(Trigger warning: any sociologists among us may wish to avert their eyes to avoid spontaneous combustion resulting from exposure to the worst theory of social action I have seen in decades) For the rest of you, beware if you are “unhappy” or “looking for justice” you may be on the road to terrorism

Here are some thoughts on the new Court of Appeal Palestine Action ruling, written with @alangreene.bsky.social and @colinmurray.bsky.social for @verfassungsblog.de verfassungsblog.de/palestine-ac...

🚨 NEW PUBLICATION 🚨 Delighted to see our paper published open access in the @eui-law.bsky.social Working Papers series: hdl.handle.net/1814/95303 @martinscheinin.bsky.social and I critically examine the ECtHR's approach to mass surveillance and the future of Article 8 privacy protections.

Here we go: new @eui-law.bsky.social working paper by @sophieduroy.bsky.social and myself on the European Court of Human Rights and mass/bulk surveillance. We critique the ECtHR for its turn to proceduralism and reasonableness over the essence of HR & proper proportionality hdl.handle.net/1814/95303

🚨 NEW PUBLICATION 🚨 Delighted to see our paper published open access in the @eui-law.bsky.social Working Papers series: hdl.handle.net/1814/95303 @martinscheinin.bsky.social and I critically examine the ECtHR's approach to mass surveillance and the future of Article 8 privacy protections.

Excellent piece. Two key points, in my view: "The strike manufactured the war whose laws it now invokes for cover." "Whatever is permissible for Israel and the United States in 2026 is available to any state with the reach to attempt it in 2027."

Lawfare@lawfaremedia.org · 2mo ago

"Washington cannot undo the Khamenei strike, and it is in no position to condemn an operation it materially supported. What it can do, and ought to do, is formalize a legal position before the next conflict forces one out of it," writes William "Chip" Usher. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/kill...

The state of higher education in the UK, in a photo

The list of countries threatened with U.S. military intervention is growing · Venezuela 🇻🇪 · Iran 🇮🇷 · Cuba 🇨🇺 · Greenland 🇬🇱 · Canada 🇨🇦 …just this year! Do they all want "Liberation"? No, I argue in @foreignaffairs.com

Any attempt to fight this storm must start from the "recognition that the task facing a mature society is to adapt its methods of financing universities to sustaining the purposes for which such institutions exist – rather than, as at present, the other way round." Stefan Collini in @lrb.co.uk. 3/

Stefan Collini · Squadrons of Pigs: Bonfire of the Universities

The problems with Britain’s universities are systemic and deep-rooted, not just local or contingent. Yet political and...

lrb.co.uk

‘The truth is that both ministers and vice-chancellors are locked into a financial model whose premise is misconceived and whose side effects are profoundly damaging for higher education.’ Stefan Collini on the UK’s university problems, online now from the next issue. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Stefan Collini · Squadrons of Pigs

The problems with Britain’s universities are systemic and deep-rooted, not just local or contingent. Yet political and...

lrb.co.uk

Is it ever acceptable to kill a few to spare the many? Is assassination a powerful tool for the future? Great debate at HowTheLightGetsIn Festival with David Whetham and Roy Allison, hosted by Angie Hobbs and the Forum for European Philosophy.

Always.

University and College Union (UCU)@ucu.org.uk · 3mo ago

Equality is not conditional. Dignity at work is not negotiable. The EHRC Code of Practice has been published. UCU is examining it urgently. This is a significant and unsettling moment and we will not leave branches to navigate it alone. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1451...

Is it ever acceptable to kill a few to spare the many? Is assassination a powerful tool for the future? Great debate at HowTheLightGetsIn Festival with David Whetham and Roy Allison, hosted by Angie Hobbs and the Forum for European Philosophy.

Best thing I've listened to in a while. Great discussion on the current state of the international order, its future, and what we (scholars/states) can and should do.

Craig Martin@craigxmartin.bsky.social · 3mo ago

New episode of JIB/JAB - a fascinating and important discussion with @janinadill.bsky.social and @monicahakimi.bsky.social on how the attacks on Iran impact the crisis in int'l law, what follows, and how legal scholars and states should respond. Wherever you get your podcasts, or link in comment:

New essay, forthcoming in the inaugural issue of the Armenian Journal of International Law and already available on SSRN: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn... Comments welcome!

New essay, forthcoming in the inaugural issue of the Armenian Journal of International Law and already available on SSRN: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn... Comments welcome!

