Birkbeck School of Law in the media

Our staff regularly contribute to programmes on the BBC and other media outlets. A selection of these can be found below:

Maria Aristodemou (updated 27.4.11)

• Maria Aristodemou is quote in The Guardian, Monday 25 April, 'Prisoners sign up for law degrees'. The article deals with the popularity of legal degrees with prisoners and ex-convicts and the issue of qualifying as solicitors.

Bill Bowring (updated 10.5.11.) 

• Bill Bowring is one of the signatories to a letter in The Guardian on Tuesday 10 May 2011, ‘Call to Reinstate Terror Academic’.
• Bill Bowring is interviewed by Kristina Moskalenko, who asks him about the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC) which he founded, and the cases he and EHRAC take against Russia. Entitled: X against Russia: What cases is the European Court of Human Rights hearing, it is in Russian on the ChasKor (Special Correspondent) website (Tuesday 25 January). [Translation]
• Bill Bowring is cited in an article ‘Report: U.S. To Start New Militiary Trials Against Guantanamo Inmates’ on Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty at http://www.rferl.org/content/guantanamo_waterboarding_us_military/2282001.html
• Bill Bowring appeared for the applicant in the case of Kotov v Russia (podcast at 00:15:15) before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
• Bill Bowring was interviewed about the Khodorkovsky triak in Russia on Europe Today  (at 1.44) and Newshour (at 1.53), on the BBC World Service on 30 December 2010. Etoday (mp3 player)
• The Russian translation which appeared in Open Democracy of an interview with Bill Bowring about his book - on the Russian site Polit.ru.
• Towards the Rehabilitation of Law: Interview with Bill Bowring. 4 November 2010. Open Democracy - Russia.
• Bill Bowring commented on Al-Jazeera on Bush and torture
• Deutche Welle Radio (Berlin) interview (in Russian) on 4 August with Bill Bowring on a new law signed last week to boost Russia's security service, restoring a Soviet-era practice of issuing warnings to people it believes are about to commit a crime.
• The Guardian Comment is Free. Wednesday 4 August 2010.  'Russian protesters go online to outwit authorities'.
• The Guardian Comment is Free. Friday 9 July 2010. Who's guarding property guardians? Squatting is an obvious solution to the UK's lack of housing, but new 'property guardian' firms neglect tenants' traditional rights. With Lucy Finchett-Maddock.
• BBC News Channel (News 24) on Friday 29 January 2010
• The World Tonight, Radio 4, 10 o'clock news: Friday 29 January 2010
• Sky News recently in relation to the Chilcot Inquiry
• The MailOnline on 30th January in relation to The Chilcot War Inquiry: 'Chilcot War Inquiry: Professor to launch 'Nuremberg' war crimes prosecution against Blair'
• Letter published in the Evening Standard, Friday 29 January 2010
• Friday 28 November 2009: Channel 4 News about the Chilcot Inquiry - Iraq War
• Quoted on in The Guardian about the death of the Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky.
• Article about legal nihilism in Russia for Open Democracy (7 July 2009).
• Professor Bill Bowring was interviewed on Friday 28 November 2009 on Channel 4 News about the Chilcot Inquiry - Iraq War.
• He was also quoted on in The Guardian about the death of the Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky.
• Commenting on the Politkovskaya case, The World Tonight, BBC Radio 4, Thursday 19 February 2009.
• Interview on Analysis, BBC World Service, 16 February 2009: How do the Kremlin leaders manage to retain high popularity despite the economic crisis?

Marinos Diamantides

• Comment is Free in The Guardian 3 December 2011. ‘Greeks find it hard to trust anyone promising salvation’ 

Costas Douzinas (updated 23.5.12.)

