- Geoffrey Robertson
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name = Geoffrey Robertson
residence =England
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birth_name = Geoffrey Ronald Robertson
birth_date = birth date and age|1946|9|30|df=y
birth_place =Sydney ,New South Wales ,Australia
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occupation = Lawyer
title = QC; Justice
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spouse =Kathy Lette
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children = 2
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website = [http://www.geoffreyrobertson.com/index.html# Geoffrey Robertson Home Page]
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employer = Doughty Street Chambers
height =
weight =Geoffrey Ronald Robertson QC (born
30 September 1946 inSydney ,New South Wales ) is anAustralian human rightslawyer ,academic ,author and broadcaster. He holds dual Australian and Britishcitizenship .Geoffrey Robertson is joint head of [http://www.doughtystreet.co.uk Doughty Street Chambers] . He serves as a "Master of the Bench" at the
Middle Temple , a recorder and visiting professor atQueen Mary, University of London .Biography
Geoffrey Robertson was born in
Australia and grew up in theSydney suburb of Eastwood, attending Epping Boys' High School. He obtained his law degree from the Sydney University Law School before winning aRhodes Scholar ship to study at Oxford.Robertson married author
Kathy Lette in1990 and currently lives with her and their two children inLondon .Legal career
Robertson became a barrister in
1973 . He became a QC in1988 . His became well known acting for the defence in the celebrated English criminal trials of "Oz", "Gay News ", the 'ABC Trial ', "The Romans in Britain " (the prosecution brought byMary Whitehouse ), Randle & Pottle, the Brighton bombing and Matrix Churchill. He has also acted in well known libel cases, including defending the Guardian against Neil Hamilton MP. Robertson was threatened by terrorists for representingSalman Rushdie . [cite news |first=Alison |last=Flood |title=Call for compensation after shelving of Islam novel |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/aug/12/islam |work=The Guardian |publisher=Guardian Media Group |date=2008-08-12 |accessdate=2008-08-18 ] He has appeared in civil liberties cases before theEuropean Court of Human Rights and in other courts across the world. He sits as an appeal judge at the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone.Media career
Over a twenty year period, often with long intervals in between, Robertson has hosted an Australian television series of programmes called "Geoffrey Robertson's Hypotheticals". These shows invite notable people, often including former and current political leaders, to discuss contemporary issues by assuming imagined identities in hypothetical situations.
Writing career
Robertson has written several books. One of them, "
The Justice Game " is on the school curriculum inNew South Wales ,Australia .His latest book, "
The Tyrannicide Brief ", details the story of John Cooke, who prosecuted KingCharles I of England in the treason trial that led to his execution. After the Restoration, Cooke was convicted of high treason andhung, drawn and quartered .In his
2006 revision of "Crimes Against Humanity ", Robertson deals in detail withhuman rights ,crimes against humanity andwar crimes . The book starts with the history of human rights and has several case studies such as the case of GeneralPinochet of Chile, theBalkans wars, and the latest war inIraq . His views on the United States'atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan can be considered controversial. He considers theHiroshima bomb was certainly justified, and that the second bomb on Nagasaki was most probably justified but might have been better if it was dropped outside a city. His argument is that the bombs, while killing more than 100,000 civilians, were justified because they pushed EmperorHirohito ofJapan to surrender, thus saving the lives of hundreds of thousands ofAllied forces, as well as Japanese soldiers and civilians.Bibliography
*"The Tyrannicide Brief", Chatto & Windus,
2005
*"Crimes Against Humanity - The Struggle for Global Justice", Alan Lane,1999 ; revised2002 (Penguin paperback) and2006
*"The Justice Game", 1998 Chatto; Viking edition 1999
*"Media Law" (with Andrew Nicol QC), Fourth edition, November2001 , Sweet and Maxwell
*"Freedom the Individual and the Law", Penguin,1993 (7th ed)
*"Geoffrey Robertson's Hypotheticals - A New Collection", ABC, 1991
*"Does Dracula Have Aids?", Angus and Robertson, 1987
*"Geoffrey Robertson's Hypotheticals", Angus and Robertson, 1986
*"People Against the Press", Quartet, 1983
*"Obscenity", Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, 1979
*"Reluctant Judas", Temple-Smith, 1976References
External links
* [http://www.geoffreyrobertson.com Official website]
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