What has the trial and execution of an English king 360 years ago got to do with the 'war on terror', the birth of communism and principles found in Hong Kong's Basic Law? It sounds like an obscure trivia question, but leading human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson has the answer. Indeed, he has written a book on the subject - and it has just been translated into Chinese.
The 64-year-old Queen's Counsel, UN war crimes judge, author and television personality was in Hong Kong this month to deliver a speech at an international law conference. He also gave a talk at the University of Hong Kong about issues raised by his book, The Tyrannicide Brief, about the trial of Charles I in England in 1649. The Chinese-language version has recently gone on sale in Hong Kong and on the mainland.
Mr Robertson, speaking with his usual eloquence and passion, argues that the trial still has relevance today, as principles which emerged from that turbulent period of English history have been adopted around the world.
But would a book about the era of Roundheads and Cavaliers strike a chord with people in modern-day China?
'It is the one period in world history which should resonate in China,' he said in an interview with the Sunday Morning Post. 'It is the first time a country threw out its king under absolute rule and developed some of the principles that we acknowledge in human rights terms today.'
Ideas which emerged from that period had, centuries later, influenced Sun Yat-sen, played a part in the development of communism and found their way into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Basic Law, Mr Robertson said.