Jonathan Cooper OBE

Jonathan Cooper is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers and he is an internationally recognised human rights specialist with experience before English and International courts and tribunals, as well as conducting training programmes and advising on human rights issues in jurisdictions all over the world.

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Dignity, the Right to Life, and the Coronavirus

Dignity, the Right to Life, and the Coronavirus

The current coronavirus crisis has highlighted the weaknesses of UK law and the system of government. The Prime Minister spent weeks obfuscating. Each day he equivocated more and more people were exposed to the virus. Whilst the ...
Lessons from Sir Henry Brooke: Making Rights Real (II)

Lessons from Sir Henry Brooke: Making Rights Real (II)

In my last post, I argued that the judgment in Gareth Lee v Ashers Bakery is the consequence of the failure to follow a structured human rights assessment. This is why. Gareth Lee is gay and lives in Northern Ireland. Northern ...
Lessons from Sir Henry Brooke: Making Rights Real (I)

Lessons from Sir Henry Brooke: Making Rights Real (I)

What if? What if the UK House of Lords (as the UK Supreme Court then was) had left the judgment of Lord Justice Brooke in Begum in the Court of Appeal intact? Brooke LJ in that case held that the school uniform policy of Denbigh High ...
The Fate of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in UK Law After Brexit is Sealed

The Fate of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in UK Law After Brexit is Sealed

On Monday in the House of Lords, Lord Pannick withdrew his amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill retaining the EU Charter as part of the UK’s post-Brexit settlement. With this, the Charter’s fate in UK law post Brexit was sealed. When ...
From Torment to Tolerance and Acceptance to the Everyday: The Course of LGBT Equality in the UK

From Torment to Tolerance and Acceptance to the Everyday: The Course of LGBT Equality in the UK

Colonisation is a dodgy business. Laws are mainstreamed across the Empire. So what did the Romans, keen to distance themselves from their pre-Christian roots, ever do for gay men? They criminalised homosexuality: from 4th century the ...