Benedict Douglas

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

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/...

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.

So much of what you say is true for me too. He was so generous with his time and his encouragement meant so much to me.

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

Whoever wrote this headline deserved the rest of the day off

Academise a book: That's not my Justice or Rationality

You can replace the word "sovereignty" with "domination" quite easily in this article

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

Roger Masterman and Matthew Nicholson, "The Dissolution of Dualism" (Cambridge Law Journal, Ahead of Print)

Link: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Whenever I’m asked to explain phenomenology

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/...

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.

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...

Jobe® Watersports | Official Website and Shop | Jobesports.com Shop the full Jobe collection at the official online store. Free delivery from £75. Jobe: Gets you on the water!

Also this unfortunate brand of water sports inflatables

David Wilkinson? He's lovely.

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

Jeanette Winterson beautifully foreseeing the problem with AI art and in student essays in 1995

The Assisted Dying Act will only create a general increase in self-determination and liberty if the wider inequalities of our society are addressed

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.

Our duty dominated society is not ready for the legalisation of assisted suicide.

Wow, I didn’t find that in my research. I’ll have to have a read. My feeling is that there’s a good argument to be made that it should be the case.

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.

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

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.

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

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...

Wild camping on Dartmoor is legal, supreme court rules

Looking forward to reading this and applying it to animal rights!

@drjoshdoeslaw.bsky.social GEWIRTH REASERCH CLAXON 🚨🐑🚨

Ha! Ewe-Boats is obvious but I'll take it

@drjoshdoeslaw.bsky.social

That's really interesting, capitalism as constitutional?

Abstract: Terry Pratchett’s fantasy novels satirise society and question what it is to be a good human...or dwarf, troll, vampire. His most interesting character for lawyers is Death, who speaks in capital letters, for like lawyers he must find a balance between duty and his care for humanity.

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

Excited man meme summarising the case

www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWH...