Anurag Deb

@anuragdeb

PhD candidate at Queen's University Belfast. Looking at legislative drafting. Research Officer at the Northern Ireland Assembly. Looking at the Windsor Framework. Interested in devolution, public law, politics and climate change. He/him

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Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· 3d

After the fiasco with Prada and the definititely-not-inspired-by-the-Kolhapuri-chappal, Diptyque has gentrified a 40p mosquito repellent 😭 www.independent.co.uk/life-style/d...

A coiled "scented spiral" called Citronnelle Incense, on a gold stand, from Diptyque.

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Jun 26

Ah the nostalgic taste of an Indian summer 🌞

A can of jal jeera: a slightly fizzy drink flavoured with cumin and other spices.

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Apr 30

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...

Northern Ireland Assembly Research and Information Service Research Paper, "The end of EU customs duty relief for small value goods in Northern Ireland"

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Mar 28

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

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Jan 7

Today's view from the office

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Jan 6

The birthplace of the European Union* *before it was the EU.

Hall of the Horatii and the Curiatii, Appartamento dei Conservatori, Palazzi del Campidoglio, Rome. The Treaties of Rome were signed here, establishing the European Communities in 1957.

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Dec 8

I'm unsure what the proper US analogue would be, but this is imo the principle in its fullest extent:

R v Home Secretary ex parte Pierson https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199798/ldjudgmt/jd970724/piers04.htm

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Nov 30

Without citing Kenneth Branagh, name a Shakespeare adaptation. This is the final film in a fantastic trilogy of Shakespeare adaptations.

Haider (2014), directed by Vishal Bhardwaj

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Nov 29

Drake Hotline bling meme. In the top panel, Drake says no to "Singapore on the Lagan". In the bottom panel, Drake says yes to "Singapore on the Clanrye"

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Nov 27

Somehow, I don't think the NI Executive or the NI Assembly want *me* in charge of drafting legislation (but I would have a *lot* of fun 😊)

LinkedIn recommendations for "Top job picks for you": First Legislative Counsel

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Nov 26

Lots of interesting things come out of the advisory opinion (2025 INSC 1333 for comparative law nerds like me) but I think this is among the most important: 3/

Re Assent, Withholding or Reservation of Bills by the Governor and the President of India 2025 INSC 1333, para 51:

"We are of the firm opinion that if two interpretations are possible, then an interpretation that favors a dialogic process, which encourages institutional comity and deliberation between constitutional institutions ... must be preferred over an interpretation that limits or eschews such a dialogue."

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Nov 25

The judgment is currently only available in French or Polish so my understanding is either basic or non-existent (+ Google translate is hardly authoritative as a matter of EU law), BUT: I think this is one of the more significant points: 1/

Para 76: Enfin, il convient de préciser que tant l’article 20 et l’article 21, paragraphe 1, TFUE que l’article 7 et l’article 21, paragraphe 1, de la Charte se suffisent à eux-mêmes et ne doivent pas être précisés par des dispositions du droit de l’Union ou du droit national pour conférer aux particuliers des droits invocables en tant que tels. Dès lors, si la juridiction de renvoi devait constater qu’il n’est pas envisageable d’interpréter son droit national de manière conforme au droit de l’Union, elle serait tenue d’assurer, dans le cadre de ses compétences, la protection juridique découlant pour les justiciables de ces dispositions et de garantir le plein effet de ceux‑ci en laissant au besoin inappliquées les dispositions nationales concernées (voir, en ce sens, arrêts du 17 avril 2018, Egenberger, C‑414/16, EU:C:2018:257, points 78 et 79, ainsi que du 3 juin 2025, Kinsa, C‑460/23, EU:C:2025:392, point 72).

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Oct 30

I had a few US legal academics come for me in the 9th circle of Hell (aka X/Twitter) for a joke about how American law review articles can sometimes be self-indulgent books in disguise. This is on another level (of dreadful).

"i ain't reading all that
i'm happy for u tho
or sorry that happened"

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Oct 28

I am especially fascinated by this bit, as if the tort of defamation is essentially a requirement that you pay for the privilege of trashing someone's reputation (it isn't).

"Coogan starred in the film and was also join writer of the script.

Taylor told the Daily Mail that his portrayal in the film was “monstrous” and the film – which portrayed itself as a true story was “nonsense”.

He said the film “Created an impression of a male-dominated and misogynistic university intent on minimising Philippa Langley’s achievements, something we never did – we co-operated at every step and I had a good relationship with her.

“But in order to make that narrative work, all the brilliant female academics who took part in the project are airbrushed out.”

Coogan himself said yesterday: “That is the story I wanted to tell, and I am happy I did.”

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Oct 23

QUB Law is getting in the Halloween mood with photorealistic depictions of parliamentary sovereignty and the royal prerogative

Two skeletons dressed in t-shirts which read "Queen's University Belfast School of Law". One skeleton has the name tag "Boneo", the other one "Ghouliet".

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Sep 24

No, it doesn't. The amnesty *itself* (among other things) is under challenge in the UKSC. Does no one read anything before publishing these days?

