Important for public understanding of the importance of judicial review in Ireland by @cathalmalone.bsky.social. Worth noting this has been UK Govts' playbook for years, and that arguably courts have adjusted behaviour (inc on standing) to head off criticisms: www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

New from @ethanshattock.bsky.social and me! Even if the UK authorities hadn't messed up the process in the Kneecap case, there is plenty to suggest that the prosecution would fall foul of Art10 ECHR freedom of expression. S13 TA 2000 is a really problematic offence: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

I really did naively hope that the weekend papers might see some attention towards the clerical child abuse Reports in NI, but no. Folk who shout loudly about the supposed threat of "alien cultures" have little interest in live safeguarding risks to kids in faith settings: dflw.ie/clerical-chi...

The lack of records/lax safeguarding approaches (particularly in small congregations) is flagged repeatedly in the report on current (underline - not historic) safeguarding. Emma Little-Pengelly is putting a really troubling gloss on these findings: www.executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk/sites/defaul...

The more I read, the worse it gets. The DFM statement on progress in faith settings is deeply disingenuous. It ignores repeated warnings about smaller churches and faith centres still having informal and inadequate practices - when this was key to the safeguarding failures re Donaldson:

The Oral History report is harrowing, but the Historical Records report is key - it makes a case as to exactly why a statutory inquiry is needed to get legal access to many records. That these recommendations are being brushed off is appalling: www.executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk/sites/defaul...

All three reports include recommendations, many of which align with those of the Truth Panel on Mother and Baby Institutions. But the Executive statement does not respond to any of them - they largely "welcome improvements" already made by faith bodies: www.executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk/news/first-m...

Wannabe Emperor finds clothes are in short supply.

The aftermath of the 12th in Belfast. Thinking of every crew that's spent a baking afternoon dealing with the aftermath of a celebrations by folk who loudly profess to love this place...

The Independent Panel on Institutional Abuse in NI highlights that the past really has not passed. NI got modernised adoption legislation in 2022. IT HASN'T BEEN COMMENCED. Even when the Assembly does make laws, still nothing happens: www.independentpanel.truthrecoveryni.co.uk/files/indepe...

Essential reading from @sylviademars.me and Eleni Frantziou on just how divorced from the reality of EU law the UKSC's approach to direct effect in Dillon actually is: eulawanalysis.blogspot.com/2026/07/doub...

Looking forward to seeing a good chunk of Farage's £5 million being redistributed to Philippe Sands in a defamation case. Farage has become so used to client journalism fawning over his every word that he thinks he can say whatever he wants about others...

Powerful kiss of death energy here... Drink as soon as you hear "in my lifetime":

As the BBC axes The Law Show, one intermittent half hour programme on Radio 4 is apparently too much content devoted to making legal issues accessible to the public. One more smug assertion of Reithian Values and I'm going to scream, because its not as if UK public legal knowledge is at a high...

One day on, the DUP's efforts to put distance between itself and Donaldson as having been betrayed by him are looking pretty threadbare...

Your regular reminder that this jackboot has been imposed (agreed?) by the UK Parliament and the trade and goods elements of the deal are regularly voted on by majority in Stormont (last in December 2024). If this is subjugation, well, those dictators in Brussels totally flunked Gulag class.

Archives demonstrate that Jeffrey Donaldson frequently played the hard ball negotiator in public and the emollient fixer behind the scenes, but rather than focus on the victims, Jim Allister is spinning a tale of compromat and the betrayal of the Union. Mad scenes: www.irishnews.com/news/norther...

The cry went up from thousands that "this isn't us" after the race riots, but days later masked men are forcing people out of another estate. And if we shrug and continue to live in a society that lets this happen, well then it's no surprise how the world will view NI: share.google/AE98ss3HdT9t...

Looking forward to binge consuming constitutional law scholarship at the ICON·S conference at UCD in Dublin next week. If you are going, please message to let me know, as I'm bound to miss folk in the 2000+ attendees, inexplicably indexed by first name... www.icon-society.org/wp-content/u...

Trial by facts scenarios are unusual, but this has happened in England (same law). I can't see any reason for the reporting of the case discounting this outcome. The relevant provisions about registered Sex Offenders (which applies in NI). Aiding and abetting sex offences is covered in schedule 3:

Much of the reporting of Eleanor Donaldson's case suggests that she might well be "free to go". But she has been found to have aided sexual offences in a trial by facts. Under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, she'll be subject to registration requirements for five years: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Today, of all days, it might have been wise for the DUP not to equate itself with Jeffrey Donaldson's victims. "We were so very wronged too" is not a good look: share.google/FjHxAHJHMrtc...

I had to repeatedly check this judgment didn't drop on April 1. It's got everything you could ask for in a made up problem question: ✅Freemen of the Land ✅Carlill v Carbolic Smokeball ✅An AI generated essay ✅The Judge is HHJ Blitz I mean. All too good to be true: www.bailii.org/ew/cases/Mis...

When Al Cairns is given a platform to decry ongoing Troubles-era investigations he avoids any focus on the repeated settlements and formal apologies which continue to be made in collusion cases. These inconvenient cases are written out of all "lawfare" complaints: www.irishnews.com/news/norther...

The EWCA's Ammori decision marks a dismal low in the courts' scrutiny of national security issues. In a new post on @verfassungsblog.de, @alangreene.bsky.social, @daniellalock.bsky.social and I examine the depressing tricks by which rights protections disappear: verfassungsblog.de/palestine-ac...

The problem with this point is not that it's wrong, it's that it was known from the outset that the Conservative Govt had given the NI legacy body insufficient resources. It was set up to fail, and its leadership is flagging this now to deflect mounting criticism: www.irishnews.com/news/norther...

The Guardian's concerns about the UK paying to enable French use of water cannon would give you whiplash. It's hard to to get worked up about French practice when every other para is a reminder this happens in NI. Policing by consent? That's for other people: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

More from me on Dillon, this time (in a first for me) in the Solicitors' Journal. I've heard it called a curate's egg of a judgment, but I fear this mess of a decision would turn the stomach of even the hardiest of curates: www.solicitorsjournal.com/sjarticle/di...

"The military should be able to kill people with no effective investigation because they are the good guys, and the state had better protect them, or else" is an utterly chilling message from Al Cairns. This is a blueprint for authoritarianism, sold as "it's only NI". share.google/15LttgHP1oZw...

There are a lot of politicians who have stoked up tensions in recent summers in NI. A lot of "hearing the concerns" of Loyalist communities. It's quite something to see Gavin Robinson, within a week of riots by Loyalist youths, using them to try to block increases to the age of criminality by PoC.