I recently went to Dishoom for the first time, intrigued at seeing vada pav on a restaurant menu. Would recommend (though the lahsun chutney needs to be spicier), but the experience of eating it straight from the street vendor as you dodge motorbike bros and watch unbothered cows, is unbeatable 😌

South India: dosa, idli, vada and of course, only Indian filter coffee.

Courts in the UK constitutional set-up are not known for quashing primary legislation on ordinary JR grounds. So what happened in the BIOT case? I argue here that the judgment was neither mystifying nor mundane, but an important reminder to look beyond the UK for insights about its own constitution.

For ICON-S Dublin attendees this year, there will be a roundtable on my book, Judicial Individuality on the UKSC, at 2:30pm on Day 1 of the event (29 June). Join me, @aoifemod.bsky.social, @colinmurray.bsky.social and @anuragdeb.bsky.social for a discussion on judicial behaviour on the UKSC

My first paper for the Assembly is about changing customs fees in NI. If you shop online from overseas sellers, this may interest you. So open a browser window, get some coffee and enjoy the dry and technical resplendence of customs on this sunny afternoon 😎 www.niassembly.gov.uk/globalassets...

I am not involved in this but my colleagues at Manchester have organised a great conference on the Future of Constitutional Reform taking place at UOM on 20-21 May Details and programme here: ukconstitutionallaw.org/2026/03/20/c...

For the *huge* proportion of Bluesky interested in doctoral study in small democracies, policy in the Crown Dependencies, and/or Atlantic Archipelago insurrection, some project ideas ...

British legal discourse around its constitutional structure and practice (& problems that arise in those) has learned practically nothing from its own constitutional experiments around its empire for a quarter of a millennium.

The NI comparison underlines how Higgs was a *bewilderingly* contra legem/against the grain interpretation of the Equality Act.

Most(?) academics celebrated the Court of Appeal’s judgment in Higgs v Farmor School last year. We didn’t. See why here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... @anuragdeb.bsky.social @samuelwillis.bsky.social

There was also a logistical reason why a broad power of secondary legislation was favoured under s2(2) ECA 1972. Dynamic alignment may leave little room for legislative manoeuvring. Parliament may thus have to pass Bills where amendments are difficult/impossible. A bad use of its limited time.

RIP Asha Bhosle, legend of music. Long before she was made famous in the west thanks to Cornershop, her honeyed voice lit up Bollywood classics, including this masterclass in sensual poetry: youtu.be/pwsjRraWgdA?...

Catherine Connolly announces Councll of State nominees: Fionnuala Ní Aoláin (QUB lawyer) Linda Ervine (Unionist Gaeilge advocate) Colin Harvey (QUB human rights) Kathleen Lynch (UCD sociology) Donncha O’Connell (Uni Galway law) Conor O’Mahony (UCC law) Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh (former pres Uni Galway)

Like a creature from the deep, a thesis emerges (to haunt me)

I was asked to provide a few words today by NPR: www.npr.org/2026/03/14/n...

An important reminder (that there are insights to be gleaned from the UK's different jurisdictions as the UKSC is due to hear the Campbell appeal later this year) from one of the leading authorities on UK Law Officers 👇

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...

😭

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