About Law in Action

The current series of Law in Action is on air from Tuesday 20th October to Tuesday 10th November.

Law in Action is the longest-running legal magazine radio programme on the BBC.

It began in October 1984 as an experiment, with the BBC's first ever legal affairs reporter (later legal affairs correspondent) Joshua Rozenberg in the presenter's chair, produced by Anthony Moncrieff.

The programme was unprecedented.

Judges and lawyers had occasionally given "talks" and taken part in documentaries before then, but many senior figures gave their first ever broadcast interviews to Law in Action.

Early coups included producing the programme from Australia during the Spycatcher case.

Production team

John Eidinow served a stint as presenter after Joshua left at the end of 1987. Then in 1988 Marcel Berlins took over. Marcel was the voice of Law in Action for 15 years, twice winning Legal Broadcaster of the Year for his radio work. The current presenter is barrister and writer Clive Coleman.

The programme has been put together by a large number of people over the years.

The current production team includes producer Ben Crighton, producer Wesley Stephenson and producer/reporter Paul Vickers. The editor is Stephen Chilcott.

The programme's interviews and discussions are almost all pre-recorded, and typically gathered during the week running up to broadcast.

Jargon-free

Clive writes the script on Monday, and the programme is recorded in its final form on Tuesday morning, for broadcast in the afternoon at 1600 BST.

Law in Action's aim is to lead the field in lively, jargon-free but rigorous analysis of the legal stories in, behind, and ahead of the news.

We regularly talk to leading legal figures at home and abroad but also hear from the people caught up in the law about how it affects their lives.

When appropriate, we question the lawmakers too as well as those arguing for changes in the law.

We don't report trials for their own sake, but will explore legal issues raised by cases in the news.

Worldwide scope

We explain important rulings of the House of Lords and other influential courts as they are delivered, and preview the impact of new legislation with those likely to have to use it.

The programme's focus is domestic, but our scope extends worldwide.

So whilst we report stories from across the UK, we've also presented the programme from the United States and South Africa, as well as Berlin, Strasbourg and Ukraine.

We welcome suggestions and story ideas from listeners, and have followed these up many times.

The programme is not a campaigning one in the conventional sense. But we do aim to demystify the law; what it is, how it works and how it might be improved.