Jonathan Sumption's 2019 Reith Lectures

Jonathan Sumption, formerly a UK Supreme Court Justice, before that a barrister and before that an academic historian, gave the 2019 BBC Reith Lectures. The titles of his five lectures were

• Law’s Expanding Empire 
• In Praise of Politics
• Human Rights and Wrongs
• Rights and the Ideal Constitution
• Shifting the Foundations

Each is about 40 minutes long. Transcripts are available.

The Most Important Cases of 2018 in the UK

Law Pod UK, produced by the barristers of One Crown Office Row, presents a review of the most important legal cases in the UK.  17 minutes, no transcript, but the recording is very clear.
In an accompanying article, Jonathan Metzer, the One Crown Office Row barrister you hear in the podcast, presents this review in written form in the UK Human Rights Blog

Alternative Dispute Resolution and Human Rights

The European Journal of International Law posts an interview by editor Joseph Weiler with the author of one of the articles published in each issue. The latest interview is with Professor Lorna McGregor, author of the article "Alternative Dispute Resolution and Human Rights: Developing a Rights-Based Approach through the ECHR". 35 min., no transcript but you can find the full text of her article here.

Supreme Courts

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has posted a conversation on youtube with three present or former members of three different Supreme Courts: of Israel (Justice Dorit Beinish), Canada (Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella) and the United States (Justice Elena Kagan). 1 hour 26 minutes, no transcript.

Unreliable Evidence Is Back

BBC’s programme Unreliable Evidence presented by Clive Anderson has begun a new series. The first episode looks at how English law balances the interests of parents and children. Anderson’s guests include a former president of the High Court Family Division, several senior lawyers and a law professor. 43 min, no transcript.
Further episodes include

• The Law and the Gender Pay Gap
• Human Rights on the Battlefield
• The Law of the Road

Unreliable Evidence is Back

Unreliable Evidence with Clive Anderson on BBC’s Radio 4 has begun a new series. Available so far: 

The Law and Artificial Intelligence 

Good Samaritan Law 

Human Rights at the Crossroads? 

and coming up  — The Law and Rape

43 min, no transcript available.

The Effectiveness of International Law

The University of Chicago Law School has posted video and audio recordings of a November 2014 talk in their "Chicago's Best Ideas" lecture series. Adam Chilton speaks about "Why We Know Very Little About the Effectiveness of International Law, and How Experiments Might Help to Change That". Chilton gives an interesting presentation of how to construct research experiments in social sciences. 38 min. of Chilton then 20 min. of questions, no transcript, but a short article about the talk is available. Very interesting.

Harvard Law School Thinks Big 2014

Once a year for several years now Harvard Law School has held a gathering, modeled on the TED talks, asking several scholars to give short (8 min.) presentations about big ideas.  In May, 2014 these presentations included

• "The Future of Scholarly Publishing and How to Stop It" by Jonathan Zittrain
• "Finding the Child in Child Welfare" by Elizabeth Bartholet
• "Linking Law and Movements" by Tyler Giannini 
• "Back to the Future of Islamic Law: Digital Islamic Law" by Intisar Rabb 
• "From Court to Table" by Jacob Gersen

You find a video of the whole event (1h 30 min) with the questions and comments after the talks here.

Summaries of Recent UK Supreme Court Judgments Available on YouTube

The UK Supreme Court records the short presentations made by its justices explaining the court's decisions. These are usually 5 to 7 minutes long, with no transcript, but very clear, with more information available if you click on "show more". Recent cases have involved

• human rights - whether the living arrangements made for a mentally incapacitated person amount to a deprivation of liberty
• private international law/Rome II Treaty - how English courts should deal with the assessment of damages in claims arising out of fatal accidents abroad
• workers'  rights - whether a solicitor who is a partner in an LLP (limited liability partnership) can be considered to be a "worker" and so protected as a whistle-blower
• property - whether the use of a recreational ground was "by right" or "as of right"
• evidence - the proper use of linguistic experts in asylum claims
• international family law - grandparents' rights of custody and the The Hague Convention on International Child Abduction.

