Donal Coffey

The Spanish government's response to the Middle East is the correct response.

It was very nice, albeit unwarranted in my case, to get a shoutout in the lecture, but delighted to be in such illustrious company.

Gerard Hogan in front of an intro slide

Gerard Hogan of the Irish Supreme Court delivering the JM Kelly lecture on Kelly's constitutional thought in UCD.

About a decade ago,Twitter was a place where you felt like you were getting the news 1st&it would appear in the papers the following day.It's been clear for a couple of years that it is useless due to disinfo.I thought that in itself would be enough for people to leave,maybe it will eventually...

I'll throw that one in next year and see what happens.

No, just overseas voting. It's not a very scientific study!

Delighted to say that my position as an Affiliated Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory has been extended for another 3 years. Looking forward to engaging with, and hopefully adding to, the excellent research being carried out there.

One thing that might be worth looking into is if UCC already has a link with an Oxford college for something like this. There can sometimes be one that was agreed decades ago that keeps rolling over.

I read that pro-AI post last week saying that the most recent paid version of ChatGPT is a total gamechanger and all critique based on previous iterations had been rendered obsolete. They had a free trial, so gave it a go. Still junk.

Finally published, in the Dalhousie LJ: a piece looking at widespread, and sometimes wilful, forgetting of some constitutional conventions in Canada, and wondering what, if anything, might be done about it. Paper available at: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Ran my highly unscientific poll in my lecture again this semester. Results are basically the same:

(a) overwhelming negative response to expanding the franchise to overseas citizens for presidential elections,
(b) widespread positive response to expanding it to Northern Ireland.

In the alternative, a declaration that the plaintiff, having lawfully declared candidacy and having refused to participate in an unconstitutional process, is the only validly nominated candidate under Article 12.4.5, and is therefore duly elected without a vote, as no other valid nominations exist, and will hold the office until a constitutional referendum is held to make amendments to Article 12 and remove the undemocratic nomination process.

My favourite submission from recent years in Irish courts...why doesn't the High Court simply declare me to be the President?

Have you seen the picture of the young Dicey though?

A green postbox with the opening at the top of the box.

Ireland's oldest postbox, in Kent Station Cork. No royal cypher as it pre-dates them.

A builsing with poorly visible features due to a low lying sun

Cork city hall in the sun, boy.

4 stained glass windows with columns. It's not really possible to do justice to the fine handiwork and get all 4 columns in shot (particularly when people are waiting for you).

Some of the Harry Clarke windows in Bewley's. Just so happened we had breakfast for my parent's 50th wedding anniversary this morning, on the same week the Supreme Court judgment was handed down.

A set of electrical boxes in front of one of the nicest streetscapes in Dublin, the front of Trinity College.

Luashenge.

An old campus quad, with bare trees, but the sun shining.

The sun has finally re-appeared in Maynooth.

Definitely agree. I think spending money on cultural things overseas can be a good idea (e.g. Goethe Institutes), but not a single post in an expensive university.

UK colleagues/friends, I’m on the lookout for new career options!! Need a researcher in law/history? That’s me! Or do you know of a project manager role requiring a unique perspective? I’m flexible, resilient and dedicated (but for now I do need sponsorship). Pls send any leads my way and thanks!

Bizarre that the guy who was apparently all over the Epstein files and an insurrectionist is managing to avoid legal repercussions, while all around the world people who have been hit with one of the two go under...

Yoon's legal team: "is this about Ship Money? No? Uh-oh!"

“This is a judgment where the Court carried out the kind of close scrutiny that Parliament ought to have done.”

The English High Court has overturned the ban on Palestine Action.

ALAN GREENE on the dangers of expansive executive discretion – and why the Court signals that counter-terrorism powers require genuine legal constraints, not mere trust in the “good chaps.”

verfassungsblog.de/palestine-ac...

A pancake on a blue plate. A light sprinkling of sugar makes clear this is not a healthy option.

Pancakes.

Just had a conversation where I ended up saying 'plenty of things make sense but are still a breach of competition law'.

Yeah I do a physical backup every 6 months just in case...

Cloud storage is super handy for trips to archives abroad, where you can back up everything as you go, and the whole thing doesn't depend on the hardware not breaking down (happened once during my PhD and took a fortnight to recover).

New Garda powers bill could conceal abuses Gardaí can consistently deny racial profiling because there is no data on who is stopped and searched — but the new powers bill doesn't allow this data to be collected. Why, asks Cian Ó Concubhair

Very good piece by Dr Cian Ó Concubhair on the new Garda powers bill - interestingly, when the Commission on the Future of Policing recommended codification of these powers it did so thinking the preparatory work would be done by the Law Reform Commission

www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

To explain the ridiculousness of this, holding up a sign at a protest saying that you are pleased with today's HC judgment, could give rise to a 'reasonable suspicion' that you support a proscribed organisation.

Michael Doherty standing at a lectern in front of a powerpoint slide

Inaugural lecture of Prof Michael Doherty.