The Telegraph, "Starmer's plan to scrap amnesty for Troubles veterans faces Supreme Court challenge"

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Sep 19

Proofs on a forthcoming chapter in a collection about Extrajudicial Communication edited by @helenetyrrell.bsky.social and Conall Mallory. This was fun to write 😊 And no: the Marmite toast reference isn't clickbait; one judge had a very special interest in it.

"Ermine trims and Marmite toast: judicial portraits from extrajudicial aesthetics"

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Sep 19

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Sep 19

Omg you mean to tell me that the Legacy approach which had considerably more public buy in and safeguards was in the end the better one to implement? BBC News - New Troubles legacy deal 'a day and night improvement' www.bbc.com/news/article...

"London and Dublin believe the two bodies reflect what was agreed, but never implemented, under the Stormont House Agreement in 2014"

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Sep 3

And Dillon isn't the only case which presents a problem for the report. In NIHRC & JR295, Humphreys J arrives at the same conclusion as Dillon (note, JR295 predated the Court of Appeal in Dillon, meaning Humphreys J came to this conclusion without being bound by Dillon):

Reading the B-GFA as a whole, it is apparent that its provisions and protections were broad in scope. As part of it, the UK Government undertook to incorporate the full sweep of ECHR rights into the law of Northern Ireland and make them directly enforceable in the courts. In Dillon Colton J held that the concept of “civil rights” encompasses “the political, social and economic rights which are recognised as the entitlement of every member of a community, and which can be upheld by appeal to the law.” (para [543]). By this measure, the rights of asylum seekers must come within the definition. In arriving at this conclusion, I have not found it necessary to engage with the “generous and purposive approach” advocated by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties but have relied on a first principles approach to the interpretation of the document.

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Aug 29

Post a movie from the year you were born. I was born in a pretty great year for film, but it had to be this one:

A poster for When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Aug 15

Today is Indian Independence Day. Sam Dalrymple's recent work, Shattered Lands, is a fascinating and engaging look at how the violent and tragic 1947 Partition was one in a series which tore up families, cultures and histories across a vast swathe of Asia. But it was also a personal read 1/

Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia, by Sam Dalrymple

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Aug 13

True, but I come from a religion where godhood in its female aspects is prominent alongside its masculine aspects & Hinduism is far, far, from a post-patriarchal utopia. Instead, women are often violently defined only through certain traits of divine femininity. No prizes for guessing which ones.

“Divine femininity is really a misinterpretation of a lot of … Eastern philosophical principles about embodying the masculine and the feminine within,” Chandrachud says. “When you remove these ideas of Eastern spirituality from their original containers and you commodify them under this Western principle, you end up with a very bastardized idea of what masculinity and femininity are supposed to be.” - "Divine Feminine" Advice on TikTok Is Just Part of the Alt-Right Pipeline | Teen Vogue https://share.google/6khIDAWq2Z6jaV7EZ

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Aug 11

Bike of self destruction meme. The bike rider is Farage, the bar is "weird shit" and the bike is "UK-EU relations". Farage puts the bar into the wheels of the bike, falls off and blames the EU.

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Aug 8

But what about the Sex Equality in Goods and Services Directive? Recitals 16 + 17 of the Directive say this: 2/

Sex Equality in Goods and Services Directive 2004/113/EC (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2004/113/oj/eng). Recitals 16 and 17 relate to exceptions where differences in treatment between men and women "may be accepted only if they are justified by a legitimate aim".

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Aug 8

And the CJEU continues to have relevance in broad swathes of NI equality law. E.g. this, from Richards in 2004 (yes, it was a pension age case but its central point derives from sex equality in primary EU law, not the directive at issue) could not be clearer: acquired, not birth gender, is key: 1/

Richards v Work and Pensions Secretary 2004 (EUR-Lex - 62004CJ0423 - EN - EUR-Lex https://share.google/RlkjFHqj89HwOvd2X), para 29: "Unlike women whose gender is not the result of gender reassignment surgery and who may receive a retirement pension at the age of 60, Ms Richards is not able to fulfil one of the conditions of eligibility for that pension, in this case that relating to retirement age."

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Aug 7

Arrived this morning 😀

Lewis Graham and Jenny Russell (eds) Public Law and the UK Supreme Court: Key Cases and Decisions (Routledge 2025)

Contents page for Public Law and the UK Supreme Court

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Jul 31

The Drake meme. Top panel: Drake says no to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Bottom panel: Drake says yes to the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Jul 30

Interesting places where my PhD continues to take me, part 651: the watermelon cheque

"A bank cheque, written on a watermelon, is nonetheless a cheque and even negotiable!"

David A Bearman and Richard H Lyttle, 'The Power of the Principle of Provenance' (1985-86) 21 Archivaria 14, 22.

Anurag Deb@anuragdeb· Jul 29

Lord Leggatt's Shvidler dissent ironically reminded me of: "Who writes the extraordinary dissent? The one man minority decision whose time hasn't come but 20 years later, some circuit court clerk digs it up at 3 in the morning. Brennan rallying against censorship, Harlan's jeremiad on Jim Crow?"