Environmental Justice

In a London School of Economics event recorded March 13, a panel of international legal and industry experts discuss environmental justice and human rights, specifically concerning extractive industries, and explain why it should be of concern to us all. Audio and video documents are available. 2 hours, no transcript. Audio and video documents are available. 2 hours, no transcript.

[Only] Two Cheers for Human Rights

The BBC Radio 4 programme A Point of View of Dec. 27 presents John Gray's views on human rights: "Rather than thinking of rights as a militant creed that can deliver the world from its conflicts, we should recognise rights for what they are - useful devices that quite often don't work." 9 min. 20 sec. no transcript

John Tasioulas on Human Rights: a Philosophy Bites podcast

We have a right not to be tortured, a human right. But what does that mean? John Tasioulas explores the nature of human rights in conversation with Nigel Warburton in this new episode of Philosophy Bites. 21 min, no transcript

American-style Free Speech

On NPR's All Things Considered of Sept. 19th, Harvard Law Professor Noah Feldman talked about how unusual the American concept of free speech is compared with that of most other countries and how American law lacks a concept of a right to dignity.
4 min 52 sec, transcript available

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder discusses the controversial drone program

NPR'S Morning Edition of March 6 discusses the U.S. drone program which has been used to kill targeted individuals abroad including at least three American citizens. The Attorney General, in a speech at Northwestern University Law School, is heard to say "The Constitution guarantees due process; it does not guarantee judicial process." 4 min 24 sec, transcript available.

Kenya and the International Criminal Court

The Australian radio's  Law Report of 31 January is devoted to an examination of the decision of the ICC to put four prominent Kenyans on trial for crimes against humanity. These men are alleged to have been behind the communal violence following the last national election. You can hear a member of Human Rights Watch, witnesses and survivors, a Kenyan journalist and a defence lawyer. 28 min, streaming and downloadable audio, transcript available

Julian Assange's extradition appeal

The Guardian has a series of articles about Julian Assange, the founder of the internet site WikiLeaks. This week the question of his extradition to Sweden to face charges of rape was before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The justices will decide whether the Swedish prosecutor who issued the warrant is a "valid judicial authority" required by the European arrest warrant. The Guardian includes links to two short videos of the arguments which were broadcast live. The video from day one is here (4min 36 sec) and day two is here (3min 44 sec). No transcripts. In the videos you can see that the two QCs are women and that there are no wigs or gowns in sight. The court's decision is not expected before several weeks.
The Guardian is also launching an interactive history of the supreme court.

Justice

Andrew Marr explores the idea of Justice on Start the Week. Marr's guests include John Podmore who served for 25 years as a prison governor and inspector, and presents a damning indictment on Britain's prison service. Playwright Simon Stephens asks how far such a court can deal with perpetrators of terrible crimes in his play The Trial of Ubu. Professor Mike Hough tries to explain why people obey the law. Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, talks about the modification of the principle of double jeopardy and in general what liberty really means in the U.K. today.
43 minutes, streaming with BBC iPlayer or podcast downloadable for a few more days, no transcript

The U.K. and the European Court of Human Rights

BBC Radio 4's programme Today has two stories today about the European Court of Human Rights and the United Kingdom. The first explains that David Cameron wants 'greater leeway' from the ECHR. Included is a presentation of some of the more memorable decisions of the Court followed by discussion proposals for reform to deal with its massive backlog of cases. 8min55sec The second asks "Should the ECHR do less?" and gets the views of Conservative MP Martin Vickers and human rights lawyer and Labour peer Baroness Helena Kennedy QC. 5min28sec no transcripts

The rule of law in China

Australian Broadcasting Company's The Law Report of 25 October, with Damien Carrick, has a report on the rule of law in China.
30 min., streaming or downloadable .mp3, transcript available

Stéphane Hessel

Stéphane Hessel, author of Time for Outrage (in French Indignez-Vous) was interviewed on Democracy Now, Oct. 10.
18 min 54 sec - downloadable .mp3 and .mp4 (video), transcript available