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Liam Thornton

@liamthornton.bsky.social
229 followers 190 following 16 posts

I cosplay as a legal academic of legal systems, welfare, asylum & rights people.ucd.ie/liam.thornton

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Reposted by Liam Thornton
Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
My latest for the Contrarian on how Trump has weaponized the national budget to destroy university autonomy. open.substack.com/pub/contrari...
open.substack.com
Bullying universities
The Trump administration's pressures go beyond bespoke deals and attack all the ways universities are funded.
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Shona Murray @shonamurray.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Why is it still getting EU grant money?
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Sally Hayden @sallyhayd.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
In Jericho, the occupied West Bank, I met Palestinian fathers who were working in Israel before October 7, 2023, and have spent almost two years since unable to be reunited with their families. Report here: www.irishtimes.com/world/middle...
irishtimes.com
‘They are very weak, they’re thin, their minds have stopped’: Stranded fathers’ anguish over children in Gaza
Separated from their families by war and closed borders, Gazan workers describe life in limbo — haunted by hunger, loss and the voices of children they can no longer protect
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Andrew Forde @drandrewforde.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
🚨IDF firing 'warning shots' near diplomats is a violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations and sets an unacceptable precedent in international relations. My new piece in @theconversation.com theconversation.com/idf-firing-w...
theconversation.com
IDF firing ‘warning shots’ near diplomats sets an unacceptable precedent in international relations
Intimidation of diplomats is unacceptable and threatens the basis of international relations.
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Reposted by Liam Thornton
Catherine Briddick @catbriddick.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
'All States, including the UK, are legally obliged to take all reasonable steps within their power to prevent and punish genocide; to ensure respect for international humanitarian law... The UK’s actions to date have failed to meet those standards.' lawyersletter.uk
lawyersletter.uk
UK Judges’ and Lawyers’ Open Letter Concerning the Occupied Palestinian Territory - May 2025 - UK lawyers’ open letter concerning Gaza
Download the full letter and Legal Memorandum | View signatories London26 May 2025 We are lawyers, legal academics and former judges who are UK-based or qualified.  We write owing to our deep concern ...
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Ulster University School of Law @ulsterunischlaw.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
Join our team! We are advertising a Senior Lecturer post in Medical Law and Ethics in our Derry Londonderry Campus. Deadline 2 June. Full details and to apply at www.ulster.ac.uk/peopleandcul...
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Reposted by Liam Thornton
Emma O Kelly @emma-okelly.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
I joined colleagues in RTÉ to once again express our outrage at Israel’s continued killing of journalists in Gaza. Apart from the huge personal tragedy, targeting & killing journalists is also killing media freedom and the truth. #SupportPalestinianJournalists
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Irish Legal News @irishlegal.com · 26/05/2025
UCD Sutherland School of Law has launched a new Master’s scholarship in law memorialising the late Declan McCourt.
irishlegal.com
UCD launches new Master’s scholarship in law
UCD Sutherland School of Law has launched a new Master’s scholarship in law memorialising the late Declan McCourt.
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Nicola Carr @nicolacarr.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
There's still time to apply for this p/t post on project comparing penal supervision across 5 nations. Working with great team @bethweaver.bsky.social @fergusmcneill.bsky.social @drhannahgraham.bsky.social @jakephillips.bsky.social Fern Gillon & Sarah Doxat-Pratt. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMY924/r...
jobs.ac.uk
Research Fellow: Penal Supervision in Comparative Context (Part Time, Fixed-term) at University of Nottingham
Looking for a new job opportunity in academia? Check out this job opening for a Research Fellow: Penal Supervision in Comparative Context (Part Time, Fixed-term) on jobs.ac.uk!
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Liam Thornton @liamthornton.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
Open letter from lawyers and academics on Ireland’s international law obligations concerning Palestine ichrgalway.org/2025/05/23/o...
ichrgalway.org
Open letter from lawyers and academics on Ireland’s international law obligations concerning Palestine
Dear Taoiseach Micheál Martin, We, the undersigned, members of the legal profession and academy, are writing to express our deep concern at the Irish Government’s continued failure to take the nece…
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Reposted by Liam Thornton
Laurent Pech 🇺🇦 @profpech.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
"The Slovak law is a pivotal step in following the Kremlin’s playbook ... The draft Hungarian legislation represents a Rubicon. If enacted, it will forbid civil society organizations (CSOs) critical of the government to receive any form of support from abroad, including EU funding"
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Irish Examiner @irishexaminer.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
dlvr.it
Kneecap: Terror charge is 'carnival of distraction' and 'political policing'
In a statement on Thursday morning, the group said: 'We deny this 'offence' and will vehemently defend ourselves. This is political policing. This is a carnival of distraction'
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Donncha O’Connell @donnchalaw.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Eilis Barry of FLAC: What the rows over skorts and public toilets reveal about Irish attitudes to equality www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
irishtimes.com
Eilis Barry: What rows over public toilets and skorts reveal about Irish attitudes to equality and human rights
The two controversies bely the reality that Ireland has had 25 years of anti-discrimination legislation in relation to services, including public toilets, sports and sporting facilities
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Deirdre O'Shaughnessy @deshocks.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
On the tenth anniversary of Marriage Equality, an eloquent piece from Maria Ni Fhlatharta on the personal cost of the campaign. “A survey conducted after the referendum found that fewer than ​​one in four LGBT+ people would be willing to go through it again.” www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...
irishexaminer.com
Marriage equality 10 years on: 'I lost count of how many times I was called a pervert in my home town'
Forcing a community to plead on doorsteps for their rights has had long-term impacts on many LGBT+ people, argues Maria Ní Fhlatharta
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Joe Noonan @joenoonan.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
Food and yet they starved. Southern Star editorial. West Cork newspaper, based in Skibbereen.
Food and yet they starved. Editorial in Irish local paper sees atrocity in Gaza and parallels with Irish experience of man-made hunger in a time of plenty.
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Shamim Malekmian @shamimmalekmian.eurosky.social · 16/05/2025
"Sinn Féin officially banned from Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin after period of engagement," says this press release from Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin.
Sinn Féin banned from Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin march after period of engagement with party leaders

