Extremely interesting criticallegalthinking.com/2026/05/29/l...

My new essay at @phenomenalworld.bsky.social: “Mosaic of Deterrence” The war on Iran is the culmination of a long strategy: first strangulation, then destruction. From weaponized finance to asymmetric deterrence, and the limits of imperial coercion. phenomenalworld.org/analysis/mos...

Britain’s role in the conflict on the island is expunged, it is a benefactor to sooth the savage Irish. Condescension is necessary because this task/burden still cannot be taken by the Irish. criticallegalthinking.com/2026/05/27/w...

Another big consultancy scandal, this time at KPMG www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05...

This is nicely put. The machine that subordinates all life to its own algorithm of self-expansion is already operating: It’s called capital. www.newyorker.com/science/anna...

As Li explains, it is often in the interest of the US government to maintain the sovereignty of partner states in weaker form, rather than destroying it entirely. Doing so allows the US government to distribute responsibility for expanded state and carceral violence. lpeproject.org/blog/outsour...

I love you, my students, who write genuinely awkward, human essays. That’s the whole point. We try.

Average university senior administrator my entire lifetime:

Whereas the Government’s interference with any litigation or arbitration commenced by a protected investor may result in substantial damages, Mr Smith is left without obvious legal redress in advancing his climate claims, except to file an HRC communication www.ejiltalk.org/denial-of-en...

I made the mistake of figuring out what this refers to and...well....

Today, @jbentonheath.bsky.social argues that, on the high seas, we may be witnessing the death of one of the liberal order’s central myths: that sanctions are peaceful alternatives to war.

It seems increasingly senseless to insist on a hard-and-fast distinction between military force and economic coercion, when the latter is enforced at the end of a gun. lpeproject.org/blog/a-tale-...

The week in review: @ntinatzouvala.bsky.social & @azohra.bsky.social on international law under Trump 2.0, @shaabiranks.bsky.social on the gansterfication of US foreign policy, and Matthew Scherer on the AI bubble. Plus: ALPE elections, congressional testimony on court packing, and more!

Reports of fuel riots in Kenya and official warnings in India to prepare for an economic crisis equivalent to Covid reconfirms what we already knew: the damage of war descends preexisting hierarchies, inconvenience in the North is disaster in the South.

But the EU is not honouring its legal commitments to its other WTO partners not to discriminate against them. That was a deal and the EU is not honouring its. So much for its claim to stand for the rule of law. So much for the solidarity of middle powers. MEPs can still do the right thing in June.

This privatization of statecraft has been formalized through a new international organization, the “Board of Peace.” Billed as an ad-hoc arrangement to negotiate and finance the reconstruction of Gaza, it is a broader effort to transform international diplomacy. lpeproject.org/blog/the-sha...

Why do faculty and students have so little say in the governance of American universities? This terrific new paper by Daniel Hemel and David Pozen asks why American universities are liberal autocracies rather than stakeholder democracies. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

I am bisexual in the sense that I am attracted to whoever finds evidence of people turning against AI to be HOT AF.

Straight into my veins

Together with the terrific @azohra.bsky.social, we curated this symposium on IL and the current moment: lpeproject.org/blog/somethi.... Features wise contributions by @wanshucong.bsky.social @jbentonheath.bsky.social @shaabiranks.bsky.social @richardjoyce.bsky.social & Sarah Sherman-Stokes

Today, @ntinatzouvala.bsky.social and @azohra.bsky.social kick off a series on international law under the second Trump administration. The embrace of naked coercion, they argue, represents both a genuine departure from, and the culmination of the internal contradictions of, the post-WWII order.

My piece on dollar hegemony as international law-making power is now out with the Chinese Journal of International Law: academic.oup.com/chinesejil/a.... This has been in the making for a while, and I am glad to finally see it out in the world.

If you happen to be in Belfast on the 20th, I will be delivering a lecture on the crisis of neo/liberal legalism and international legal thought. To register: www.qub.ac.uk/schools/Scho...

"I'm allowed to do whatever I want, and it's illegal to get mad at me" is US conservatism

www.ias.edu/sss/2026-202... born to be a New Jersey ethnic wife wearing golden jewellery and faux fur, forced to be a New Jersey fellow working on secular stagnation and international law.

My latest weekly roundup of reading and listening recommendations, taking in militarism and conflict in the Middle East and Horn of Africa, new reactionary modes of governance, and institutional racism in Britain, among other themes. 🧵

Taking a break from my holiday to share this piece that has been torturing me for months: fll.um.edu.mo/new-tasks-an... I explore whether there is something genuinely new about this moment (yes, for sure), why is neo/liberal legalism collapsing, and what does this all mean for IL scholarship

Today, 1pm, Emma Miller Place, to stand with those who refuse to be silenced - see you there! #NotOurLaw

This was excellent

This is VERY bad

The Holocaust was not a moral lesson to make victims better and more ennobled as humans. I do not think that the behavior of Israel's government or military is in any way morally acceptable, but the idea that they should "know better" because of Nazism is placing an unrealistic burden of trauma.

As a woman, I offer my sympathies to the Pope who is now being told hourly by very many random men what he actually means

literacy rates at Cambridge MA have dropped concerningly

I’m putting “Searle’s dead, Derrida’s Dead, we’re not doing this anymore” on a tshirt.

crypto-Protestants everywhere

NEW: Lebanon is Gaza 2.0. That’s what Israeli ministers are saying in their own words. Believe them. 1/ www.thenerve.news/p/lebanon-wa...

If humanity survives, Trump’s obsession with oil will be remembered like going to war over horsepower during the Industrial Revolution

Only a communist party could ever deliver a capitalism that good, I am afraid

May the enemies of freedom everywhere waive white flags for eternity

this is remarkable

There is no ceasefire in Lebanon. Israel has been bombing Lebanon non-stop since last night. If anything Israel is expanding its war on Lebanon. You are being lied to

As Jewish Australians, we are devastated to learn of the Israeli assault on Lebanon yesterday. We urge @albomp.bsky.social and Foreign Minister Wong to speak out against Israel's violent escalation and call on the Government to take decisive action by demanding an immediate ceasefire.

i wonder if JD Vance would be surprised to know many husbands don't have to make their wives promise not to jump out of airplanes

Excited to share my new article in @lsijournal.bsky.social: “Vacationing on a Tax Haven” explores how Puerto Rico’s visitor economy is intertwined with offshore finance, colonial legality, and extraction. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

defenders of Israel should be forced to answer this question in great detail imo.

make modernism great again

Everyone is working for BYD. Iran, the USA, you, me, my cat, we are all working for BYD

ladies and gentlefriends, welcome to Geopolitics