Investigatory Powers Act Review

My independent Investigatory Powers Act review was announced on 17 January. I am conducting the review together with a small strap-cleared team comprising Natasha Barnes, barrister at 1 Crown Office Row John Davies, a member of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner's Technology Advisory Panel. The scope of my review is determined by: The Home [...]

By |2023-02-17T18:13:32+00:00February 9th, 2023|Blog, Featured, Law, Security|Comments Off on Investigatory Powers Act Review

National Security and the Law

"National Security and the Law" was the subject of this year's Birkenhead Lecture. It contains a description and assessment of the current state of our law on counter-terrorism, hostile state activity and surveillance - and on the vital court and oversight mechanisms that apply to it. The lecture was delivered at Gray's Inn on [...]

By |2022-11-19T12:52:41+00:00November 19th, 2022|Blog, Featured, Law, Security|Comments Off on National Security and the Law

Terrorist Offenders (Restriction of Early Release) Bill

This Bill, prompted by recent atrocities in Fishmongers' Hall and Streatham, has been introduced with the objective - which I support - of ensuring that terrorist offenders with determinate sentences are not automatically released before the end of their custodial term.  The Parole Board must first have a chance to examine whether they pose a [...]

By |2020-03-30T15:59:30+00:00February 21st, 2020|Blog, Law, Security|Comments Off on Terrorist Offenders (Restriction of Early Release) Bill

Taming the Wild West

I gave a lecture last night at Clifford Chance in London on "Taming the Wild West: Government and the Internet". It touches on a number of currently contested areas of law and policy ranging from state surveillance and "surveillance capitalism"  to online harms, antitrust and the corporation as courthouse. If the lecture were a website, [...]

By |2020-03-30T15:59:44+00:00November 15th, 2019|Blog, Featured, Law, Security|Comments Off on Taming the Wild West

Extremism and the Law

Extremism and the Law was the subject of my Middle Temple Treasurer's Lecture on Monday evening.  It was attended by a wonderfully diverse crowd, ranging from Supreme Court Justices to East London sixth-formers who had got to hear about it through The Big Voice, a legal outreach charity. The lecture is framed by the experience [...]

By |2020-03-30T16:00:05+00:00March 20th, 2019|Blog, Featured, Law, Security|Comments Off on Extremism and the Law

Reporting Terrorism

This is the text of a lecture I delivered to journalism students and others at the University of Essex on 11 February 2019.  Among the issues covered are the appearance vs the reality of terrorism in the West, and some of the dilemmas facing journalists as both investigators and reporters of terrorism.  It finishes with a short discussion of [...]

By |2019-03-13T12:14:08+00:00March 1st, 2019|Blog, Featured, Law, Media, Security|Comments Off on Reporting Terrorism

The Fly in the China Shop

I was invited to The Hague last month to deliver the Hague Lecture on International Law, to an invited audience of diplomats, international judges and others at the British Embassy. No expert on public international law, I concentrated instead on the threat of terrorism - real and perceived - and the role played by the courts of [...]

By |2019-11-15T10:39:18+00:00October 26th, 2018|Blog, Featured, Law, Security|Comments Off on The Fly in the China Shop

Human rights and the future of surveillance

I spoke on this subject to the Human Rights Law Association on 25 October, at a meeting held to consider the effect of the 13 September 2018 Big Brother Watch judgment of the first section of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.  My slides, which focussed on the utility and lawfulness of bulk investigatory powers (sometimes referred [...]

By |2019-03-13T12:14:20+00:00October 26th, 2018|Blog, Law, Security|Comments Off on Human rights and the future of surveillance

Who Governs the Internet?

Counsel, the magazine of the Bar of England and Wales, has published my article on the subject of internet content regulation. When I submitted the original version, just before the Cambridge Analytica revelations in March, the piece seemed quite daring.  By the time of publication, it was beginning to look more orthodox.  But the issues are [...]

By |2020-02-24T10:26:09+00:00April 24th, 2018|Blog, Law, Security|Comments Off on Who Governs the Internet?

Watching the watchers – implementation stocktake

The Home Secretary wrote to me today - just in time for my evidence session this afternoon before the Home Affairs Select Committee - setting out the terms for a new assignment.  That will be a "stocktake" of the implementation by MI5 and Counter-Terrorism Policing of the 126 recommendations that came out of the post-attack reviews and Operational Improvement Review completed [...]

By |2020-02-24T10:26:16+00:00January 30th, 2018|Blog, Security|Comments Off on Watching the watchers – implementation stocktake
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