Apparently we've reached the nostalgia phase of meme usage, so this is an ideal time for the legal academy to use more memes in scholarship. We've only really explored copyright issues. We haven't even begun to imagine the fun Public Law (the field + the journal) would have with memes.

(Nervously) excited to say that I'll be leaving legal practice after almost 12 years to join the NI Assembly as a research officer in European Affairs. Out with briefing counsel and in with briefing committees + legislators.

Today's view from the office

The birthplace of the European Union* *before it was the EU.

I once fell asleep (drunk) on a train from Den Haag, intending to get off at Rotterdam. I was woken up by railway staff in Eindhoven.

"interest in history"

I have a letter in today’s Irish Times about Ireland and the ECHR and the apparent shift in the Irish government’s position towards reform of the Convention signalled recently by the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan TD #ECHR

The third woman (Mrs Justice Smyth) joins the senior judiciary in NI, over a decade after the first two women (including the present Lady Chief Justice): m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/norther...

Also featuring reflections on some difficult to follow reasoning on merits review in natsec contexts. Is it merits review? Is it reasonableness review? Does the court only care about whether executive decisions have been rubber stamped? 🤷

The Supreme Court has made a huge mess when it comes to the approach to be adopted in appeals to and from SIAC The position is now so convoluted that it should be fundamentally reconsidered. How is anyone meant to apply the following? (Taken from today’s decision in Kolicaj [2025] UKSC 49):

Just in time for Christmas, a detailed look at the possible remedies for breaches of Article 2 of the Windsor Framework. Launched today and ft. @aoifemod.bsky.social @colinmurray.bsky.social, @sylviademars.me, Eleni Frantziou and me. A great gift for the whole family 😊 nihrc.org/publication/...

Closing remarks for the event are now being delivered by Éilis Haughey, Director of NIHRC’s Human Rights after EU Withdrawal unit.

We’re now hearing from Rhys Davies, General Counsel at @ima-citrights.bsky.social, and Monye Anyadike-Danes KC, who are offering their reflections on the report.

We’ve now opened the floor to a Q&A with the report authors Anurag Deb, Dr Sylvia de Mars, Professor Colin Murray and Professor Aoife O’Donoghue, chaired by NIHRC Chief Commissioner Alyson Kilpatrick. They are joined by Dr Claire McCann, Senior Policy and Research Officer at the NIHRC.

NIHRC Chief Commissioner Alyson Kilpatrick is introducing the research by outlining its analysis of how the EU Withdrawal Agreement and the Windsor Framework operate in practice to ensure the enforcement of, and remedies for breach of Windsor Framework Article 2.

The launch event for our research, “Windsor Framework Article 2: Enforcement and Remedies” has started with a welcome from Dr David Russell, Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.

The @nihrc.bsky.social are today launching a major new report, by @anuragdeb.bsky.social, @sylviademars.me, @aoifemod.bsky.social, Eleni Frantziou and me, on the novel arrangements for remedying breaches of the UK's obligations for rights and equality in NI under Art 2 WF: nihrc.org/assets/uploa...

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I would like to know what are the inhumane and degrading treatments the Minister believes should be legal.

So much of the commentary on the FWS judgment has been driven by reflexive responses to the outcome, but there are so many gaps and leaps in its reasoning that it will spawn litigation for years to come - @aoifemod.bsky.social and I flag some failings in judge craft: nilq.qub.ac.uk/index.php/ni...

#speirgorm if you are in the Clonliffe Road area please keep an eye out for our lovely former foster boy Ernie

And to think people say academia is dry.

New article out in the @nilegalq.bsky.social in a significant special issue edited by @livunislsj.bsky.social's Katie Johnston. A wake up call for both the NI Bill of Rights debate and to public lawyers across the UK to watch out for developments under Scotland's UNCRC Act: doi.org/10.53386/nil...

We have been seeing a clear divergence between how the Chief Constable of the PSNI views the "neither confirm nor deny" policy and how the UKG views it. As the Chief Constable put it in an interesting speech last night, you can't keep using it like a "wall" around the Troubles. The UKG disagrees.

Much ink has been spilt in discussing the reviewability of the Attorney General's discretionary powers in England and Wales. Northern Ireland is missing in that discourse. Here, I discuss why it ought to be seriously considered.

