Within days of Mr Justice Johnson’s decision to seek contempt proceedings against Rajiv Menon KC because of that barrister’s closing speech to the jury in a Palestine Action criminal damage trial, I happened to be making a closing speech to a jury. Neither the case nor the personnel of my case are relevant to what happened next, but it is telling that counsel for the prosecution appeared to invoke Mr Justice Johnson’s imprimatur to rebuke me for stepping over the boundary as to what was acceptable to say to the jury.

Thankfully, nothing of substance came of that. Not so for Menon. On 22 June 2026, Mr Justice Johnson handed down his approved judgment in Menon’s case such that he now faces a possible two-year prison sentence for defending his client in what was, it seems to me, in accordance with his professional duties and obligations.

As a highly experienced and successful member of the English bar, Menon was giving his closing speech in a case that involved pro-Palestine activists who broke into an Elbit Systems UK arms factory. The trial judge alleged that Menon deliberately ignored directions and misled the jury by discussing jury equity and the war in Gaza.

The judgment is significant not only for those directly affected by practising in the criminal courts but society as a whole because it starkly demonstrates how words spoken by those defending their clients – the traditional fortress of forensic freedom – can attract the machinery of contempt. The seriousness of that needs to be understood. The prospect of contempt proceedings is in danger of imposing a chilling effect on the........

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