• Comment is Free in The Guardian, Tuesday 1 May 2012, The Greek Election could be the Start of a European Spring. A François Hollande win in France would challenge the EU's austerity agenda – but if the Greek left does well it could set Europe on an entirely new path.
• Costas Douzinas wrote in Comment is Free in The Guardian, Monday 5 March, 'What now for Greece – collapse or resurrection?' Neoliberal economics planned in Brussels and Berlin will push Greece into third-world working conditions.
• The Guardian, Comment is Free. on Friday 27 January: 'The Greece of Theo Angelopoulos'. Forget deficits, debt and corruption. Theo Angelopoulos, the film-maker who died this week, captured the true Greek soul.
• 'The IMF must realise that, in Greece, the treatment is worse than the disease', The Guardian Comment is Free, Thursday 15 December 2011.
• 'European elites should be wary of the Greek spring', The Guardian Comment is Free, 6 November 2011.
• The IKT (International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art) Congress 2010 13-16 May 2010, Athens, Greece. Lecture by Costas Douzinas: “Courage!!!”: Part 1 and Part II
• Costas Douzinas is quoted in Aditya Chakraborrty’s ‘Greek protests are not just about economic crisis’ in The Guardian Wednesday, 22 June 2011
• The Guardian, Comment is Free, 15 June 2011: In Greece, we see democracy in action.
• The Guardian, Comment is Free, 28 February 2011: 'These hunger strikers are the martyrs of Greece'. Costas writing on the asylum seekers in Greece who are willing to die in the face of expulsion after shame and exploitation bear witness to a higher truth than life.
• The Guardian, Comment is Free, 1 January 2011: 'In London and Athens, protesters are rekindling the true European spirit'.
• The Guardian, Comment is Free, 8 November 2010: ‘Greece has told Papandreou he has no mandate’
• The Guardian, 30 June 2010: Human rights or a British bill of rights?Arguments for and against abolition of the Human Rights Act disguise much deeper rifts
• The Guardian, Comment is Free, Thursday 27 April 2010, 'Greece can fight back against neoliberals'.
• The Guardian, Comment is Free, Thursday 4 February 2010, 'Greeks must fight the neoliberal EU'.
• The Guardian, Comment is Free 'Goodbye to the noughties' series, Friday 1 January 2010, In the next decade I hope to become more radical
• Discussion on the Riz Khan show on AlJazeeraEnglish on Thursday 10 December 2009: Costas discussed his work in the context of the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The Riz Khan show asked, 'Are human rights truly universal or have they become a tool used by the West to pressure the developing world?'
• The Guardian, Comment is Free, Monday 14 December 2009, 'Reforging the just war in Afghanistan'
• Three-hour presentation and question and answer session with the Constiututional Court of Colombia on Thursday 5 November 2009 at the Palacio de Justicia, Bogota, on 'constitutional adjudication and human rights in an age of crisis'. The session was linked through video to 32 superior courts all over Colombia.
• 'Polis, State, Cosmopolis'. This essay appears in Bedeutung Magazine, Issue 3: Life & Death.'
• The Guardian, Comment is Free, 4 October 2009 - Jerry Springer Politics in Greece
• The Guardian, Comment is Free, 24 July - The left must set out its stall
• The Guardian, Comment is Free, 21 May - Does the left still care about liberty?
• The Guardian Comment is Free, Wednesday 21 April, Are Wars Ever Just?
• The Guardian Comment is Free, Wednesday 1 April 2009: Who Counts as Human?
• The Guardian Comment is Free, Wednesday 18 March 2009: What are Human Rights?
• The Guardian Comment is Free, Wednesday 11 March 2009: Are rights universal?
• Article about conference co-organised by Costas Douzinas as Director of Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, On the Idea of Communism, The Guardian, Friday 12 March 2009
• The Guardian 9 January 2009 On the riots in Greece
• The Guardian 10 December 2008 On the 'end' of human rights
• Costas Douzinas took part in a discussion on the Riz Khan show on AlJazeeraEnglish on Thursday 10 December 2009 and discussed his work in the context of the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The Riz Khan show asked, 'Are human rights truly universal or have they become a tool used by the West to pressure the developing world?'

