If you are in or around Cambridge on 15th October make sure not to miss our Centre‘s 2025 Annual Animal Rights Law Lecture held @cambridgelaw.bsky.social and delivered by the marvellous Cass Sunstein @casssunstein.bsky.social of @hls.harvard.edu.

I am deeply saddened by the passing of Conor Gearty. I first met Conor as a Law Fellow @lselaw.bsky.social where he went out of his way to make everyone feel welcome. His generosity of spirit and intellectual openness (he was a supporter of animal rights) have been a true source of inspiration.

Enjoying another great @animalrightslaw.bsky.social Law Lecturers‘ Workshop - where we teach how to teach animal rights law - this time in Cambridge itself @jesuscollegecam.bsky.social

What an excellent last day of the European Animal Rights Law Conference organised by @animalrightslaw.bsky.social, topped off with a PhD student workshop.

A second day full of inspiring presentations on the world‘s first pieces of animal rights legislation at our Cambridge Conference @animalrightslaw.bsky.social @magdalenecollege.bsky.social

The fifth European Animal Rights Law Conference organised by the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law @animalrightslaw.bsky.social is off to a great start!

All good things come in … twos! PsychologyToday @psychologytoday.com did another interview with me, this time on the need for constitutional reform for animals. Many thanks to Marc Bekoff! www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/anim...

Last chance to get your tickets!

The problem with uncritical reporting such as this is that it focuses on AI sentience, which is far from real, while ignoring the ecological and human cost of AI, which is very real. And I say this as someone who favours granting rights to sentient non-humans. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

I have just discovered that my book 'More Equal Than Others: Humans and the Rights of Other Animals' was reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement @thetls.bsky.social in March by Simone Gubler - a lovely surprise, all the more so because she seems to have liked it. www.the-tls.com/science-tech...

I am delighted that my book 'More Equal Than Others: Humans and the Rights of Other Animals' is featured in Psychology Today @psychologytoday.com and has been made an essential read in their Philosophy section. Many thanks to Marc Bekoff for interviewing me! www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/anim...

This promises to be another memorable Conference dinner, this time in Magdalene College‘s beautiful candlelit dining hall.

I am a great fan of German choral music. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

It is excellent that @casssunstein.bsky.social is returning to this important topic. Can‘t wait to read the book!

There are still tickets available!

For purely financial reasons, we will never subscribe to #Paramount or #Skydance. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/b...

The need to renationalise water companies in England should be clear to anyone who has ever tried to go for a swim in a river or the sea, or who has had to pay an overpriced water bill, but @georgemonbiot.bsky.social makes the case particularly well: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I am delighted to say that Lars Vinx and I have signed a contract with @universitypress.cambridge.org for our Handbook on the Limits of Constituent Power. The aim of the Handbook is to shed much-needed critical light on the concept and practice of constituent power. @cambridgelaw.bsky.social

An insightful interview and book about the dark sides of AI.

We had an excellent conversation with the wonderful @marisul.bsky.social on @ourhenhouse.org‘s Animal Law Podcast about our new book 'Animals and the Constitution: Towards Sentience-based Constitutionalism'. Mariann asked lots of challenging but intriguing questions!

📢We are now welcoming applications for the prestigious Downing Professorship of the Laws of England (est. 1800) to start in October 2026 with a focus on private law. Candidates will be internationally recognised as a leader in the field: 🔗https://bit.ly/4lb1SDu

Thanks to all the participants of our workshop on Constitution-Making: Limits, Legitimacy and Law @jesuscollegecam.bsky.social for an inspiring day and to @intellforum.bsky.social for the generous support.

Really looking forward to launching John Adenitire's and my new book 'Animals and the Constitution: Towards Sentience-based Constitutionalism' (OUP 2025) in @animalrightslaw.bsky.social's Talking Animals, Law & Philosophy series on 30th June from 3-4.30pm: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/john-adeni...

Excited to co-host some of the leading constituent power thinkers in this workshop on 'Constitution-Making: Limits, Legitimacy, and Law' in Cambridge this Saturday. Feel free to message me or email if you would like to attend in person but missed the deadline. www.tickettailor.com/events/intel...

