My article 'Backdoor Executive Empowerment' is now available open access published by Legal Studies. The paper identifies 6 mechanisms the last UK Government used to obstruct democratic scrutiny of new changes it introduced to expand executive powers 🧵1/5 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The chair of the undercover policing inquiry faces legal action over decision not to allow blacklisted union activist Dave Smith to give oral evidence at the public inquiry in November www.hazards.org/blacklistblo...

A great read on the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), whose last summer party was held at McKinsey's HQ and co-hosted by ex-McKinsey current chair of NHS England. It includes important info on the revolving door between this tech and petrostate-funded think tank and Starmer's government, including - 1/2

12 more people charged under the Terrorism Act for supporting Palestine Action www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'As well as journalists, Mr McCullough has looked at how covert measures may have been used against lawyers and others. It is understood his report runs to around 200 pages.' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

📚 BOOK TALK: England’s Military Heartland 🎙️ Khem Rogaly, Saskia Papadakis, Antonia Dawes & Rachael Milliner ⏰ 7.00PM — 8.30PM 🗓️ Weds 24 Sept 📍 @housmansbookshop.bsky.social, 5 Caledonian Rd, London N1 9DX 🔗 Sign up for a ticket now! housmans.com/event/book-t...

another excellent piece from @davidallengreen.bsky.social on support for Palestine Action not being 'terrorism' www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

Conor Gearty obituary - The Guardian www.theguardian.com/law/2025/sep...

Labelling protest movements as terrorist organisations without a full national security justification has a long-standing history but has clearly been further normalised by the UK Government's recent proscription of Palestine Action. 1/2

I wrote an article about last year's amendments to the Investigatory Powers Act and how they relate to the recent Apple encryption case, the growing use of AI by UK secret intelligence services, and the role of private intelligence services like Palantir. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

📘 Come to my inaugural lecture "Democratic socialism and the law", 6.30pm, 15 October: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inaugural-... 🌹 What role does the law play in democratic socialism? It rewires the defects of contract, property, corporate law + residual ‘capitalist’ elements of our law, and more... 👇

I wrote this about why it's important not to do away with juries in criminal trials www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

For all the talk of decline in Britain today by the right, the thing that is never mentioned is privitisation and financialisation. Very glad to see @cmmonwealth.bsky.social tackling this head-on: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Excellent analysis of the revolving door between conservative officials and the defence industry. open.substack.com/pub/democrac...

I'm devastated by Conor Gearty's passing. His seminars were electrifying, his research courageous and inspirational, and as a doctoral supervisor he was never less than kind, diligent, and wise. It is such a huge loss. In this beautiful article, he left us some of his wisdom, humour, and humility.

While in office, Johnson appears to have held a secret meeting with Peter Thiel, the billionaire who founded the controversial US data firm Palantir, months before it was given a role managing NHS data. theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Peter Hain says UK government ‘digging itself into hole’ over Palestine Action www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Letter of the day (in the Times)

'The University has paid a private consulting company KPMG to produce a report to justify redundancies, which they are refusing to share with the trade unions. University senior managers are hiding behind this report to hide their own failures and mismanagement, while gutting the workforce.'

Today, the High Court Judge will rule on whether to permit a Judicial Review into the proscription of Palestine Action. The judgement is set to be heard at 2pm.

1. The Prosecution only has to prove that your sign gives rise to a reasonable suspicion that you support a proscribed organisation: and 2. It's a strict liability offence-- no need to prove intention. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Watch as an activist is arrested in Glasgow for displaying a sign reading 'genocide in Palestine, time to take action' 'We're not terrorists', he said as he was taken away by police

BREAKING Following my request, the UK judiciary has now published the actual Afghan super-injunction. (Nice to have a win occasionally.) www.judiciary.uk/judgments/mi...

Yesterday there was an important discussion of the legality of Palestine Action's recent proscription, hosted by John McDonnell MP. Here were some of the key issues raised -

Elon Musk's anti-woke MechaHitler proudly announces a new contract with the Department of Defense

EXC Labour MPs have privately raised alarm at the number of sponsored corporate receptions for backbenchers arranged by the party MPs received invitations for receptions that include explicit advertisements for property developers or outsourcing firms -sent to MPs directly from the PLP office.

