Law Pod UK

225: Rain of Dust

Death, deceit and the lawyer who busted big Asbestosis. Rosalind English talks to author David Kinley and lawyer Richard Meeram about an international legal drama involving a UK mining company and its South African employees, tackling questions of corporate veil, forum and causation in a huge class action. Rain of Dust is available from https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/23079/rain-dust?srsltid=AfmBOoo9m-dk6yhDCfduwTjO7JL33EWTf3YCOH_XtipAOXW6Zsab7Pm2 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.

224: Parenthood in the modern age

Ahead of the city’s Pride celebrations next month, Jim Duffy is joined by Clare Ciborowska and Pauline Troy of 1COR Brighton.  They take us through the legal, social and political history behind the concept of parenthood in the UK today. Drawing from their experience as seasoned advocates in the family courts, Clare and Pauline describe how the evolution of equality and human rights laws around sexual orientation have helped lead us to where we are today in terms of parenthood. They examine legal developments in relation to surrogacy, and the recent shelving of proposals by the Law Commission in England and Wales for significant reform in that area. 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.

223: Behind the scenes at the UK and US Supreme Courts

Poppy Mulligan and Monty Fynn tell Jim Duffy all about their time as Judicial Assistants at the UK Supreme Court and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Counsel. Poppy is JA to the Court’s Deputy President, Lord Hodge, while Monty has spent the year working for former ‘Treasury Devil’ Lord Sales. They describe what they have learned about advocacy and about themselves that they will take into their nascent careers at the Bar, while Jim recounts some of his own experience as Judicial Assistant to Lord Reed and Lord Hodge some 12 years ago. Poppy and Monty recently travelled to America to visit the US Supreme Court and America’s federal political institutions, giving them the chance to compare and contrast their own roles with those opposite numbers in Washington – clerks to the likes of Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Clarence Thomas. 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.

222: What is the role of the Attorney General in times of crisis?

Shadow AG Lord Wolfson of Tredegar joins Marina Wheeler KC and Rosalind English of 1 Crown Office Row to discuss the legal questions to be addressed by the government in relation to the ECHR. We will follow up this episode with Lord Wolfson's view of the UK's obligations under international law regarding the current situation in the Middle East. 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.

221: Supreme Court upholds legal right to wild camp on Dartmoor

The Supreme Court has upheld the right to wild camp on Dartmoor in Darwall and another v Dartmoor National Park Authority [2025] UKSC 20. Lucy McCann talks to Darragh Coffey of 1 Crown Office Row about the decision. Read Darragh’s analysis of the High Court’s decision here on the UK Human Rights Blog. 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.