The Case of the Pope
  • Published: 14 September 2010
  • ISBN: 9780241953846
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $24.99

The Case of the Pope

Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse

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EBook
8 Sep 2010
Paperback
14 Sep 2010
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A devastatingly argued case holding the Pope to account for clerical child abuse around the world

THE CASE OF THE POPE delivers a devastating indictment of the way the Vatican has run a secret legal system that shields paedophile priests from criminal trial around the world.

Is the Pope morally or legally responsible for the negligence that has allowed so many terrible crimes to go unpunished? Should he and his seat of power, the Holy See, continue to enjoy an immunity that places them above the law?

Geoffrey Robertson QC, a distinguished human rights lawyer and judge, evinces a deep respect for the good works of Catholics and their church. But, he argues, unless Pope Benedict XVI can divest himself of the beguilements of statehood and devotion to obsolescent canon law, the Vatican will remain a serious enemy to the advance of human rights.
  • Published: 14 September 2010
  • ISBN: 9780241953846
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $24.99
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About the authors

Geoffrey Robertson

Geoffrey Robertson QC has had a distinguished career as a trial counsel and human rights advocate. He has been a UN war crimes judge, a counsel in many notable Old Bailey trials, has defended hundreds of men facing death sentences in the Caribbean, and has won landmark rulings on civil liberty from the highest courts in Britain, Europe and the Commonwealth. He is founder and head of Doughty Street Chambers, a Master of the Middle Temple, and a visiting professor at the New College of Humanities in London.

His book Crimes Against Humanity has been an inspiration for the global justice movement, his other books include Freedom, the Individual and the Law, The Tyrannicide Brief, The Statute of Liberty, Dreaming Too Loud and the acclaimed memoir The Justice Game. He has made many television and radio programmes, notably Geoffrey Robertson's Hypotheticals, and has won a Freedom of Information award for his writing and broadcasting. In 2011 he received the New York State Bar Association’s Award for ‘Distinction in International Law and Affairs’, and was Australian Humanitarian of the Year in 2014. In 2018 he was awarded an order of Australia (AO) for ‘his distinguished service to the law and the legal profession as an international human rights lawyer and advocate for global civil liberties’.

portrait photo of Geoffrey Robertson

Praise for The Case of the Pope

Devastating ... a book that combines moral passion with steely forensic precision, enlivened with the odd flash of dry wit. With admirable judiciousness, it even finds it in its heart to praise the charitable work of the Catholic church, as well as reminding us that paedophiles (whom Robertson has defended in court) can be kindly men. It is one of the most formidable demolition jobs one could imagine on a man who has done more to discredit the cause of religion than Rasputin and Pat Robertson put together

Terry Eagleton, Guardian

He writes clearly, at times passionately, as counsel for the prosecution. It works ... touches believers and non-believers alike

John Lloyd, Financial Times

Geoffrey Robertson is a brilliant lawyer and it shows. The clear light of his style - painstaking, thorough, dispassionate - throws into cruel relief the truth from which the Pope cannot hide

Richard Dawkins

An utterly brilliant, brave, and oh-so-timely book ... It puts Ratzinger squarely in the frame

Lisa Appignanesi

A challenge no thoughtful Catholic can ignore

Helena Kennedy
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