Death threats are an occupational hazard: Geoffrey Robertson

As if speaking to one of the world’s leading legal minds isn’t intimidating enough, before our interview I learn that Geoffrey Robertson KC also goes by the title of Master of the Middle Temple.

“Don’t worry, it’s not a medieval position,” he assures me. The title refers to the Doughty Street Chambers in central London, where Robertson is founder and co-head. The building was once the headquarters of the Knights Templar in the 13th century. “It doesn’t provide me with any Harry Potter-like skill,” Robertson adds. “Although I think our hall was used for the Harry Potter films.”

Robertson grew up in Sydney, and moved to England when he won a Rhodes scholarship to study law. He had planned to return, until he was given work on the legal defence of Australian expat Richard Neville, the publisher of underground satirical magazine Oz, which was charged with “conspiracy to corrupt public morals” after running a cartoon of Rupert the Bear in a sexually explicit position. While that defence failed, Robertson decided to stay in England and was called to the bar in 1973.

One of Robertson’s early cases was the obscenity trial of the three editors of the controversial Oz magazine.Credit: United Press International

By the late ’70s he was specialising in human rights, and he’s argued landmark cases across media, constitutional and criminal law in the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, the Supreme Court, the UN War Crimes court and others. He was involved in the prosecution of dictators Augusto Pinochet and Hastings Banda, and the defence of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on corruption charges, and Julian Assange (who briefly holed up in his attic).

Other high-profile clients have included author Salman Rushdie, boxer Mike Tyson and even the Sex Pistols. Oh, and he exposed the Medellin Cartel’s gun-running in the Caribbean and helped restore democracy in Fiji – and this isn’t even an exhaustive list.

Not surprisingly, he’s an old hand when it comes to receiving death threats. But despite their frequency, he says he has rarely feared for his life.

“Especially not if they’re done by email. There was one that I was concerned about … my chambers reported it to the police and a day or so later I got the most grovelling apology from this fellow in America because he’d had a visit from the FBI! He said he was in a bad place and had lost control of his mind at the time. In my game, death threats are an occupational hazard.”

Geoffrey Robertson on the set of Hypotheticals in 2000.

In 2018, Robertson was awarded an Order of Australia for “distinguished service to the law and the legal profession as an international human rights lawyer and advocate for global civil liberties”. And in the 1980s, he hosted the popular ABC program Hypotheticals (there have also been several specials in the intervening years), in which he moderated discussions of topical social issues and moral dilemmas with a panel of prominent guests.

Robertson with former wife, Kathy Lette, at their home in London in 2012.Credit: Julian Andrews

Robertson, who met and married author Kathy Lette in 1990 (the pair, who divorced in 2017, have two children), is still a frequent visitor to Australia, and next month, he’s back for a series of live shows, in which he will “grapple with the state of Australia and the world”.

He’ll offer insights into his famous cases, and his learned views on many topics, and pose the question of the show’s title, How Do We Fix A Turbulent World?

It’s just Robertson on stage and each show will likely be different. “I give the audience the benefits of my views and observations, learning about particular matters, which are generally topical,” he says. “It will depend on the news of the day, but there are certain topics I will address.”

One thing he’ll discuss in each city on his national tour is the debate around the date of Australia Day. “Whenever I come back to Australia over the last few years, people are arguing about that,” he says.

“And I do have some thoughts on where to move Australia Day, and how to solve that perennial dilemma. And then, of course, there has been an excess of defamation cases; you can’t open the paper without reading about those. And I can tell you, because I’ve done a lot of work in that area in Britain, that Australia is really behind the times with defamation.”

TAKE 7: THE ANSWERS ACCORDING TO GEOFFREY ROBERTSON

1. Worst habit? My addiction to orange juice. It used to be regarded as the healthiest drink ...
2. Greatest fear? Losing the love of my life. No, I won’t say who that is.
3. The line that stayed with you?   “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” From the Bible, via Immanuel Kant.
4. Biggest regret? Uh, I don’t have many ... the inevitability of death!
5. Favourite room? The room closest to the fridge. And the orange juice.
6. The artwork or song that you wish was yours? I reckon Happy Birthday, because the copyright fees would be trillions! Everyone sings it and plays it on the radio … it’d be a valuable song.
7. If you could solve one thing… It would be the Australia Day question.

He may also discuss juries and the issue of whether it is appropriate to blame a juror for doing research; Robertson believes jurors should be entitled to look at academic articles, citing the Brittany Higgins case as a recent example.

“Whenever you read about the Higgins cases, there’s always a statement about the juror. If the judge hadn’t reacted in that way, if the jury had not been discharged and all that followed – I mean, they would have convicted or acquitted and life would have gone on – but all that has followed, the defamation cases, the cases involving the DPP, all these other events would not have followed.”

Roberston is also a prolific author, and he’ll be talking about his latest book, The Trial of Vladimir Putin, published this month.

“Looking at the title, you probably think, a hypothetical too far,” he quips. “Because of course, he’s in control, and he’s got quite a few nuclear weapons at his back. But the first point I would concede is that it’s unlikely that he will be brought to trial, but he may be, and he may end up like [former Serbian president Slobodan] Milosevic, who seemed to be impregnable.”

The Trial of Vladimir Putin puts the case for trying Putin for war crimes. “I was able to encompass some lessons from the death of Alexei Navalny, and I think if his position can be weakened then … there are various ways in which an overthrow could be envisaged,” he says. “With Milosevic, he was overthrown to stop the sanctions and they surrendered him to The Hague. So it is not beyond question that he will eventually end up in the dock.”

And the crime with which he should be charged, Robertson asserts, is the crime of aggression, which sounds fairly tame but is, he says, “the worst of all crimes”.

“As a matter of law, the aggressor, the person who starts a war, is responsible for all of the calamities in that war; for the bombings and the killings and the dismemberments, the killings of children and the environmental damage and so forth,” he says.

There’s a certain irony though, to the fact that Putin’s defence is one created by former US president George W Bush, which he used to justify his invasion of Iraq. “It’s something George Bush’s lawyer invented, called ‘pre-emptive self-defence’,” Robertson says.

In his live show, Robertson will discuss the arguments he makes for trying Putin in absentia, and his theory that should Putin be tried fairly even in his absence, a guilty verdict could give pause to other countries looking to challenge democracy.

Ever the workaholic, Robertson has another book coming out this year, Crimes Against Humanity, which covers the history and the future of human rights. I don’t know how he finds the time – or the energy. Even at 77 he says there are no plans to retire.

In what seems to be rare downtime, Robertson enjoys the opera. But does he ever just kick back with a trashy thriller or some lowbrow fiction?

“Well … I used to read my ex-wife’s books, which some people thought fell into that category,” he says with a laugh. “But my divorce means that I don’t read as many of them as I did – but nonetheless I tend to be supportive.”

The Trial of Vladimir Putin (NewSouth) is out now.

Geoffrey Robertson: How Do We Fix A Turbulent World? BECE Great Hall Brisbane, May 9; Costa Hall Geelong, May 10; State Theatre Sydney, May 16; Canberra Theatre, Canberra, May 22; MCEC Plenary, Melbourne, May 25; Civic Theatre, Newcastle, May 28; AEC Theatre, Adelaide, May 29 and PCEC Riverside Theatre, Perth, May 31.