Much ink has been spilt in discussing the reviewability of the Attorney General's discretionary powers in England and Wales. Northern Ireland is missing in that discourse. Here, I discuss why it ought to be seriously considered.

Yikes.

I have no doubt that the common law can protect certain academic conceptions of the common good. But I am afraid that I remain unconvinced that the common law can hold a candle to the HRA when it comes to providing meaningful, substantive human rights protections, as much as I would love to be wrong

I’m unconvinced by some of the examples here. Proportionality review, despite some academic excitement, remains exclusive to the context of adjudicating upon HRA/ECHR rights. Sliding scale rationality review, which takes into account the weight of what is at stake, is a separate phenomenon.

Another interesting defence of the common law human rights model here, drawing on Lord Briggs’ speech from last month. Baxter supports Briggs’ thesis - which champions the common law’s capacity to protect rights in the event of ECHR withdrawal. It’s eloquently argued, but I disagree.

Ireland has secured a three-year extension to the controversial nitrates derogation. An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland, said the decision is "actually shocking". "Recent EPA data on water quality is unambiguous. We are going backwards," An Taisce said. jrnl.ie/6897863t

"Gareth Sheridan went to Tucker Carlson's Christmas party" is already crazy, but "Gareth Sheridan took a photo with the world's most famous antisemitic conspiracy theorist, then voluntarily posted it on the Internet" is blowing my fucking mind

And in government they fully supported making it easier for Irish citizens to become dual nationals in the UK. But of course this was last year, which is too far back for anyone to remember.

Another day, another reminder that the legacy of the Troubles in NI is "unbalanced" when it comes to criticising state involvement & lobbying for the state to be held to account. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cv... MI5 tried to cover up truth over 'Stakeknife' spy in IRA, report says - BBC News

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The dialogue between Mark Elliott and Lord Sales here is fascinating. Ironically enough, in my thesis I conclude that parliamentary intent - at least as judicially conceptualised - rarely if ever makes it into drafting considerations. A point which courts perhaps need to consider.

This is nice and all, but maybe (just *maybe*) cosying up to the EU might involve not trying to hollow out the application of its laws in NI through various creative arguments in the domestic courts.

Jurisdictional comity in the Supreme Court administrativecourtblog.wordpress.com/2025/12/06/j...

In an exhilarating change to the usual experience of clinical negligence review lists in the High Court, the Master ordered wasted costs against 5 ppl for not turning up, struck out a claim for delay in serving replies to particulars and strongly suggested that more ppl should sue their solicitors 😬

Before the UKSC judgment in Dillon (+ the value of the Windsor Framework), a rundown of EU law issues in that case, how the government wants them dealt with and how Eleni and I think the government is wrong. Also, a link for the launch of our forthcoming report on remedies and the WF (16 Dec).

"What's your favourite law?"

As someone who is still here five years later and had this type of chemotherapy for BC, and has looked (through my fingers) at the stats, in a very real sense ET IN ARCADIA EGO - an absolutely wonderful letter about how the human mind makes creative connections

This is a lovely discovery. I remember modern Indian history in school: pages and pages of men, maybe one mention of a woman (usually Vijaya Laxmi Pandit). High time for that to be corrected. BBC News - Forgotten photos reveal women who powered India's freedom struggle www.bbc.com/news/article...

"Death toll passes 1,000 in devastating floods across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Thailand" Really horrific www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

I once had to use Bengali at a previous job and agonised over the proper translation of words like "airport" for a minute before remembering that, conversationally, we would just use the English word. And that I wasn't a newsreader or a government spokesperson.

Without citing Kenneth Branagh, name a Shakespeare adaptation. This is the final film in a fantastic trilogy of Shakespeare adaptations.

In my latest article, I explore the (very) limited potential for impeachment to be utilised as an accountability mechanism to address violations of the rule of law in the EU at supranational level.

Somehow, I don't think the NI Executive or the NI Assembly want *me* in charge of drafting legislation (but I would have a *lot* of fun 😊)

Earlier this year, the Indian Supreme Court "deemed assent" to 10 long-pending Bills where a particular Governor had done nothing. That judgment was scathing in its criticism of the Governor's conduct but its reasoning - the "deeming" of an act the Constitution doesn't assign it - was criticised. 1/