Next Tuesday, 27 January (16-18h, on site and online), we will host @ingovenzke.bsky.social (UvA) at our Maastricht Foundations of Law Colloquia. Title: "Fossil Sovereignty: The Struggle for the Law in the Climate Crisis." Register here: www.aanmelder.nl/169090/subsc... @lawinmaastricht.bsky.social

"Key to all of this is understanding that US companies are explicitly going to be used to enforce US national security interests. And that includes the US technology companies that are at the heart of our national infrastructure and embedded into our everyday lives."

It’s 1990, I’m 1 years old, and the republican president of the US is attacking a petrol state It’s 2004, I’m 15 years old, and the republican president of the US is attacking a petrol state It’s 2026, I’m 37 years old, and the republican president of the US is attacking a petrol state

Best thing I’ve read this morning, from a human rights lawyer in Mexico. Translation is in the ALT-text.

The legal assessment of the US intervention is not, in fact, complex

Heute wäre ein guter Tag um mit den Beschwichtigungen aufzuhören & ein Programm für eine souveräne EU aufzulegen. Mit mehr Integration & Investitionen in erneuerbare Energien, gemeinsame Sicherheit & eine eigene digitale Infrastruktur - um uns von den Trumps dieser Welt unabhängig zu machen.

Merz: "Die rechtliche Einordnung des US-Einsatzes ist komplex. Dazu nehmen wir uns Zeit." Man muss kein Völkerrechtler sein, um zu wissen, dass hier gar nichts komplex ist - außer der Angst von Friedrich Merz klare Worte für diesen illegalen Angriff auf ein souveränes Land zu finden.

“I don’t need a machine, I have a community” is such a lovely way of putting what academia is, can and should be

This thread! 👇🏻 With genAI, I keep coming back to two questions: 1. What are we outsourcing? 2. Who are we outsourcing to? The answers to either don’t make me inclined to use it…

Pre-announcement: on Tuesday, 27 January (16-18h), we will host Alexander Somek (Vienna) at our Maastricht Foundations of Law Colloquia. He will present his paper "Republicanism and Liberal Democracy: Transformations of our Political." @lawinmaastricht.bsky.social

Elsevier's 'reading assistant' appeared for the first time for me today, on this of all articles. 📚

All travelers from ESTA countries (yes the ones on visa waiver programs) will have to disclose 5 years of social media + huge amounts of personal data to enter the US now. All US academic associations should now meet outside the US if we want to meet our international colleagues.

Stop de sloop! Vanmiddag stond ik met duizenden op de Dam om te protesteren tegen de desastreuze onderwijsbezuinigingen, nota bene doorgezet door een demissionair, ultraminoritair rompkabinet. Lees hierover ook dit opinieartikel in NRC van afgelopen donderdag 4 december: lnkd.in/ety2QdZe

🚨 Vacancies at Maastricht in research programme "Europe: Society, Politics and Global Order" (do share!) - Assistant Prof Political Philosophy in Euro Democracy - Assistant Prof Euro Political History - PostDoc Disinformation and Euro Democracy vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl/search/?crea...

Today, higher education in NL takes to the streets once again to fight against budget cuts and for science, education, critical thinking and solidarity. 🟥 #WOinActie 🟥

In zijn opiniestuk in de NRC (4-12) roept de ex-minster van OCW feitelijk op tot wetenschappelijk passivisme: we mogen ons niet bemoeien met de politiek. Beste ex-minister: dat kan niet.

I am very pleased to share I will be returning to Maastricht University, my alma mater, to give a public talk on my book 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘋𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘌𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦 (Hurst/Oxford). When: Monday 19 January, 20:00 Where: Auditorium, Minderbroedersberg 4-6 www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/nl/events/pr...

Ik moet toegeven dat ik de afgelopen twee jaar gefascineerd ben geweest door de figuur van Eppo Bruins: minister van onderwijs, cultuur en wetenschappen in een kabinet dat onderwijs, cultuur en wetenschappen zo snel mogelijk wilde afschaffen. neerlandistiek.nl/2025/12/onde...

As of today, I'm officially an associate professor at @lawinmaastricht.bsky.social Thank you to everyone who's been part of the (academic) journey so far. I will let the gif below represent my joy and pleasure.

Kant's moral philosophy

I'm an "A.i." abolitionist. No consumer-facing LLMs or generative "A.i." in anything. Sure, machine learning in science and a few other limited applications is fine. But consumer-facing LLMs and generative "A.i." that are based on theft, push disinfo, and can be manipulated by billionaires? No.

It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick. Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.

Join us in Maastricht on 14 November for the VSR–VWR Symposium: Vulnerability and the Law – Multidisciplinary Perspectives. A full day of engaging talks and discussion on how vulnerability shapes law, justice, and society. 🕓 Register by 10 November → www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/events/vsr-v...

