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The Law Show

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Conversation about the laws making headlines, and the laws that shape everyday life.

The Law Show is your guide to the law and the legal decisions that have a bearing on everyone in the UK.

Weekly conversation that will give you an in-depth understanding of the law stories making news and the legal decisions that could have a bearing on everyone in the UK. Whether it's unpicking a landmark legal ruling, explaining how laws are made or seeking clarity for you on a legal issue, The Law Show will be your guide.

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The Law Show: Protest and the Law

Protest and the Law

BBC Radio 4 - The Law Show, Protest and the Law

Reforming protest law; rap lyrics in court; a public law clinic at a Liverpool university.

Tightening up protest law; California restricts the use of rap lyrics in criminal prosecutions; students giving legal advice at Liverpool John Moores University's law clinic.

Climate change activists have caused a lot of disruption over the past year, and recently also made headlines with stunts like throwing tomato soup at a Van Gogh painting in the National Gallery. The government's response has been to tighten up protest law; first in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and now in the Public Order bill currently going through Parliament. What is and isn't illegal now? What could become illegal soon? And how are the police interpreting new laws that rely on their discretion, such as whether a protest is too noisy? 

Can rap lyrics amount to confessions to murder? Song lyrics are usually understood to be fiction - Tom Jones's 'Delilah' isn't an admission that the Welsh singer actually stabbed an unfaithful girlfriend, and Bob Marley never "shot the sheriff". But in California rap lyrics have been presented as evidence in criminal prosecutions in such a way that the state has now legislated to restrict the use of those lyrics in trials. And a murder conviction has been overturned, and a retrial ordered, for a rapper convicted on the grounds of his lyrics. 

Where would you go for free legal advice?  Probably not a university, but in Liverpool people can now get appointments with law students at Liverpool John Moores University, who will conduct an interview them and produce a letter of advice,  all under the supervision of solicitors, and free of charge. There's something in it for the students too: they gain practical experience which counts towards their course, and later on towards their qualifying examination. 

Presenter: Joshua Rozenberg 
Producer: Arlene Gregorius 
Researcher: Diane Richardson
Production coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Helena Warwick-Cross
Sound engineer: James Beard
Editor: Simon Watts

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