New VCLG series coming up! Looking forward to the online discussions, and hope to see lots of you there!

Missing from the coverage of redundancies at Edinburgh: this was done in such a haphazard, uncoordinated way, there are now core teams who have gone from 5 people to 1 with no change in workload or pressure and huge loss in knowledge of institutional process. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2576321...

Please re-share this - there aren't many permanent law jobs available in the UK right now! #academicjobfairy

The only positive thing that’s come out of this horrifying “review” is that the responses feel like old academic Twitter, which I am happy to now see on BlueSky. Like James, I couldn’t get past the first footnote, and every snapshot I’ve seen makes this one of the worst things I’ve ever read.

This is today! Come and join us at 3pm, we look forward to discussing!

Next week, Wednesday 10 December, we will discuss the recent Scots Law decisions - Daly v HM Advocate and Keir v HM Advocate - which change the position on the admissibility of sexual history and character evidence. We hope to see you then!

🔴 NEW: The University of Edinburgh has quietly paid more than £750,000 to a controversial consulting firm amid job cuts - staff say bosses ignored "repeated" questions about its role. Read more about 'Nousferatu' 👉 www.theferret.scot/p...

Join us thus Wednesday at 3pm, to discuss Ellens Nowell’s paper “Narratives of Criminal Justice and Sexual History Evidence Rules”. Link for seminar has been sent out this morning to our mailing list. We hope to see you then!

Of all the things we could copy from Denmark, we choose this????????? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

📣Join us today for the first #YCLF 2025-26 Seminar, we'll discuss @drfassnidge.bsky.social's paper 'The Deliberative Stage of Criminalisation and Political Turn: Theories of Criminalisation' 📅 Today, 3-4:30 pm online & @sheffielduni.bsky.social To attend, visit sites.google.com/view/yclf/

We’re delighted to share the details of this Workshop in Legal Epistemology, co-organised by Tsampika Taralli (UoE) and Alex Houghton (Stirling). The event will take place at the University of Stirling on Oct 27th, 2-7 pm. Further info & a registration link at: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/workshop-o....

Yay. Priceless. The right column at the right time. And a gleefully English two fingers to the haters.

Just when one thinks things can’t get much worse and something’s got to give, we get things like this…

Very much looking forward to this, and to getting a chance to discuss with colleagues in the YCLF. Should be a blast!

Please help me get the word out about the new websites for Legal Theory Blog and the Legal Theory Lexicon. Reposting here and on other social media sites is great. It would be especially helpful if law school faculty members could send an email to their colleagues with the new addresses.

Migrants already "earn the right to settlement" through extortionate visa costs, which can run into tens of thousands of pounds. They prop up key services, including through the Immigration Health Surcharge. Pushing the hostile environment on steroids helps no-one. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The quickest way to finish an article is to start it. It also helps if you can stay away from social media, tv and the internet. And your cell phone. And other people. You should also fight urges to clean and organise spaces, and to cook big meals. In other words, it’s difficult to finish articles.

An in memoriam piece by @fionaleverick.bsky.social and me for the incomparable Sir Gerald Gordon, who died last week at the age of 96: www.uofgschooloflaw.co.uk/blog/2025/9/...

More hiring at Surrey Law School! Open-area Lecturer position (Research & Teaching) - deadline Thu 2 October 2025. THE POSITION IS GENUINELY OPEN re: research focus, so all interested parties should apply. Please circulate to anyone you think might be interested! jobs.surrey.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

This is a great piece (and if you are staff or a student at a British university, you might find you can log in to the FT through shibboleth etc…)

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

With Matt Dyson (Oxford), Rachel Tolley (Cambridge), & Paul Jarvis (Criminal Bar Association), I will host the next Assize Seminar in Criminal Law at UCL Laws on 7 Nov. Speakers include: @jonathanherring.bsky.social, Jessica Corsi, Findlay Stark. Info + (free) tickets: www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/...

Textbook Launch Event🚀 Join us for this in-person event @edinburghnapier.bsky.social on 7 Oct 3-5pm where we bring together a range of voices to reflect on where Scottish criminal justice is and where it's going. Register your place now 👇 bit.ly/criminal-jus...

NEW: An Oxford report warns that misleading media coverage is shaping public debate on immigration and human rights. The study finds the ECHR is frequently misreported in deportation cases, fueling misconceptions that erode trust in the legal system. 🧵 [1/8]

Ooh we've opened our call for small research grants. £10k for any humanities or social sciences research. Open to independent scholars. We use partial randomisation to allocate the funding: random allocation between all that meet the quality threshold www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/ba-l...

