Paolo Sandro

My contribution to the Solan symposium is "Pragmatics and Textualism," a deep dive into the role of context in the interpretation of statutes. Link: bit.ly/PragmaticsAn...

Beloved colleague Larry Solan died two years ago today

Thankfully we were able to hold a symposium in his honor a few months before

Check out amazing contributions from:
-B. Eskridge
-A. Gluck & L. Robbins
-A. Krishnakumar
-N. Steitz, B. Slocum, @kevintobia.bsky.social
- @lsolum.bsky.social

Link

IRGC Destroys Second US THAAD System in Gulf, Wipes Out UAE Radar and $1.1 Billion Qatar Early Warning Shield — Iran Declares Missile Dominance - Defence Security Asia IRGC precision strikes reportedly destroy a second US THAAD system, its UAE radar, and Qatar’s $1.1 billion early warning system, exposing fractures in America’s Gulf missile defence architecture and ...

so Iran has apparently knocked out and destroyed / disabled to some extent two U.S. THAAD batteries

This is a massive deal. Aside from the expense, this is not a weapon system we just have a ton of lying around. You don't replace these easily.

defencesecurityasia.com/en/irgc-dest...

The Iran war has revealed something Europeans had forgotten: the US depends on Europe as much as Europe depends on US

In denying the Pentagon use of its bases, Spanish PM Sánchez revealed a strategic leverage Europe never thought to use

A coordinated EU stance on military base ‘d be game changer

Double Preemption, Imminence, and the U.S. Attack Against Iran Rubio’s argument that Operation Epic Fury was preemptive self-defense is not credible and does not satisfy the necessary precondition.

The Trump Administration keeps throwing new arguments at the wall to see what might stick--but each one is worse than the last.

This is an excellent piece by @eliavl.bsky.social explaining why Rubio's recent "double preemption" argument is a non-starter.

www.justsecurity.org/133093/preem...

CIA working to arm Kurdish forces to spark uprising in Iran, sources say | CNN Politics The CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces with the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran and the Trump administration has been in active discussions with Iranian opposition groups and Kurdish lea...

A section in my book The President's Kill List is titled 'Sailing to the "bay of Kurds."' This should give you a sense of how succesful the US has been in arming the Kurds to conduct regime change against authoritarian regimes in the past. edition.cnn.com/2026/03/03/p...

Commons briefing paper on strengthening social cohesion
commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

CIA working to arm Kurdish forces to spark uprising in Iran, sources say | CNN Politics The CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces with the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran and the Trump administration has been in active discussions with Iranian opposition groups and Kurdish lea...

The next Forever War is here.

"The CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces with the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran, multiple people familiar with the plan told CNN."

Now THAT is what I'm talking about.

....the Trump plan is to back the democratic socialist Kurdish party to overthrow Iran?

Spain and its leaders understand their international legal obligations and are acting accordingly.

What they’re basically saying is that Starmer and the UK isn’t allowed to operate an even moderately independent foreign policy outside of the United States. That is both ahistoric, wrong and weird for people who constantly tell us how sovereignty is what matters most.

Israel systematically assassinating the first, second, third even fourth ranked leadership of any regime institution that can provide any legitimacy or stability to whatever remains of this form of Iranian statehood

Happy to have this out - give it a read and let me know what you think

"We aren't happy to correct the record, because we refuse to say how we came to publish an entirely fictional story."

The European powers (and Canada!) seem to have demonstrated they’re squishy on the Charter’s core principles when they perceive what they think is a greater threat and when they’re not directly targets

good thread. One of my big takeaways from Saturday’s Security Council meeting was that this mode of international law is only going to survive via a coalition of states who affirm it categorically, like Colombia, and the AOC-Moulton-Kristol US domestic coalition interested in accountability

'reduce tax exposure' 😆

Scenes from a personalist regime

This is not just cursed, its monstrous. The digital resurrection of a historian who died in January of this year, all so Grammarly can get some more clicks and engagement from students and/or scholars and/or others.

It feels so wrong on so many levels, these ghosts enslaved to AI forever

This IPSO adjudication against the Telegraph is quite something

Confirms their story titled: ‘We earn £345k, but soaring private school fees mean we can’t go on five holidays’ was completely fabricated, with the family involved non-existent and stock pictures used

www.ipso.co.uk/rulings/0210...

A really odd thing has happened to British conservatism. It has surrendered its national sovereignty and become part of the MAGA cult.

This is the final week to apply for the 2026 11KBW Scholarship for Black Students on the Bar Course. The successful applicant will receive £30,000.
The deadline for applications is 11:59 GMT on Friday 6 March 2026. Full details are at 11kbwscholarship.com

A lot more thought needs to go into how the EU/UK and partners deal with a destabilised and fractured Iran if the US and Israel walk away after shattering the Iranian state

A Chypre, mécontentement contre le Royaume-Uni après une attaque de drones sur une base britannique dans l’île Le gouvernement chypriote affirme avoir reçu de Londres l’assurance que la base d’Akrotiri ne serait pas utilisée par l’aviation américaine. La Grèce envoie à Nicosie deux frégates, dont l’une est équ...

It seems the Cypriot government had assurances from the British government that the sovereign bases would not be used in any capacity in the unfolding conflict in West Asia and are furious with Starmer for going back on his word. www.lemonde.fr/internationa...

I do not think it is too far fetched to believe that the US government actually does have agency

"We called London a war zone and moved to Dubai by mistake"

There’s lots significant here - not just the Greens in second place. Reform falling back, the combined right bloc vote being just 39%. British politics in a state of flux. Is it time for Labour MPs to act?

For the record I don’t think Orban will cancel the election. But I hope that my esteemed colleagues rushing to give talks at Mathias Corvinus Collegium ask themselves whether it is the right time to be associated with a Fidesz academic front.

So the US asked Israel to launch the attack on Iran [which the two countries planned together], in order to give the US war dubious legal cover. Once Israel attacked, Iran was likely to retaliate against the US, ergo US attack on Iran is defensive. QED.

Suez, the slapstick version.