The Rise of the Death Penalty in the Middle East and North Africa
In the six years following the Arab Spring, there has been a notable increase in death sentences and executions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). In this episode,...
Criminal Justice and Fair Trial
What’s in a name? The criminal implications of pleasantries
In September a new batch of research assistants started at the Law Commission in London. Having collected them from reception, I brought them over to meet the rest of the...
Lam Wing Kee, Hong Kong, and China’s ever-expanding reach
The disappearance of Lam Wing Kee and four other Hong Kong booksellers sparked outrage amongst Hong Kong citizens and the international community alike. US spokesman John Kirby said the US...
Inequality and Discrimination faced by Religious Minorities in Pakistan
Pakistan is one of the worst countries to live in as a member of a religious minority group, due to the lack of human rights protection accorded to minority communities....
Work of Oxford Pro Bono Publico for UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention receives Supreme Court backing
After a record long gestation period the Supreme Court today handed down its judgment in Belhaj v Jack Straw & Sir Mark Allen and Rahmatullah (No 1) v Ministry of...
Child marriage and sexual assault of children in Turkey – does public opinion matter?
The issue of child marriage and sexual abuse of children in Turkey has once again been placed in the spotlight, resulting in wide news coverage. Turkey counts among the countries...
Iran’s Criminalization of Human Rights Defenders: The Case of Narges Mohammadi
The “harassment” of human rights defenders’ and “criminalization” of their activities in Iran has become common practice by the judicial branch of the Islamic Republic in recent years. According to...
Lifting the Veil on Enforced Disappearances and Extrajudicial Killings in Kenya
Kenya has experienced an upsurge in cases of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings over the last five years, a situation that has not gone unnoticed in the international arena. The...
Ahmed v United Kingdom: European Court of Human Rights Still Skirting Around Jury Bias
The European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR”) recently handed down its long-awaited admissibility decision in Ahmed v United Kingdom. It unanimously declared that the defendant’s claim, that at least one...
Ending the Perverse Culture of Mob Justice in Nigeria
The failure of Nigerian criminal justice institutions and agencies to prevent mob justice or punish those who engage in it, has lent an air of acceptability to the vile practice....
Crimes Against Culture
A landmark case for international law is currently before the International Criminal Court (ICC), where the destruction of cultural heritage in Timbuktu is being tried as a war crime under...
Retrospective Punishment: A Reasonable Limit on Charter Rights (R v. KRJ)
In KRJ, the Supreme Court of Canada tackled the retrospective application of criminal sanctions on certain sexual offenders. In particular, whether or not sentencing legislation could be applied to an...
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