Sign in

Benedict Douglas

@benedictdouglas.bsky.social
791 followers 357 following 82 posts

Law Lecturer. Trying to work out the nature of being human, sometimes by looking vacantly into space. Unique spellings© www.durham.ac.uk/staff/benedict-dou…

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
A statement from Exeter UCU branch @ucu.org.uk - please share far and wide.
16231273
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Applying for a grant to conduct research into why applying for a grant is uniquely dispiriting
020
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Ben Yong @bymyong.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
I‘m giving a public talk at UCL on Thurs 16 Oct. The title is “Bureaucracy and distrust: the civil service in the constitution” looking at the civil service’s constitutional foundations, and how it might respond to a populist govt. @sirJJkc.bsky.social will chair! www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/...
ucl.ac.uk
Hybrid | CLP - Bureaucracy and Distrust: The Civil Service in the Constitution
This lecture will be delivered by Dr Ben Yong, as part of the Current Legal Problems Lecture Series 2025-26
55026
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
The news of Conor Gearty's death has just been announced and I'm not coping. He was a mentor and the pole star in my constitutional thinking. He was also a great friend and fantastic fun to be around. I'm heartbroken for Aoife and the children.
1918050
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Whoever wrote this headline deserved the rest of the day off
theguardian.com
Where there’s a will there’s a whey: cheese producers lean into their craft as Trump tariffs bite
Europeans put their faith in centuries-old, all-natural production to maintain US custom
040
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
Academise a book: That's not my Justice or Rationality
120
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
You can replace the word "sovereignty" with "domination" quite easily in this article
020
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Lovely use of the phrase "constitutional Tetris" in explaining why lack of effective devolved (and local?) democracy in England enables Farage to stir up xenophobia
055
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Public Law Publications @publiclawpubs.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
Roger Masterman and Matthew Nicholson, "The Dissolution of Dualism" (Cambridge Law Journal, Ahead of Print) Link: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
THE DISSOLUTION OF DUALISM | The Cambridge Law Journal | Cambridge Core
THE DISSOLUTION OF DUALISM
176
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Joy Twemlow @joytwemlow.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Whenever I’m asked to explain phenomenology
062
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Prof Deirdre McCann @profmccann.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
Must-see Magna Carta event at Durham Cathedral on 15th October : Henry Jones @durham-university.bsky.social, @ruthhoughton.bsky.social & @benedictdouglas.bsky.social on Magna Carta's contemporary relevance, chaired by @thombrooks.bsky.social. Tickets: durhamcathedral.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
durhamcathedral.ticketsolve.com
Ticketbooth
052
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Aileen McHarg @aileenmcharg.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
Another opportunity to join Durham Law School as a three-year career development fellow in public law. A great Law School and a vibrant public law community with opportunities to teach in both core and optional modules, and excellent support for research. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNX378/c...
jobs.ac.uk
Career Development Fellow in Public Law at Durham University
Searching for an academic job? Explore this Career Development Fellow in Public Law opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.
12016
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Jeanette Winterson beautifully foreseeing the problem with AI art and in student essays in 1995
I do not want to argue here about great artists, I want to concentrate on true artists, major or minor, who are connected to the past and who themselves make a connection to the future. The rue artist is connected. The true artist studies the past, not as a copyist or a pasticheur will study the past, those people are interested only in the final product, the art object, signed sealed and delivered to a public drugged on reproduction. The true artist is interested in the art object as an art process, the thing in being, the being of the thing, the struggle, the excitement, the energy, that have found expression in a particular way, The true artist is after the problem. The false artist wants it solved (by somebody else).

