Equality Act). This goes beyond sexual harassment and could cover situations where for example an entertainment venue books a comedian whose riff, though legal, is maybe offensive to some people. If there are employees who say, we really hate what this comedian’s saying on stage, the Bill may impose a duty on the employer to cancel the comedian; does this not impose a chilling effect on free speech?
Join Ally and Henry for a lively and interesting to and fro on the Bill as it passes through its various Committee and Report stages in the Commons.
Law Pod UK starts 2025 with nearly 950K listens. We aim to inform and enlighten our audience on important developments in civil and public law with a range of guests from 1 Crown Office Row and other legal experts. Law Pod UK is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audioboom, Player FM, ListenNotes, Podbean, iHeart, Radio Public, Deezer or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Please remember to rate and review us if you like what you hear.
In Episode 211 of Law Pod UK I am joined by former President of the Supreme Court, Brenda Hale, first female law lord in the Court of Appeal, one time Professor of Law at Manchester University and participant in many Law Commission projects during her nine year sojourn there. She discusses with me the emergence of the English law of privacy from the network of common law torts such as breach of confidence, misuse of private information and libel, in the constellation of cases that reached the courts before the 1998 Human Rights Act ushered in the right to respect to private life and the right to freedom of expression under the European Convention on Human Rights and Freedoms. The balancing act between Article 8 and 10 is not always straightforward, as Lady Hale points out, where different members of the appellate committee have differing views on transparency and confidentiality.
She talks about her years at the Law Commission and her role in the team collaborating with what was then the Department of Health and Social Security to come up with a systematic drawing together of all the different rules about the care and upbringing of children the Children Act 1989. At this point of the discussion, Rosalind and Lady Hale touch upon the novel by Ian McEwan by that very title, The Children Act (2014), which gets Lady Hale’s full endorsement.
The full citations of the cases we discuss are set out below.
Kaye v Robertson [1991] FSR 62
Campbell v Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd [2004] UKHL 22
Patel v Mirza [2016] UKSC 42 (general principles of illegality)
Law Pod UK starts 2025 with nearly 950K listens. We aim to inform and enlighten our audience on important developments in civil and public law with a range of guests from 1 Crown Office Row and other legal experts. Law Pod UK is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audioboom, Player FM, ListenNotes, Podbean, iHeart, Radio Public, Deezer or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Please remember to rate and review us if you like what you hear.
Join Rosalind English in Episode 211 as she discusses with Lucy McCann and Jonathan Metzer of 1 Crown Office Row the cases that have been decided at all levels in the courts in 2024 that have had, or will have, important implications for practitioners and litigants in fields ranging from children in care through anonymity in medical negligence to the forfeiture of property under the Suicide Act 1961 in the light of the passage of the Assisted Dying Bill. The cases we talk about include the following:
HXA v Surrey County Council [2023] UKSC 52 (abuse, failure to remove and Article 3)
AB (by the Official Solicitor) v Worcestershire County Council and Anor [2023] EWCA Civ 529 (local authority liability under Article 3)
Sammut v Next Steps Mental Healthcare Ltd [2024] EWHC 2265 (KB) (inquests, Article 2 and private care homes)
PMC v A Local Health Board [2024] EWHC 2969 (KB) (anonymisation in clinical negligence cases)
Abbasi and Haastrup (conjoined cases) [2023] EWCA Civ 331 (reporting restriction orders, anonymisation of professionals in medical treatment cases)
Paul v Wolverhampton NHS Trust [2022] EWCA Civ 12 (psychiatric injury or “nervous shock)
Tindall & Anor v Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police [2024] UKSC 33 (23 October 2024) (police Liability)
N v Poole Borough Council [2019] UKSC 25 (duty of care of public authorities)
Philip Morris v James Morris, Kate Shmuel and Gregory White [2024] EWHC 2554 (Ch) (assisted dying and the Forfeiture Act)
McKleenon, re Application for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland) 2024 UKSC 31 (judicial review and remedies)AB
By the end of 2024, Law Pod UK has gained 940K listens. We aim to inform and enlighten our audience on important developments in civil and public law with a range of guests from 1 Crown Office Row and other legal experts. Law Pod UK is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audioboom, Player FM, ListenNotes, Podbean, iHeart, Radio Public, Deezer or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Please remember to rate and review us if you like what you hear.
In Episode 209, Jim Duffy is joined by fellow 1COR barristers Alasdair Henderson and Paula Kelly to examine recent judicial attempts to grapple with questions of gender in the workplace. How do the UK courts and tribunals distinguish legitimate and protected expressions of belief from harassment and transphobia?
Following the recent allegations of abuse surrounding former owner of Harrods, Mohamed Al-Fayed, vicarious liability has been in the news once again.
In Episode 208, Emma-Louise Fenelon speaks to Isabel McArdle about developments in this area of law since her previous episode with Rob Kellar KC in 2020 and in particular since the Supreme Court decision in Trustees of the Barry Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses v BXB [2023] UKSC 15
The UK Human Rights Blog is moving to Substack.
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