“The quality of mercy is not strain'd. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven”

After the storm…

Even after 11 years @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social, there are still mystery further buildings to discover!

Dreaming spires, inspiring dreams

“Summer has come and passed The innocent can never last Wake me up when September ends”

Never did sun more beautifully steep…

New Personal Best of 1:22:01 in #GreatNorthRun! Thanks to all the staff and supporters along the route!

Today marks the start of the 20th academic year of my career! Looking back with gratitude for all colleagues and students from whom I have learnt, and forward to many more collaborations!

Or “The Life and Adventures of Charles Dickens”

Sunday Salmon!

‘A legal rule forbids you to take a vehicle into the public park. Plainly this forbids an automobile, but what about bicycles, roller skates, toy automobiles? What about airplanes? Are these, as we say, to be called "vehicles" for the purpose of the rule or not?’

“I don’t like to characterize any great profession, but I think the profession of law teacher… does not always exercise the best judgment in keeping out of fields in which they are apt to make egregious mistakes.” William Howard Taft (as US Chief Justice)

“How’s research going?”

I’m currently working on Nuisance, and this view shows the sites of two important cases - Fearn v Tate, and then just round the corner is the location of this new decision of Fancourt J on nuisance and rights of light! www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWH...

“When the rain falls, they talk of Manchester; but when the triumphant rain falls, we think of rainbows; it’s the Mancunian way.” Lemn Sissay poem

I have often in admissions interviews given the hypothetical example of my toaster blowing up as a starting point for a discussion on liability. This week, my toaster blew up. I am now worried I have nice mutant superpower.

My Inaugural Lecture, "Pure Imagination: Stories, Institutions and Law Reform", will be held on 17th November at King's. Do join if you can! (In-person only, but it will be recorded) www.kcl.ac.uk/events/inaug...

Enjoyed watching Darkest Hour for the first time tonight, and especially powerful after the events to mark the anniversary of VE Day today. Surprised that there wasn’t an end credits sequence pointing towards the October 1951 General Election though…

per ardua ad astra

Pope Francis led the Church with grace, courage and wisdom: as he wrote, “we should feel indignant, challenged to emerge from our comfortable isolation and to be changed by our contact with human suffering. That is the meaning of dignity.” May perpetual light shine upon him.

On Chesil Beach

Call for Papers! "Fresh Perspectives on Judging", a Symposium for emerging scholars in the field of judicial studies. We celebrate 5 years of our book series, Hart Studies on Judging & the Courts Full details: www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/call-pr...

Last lecture of the year done!

On Tuesday, I was very pleased to host a panel @innertemple.org.uk on "Handing Back the Past: Cultural Repatriation", with expert and insightful contributions from Mona Yapova of Mishcon de Reya and Gus Casely-Hayford OBE of V&A East. Here is the recording: www.innertemple.org.uk/education/ed...

For anyone who missed this very important news, Jennie the guide dog crossed the floor of the House of Commons yesterday to be stroked by Labour MPs She was then summoned by the Lib Dem Chief Whip for a very stern word

The prison population is creeping up again. It was 87,556 last week. While that is lower than this time last year (88,081), it is up nearly 2,000 in just two months from January (85,853). www.gov.uk/government/p...

Sunday roast - pork with sweet potatoes, asparagus with lemon & mozzarella, and homemade apple sauce

NEW: Peter Kyle has had his ChatGPT prompts released under FOI. An unprecedented move, secured by @stokel.bsky.social. What does it mean? Google searches next - and some sweaty palms in Whitehall… My analysis of a rare FOI win: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

My article "Professional Negligence in 2024 - The Year in Review" has been published in the Journal of Professional Negligence (2025) 41 JPN 5-24. If you'd like critical examination of the key cases over the past year, along with puns, this might be for you!

"This is an unusual probate claim in that the deceased says she is very much alive." Quite the case here... caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/ch/2025...

Delicious Sunday roast at Unwined near Waterloo!

Tonight!

Made a slightly wonky pie…

“How’s Sunday Homework Club going?”

This was terrific. I give it 3 out of 3 Tomorrows.

Anytime you’re Lambeth way…

Reminder: call for papers remains open for Inner Temple symposium "After 1925: Reflecting on 100 years of Property Legislation" on 10 April. Deadline 17 Feb. Here's my own paper abstract: "Equity, Ancient and Modern" www.innertemple.org.uk/events/?id=E...

Alan Garner: not a fan of TS Eliot

Only just learned that there is a Royal Family in Paw Patrol. Given the powers conferred on the mayors, I always assumed it was set within a federal republic.

The Day of the Triffids

Might write a hypothetical problem about a hypothetical law professor who hypothetically trips on the last stair and hypothetically gets a cartoonish lump on his forehead from the window frame

Some new extra roles this year - I look forward to contributing on the Education and Training Committee @innertemple.org.uk, as Vice-Chair of the Chancery Bar Assoc Academic Liaison Sub-Committee & as Chair of the Property Bar Assoc Law Reform Sub-Committee. www.kcl.ac.uk/people/james...

This decision has an interesting point on limitation periods and foreign judgments. But of wider interest is that the appellants relied in their appeal bundle on a summary of Flynn v. Breitenbach [2020] EWCA Civ 1336. That case is entirely made up. caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/kb/2025/42

Congratulations Jim! Really very proud of you indeed and look forward to your scholarly contributions in the future! Many thanks to the examiners Dr Hughes and Prof Hickman KC for their rigorous engagement and real insights. And to Prof Ewing for chairing the viva.

A really interesting example of public consultation on law reform informing a Government decision here. An initial proposal to stop storing physical historic wills and move to digitised versions (with the physical copies destroyed) has been abandoned assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/677e4b...

Metropolis

“I find London lovelier to paint each day”

Final outing to make it 3,052 miles run this year! That’s equal to The Proclaimers + Vanessa Carlton + (6.5 x Eminem)

Alarming scientific forecasts show that, at current rates, by 2040 23% of all European adults will be a current or former manager of Manchester United. #MUNNEW

“The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense without, that … the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale.”