Absolutely fucked that I now have to consent to an AI scanning my data to improve Wiley’s systems in order to publish in a top journal. As if they don’t profit enough from hosting my intellectual property. My data is now a training pipeline.

I was thinking of being a bat for Halloween, but I just couldn't imagine what it would be like.

🟥 D-Day voor de democratie vandaag. Maar ook voor onderwijs en onderzoek! Onderstaand overzicht geeft een idee op basis van NL verkiezingsprogramma's. Geen verdere bezuinigingen! via @remcobreuker.bsky.social

Elections today in the Netherlands. As a foreigner (former study migrant here), I am not allowed to vote, so I can only keep an eye on the liveblogs and hope for the best. Beste Nederlanders: ik hoop dat jullie met hart en verstand tegen fascisme stemmen vandaag!

When your Halloween decorations are getting pretty niche but you are having fun For you @drnajimagi.bsky.social ❤️

📣THREAD: It’s surprising to me that so many people were surprised to learn that Signal runs partly on AWS (something we can do because we use encryption to make sure no one but you–not AWS, not Signal, not anyone–can access your comms). It’s also concerning. 1/

#OAweek Support diamond #openaccess scholar-controlled journals, such as those listed at freejournals.org.

Wir sehen daran auch, dass gerade Geistes- & Sozialwissenschaften 1 enormes Potential zukommt, um menschenfeindliche, demokratiegefährdende Politik als solche zu benennen & zu analysieren. Und ja, genau deshalb stehen diese Disziplinen von rechts außen derart unter Druck!

Kennen jullie deze website al? alledaagsantifascisme.nl

Tomorrow, Oct. 22, 16-18h, ‪Maastricht Centre for Law & Jurisprudence‬ @lawinmaastricht.bsky.social: Anne Ruth Mackor (Groningen): On Bayesian modelling of criminal cases as a whole. Please join us in Maastricht or online. For registration: Https://www.aanmelder.nl/169090/subscribe?survey_id=199377

Number of times the Wikipedia entry about the ship of Theseus has been edited since it was published in 2003 : 2,052 Number of sentences from the original entry that remain today : 0 October 2025 • Source: Harper's research

Cartoon van het jaar, wmb. #Tjeerd

Analyse van de partijprogramma's van de verschillende politieke partijen aangaande hun plannen met het wetenschappelijk onderwijs. Maakt het wat makkelijker te besluiten wat te stemmen, wat mij betreft. #WOinActie

If you think that professors exist as repositories of knowledge that students ask for answers, you’re missing the entire point of a college education. We’re here to teach students how to do research, how to analyze and argue, how to think for themselves — how to find the answers on their own.

Some thoughts on publishing venues as heuristics in evaluating academics, commercial publishing, and the rise of fascism: amwaltermann.com/2025/10/15/o...

Als @arjenlubach.bsky.social nog even zo doorgaat, kunnen we binnenkort een opleiding Nederlands recht en politiek in elkaar timmeren puur op basis van z'n video's.

Disbar them now. This is not a matter of professional ethics or about the function of the courts: this is a battle between nihilism on the one side and the conviction that shit matters on the other.

Me, some days: Wow, I can't believe how much I am getting done today! It feels good to cross so many things off my to-do list! *whistles happily* Next day, every single time: My brain does not work at all today. I wonder why, no one can tell, it will be a mystery forever. #AcademicSky

This is a thoughtful essay, which I recommend. In my neck of the woods, some of the most influential literatures (Parfit & population ethics, animal ethics, longtermism, etc.) make strikingly revisionary claims, with many authors claiming precisely that "common sense morality" is inconsistent/wrong.

In recent decades, authority has mainly been treated as a reason-based concept within legal philosophy, understood through practical reasoning Here, I analyse this choice & its theoretical & practical consequences - and why we may want to reconsider it 👇 dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781...

Timeline cleanser 🐈

Either real-time bidding data or app SDK data is being bought and used by ICE to seize people from the streets. If you didn’t believe that the adtech stack is a human rights concern, I’m not sure what more evidence you need. www.404media.co/ice-to-buy-t...

Inderdaad: de universiteit is geen talkshowtafel (en zou dat ook niet moeten worden ) 👇🏻

After having chaired the colloquia 38 times, next Wednesday I will be the one who will be grilled. Title: Why the right to bodily integrity is redundant in discussions on childhood vaccination Join us in Maastricht or online. We serve wine. Https://www.aanmelder.nl/169090/subscribe?survey_id=199377

👇👇👇

Overtuigend hoofdartikel waarin @mickpersson.bsky.social een helder lijn trekt tussen VS en Nederland. www.volkskrant.nl/columns-opin...