This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in offering their own Animal Rights Law course.

Why wait for Reform to wreck the environment if you can do it yourself? www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Very much looking forward to launching our new book 'Animals and the Constitution: Towards Sentience-based Constitutionalism' at the Bonavero Institute @oxfordlawfac.bsky.social on 10 June. Truly honoured to have Timothy Endicott and Leah Trueblood as respondents. www.law.ox.ac.uk/content/even...

Looking forward to talking with the fabulous Justin Marceau (@uofdenver.bsky.social) today at 5pm about 'Optimism and Animal Rights Law'. You can register for free below.

Simpler times! "In 1469, the use of the bow by undergraduates in their frequent brawls with the townsfolk was so often attended by serious consequences that the University authorities were compelled to forbid scholars or their servants to carry bows without a permit."

While my faith in this government is not unlimited, it is difficult to imagine how UK train travel could get much worse. Next up: renationalisation of water and sewerage. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Delighted to say that tickets can now be purchased for @animalrightslaw.bsky.social's 2025 European Animal Rights Law Conference on the theme 'Animal Rights in Legislation', taking place from 4 to 6 September at Magdalene College, Cambridge (1/3). www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/european-a...

The real reason Cambridge beats all other universities: cows in the middle of the city!

For anyone who can read German (or knows how to use online translation): an excellent, nuanced piece describing not just the moral catastrophe unfolding in Gaza, but also the damage this is doing to Israel‘s democracy. www.zeit.de/kultur/2025-...

Another spellbinding book by @philippesands.bsky.social. Recommended reading for Netanyahu and his far-right ministers. www.weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/phili...

An enlightening explainer of Fraenkel’s Dual State Theory in action in the US. But I wonder if we are seeing not just a 'legal abyss' but also an 'illegal abyss', with the executive exercising raw power regardless of whether it has the prerogative to do so. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/w...

A much-needed Article 5 for higher education: 'Be it further resolved that, under this compact, all participating institutions shall commit meaningful funding to a shared or distributed defense fund.' senate.rutgers.edu/wp-content/u...

Thrilled to have received the first copies of my new book (co-authored with the wonderful John Adenitire). Very grateful to the team at #OxfordUniversityPress and the editors of the Oxford Constitutional Theory series for their support.

Youth mobility is crucial. I myself benefitted tremendously from it when spending an Erasmus year at the University of Strasbourg. With only 30% of Britons still thinking that Brexit was a good idea, Labour had better not miss this opportunity. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Meeting JD would be the death of me, too.

When I was at Yale, I attended an event with Clarence Thomas in which he was portrayed as a Main Street conservative. As is becoming increasingly clear, he and Alito belong to a different type of conservatism that has little respect for the rule of law and that bends its knee to authoritarians.

The wisteria @jesuscollegecam.bsky.social is lovely this year.

The road Columbia should have taken. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/u...

Three cheers for incompetence! The Trump administration's tariffs are a major impediment to its unsustainable plans to expand oil production. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/08/b...

I think the USA understands that Europe needs to own America for security reasons. If not, we‘ll explain it to them. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

I am delighted to say that Sean Butler and I just signed the contract for the second edition of our Animal Rights Law textbook, to be published in 2027. We look forward to continuing our work with @hartpublishing.bsky.social!

Don't worry, JD, your messaging was very tight!

An important report underscoring that Labour is going the wrong way with its cuts: 'There is no doubt the government is facing an unenviable list of economic pressures … But how you manage these risks is a matter of political choice.‘ www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

A sad day for academic freedom. I wish I could say the UK is a safe haven for US academics, but successive governments here have managed to gut higher education without needing to extract arbitrary concessions. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/n...

This does not bode well for what will be the ultimate test: whether Trump can be made to respect the 22nd Amendment (the two-term limit). www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/u...

While backing the spending bill to keep the government running genuinely was a Sophie‘s Choice for the Democrats, Schumer‘s naivety about the state of the party is shocking, and his insistence that it only has a messaging problem is as misguided as it is patronising. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/m...