Michelle Everson

• The Guardian 3 February 2009 Letter about the labour strikes
• BBC Radio 4 The World Tonight Tuesday 3 February Interview
• Channel 4 News Tuesday 3 February Interview

Oscar Guardiola-Rivera (updated 29.2.12.)

• Oscar participated in the Hay Literary Festival in Cartagena, January 2012.
• Oscar is collaborating twice a month with The Globalist, a programme at Monocle 24 radio
• Oscar participated in the 80th anniversary of the BBC World Service on Newshour, on Wednesday 29 February, to discuss the future of global media.
• Oscar participated in The Verb on BBC Radio 3 programme on 1 December 2010, in connection with Granta's current issue on the best of recent narrative in Spanish
• Oscar has an article entitled Tropics of Redemption printed in Granta Online dated 30 November 2010. The article discusses the discusses the hispanicisation of the United States of America.
• Oscar will be participating in the Riz Khan Show on Al-Jazeera on Thursday 29 July to discuss: 'Are Latin American nations ready to exert their influence on the world stage and how could this affect the United States?'
• Oscar discusses his book What if Latin America Ruled the World? in an online interview on 7 July 2010 with JungleDrums, a bi-lingual Brazilian and Latin American magazine that discusses culture, and was also interviewed by Agencia EFE (in Spanish).
• Oscar participated in the BBC World Service' arts programme, The Forum, on Sunday morning, 25 July 2010.
• What if Latin American Ruled the World? was reviewed in The Guardian by Richard Gott on Saturday 3 July 2010, and was also reviewed and star-rated in the US magazine for librarians and book-sellers, Publishers Weekly.
• Monday 28 June, 9:00 am - Oscar Guardiola-Rivera took part in BBC Radio 4's Start the Week (at 13.40 minutes) in conversation with filmmaker John Akomfrah and the former literature editor of The Observer Robert McCrum.
• Oscar was interviewed on the BBC World Service on 1 June 2010: 'The Colombian government is trying to present itself as the Israel of Latin America'.
• Monday 28 June, 9am - Oscar Guardiola-Rivera took part in BBC Radio 4's Start the Week (at 13.40 minutes) in conversation with filmmaker John Akomfrah and the former literature editor of The Observer Robert McCrum.
• What if Latin America Ruled the World? Oscar appeared at the Guardian Hay Festival on Monday 31 May 2010 at 9.00am (Event136) Venue: Elmley Foundation Dream Stage. How the South will take the North into the 22nd Century.
• Article in US online political magazine Counterpunch, 16 February 2009
• Commentator for Radio Catalunya (Spain) on British political affairs.
• September 2008 column published in the online version of 'Revista Semana' (Colombia) on the constitutional reform process of 1990-1.
• Commentary on the DVD version of Ken McMullen's film 'Ghost Dance' (2008)
• Appearing in two feature films currently under production in London: Mark Charles's 'The Secret Philosophy' and Ken McMullen's 'Guns & Poetry'.

Mike Hough (updated 18.1.12)

• Mike participated in Radio 4's Start the Week on Monday 23 January, discussing justice and fairness in hard times, along with Shami Chakrabarti (Liberty), John Podmore (ex-prison governor) and playwright Simon Stephens.
• (with Jonathan Jackson and Ben Bradford) The Guardian Comment is Free, Monday 12 December 2011, 'Why the police must secure public trust'
• Mike Hough is quoted in The Guardian, ‘Race variation in jail sentences, study suggests’ on Saturday 26 November 2011
• Mike Hough is cited on PR-USA.net writing about how social science research hold the key to reducing crime.

Zacharoula Kouki

• The Guardian Comment is Free, Wednesday 11 May, 'Greece's Doomed Generation'.

Institute of Criminal Policy Research (updated 18.7.11)

• ICPR Report by McSweeney, T. and Bhardwa, B. (2011) The impact and delivery of alcohol treatment requirements in the Leicestershire and Rutland Probation Trust area published on the Alcohol Reports website . The report finds that alcohol treatment requirements (ATRs) reduce consumption and ‘related’ crime, but do not address all alcohol-related needs.