Available online now - a fantastic roundtable on The Polly Corrigan Book Prize Winner 2024, The Regulation of Intelligence Activities under International Law, by Sophie Duroy. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The Polly Corrigan Book Prize Winner 2024, The Regulation of Intelligence Activities under International Law

Published in Intelligence and National Security (Ahead of Print, 2026)

tandfonline.com

A roundtable on my book is now out in @intnatsecjournal.bsky.social Grateful for the thoughtful and generous engagements. A great interdisciplinary exchange on law, intelligence, and security, permitted by @kcsi.uk's Polly Corrigan Book Prize. doi.org/10.1080/0268... @elgarpublishing.bsky.social

A roundtable on my book is now out in @intnatsecjournal.bsky.social Grateful for the thoughtful and generous engagements. A great interdisciplinary exchange on law, intelligence, and security, permitted by @kcsi.uk's Polly Corrigan Book Prize. doi.org/10.1080/0268... @elgarpublishing.bsky.social

Trump nicely connecting the lawless boat strikes with his illegal war against Iran. The killing spree at sea was an inflection point as it established that the US military would in fact carry out unlawful orders and conduct patently illegal targeting.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4mo ago

Trump: "Iran’s Navy is completely obliterated. What we have not hit are small number of 'fast attack ships.' Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED, using same system of kill we use against drug dealers on boats. It is quick & brutal."

Good morning and goddamn it's a beautiful day iandunt.substack.com/p/orban-defe...

Orban defeated: Good morning and goddamn it's a beautiful day

All of a sudden, after months of total darkness, there is hope.

iandunt.substack.com

Important remarks on legal advisers' duty to say no @ejiltalk.bsky.social: www.ejiltalk.org/when-governm... I'd also encourage everyone to read David Luban's article on Lösener and von Moltke: scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/2368/ & Lavinia Parsi's excellent article: doi.org/10.1093/jicj...

When Government Lawyers Say No

There are times when government lawyers (including military legal advisors) are faced with a stark choice. Their political masters (or their superiors in the military) are clearly set on pursing a cer...

ejiltalk.org

This is an excellent piece. Beyond the Minab school strike and the very human decisions that led to it, it is a reminder that compressing the kill chain (through tech or otherwise) has always led to targeting errors - in violation of IHL. www.theguardian.com/news/2026/ma...

The killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei signals the end to the US ban on political assassinations, write Luca Trenta and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi. And, they say, "it opens the door for other States to embrace the use of force to eliminate foreign adversaries."

Khamenei’s Killing and the Perilous Death of the Assassination Ban

Khamenei’s killing ends U.S. ban on assassination, deepens U.S.-Israeli lethal ties, and invites States to abandon diplomacy for violence.

justsecurity.org

Thanks, Martin Sandbu for featuring me in this @financialtimes.com story on decapitation.

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 4mo ago

When, if ever, is it an appropriate tactic of war or foreign policy to engage in a 'decapitation strike' — the intentional targeted killing of the leaders of another state?  Martin Sandbu reports: ft.trib.al/ha31sQV

International law is increasingly cast as an obstacle to “just wars” against dictators. CHRISTOPHER JANZ shows why this narrative serves as a justification for abandoning the law as a practice to legitimise political actions. verfassungsblog.de/tyrannys-use...

The Minab strike placed squarely before the public a key question: how does the law governing war protect civilians when the intelligence supporting a strike is wrong, and what legal consequences flow from getting it wrong? From Joseph Orenstein: www.justsecurity.org/134350/legal...

When Intelligence Fails: A Legal Targeting Analysis of the Minab School Strike

The law of armed conflict demands that we take the Minab school strike seriously to learn, to reform, and to prevent the next failure.

justsecurity.org

Since we now know that the timing of the strikes and broader attack aimed at killing the senior leadership, maybe we can do away with legal sophistry, and call this an assassination? Just a thought. www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Exclusive: Trump approved Iran operation after Netanyahu argued for joint killing of Khamenei, sources say

Less than 48 hours before the strike on Iran, Netanyahu spoke by phone to President Trump.

reuters.com

‘The Israeli government wasn’t concerned with settling a political arrangement that would emerge on the “day after” – the lawn had to be burned to its roots.’ Online now from the next issue, Amjad Iraqi on the Israeli military playbook. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Amjad Iraqi · Short Cuts: From Gaza to Iran

It’s no surprise that Operation Roaring Lion (Israel’s name for its campaign) and Operation Epic Fury (as the US...

lrb.co.uk