Jeanette Winterson, Art Objects: Essays on Ecstasy and Effrontery (Johnathan Cape 1995) 12
010
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
The Assisted Dying Act will only create a general increase in self-determination and liberty if the wider inequalities of our society are addressed
011
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Jessie Blackbourn @jessieblackbourn.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Thanks to @publiclaw.bsky.social for publishing my article on decision making under the Prevent and Channel duties. So long in the writing that the Prevent Duty guidance and definition of extremism were updated and a review of Prevent was published, which didn't slow things down further at all.
0188
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Our duty dominated society is not ready for the legalisation of assisted suicide.
030
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Reskeeting for my UG Intro to Law class who had to do a problem question on whether Tintin could claim as a secondary victim if he suffered psychiatric injury if he saw Snowy injured in an accident.
Tintin and his immediate family member snowy (who is a also dog).
150
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Barend van Leeuwen @barendvanleeuwen.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
The Common Market Law Review has just published my new article: "Repositioning Free Movement of Services: A Substantive Perspective on the Structure and Dynamics of the Internal Market" kluwerlawonline.com/journalartic... @delidurham.bsky.social
082
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Call for papers for a major two-day conference on Legal Methodologies exploring the nature of the discipline, with really important keynote speakers. Any abstracts, if you are interested in participating, to be emailed to law.research@ncl.ac.uk by 7 July.
23832
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
It’s good to see the Committee explicitly recognise the existence or level of a Minimum Income Requirement is an ethical decision, as well as a political one. Preventing people from living with their family based on how much they earn is unethical, this should guide the political debate & decision
020
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
The Guardian @theguardian.com · 21/05/2025
Wild camping on Dartmoor is legal, supreme court rules
theguardian.com
Wild camping on Dartmoor is legal, supreme court rules
Case came to supreme court after court of appeal determined the term ‘open-air recreation’ included camping Wild camping will be allowed on Dartmoor after the supreme court ruled that a multimillionaire landowner was wrong to ban it on his land. Dartmoor was – until the legal action – the only place in England where wild camping without the permission of the landowner was enshrined in law. In Scotland, people have enjoyed this right since 2003. Continue reading...
924959
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
Looking forward to reading this and applying it to animal rights! @drjoshdoeslaw.bsky.social GEWIRTH REASERCH CLAXON 🚨🐑🚨
031
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
I'm giving a magic little paper tomorrow at 3pm: "NO JUSTICE, JUST US: Death & Love in Terry Pratchett's Discworld" Drop me a message me if you'd like a link
291
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Richard J @preachypreach.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWH...
Excited man meme summarising the case
76612
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Rereading one of my favourite articles, in which Sir John Laws explains parliamentary sovereignty is like a cat.
academic.oup.com
Constitutional Guarantees*
What I am going to talk about in this lecture is prompted by a very old chestnut. It consists in two linked questions: how, if at all, can special status b
010
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Standing up to the authoritarian wave requires more than cheerleading for democracy; it demands making democratic societies more participatory, responsive, and adaptable at all levels, from local to national, in response to the societal shifts driven by the Internet over the past 15 years.
341408400
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
The OJLS is red typos are few law reform needed open access for you
doi.org
Love and Human Rights
Abstract. This article explains and critiques the protection of love within judgments concerning relationships under the Human Rights Act 1998. Using theor
050
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Ben Yong @bymyong.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Parliament is a ‘they’. But it is also an ‘it’. Trying to expand my audience to public lawyers, parliamentary nerds and … metaphysicians
73516
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Alan Rusbridger @arusbridger.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Could it happen here? Could a Trump tribute act smash codes, conventions and laws in the UK? All too easily, I suspect. My column www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/dem...
prospectmagazine.co.uk
A British Trump tribute act could snatch power in the UK
Without a constitution for protection, British politics is vulnerable to its own version of extremism
1512147
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Second Reading @commonslibrary.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
The United Kingdom constitution – a mapping exercise commonslibrary.parliament.uk/resear…
011
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Wonderful to see the amazing Dr Kara Woodbury-Smith on bsky @kwhyphens.bsky.social
120
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
(Elizabeth) Chloe Romanis @ecromanis.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
My book is out today! 🌱 it’s about ontologies of gestation, and the classification, regulation and implications of technologies enabling gestation 🌱 the work was supported by research fellowships at @petrieflomcenter.bsky.social & E&L Safra Center & The Future of Human Reproduction project