Last month, Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin released a statement calling on Sinn Féin to clarify their position on the UK Supreme Court and the ban on puberty blockers in Northern Ireland. This statement was released in light of public statements from David Cullinane and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn supporting the ruling.

Since then, Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin has undergone a period of engagement with the party, with numerous opportunities to explain their position, including:

Being questioned by national media about the party facing a ban, including a Late Late Show interview with Mary Lou McDonald

An email being sent to Mary Lou McDonald's office regarding their position

A community engagement meeting with Mary Lou McDonald, David Cullinane, and other LGBTQ+ organisations across the island

A 1:1 discussion meeting with Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin Organiser Jenny Maguire

We engaged in order to seek clarity on their positions on the Supreme Court ruling; whether they would oppose attempts to implement the ruling in Northern Ireland (currently the Supreme Court ruling has no basis in Northern Ireland due to different equality laws; however, there have been attempts to implement the ruling in councils); whether they continue to support the Northern Irish Executive (of which Michelle O'Neill is First Minister) decision to ban puberty blockers; and whether they would support a ban on puberty blockers in the South of Ireland.

After this period of engagement, Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin is not satisfied with the clarity received around their position on the Supreme Court ruling, with the continued defence of the banning of puberty blockers (including not supporting an amendment to reverse the puberty blocker ban in Stormont last Monday), and with the recent Journal article that claimed a conference to discuss its position on trans rights has been pushed …
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Dr Jennifer Redmond @jenniferredmond.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
You might also be interested in a sneak peek reading by the brilliant Evgenii Shtorn, 'Refugee Chronicles: Extracts on Friendship, Instrumentalisation and Loss', which comes from his memoir, 5.45pm, Thurs 15th May, School of Education, North Campus, Ground floor. All welcome! @maynoothuniversity.ie
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Valesca Lima @valescal.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
My latest for the PublicPolicy.ie at @ucdgearyinst.bsky.social on housing policy actions to address discrimination against migrants in Ireland. I propose an human rights-based policy recommendations to enhance the housing experiences for everyone living in Ireland.
publicpolicy.ie
Public Policy
Public Policy @ UCD Geary
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Evangelia (Lilian) Tsourdi @liliantsourdi.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Our Intertwining #criminal justice & #migration control book v/N. Vavoula & V. Mitsilegas out in Aug! www.routledge.com/Intertwining.... Check out @ssrn.bsky.social papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... @profjacob.bsky.social @stevepeers.bsky.social @lawinmaastricht.bsky.social @majagrundler.bsky.social
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Evangelia (Lilian) Tsourdi @liliantsourdi.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Want to join me & my @erc.europa.eu team @lawinmaastricht.bsky.social as an #MSCA postdoctoral fellow? Check out the new call: europa.eu/!fBTMgF (d/l 10 Sep.), our webinar w/tips for applicants www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jPZ... & feel free to reach out w/ideas!
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Liam Thornton @liamthornton.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
The second position @ucdschooloflaw.bsky.social is hiring for: Matheson LLP Assistant Professor in Corporate Governance and Law. 🗓️Deadline 02 June 2025 🔗 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNB177/m...
jobs.ac.uk
Matheson Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Corporate Governance and Law at University College Dublin
An opportunity for an academic position as a Matheson Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Corporate Governance and Law is available, as advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Apply now and explore other academic job o...
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Liam Thornton @liamthornton.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Come 💼work with us in @ucdschooloflaw.bsky.social Assistant Professorship in Criminology, 5 yr temp.🗓️ Deadline 03 June 2025: 🔗https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNB652/lecturer-assistant-professor-in-criminology-temp-5-year Please share!
jobs.ac.uk
Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Criminology - Temp 5-year at University College Dublin
Apply now for the Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Criminology - Temp 5-year role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.
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Laurent Pech 🇺🇦 @profpech.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
🇭🇺 ‘s descent into fully-fledged authoritarianism has accelerated in past year & yet @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu @ec.europa.eu continues to act in a too little too late fashion while also continuing to pretend Orban’s regime remains a democracy rather than a mafia state with rigged electoral framework
