Kenneth Armstrong
profkaarmstrong.bsky.social
Kenneth Armstrong
@profkaarmstrong.bsky.social

Emeritus Professorial Fellow in Law at Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge. Co-editor of the Law in Context series published by Cambridge University Press. Academic Asspciate at 39 Essex Chambers.
Can be found on Substack. .. more

Political science 77%
Economics 8%
Pinned
How should Starmer respond to Sarwar?
By getting to grips with polycentric politics.

New on Substack.

open.substack.com/pub/kaarmstr...
Taking Sarwar Seriously – Why Starmer’s Reset Must Confront Polycentric Politics
After days of political turmoil, Sir Keir Starmer left a meeting of his parliamentary Labour party secure in his job as UK Prime Minister, at least for the moment.
open.substack.com
Justice for Some by Kent Roach
A thoroughly comparative study on the history, law, politics, and latest knowledge about miscarriages of justice and wrongful convictions and the differences between them.
📚 https://cup.org/45Jilcw

#humanrights

Things may not have worked out as Sarwar may have wanted but the more that the parliamantary party closes its ears to the legitimate concerns of the Scottish Labour leader the more it is evident that the party is content to see electoral defeat for Scottish Labour as simply collateral damage.

Maybe Keir Starmer should watch the Take That documentary. Gary Barlow finally “joined” the band when he shared power with the rest of the band. Maybe it’s time Keir joined the Labour Party.

If the effect of Anas Sarwar’s call for a change of leadership is that the UK Cabinet closes ranks it sends a strong signal that Scotland isn’t relevant to the leadership. That’s a big problem for Sarwar as he tries to run an election campaign in Scotland. It plays into SNP hands.

The question people are asking is what the May elections mean for Starmer. But what does Starmer mean for the May elections?
In my new Substack post I explore why the Scottish Labour leader has turned on the PM.

open.substack.com/pub/kaarmstr...
Sarwar v Starmer
Why has Anas Sarwar called for leadership change?
open.substack.com

Sarwar v Starmer

New from me on Substack

open.substack.com/pub/kaarmstr...
Sarwar v Starmer
Why has Anas Sarwar called for leadership change?
open.substack.com

Over the weekend I drafted and then deleted a post about whether this was a moment for Anas Sarwar to stick his neck out and make U.K. Labour come to terms with the real effects of Starmer’s leadership on Scottish politics. There are Holyrood elections in 3 months time.

Starmer now has the challenge of trying to recruit a chief of staff who doesn’t know whether their boss will still be in post in 3 or 4 months. It’s not necessarily an attractive option.
It is worth recalling that the position of U.K. Ambassador to the US was not vacant at the time the Prime Minister chose to appoint Peter Mandelson to the role. A highly competent and respected woman was replaced.

Doesn’t the same problem arise if you need primary legislation each and every time a peerage was removed?

And let’s recall that there is limited oversight of who is made a member of the Lords.

The safeguard would be the need for affirmative resolutions of both Houses.

Reposted by Steve Peers

It would surely be possible to draft a framework statute to remove peerages from persons listed in a schedule and for that schedule to be capable of amendment by statutory instrument (subject to affirmative resolutions).

MELANIA - the days before inauguration
MANIA - the months after.

Interesting that Mark Carney and Ursula von der Leyen both describe changes in geopolitics as “permanent”.

Does the US Supreme Court’s delay in issuing its tariffs judgment signal it has found against the President but doesn’t want to weaken him at a time of intense diplomatic tensions around Greenland and the threat of new tariffs on allies?

Jenrick ending up in Reform is like a grubby mattress being dumped in a skip. It’s been a week of political fly tipping on the Right.

There is something quite remarkable about Nadine Dorrries’ belief in her own importance as a political figure. She has the gravitas of a regional TV presenter who sometimes switches on the Christmas lights (if someone from Steps is taken ill).
🌐 A redesigned Curia website
Clearer, more accessible and easier to navigate 👉 curia.europa.eu/site/

#CJEU #InfoCuria #EUlaw #CuriaWebTV #DigitalTransformation
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All official EU websites use the domain europa.eu. See all EU bodies and institutions.
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NEW and available open access from @universitypress.cambridge.org this Law in Context monograph:

www.cambridge.org/core/books/p...
Practices of Restitution
Cambridge Core - European Law - Practices of Restitution
www.cambridge.org

Reposted by Steve Peers

A new edition of Collins, Ewing and McColgan’s Labour Law is out now in @cambup-law.cambridge.org iconic Law in Contrxt series.

bit.ly/3M0TmKz
Labour Law | Cambridge Aspire website
Discover Labour Law, 3rd Edition, Hugh Collins, HB ISBN: 9781009612128 on Cambridge Aspire website
bit.ly

Newly published in @cambup-law.cambridge.org iconic Law in Context series.

www.cambridge.org/core/books/r...
The Reasonable Person
Cambridge Core - Legal History - The Reasonable Person
www.cambridge.org

It surely has to be unusual for a news organisation under the threat of legal action to continue to broadcast at every opportunity the very clip that could be the basis of a complaint. And yet the BBC repeatedly broadcasts the Panorama clip that it has apologised about.
Odd.
We covered plenty of ground here.

(I also enjoyed venting a little about some of the more bad faith/badly reasoned criticisms of the Strasbourg case-law.)

Remember when an NUJ walkout could disrupt BBC services? It would be refreshing to see journalists standing up for media freedom.

One of the problems with the BBC News coverage of threats to sue the BBC for $1bn is the tendency to report as if the UK and US are one legal jurisdiction. They are not.
Call for papers for a workshop on Economic Aspects of the Constitution: www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_...

It is 20 years since Conor Gearty gave the Hamlyn Lectures on Can Human Rights Survive?
As a mark of respect following the dreadful news of his, Cambridge University Press & Assessment has made these lectures Open Access for the remainder of the year. You can find them here:
lnkd.in/e5Xrt2G5