The Tyrannicide Brief Av Geoffrey Qc Robertson

<p>Charles I waged civil wars that cost one in ten Englishmen their lives. But in 1649 parliament was hard put to find a lawyer with the skill and daring to prosecute a King who was above the law: in the end the man they briefed was the radical barrister, John Cooke.<br><br>Cooke was a plebeian, son of a poor farmer, but he had the courage to bring the King''s trial to its dramatic conclusion: the English republic. Cromwell appointed him as a reforming Chief Justice in Ireland, but in 1660 he was dragged back to the Old Bailey, tried and brutally executed.<br><br>John Cooke was the bravest of barristers, who risked his own life to make tyranny a crime. He originated the right to silence, the ''cab rank'' rule of advocacy and the duty to act free-of-charge for the poor. He conducted the first trial of a Head of State for waging war on his own people - a forerunner of the prosecutions of Pinochet, Miloševic and Saddam Hussein, and a lasting inspiration to the modern world.</p>