Sitemap - 2025 - The Empty City - a law and polity blog
Jane Austen as a writer about law
“Twelfth Night Till Candlemas” - one year on
Trump v BBC: the battle begins
The correct way to go around reviewing the ECHR
Extremism, conformity, and the problem of law
How the BBC censored the line that Trump is “the most openly corrupt president in American history”
What do you do with unlawful orders?
Trump v the BBC cont'd: an odd and desperate letter from the US media regulator
Will the United States body politic finally eject Trump?
Why the BBC is right not to pay damages to Trump
Performative Litigation Letters
The letter the BBC could send back to Trump
A close look at Trump's $1 billion claim against the BBC
The BBC's depressing lack of inherent institutional strength
The real problem which blights our prison and punishment system
Equal and opposite effects: how liberals are working out to how to campaign in the modern age
Trapped in a latter-day Plato's cave
An instance of the royal prerogative
Hallowe'en appeal (a footnote)
Calling for political opponents to be prosecuted...
Why 'A House of Dynamite' is a good film about how those with power make decisions
Either public safety is an absolute priority at sporting events or it is not.
An odd DPP letter and a curious government witness statement
Did the CPS make a fundamental mistake with the charging decision in the Chinese spying case?
What the Chinese spying case witness statements reveal
Trying to make sense of the nonsensical decision to drop the Chinese spying prosecutions
Freedom is just another word for "a gap in the law"
The Prime Minister's extraordinary and significant statement on MI5 misleading the High Court
Recognition of Palestine is ultimately a political not a legal question
The curious dropped prosecution for Chinese spying
The proscription of Palestine Action as a case study of terrorism law
The assessment of Palestine Action as being involved in terrorism
What Banksy's RCJ mural maybe gets wrong
One way for a civil war to begin is for a constitution to break down
Yes, an incoming illiberal and radical UK government would have absolute constitutional power
Who has control over "legitimate" coercive and lethal force?
"...everything is going to be alright"
The recognition of Palestine - a footnote to yesterday's post
On the recognition of Palestine
Whatever happened to conservative constitutionalism?
Constitutional law during a carnival of cruelty
What to know about court orders, injunctions, and super-injunctions
Afghan super-injunction now published
Why have the terms of the now-discharged Afghan super-injunction not been published?
A super-injunction has been revealed
The Sotomayor dissent that is for the ages
The US Supreme Court judgment on injunctions - what Justice Barrett said
The significant Supreme Court judgment on universal injunctions
If international law suddenly did not exist, what difference would it make?
Two small liberal steps forward, against the gale of illiberalism
A postcard from a spectator of a constitutional crisis
Explaining a 31-month sentence for a tweet
A close reading of the "AI" fake cases judgment
How the United States constitutional crisis is intensifying
A note about injunctions in the context of the Abrego Garcia case
How Trump is misusing emergency powers in his tariffs policy
How Trump's tariffs can be a Force Majeure event for some contracts
The significance of the Wisconsin court election result
"But what if...?" - constitutional commentary in an age of anxiety
A significant defeat for the Trump government in the federal court of appeal
Reckoning the legal and practical significance of the United States deportations case
Making sense of the Trump-Roberts exchange about impeachment
Understanding what went on in court yesterday in the US deportations case
"Oopsie" - the word that means the United States has now tipped into a constitutional crisis
The president who believes himself a king
Making sense of what is happening in the United States
Why Donald Trump is not really "transactional" but anti-transactional
From constitutional drama to constitutional crisis?
Looking critically at Trump's flurry of Executive Orders
A third and final post about the 'Lettuce before Action' of Elizabeth Truss
Of Indictments and Impeachments, and of Donald Trump
Why did the DoJ prosecution of Trump run out of time?