Leveson is in charge of ensuring the government doesn't abuse surveillance powers. Here he advocates the partial erasure of a fundamental safeguard against state abuse of criminal law, to correct problems stemming from politicians choosing to impose austerity. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

An important legal analysis of broader constitutional implications of proscribing Palestine Action.

We have had a report saying two women walking up to a protest today at BAe Samlesbury were stopped by Lancashire Police and advised to remove their t-shirts that say 'Free Palestine', as it may "breach the proscription order". And so it begins.

Palestine Action has been granted an urgent high court hearing on Friday to try to prevent a banning order against it from coming into effect www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Senior Home Office official expressed concerns about proscribing Palestine Action: “My colleagues and I are shocked. The office has been very tense, with concern about treating a non-violent protest group the same as ... Isis, and the dangerous precedent it sets". www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I elaborate on some of the issues raised by this piece here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMLI...

Here I argue the Home Secretary's case that Palestine Action is concerned in terrorism is lacking in evidence, and proscribing the group is disproportionate. It will criminalise a significant proportion of civil society and be counterproductive for maintaining safety.

🚨 BREAKING UPDATE Labour has FINALLY accepted defeat in our legal challenge of anti-protest powers We won this case in court twice - under both Conservative and Labour leadership Gov must now commit to reviewing ALL arrests made under these unlawful powers www.lbc.co.uk/news/exclusi...

NEW: The UK is 'currently' hosting and training soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces despite genocide allegations, a Labour minister has admitted Read more on this story: www.thenational.scot/news/2...

There’s no doubt the UK right would love to be able to do madly disproportionate ICE-style brutality towards migrants, which is their main reason for wanting to leave the ECHR

“McGaughey ... said that while a figure of £99bn was commonly cited as the cost of taking over the [water] industry in England, this was based on an estimate from a thinktank paid for by water companies.” Our latest by @ewanmg.bsky.social in @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/business/202...

"A trade union is able to protest peacefully within the law and to employers when material is presented on campus which it believes attacks the human rights of others": www.ucu.org.uk/article/1404...

🔴 19 days after winning general election, Labour tech sec Peter Kyle met Google Deepmind CEO Demis Hassabis During the meet Hassabis agreed to “act as a ‘sense check’ from industry" for government's policy "on AI opportunities, legislation and safety.” democracyforsale.substack.com/p/revealed-s...

'When contacted by the BBC, IPCO said it was "misled into amending our draft report to remove the finding that Agent X's status had been disclosed."' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

MI5 representatives are at High Court, after BBC revealed MI5 gave false evidence to courts in case of a misogynistic neo-Nazi agent who attacked his girlfriend with a machete. After the BBC revealed MI5 had lied, MI5 issued an "unreserved apology" for "serious error". www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn...

“The promise that [new military expenditure] will create jobs for domestic workers or reverse industrial decline in Britain is a dubious one.” Khem Rogaly in @thetimes.com 🔗👇 🖋️ Mehreen Khan www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

In his ruling the Recorder of London, Mark Lucraft KC (the Old Bailey’s highest circuit judge) wrote that he was “very troubled by the way in which the search warrant was drafted, approved and granted where items were to be seized from a journalist”

THE ENCAMPMENTS 🇵🇸 How American students ignited a movement by protesting their universities' ties to the war on Gaza A powerful new documentary by @watermelonpictures.bsky.social WATCH + SHARE THE TRAILER www.watermelonpictures.com/films/the-en...

Registration for our Re-Imagining Counter-Terrorism Law workshop is now open! Registration is free but will close at 12pm on 2nd June and places are limited. Please use the following link to register. forms.office.com/e/NKSYSGMs9X

Over 200 lawyers, academic and practising, signed the following letter to the UK Govt and parliamentary committees (Westminster and devolved) expressing our concerns over the FWS decision, its implications for trans rights in the UK, and the EHRC approach to it: www.parliament.scot/-/media/file...

Congratulations @lewisgrahamlaw.bsky.social on this crucial and I'm sure v rigourous empirical analysis of the Supreme Court. Really looking forward to reading this.

Letter from UK judges and lawyers to Keir Starmer urging him to "use all available means to secure an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and to ensure the urgent, unconditional and unimpeded resumption of aid, at scale, to the population of Gaza".

In Britain we have stopped living longer. My colleagues, Gerry McCartney and David Walsh recently published Social Murder, an important book which demonstrates how austerity caused stalling life expectancy. You can hear them discussing it here. open.spotify.com/episode/6vnR...