Robertson on the Tyrannicide Brief

openDemocracy has an interview with Geoffrey Robertson QC, about his book on John Cooke, the Seventeenth Century lawyer who prosecuted Charles I.

Charlie Devereux: Do you think that the tyrannicide brief can be used as a precedent to prosecute modern-day tyrants? Can it be cited?

Geoffrey Robertson: We’ve moved on 350 years and the tyrannicide brief 
fascinates as the first attempt in modern times – since the treaty of
Westphalia came into being a few months before the trial, which was the
beginning of modern international law – to prosecute a head of state.
It is of interest to see how the first effort was made and how some of
the problems in that exercise persist. Some of the problems that Cooke
and the court faced are with us today – in the case of Saddam Hussein. (openDemocracy)