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ProfGB @profgbarrett.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
Journalist and bestselling author Sally Hayden in today’s Irish Times on the conditions in a blockaded Gaza
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michael veale @michae.lv · 06/05/2025
How should legal education respond to AI? Together with 11 UCL Laws colleagues, this paper is our vision for the sector. It's rooted in academic integrity, fundamental competences, and concerns around impacts on learning to learn and intellectual risk taking. (🧵) discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10...
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Shane Darcy @shanedarcy.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
The programme for the 25th Summer School on the International Criminal Court is now out. Terrific line-up of speakers. Taking place @uniofgalway.bsky.social from 9-13 June 2025. Registration closes 31st May.
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Donncha O’Connell @donnchalaw.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Madeleine Allen: Jim O’Callaghan’s public theatrics mask the truth about asylum seeker deportations - The Irish Times www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
irishtimes.com
Madeleine Allen: Jim O’Callaghan’s unsettling public theatrics mask the truth about asylum seeker deportations
Most men arriving to seek protection aren’t provided accommodation, and end up in sanitations conditions that, according to one volunteer, were worse than those in refugee camps in South Sudan
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Deirdre O'Shaughnessy @deshocks.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Thanks to Dr Rosaleen McDonagh for writing this piece for us about the Grace scandal, our framing of disability and vulnerability, and remembering at the heart of this story is a citizen whose essential human rights have been disregarded. www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...
irishexaminer.com
Grace is not a victim of unfortunate oversight, but a citizen whose rights were repeatedly violated
Grace is not a singular failure but a symbol of systemic neglect
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Ivan @navi226.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
That's all very well but I think we'd be better off if we just continued to lose our shit about Kneecap...
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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
NI deserves public bodies that give careful consideration to a ruling like FWS, and reflect on the different equality law applicable in NI, rather than rushing to apply what they think the UKSC says because of a media frenzy about Trans people: wearetyrone.com/news/omagh-p...
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Illan wall @illanwall.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
Sandra Duffy responds to the #ForWomenScotland decision of the UK Supreme Court, which creates the category of legally-female-but-not-a-woman for the purposes of equality law! criticallegalthinking.com/2025/04/24/s...
criticallegalthinking.com
Shouting 'what makes a real woman' as the earth is on fire!*
Every border implies the violence of its maintenance. It’s just that the border guards differ. Borders come in many kinds. The borders this statement
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The Irish Times @irishtimes.com · 25/04/2025
Number of people in homelessness reaches new record high of 15,418
irishtimes.com
Number of people in homelessness reaches new record high of 15,418
Numbers accessing emergency accommodation up by 11.2 per cent (1,552 people) over 12 months to end of March, official figures show
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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
The EU Commission has proposed the early application of parts of the EU 'asylum pact' - and an EU-wide list of 'safe countries of origin'. My analysis of the proposal: eulawanalysis.blogspot.com/2025/04/jump...
eulawanalysis.blogspot.com
Jumping the Gun? The proposed early application of some of the EU’s new asylum pact – and a common list of supposedly ‘safe countries of origin’
Steve Peers , Professor of Law, Royal Holloway University of London Photo credit : Andre Engels, via Wikimedia Commons The EU’s asylum...
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Donal Coffey @donalcoffey.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
The call for papers for the next British Legal History Conference is out. Deadline is Sept. Further details here: www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/gro...
nottingham.ac.uk
British Legal History Conference 2026 - The University of Nottingham
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Ntina Tzouvala @ntinatzouvala.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Taylor & Francis have made my note on Gaza and the crisis of international law freely available online. You can access it below and partake to my impeding sense of doom.
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Patrick Freyne @patrickfreyne.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
There’s a city of 237,000 refugees on the Chadian/sudanese border in Adre. The Sudan war is the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world right now. 150,000 dead and 12 million displaced. Chris Maddaloni and I spent a week in refugee camps in east Chad. www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...