A new CfA from the VCLG for Spring 2026! If you fancy an engaging discussion of your work with a constructive group (if I do say so myself), please do join us. Looking forward to seeing your work! 🤓

After a month and a half as a visiting fellow at the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg, I leave with great memories, renewed friendships, and an almost complete manuscript draft for my book. Thanks to @phirsch.bsky.social and everyone in the Criminal Law Theory Research Group for a wonderful time!

I considered writing a long carefully constructed argument laying out the harms and limitations of AI, but instead I wrote about being a hater. Only humans can be haters.

We exist on social media now! We look forward to keeping you posted on our events, our calls for abstracts, and general research news from members of our group. Follow us and we hope to see you online at our events!

Do you have demonstrated ability to make decisions and capacity to absorb information with a common-sense approach? Join the CQAS to uphold professional standards and develop your skills and professional insight of criminal legal assistance. 🔗https://bit.ly/SolQCAS

Congrats to the Dons, great effort! Maybe the Hibs will do better next season, but I’m also happy to see the Dons doing well. Well done!

Show us your writing process in a gif

Completely flabbergasted 🫠

Great first day in York at the first @clphjournal.bsky.social conference. Lively discussions, an amazing crowd of criminal law theory scholars, and so many opportunities to learn about everyone’s thought-provoking work. More this afternoon and tomorrow! 🥳🤓

This is a horrifying ruling, but in practical terms, where they think they're injecting clarity, they're creating additional confusion. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

A great hybrid session of the Virtual Criminal Law Group with @mattmatravers.bsky.social in Edinburgh, speaking about public nuisance offences and their rationales. Lovely to see friends and to have such a great discussion!

Call for Papers: Re-Imagining Counter-Terrorism Law Workshop Come and talk to us in Birmingham about your interesting research in the area of counter-terorrism.

Our annual Call for Abstracts is out! We really look forward to reading about your fascinating research as we select the speakers for our 2025/2026 Seminar Series. Also, feel free to share this call with your friends and colleagues. You can find more details (including deadlines) below:

🚨BOOK LAUNCH - The Criminal Justice Centre at QMUL is delighted to host the launch of @chloekennedy.bsky.social 's Inducing Intimacy: Deception, Consent and the Law with an amazing panel incl @markedsouza1.bsky.social 📍QMUL (hybrid) 🗓️ Wed 9 April at 6 pm www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launc...

Lecturer in Legal Theory (R&T) - University of Glasgow: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMA841/l...

Habemus Maastricht Jurisprudence Reading Group! The MJRG provides a venue to discuss classic and contemporary debates in legal philosophy. It is part of the Maastricht Centre for Law & Jurisprudence @um-foundations.bsky.social Check us out! www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/research/maa...

This Friday, @chloejskennedy.bsky.social outlines the argument in her recent book, Inducing Intimacy: we should consult the genealogy of legal responses to deceptively induced sexual/romantic relationships when evaluating how the law regulates such conduct: criminaljusticetheoryblog.wordpress.com

Güver on Motive and Criminal Law, https://buff.ly/3Qa6f3P - Levin Güver (University College London, Faculty of Law) has posted The Unity of Motive on SSRN.

If you're an early career researcher - perhaps based in a fledgling authoritarian state - and want an out, @britishacademy.bsky.social offer 2-year fellowships to come to a UK university (including relocation costs and research funds). www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/inte...

We are now here too! 🥳 Follow us for events on Jurisprudence in Oxford. Here is our termcard, in case you haven't seen it:

In a letter to the Home Secretary, the Science and Technology Committee has said that high visa fees and the Immigration Health Surcharge costs affect the UK's ability to attract STEM talent. It argues that the health surcharge should be paid in instalments, rather than up-front.

Hello Blue Sky! Follow for regular updates on upcoming and new posts on the Criminal Justice Theory Blog, where we discuss interesting ideas in simple terms. And while you are at it, skim through our back catalogue, and get in touch if you'd like to pitch us a piece. 🤓

CFP: UNDERSTANDING MISCARRIAGES OF JUSTICE - One Day Conference 28 May @qmul.ac.uk. How and why do miscarriages of justice happen and what do we understand and learn (or not) from them? We welcome submissions on any relevant topics, such as #PostOffice #CCRC, #SJP docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Prosecutions, evidence, and mind-set material in terrorism cases 📄 Fresh off the presses and delivered this week to enjoy in print form. For anyone who does not receive Legal Studies in the mail however, fear not! The paper is available open access: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

In our next post, @should-b-workin.bsky.social argues that, to a limited extent, the criminal law can fairly take D’s actions to manifest traits/attitudes even when we know that D does not actually possess them! Under what conditions? Find out this Friday on criminaljusticetheoryblog.wordpress.com!