Articles by Geoffrey Robertson

The unequivocal lesson of history and current politics is that torture corrodes the bonds of law and humanity that underpin any society with a claim to be civilised, says Geoffrey Robertson.

The radical lawyer John Cooke prosecuted England’s king, Charles I, in 1649 – and in doing so opened a chapter in legal history that reverberates 356 years later. Geoffrey Robertson, in an extract from his book “The Tyrannicide Brief”, describes Cooke’s pivotal role and assesses its modern implications.

The prosecutor of England’s king, Charles I, in 1649 conceived the modern principle of holding tyrants legally to account for their violations. The human-rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson tells openDemocracy’s Charlie Devereux why he regards John Cooke as a hero for our time.