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PODCAST

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics

Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC

Covering the critical intersections of law and politics in the UK with expert commentary on high-profile legal cases, political controversies, prisons and sentencing, human rights law, current political events and the shifting landscape of justice and democracy. With in-depth discussions and influential guests, Double Jeopardy is the podcast that uncovers the forces shaping Britain’s legal and political present and future. -What happens when law and politics collide? -How do politics shape the

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All Episodes

30:10

Farage, Tolerating Torture, and Mass Deportations:...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/08/28

Can the UK tighten its asylum policies without abandoning its commitments to human rights? Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC provide expert legal commentary on the Bell Hotel Judgment and its far-reaching impact on the government’s asylum policy. They examine the legal reasoning, the clash between local and central government, and the Court of Appeal challenge now underway. The conversation also covers the limited turnout at far-right protests, new polling showing immigration dominating public

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34:28

Holiday Postbag: Lucy Connolly, Lucy Letby, the...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/08/20

Is Chris Philp’s tweet about the different outcomes in the Lucy Connolly/Ricky Jones cases simply moronic and embarrassing or something more sinister? What do the ITV and Panorama documentaries tell us about the safety of Lucy Letby’s convictions? What could potentially derail some of Sir Brian Leveson’s proposals for radical reform of the right to trial by jury? What impact will the Supreme Court’s decision to quash the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo have on the future prosecution of

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38:47

Is Our Government Any Good? Palestine Action, Shabana...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/08/13

In this week’s episode of Double Jeopardy, hosts Ken Macdonald and Tim Owen are joined once again by an old friend of the podcast, the award-winning, former BBC, journalist and crime and justice commentator Danny Shaw. Together, they dive into the legal, political, and social repercussions faced by Palestine Action supporters following mass arrests in the wake of the decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist group under the Terrorism Act 2000. The trio also debate the claim by former

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37:08

LIBOR, Farage’s Cure for Lawless Britain, and...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/07/30

What happens when the criminal justice system gets it wrong and takes years to admit it? And what does it say about the state of UK law when protestors are labelled terrorists while populists call for military-built prisons?From the Supreme Court’s critical judgment in the high-profile legal case against the LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) traders calling out systemic failure in the appeals process to the explosive policy platform launched by Reform UK, this episode of Double Jeopardy

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46:22

Super Injunctions, Afghanistan, and UK Law

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/07/23

Is it ever justified for the Government to secure a superinjunction in the face of a perceived risk to the life and limb of countless individuals caused by human error? A catastrophic data leak in February 2022 exposed over 18,000 Afghan applicants for resettlement in the UK to violent retribution by the Taliban and a superinjunction granted in August 2023 prevented Parliament and the public from knowing what had happened. Public law specialist, solicitor Daniel Carey has spent years litigating on

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49:01

Sir Brian Leveson and Criminal Justice: A Requiem For...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/07/16

The UK criminal justice system is facing an existential threat with court backlogs surging, trial complexity increasing, and decades of chronic underfunding pushing the system to the edge of collapse. Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC are joined by Sir Brian Leveson to discuss the findings of his landmark independent review of the criminal courts. The discussion explores proposals to overhaul the structure of criminal trials, reduce pressure on the courts, and restore public trust touching on

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42:40

Lucy Letby: Will She Waive Privilege as UK...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/07/09

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is reviewing new allegations against Letby herself, alongside claims of corporate failings that could amount to corporate manslaughter. As police investigate, questions are mounting about accountability at the highest levels of the health system and beyond. As police escalate their investigation into the National Health Service (NHS) leadership, three former senior managers at the Countess of Chester Hospital have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence

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32:50

Bombing Iran: Self-Defence or a Lawless Attack?

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/07/02

Has the United States & Israel broken international law by bombing Iran?Or was it an act of Self-Defence? Professor Marko Milanovic, a leading expert in international law joins Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC to assess the legality of the recent Israeli and US military actions against Iranian nuclear facilities. From Article 51 of the UN Charter to the legacy of the Caroline Doctrine, the discussion dives deep into the legal justifications for self-defence, the meaning of "imminent

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42:01

When UK Law and Politics Collide: Abortion, Assisted...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/06/25

How should members of Parliament decide matters of life and death? In the midst of passionate public debate, Parliament has begun to rewrite the legal boundaries around abortion and assisted dying, but what does that mean for the future of UK law? And has the United States broken international law by bombing Iran?Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC explore the shifting lines of morality, medicine, legality and war in some of Britain’s most divisive debates. They examine the legal, ethical, and

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45:03

Politics and Money in UK Justice: Juries, Abortion...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/06/18

What happens when a justice system is asked to do more with less and at what cost to fairness, freedom, and the rule of law?Crime and justice commentator Danny Shaw appears on the show to examine the political and legal fallout from the UK government’s spending review. With stretched police forces, an underfunded probation service, and mounting pressure on the courts and the prisons, how can Labour’s Manifesto commitment to “Take Back Our Streets” be fulfilled ? Ken and Tim then turn to the

