Shami Chakrabarti – who has been Director of Liberty (The National Council for Civil Liberties) since September 2003, the UK’s leading civil rights organisation – gave the most recent Scarman Lecture at the Department of Criminology, University of Leicester. In On Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti explores why our fundamental rights and freedoms are indispensable. She shows, too, the unprecedented pressures those rights are under today. Drawing on her own work in high-profile campaigns, from privacy laws to anti-terror legislation, Chakrabarti shows the threats to our democratic institutions and why our rights are paramount in upholding democracy. Other Scarman Lectures can be accessed on the Department’s website.