August 28 and 29 are the anniversary of the only speech given by David Maxwell Fyfe at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Maxwell Fyfe was a central player at these trials, rising to international prominence through his cross examination of the Nazi defendants, in particular Hermann Goering.

In his speech he first forensically analysed the flaws and evil of the Nazi regime, before turning his attention to the future, and how Europe and its citizens could protect themselves from a repetition of such a corruption of government.

Throughout this speech, and more explicitly in later speeches, Maxwell Fyfe spelt out his faith in natural justice and natural law. He believed that certain rights and freedoms were inalienable, that they were not in the control of any ruler or their lawmakers but were given to all as part of their nature within nature.

Maxwell Fyfe took his inspiration from Classical times, but he saw natural law at work throughout history including the Magna Carta. In the same way he saw natural law as the ‘deeper magic’ underpinning the Convention that he was to draft and champion in the Council of Europe.

On this anniversary we will perform a live streamed performance of Dreams of Peace & Freedom. This is our commemoration of Maxwell Fyfe’s work in Nuremberg and Strasbourg. It tells how the stream of natural law carried Maxwell Fyfe from his Scottish childhood, through university at Oxford, an early working life in Liverpool and so to the Inns of Court and Westminster. Prepared, he made his mark in Nuremberg and Strasbourg, and sowed the seed for human rights protection in Europe.