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40:14

UK Politics and Bad Science: Investigating the...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/06/11

Is Britain still a world leader in forensic science or are we sleepwalking into a criminal justice crisis?Once considered the gold standard, the UK’s forensic science system is not working well for anyone – not for the police, not for the suppliers of services, not for the courts and, by extension, not for the public. Yet we all believe it to be a critical tool that we can rely upon to bring the guilty to justice and exonerate the innocent. Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC are joined by

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41:38

David Gauke: Solving the UK Prison Crisis

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/06/04

Why does Britain lock up so many people and is there a better way?The UK has the highest incarceration rate in Western Europe, yet reoffending remains rampant and prisons are at breaking point. What’s gone wrong in our approach to crime and punishment - and is the public ready for a smarter, more effective system? Former Justice Secretary David Gauke, chair of the Independent Sentencing Review, joins Double Jeopardy to examine the findings and implications of the Review, a landmark report

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41:20

State Threats and Subversion: Keeping UK Politics Clean

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/05/28

What if your political beliefs on Brexit, climate change or even gender identity were being subtly shaped by a foreign power?From hostile state actors exploiting social media to the legal grey zone between terrorism and subversion, Jonathan Hall KC, the UK’s Independent Reviewer of Terrorism and State Threat Legislation joins Double Jeopardy to unpack the expanding world of national security, free speech and democratic accountability. Exploring whether new powers are needed or if Britain is

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46:03

100th Episode of Double Jeopardy - Terminating the...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/05/21

In three of the four nations of the UK, abortion remains a crime under legislation passed in 1861, subject to the exemptions from criminal liability in the Abortion Act 1967. Paradoxically, abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland in 2019, so that it is now seen as a matter of healthcare rather than the criminal law. Recent prosecutions in England under section 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 have reignited debate over whether abortion belongs in the criminal courts at

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45:56

Debating the Rule of Law in the UK: Hermer versus...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/05/14

The clash between David Wolfson KC’s “thin” interpretation of legal principle and Attorney General Richard Hermer’s “thick” is explained through the experienced legal eyes of Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC on this episode of Double Jeopardy.They dig into the political implications of these contrasting views, the role of parliamentary sovereignty, how the UK navigates its obligations under international law, including the Chagos Island dispute and the role of the International Criminal Court,

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43:55

Reforming Criminal Appeals and Righting the Wrongs of...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/05/07

Given the gross miscarriages of justice exposed by the Post Office/Horizon scandal, the extraordinary delay in reversing the wrongful conviction of Andrew Malkinson due to repeated failures by the Criminal Cases Review Commission and the continuing calls for the case of Lucy Letby to be referred back to the Court of Appeal, is the criminal appeal system in need of fundamental reform? Connecting the dots between recent events, and the health of criminal justice in Britain is Professor Penney Lewis

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00:37:18

Authoritarians Against Lawyers: Political Attacks on...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/04/30

As support for populist movements grows, judicial independence and the rule of law are increasingly under attack. Lawyers around the world are becoming front-line defenders of democracy - and paying the price. Double Jeopardy hosts Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC explain the situation with expert legal commentary and legal system insights. Renowned international lawyer Robert Amsterdam joins the conversation to explore the vital - and increasingly precarious -role of legal professionals in

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00:37:02

Womanhood Defined: The UK Supreme Court Puts Biology...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/04/23

What does the law say about who counts as a woman - and who gets to decide? Unpacking the UK Supreme Court’s recent ruling on the definition of “woman” under the Equality Act 2010 and Gender Recognition Act is guest Karon Monaghan KC, one of the UK’s leading employment and discrimination law barristers. See here for a link to the judgment. The discussion of this high-profile legal case tackles the legal system’s treatment of trans rights, women’s rights, and single-sex spaces, revealing the

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00:35:04

Fake News on Asylum, The Battle to Define Human...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/04/16

What happens when political leaders and media outlets misrepresent court decisions, and how does this impact judicial independence and public trust in the UK legal system?A range of high-stakes UK law and UK politics issues that have dominated headlines recently are tackled in this listener-driven postbag edition of Double Jeopardy. Hosts Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC begin with a scathing analysis of media misreporting on high-profile legal cases, including sensational headlines about

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00:36:39

Disclosure, Artificial Intelligence, and Modernising...

Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics ·

2025/04/09

What happens when the very foundation of criminal justice - the prosecution disclosure process to the defence - fails to meet modern demands? This episode focuses on the Fisher Report, a groundbreaking review that addresses the critical issues surrounding prosecution disclosure in complex criminal trials, a key issue in the ongoing criminal justice crisis in the UK. Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC are joined by Ian Winter KC , a leading criminal silk, and the conversation explores how too

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