Daniel Monk (updated 26.3.13.)

• Comment: Those in civil partnerships need to be aware of what happens to wills in Pink News, 4th March 2013.
• Blog post: ‘Reflections on Gay Marriage’ http://blogs.bbk.ac.uk/bbkcomments/2013/02/08/reflections-on-gay-marriage/
• ‘Rethinking wills’, BBK Issue 31 (2013) p 43 http://www.bbk.ac.uk/about-us/bbk/bbk-magazine-issue-31/Rethinking_wills.pdf
• BBC 2 H£IR HUNT£RS (Series 6 to be broadcast 2012) Legal consultant and interviewee about the law relating to intestacy. See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007nms5
• Interviewed and quoted extensively in following article in TES Felix Allen, ‘Out of school, out of sight’ TES, 4 Nov 2011, pp 29-32
• ‘Regulating Home Education: Negotiating Standards, Anomalies and Rights’ (2009) Child and Family Law Quarterly 21 (2): 155-184. This article was cited extensively in the House of Commons, Select Committee on Children, Schools and Families Final Report: The Review of Elective Home Education, 9 December 2009.
• The criminalisation of the sexual transmission of HIV in Radical Philosophy (July 2009).
• Appeared on Bringing Up Britain, BBC Radio 4, Wednesday 29 April 2009. Daniel joined Mariella Frostrup for a discussion entitled Does seeking to modify children's behaviour and attitude risk homogenising them?
• Contributor to debate on 'The rights and wrongs of sex education', The Moral Maze, BBC Radio 4, Wednesday 25 February 2009
• BBC Radio Live, HIV and Criminalisation discussion, February 2005 (interviewee, subsequently quoted in ‘Sex Education and The Media’ in (2006) Feminist Media Studies 6 (4): 539-556)

Stewart Motha

• Stewart Motha: 'Australia is playing a dangerous game with Sri Lanka', Comment is Free, The Guardian, 21 February 2013.

Fiona Macmillan

• Fiona wrote in The Guardian Comment is Free on Thursday 2 September 2010 'How big corporations are blocking reform of intellectual property law'.

Patrick McAuslan

• Patrick wrote in The Guardian (13 July 2009) and The Daily Telegraph (18 July 2009) about Afghanistan

• Interview, Today programme, BBC Radio 4, 20 July 2009.

• Interview with Bill Bowring on the BBC World Service on the murder of Natasha Estemirova in Chechnya (16 July 2009) - second item on the programme.

Les Moran

• Contributed to BBC London's News Programme, 3 June 2011, on East London 'gay-free zone' stickers.
• Stonewall press release following 9th Stonewall Lecture given by Leslie Moran at the Law Society on 24 June 2010: ‘Sexual diversity and gender identity in the judiciary: judicial experiences, institutionalised prejudice and recommendations for change’.
• Quoted in an article in The Guardian, 4 July 2010: Judicial culture still deters gay and lesbian lawyers, say researchers: Perceived hostility 'preventing applications to become judges'
• BBC Radio 4 Today website 27 January 2009 - Quoted in an article about courtroom drama

Anton Schutz (19.1.12)

• Anton Schutz was talking with Giorgio Agamben on 21 January 2012 at Tate Modern on ‘Contemporary Art as the Space of Liturgy’ as part of the Topology: Spaces of Transformation keynote conversation series

Patricia Tuitt

• Patricia Tuitt has written an article in The Guardian (28 June 2010) on funding cuts in Law Centres, 'Law clinics at risk from university funding cuts'.

Matthew Weait (updated 11.4.12)

• Matthew is interviewed in English on Radio Sweden: Swedish laws impede HIV prevention methods as part of a research project he is doing about HIV legislation in the Scandinavian countries.
• The Guardian, Comment is Free: 2 July 2010: Law should not reinforce HIV stigma: Discriminatory laws are impeding HIV prevention efforts across the world and have no claim to our support

Podcasts of Law School events available at http://www.bbk.ac.uk/law/our-research/audio-and-video-files