irishtimes.com
‘My son was killed in front of my eyes. Three bullets in his chest’: Patrick Freyne in Chad’s desert camps
An unforgiving conflict between rival military factions has killed 150,000 people. Another 12 million people are displaced, many fleeing to a huge desert camp in eastern Chad. Photographs by Chris Mad...
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Sylvia de Mars @sylviademars.me · 19/04/2025
"these are life choices that people make" is straight from ye olde homophobic playbook. It's the thought process that that led to lesbians being treated as predators in women's changing rooms for decades. It is exactly the same and it is just as wrong now as it was then.
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Wendy Lyon @wendylyon.eurosky.social · 19/04/2025
If Mac Lochlainn and Cullinane can publicly express their "personal opinions" which are not (yet) official Sinn Féin policy, then non-transphobic elected SF reps can also do the same and for god's sake the time to do it is now. #speirghorm
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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
This is an appalling, EuroTrumpian proposal that doesn't merely list supposed "safe countries of origin"; it removes basic human rights standards/effective judicial review from applying to the EU when it adopts such a list. Excoriating blog post from me coming soon. In the meantime, happy Easter!
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Liam Thornton @liamthornton.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
So migrants, Trans* community, wonder who is next on the hit list of hate from Sinn Fein.
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Irish Examiner @irishexaminer.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
dlvr.it
Sinn Féin TD apologises to trans community for 'hurt and offence' over tweet on British court ruling
David Cullinane had said on X the 'Supreme Court ruling on the legal meaning of woman is a common-sense judgement'
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Liam Thornton @liamthornton.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Democracy in Danger: The Global Challenge of Autocratic Legalism #RuleofLaw @kimlanelaw.bsky.social keynote to @ucdschooloflaw.bsky.social youtu.be/u8oSQxk_BrQ?... Even for those of us (or just me lol) deeply suspicious of Rule of Law discourse, give this a listen/watch.
youtu.be
UCD Law John M Kelly Lecture 2025
YouTube video by UCD Sutherland School of Law
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Dr Mary McAuliffe @drmarymcauliffe.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Ah for gods sake!! I can’t anymore with SF! Biological determinism which feminism has long fought against has always been the route through which women and girls, and their bodies were / are survelled, controlled, governed and oppressed - read a bit of feminist theory ffs! #speirgorm
Post supporting the anti trans uk ruling by David Cullinane Sinn Fein td
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Donncha O’Connell @donnchalaw.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
This (below), climate change and immigration - progressives within SF have more than one internal battle to fight if they think the party can lead a genuinely progressive alternative to FF-FG…cynical pivoting passed off as ‘common sense’ will fool no one, and it erodes trust:
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Jess O'Thomson @jessothomson.co.uk · 16/04/2025
My analysis of today's UK Supreme Court judgment. The UK Supreme Court Rules That Trans Women Aren't Women Under the Equality Act 2010 www.wearequeeraf.com/uk-supreme-c...
wearequeeraf.com
UK Supreme Court Rules That Trans Women Aren’t Women under the Equality Act 2010
The legal definition of a woman in the UK now excludes trans people: This is what it means for Trans+ rights in the country
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Dr. Sandra Duffy Golden @sandraduffy.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Here's my brief and non-lawyer language thread on the FWS judgment. Will answer questions as and when I have time.
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Kay @gothwhoreofbabylon.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
I must admit, I am rather surprised to learn that the Equality Act 2010 all but repealed the Gender Recognition Act 2004, and that it took until 2025 for anybody to notice.
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Dr Kevin Guyan @kevinguyan.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Categories used by the state to sort people into boxes are never neutral. Some thoughts on the UK Supreme Court case ruling and the wider anti-trans campaign to narrow sex and gender categories in policy, data and law. 📝 kevinguyan.com/2025/04/16/t...
A pink background with a speech bubble that reads: The Politics of Categories
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Alexa (dot) Moore @alexadotm.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
The Rainbow Project's statement on the judgement today. We will continue doing everything we can to fight for the rights of trans people in Northern Ireland, and defend against any attempts to diminish or remove those rights. Please reach out if you need support.
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