78619
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
The Gavle Goat is on bsky, it’s an advent calendar with the mild peril of sudden spontaneous combustion
14519
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
The UK’s culture means some people are likely to choose assisted dying because they feel they have a "duty to die". The safeguards in the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill do not address this. In this post I suggest constitutional change is a way to reduce the danger
durham.ac.uk
The Need for a Constitutional Solution to the “Duty to Die” Concern - Durham University
110
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
Very true, which is why Durham staff and students created a guide to the UK Constitution with pictures! @ukconstitutionzine.bsky.social www.durham.ac.uk/research/ins...
durham.ac.uk
UK Constitution Zine - Durham University
4238
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Ruth Houghton @ruthhoughton.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
"Constitutional change, property, dissent, inequality and revolution are not the B-plot of the #Barbie film". New article by me, @colinmurray.bsky.social and @aoifemod.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
Kenstituent power: an exploration of feminist constitutional change in Barbie - Ruth Houghton, C. R. G. Murray, Aoife O’Donoghue, 2024
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie explores the influence of childhood dream worlds and toys over adult life, and the singular importance of a toy which represents an empowe...
0176
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Wearing pink for publication day! New out from @ruthhoughton.bsky.social, @aoifemod.bsky.social and me, our meditation on gender, power relations and constitutional change in #Barbie. Just because it's fun, this doesn't mean it's not also serious... journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
12011
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
UK Constitutional Law Association @ukcla.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Ben Yong: The quiet demise of constitutional boilerplate: or How special advisers can get their groove back ukconstitutionallaw.org/2024/11/13/b...
ukconstitutionallaw.org
Ben Yong: The quiet demise of constitutional boilerplate: or How special advisers can get their groove back
Sometimes we are so focused on big changes that we miss the mundane ones. But we shouldn’t. Sometimes a mundane change can tell us something about the character of a set of arrangements.  The new U…
066
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 05/11/2024
Every time someone uses the word "business" to describe what a university does an idea dies.
021
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
UK Constitution Zine @ukconstitutionzine.bsky.social · 04/11/2024
UK Constitution Zines off to Glasgow and Cornwall!
Two brown envelopes addressed to the Glasgow and Cornwall Zine Libraries
001
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Aoife O'Donoghue @aoifemod.bsky.social · 04/11/2024
My piece in the NILQ on the last #Trump term & tyrannical intent. Looking back the volume of things that happened is almost incredible - which is part of the issue - tyrannophobia - or the foolish fear of #tyranny #authoritarianism is nonsense - it should be feared! nilq.qub.ac.uk/index.php/ni...
2138
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 31/10/2024
000
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Josh Jowitt @drjoshdoeslaw.bsky.social · 29/10/2024
This one's special to me. When I rocked up to Cambridge as a first-gen student from Barnsley back in '06 I never thought I'd end up publishing in the Cambridge Law Journal. But here I am - my musings on inventorship for AI in the UKSC Thaler decision: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
TOMORROW YOU SHALL CEASE TO BE A MARIONETTE, AND YOU SHALL BECOME AN INVENTOR | The Cambridge Law Journal | Cambridge Core
TOMORROW YOU SHALL CEASE TO BE A MARIONETTE, AND YOU SHALL BECOME AN INVENTOR - Volume 83 Issue 2
051
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Patrick Smith @drpaddysmith.bsky.social · 22/10/2024
"Hello, is that Colin Archer? I'm an author of sailing-based adventure stories and I'd like to order a yacht." "Certainly. What sort of thing will you be using it for?" "Err, mostly leisure. Family cruises, weekends away. The armed liberation of Ireland."
The yacht Asgard in Collins Barracks, Dublin
3636
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
@ICONSGBIE @iconsgbie.bsky.social · 21/10/2024
Call for Papers 🔊 PGR/ECR WORKSHOP 30 April 2025 at the LSE in London
Detail of the Call for Papers - email iconsgbie@gmail.com
166
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 22/10/2024
October
BY ROBERT FROST
O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—
For the grapes’ sake along the wall.
020
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · 17/10/2024
look at this absolute unit
The absolute unit sheep; an Exmoor Horn ram
337161343387
Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social · 12/10/2024
So excited to take the @ukconstitutionzine.bsky.social to its first zine fair in Leeds today!
Flyer for Leeds zine fair, 12 Oct, 12-5pm, 2 Regent st, LS27QAPicture of goddess of Justice with scales and sword in a low fi resolution wit the words Law Zines next to it
030
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Jaakko Husa @husajaakko.bsky.social · 08/10/2024
Battle of the giants...
Huge dinosaurus monster labelled as "insular legal scholarship" fights huge baby hippo labelled as "comparative study of law"
142
Reposted by Benedict Douglas
Ben Yong @bymyong.bsky.social · 01/10/2024
Yay! Edited with @patrickcobrien.bsky.social; contributors incl Lord Sales, @aileenmcharg.bsky.social, Caroline Morris, @conormccormick.bsky.social, @chrismccork.bsky.social, Conor Gearty, Hélène Tyrell, Conall Mallory, Mara Malagodi, Meghan Campbell, Paul Daly, @efieldingd.bsky.social, Sionaidh DG
13312