John Cotter
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drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter
@drjohncotter.bsky.social
2.1K followers 1.5K following 1.2K posts

Senior Lecturer in Law at Keele University, England. Research in EU constitutional law, especially defence of democracy, and impeachment. Irishman living in Cheshire. Views are my own.

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John Lambert Cotter was an American archaeologist whose career spanned more than sixty years and included archaeological work with the Works Progress Administration, numerous posts with the National Park Service, and contributions to the development of historical archaeology in the United States. .. more

Political science 29%
Materials science 18%
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drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · Sep 8
Last mention of my most recent article on how - as a last resort - EU law can be (re-)-interpreted to protect the democratic legitimacy of its legislature in the face of Member State autocratisation.
drjohncotter.bsky.social John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · Aug 28
My latest article ‘Democracy Manifest? Ensuring the EU Legislature’s Democratic Legitimacy
in the Face of National-Level Autocratisation’ has just been published online and open access in European Papers: www.europeanpapers.eu/en/system/fi...
www.europeanpapers.eu

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 18h
I get it now. The FIFA Peace Prize was a clever nod to Orwell’s 1984; war is peace, etc. It’s really the FIFA War Prize. Very literary folks at FIFA HQ.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 1d
Merry Christmas, everyone. This is our first Christmas as a family of five (we were joined by our third, a boy, in November), so it is extra special this year. Peace and love to all.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 2d
Our six-year-old thinks the song goes “jinx the halls with a thousand parties.”

Reposted by John L. Cotter

profpech.bsky.social
Laurent Pech 🇺🇦 @profpech.bsky.social · 2d
"If needed, we will respond..."

Just weak... and this has never been about freedom of expression as alleged by the Trump regime..

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 2d
I don’t see how EU and national leaders can go on publicly pretending that everything is normal for another 3.5 years and beyond.
eurobot.bsky.social Eurobot @eurobot.bsky.social · 2d
Former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton has been sanctioned by the United States for threatening Twitter with consequences for possible inaction on removal of illegal content and disinformation requirements. #Image(s) #EuropeanUnion

https://i.redd.it/eir5vtgu019g1.png
Former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton has been sanctioned by the United States for threatening Twitter with consequences for possible inaction on removal of illegal content and disinformation requirements. #Image(s) #EuropeanUnion

Reposted by Steve Peers, Daniel W. Drezner, John L. Cotter

eurobot.bsky.social
Eurobot @eurobot.bsky.social · 2d
Former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton has been sanctioned by the United States for threatening Twitter with consequences for possible inaction on removal of illegal content and disinformation requirements. #Image(s) #EuropeanUnion

https://i.redd.it/eir5vtgu019g1.png
Former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton has been sanctioned by the United States for threatening Twitter with consequences for possible inaction on removal of illegal content and disinformation requirements. #Image(s) #EuropeanUnion

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 4d
“I have a tendency to humour stupid questions.”

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 4d
Tbf, he thought about asking Kash Patel and then decided it would be better to go right to the source.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 4d
The Vice President of the United States at 3am in his pants with a big bag of Bob Dawson’s pork rinds on Reddit trying to solve the Charlie Kirk assassination. This man is Trump’s insurance policy against impeachment.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4d
JD Vance: "I remember watching every video of the assassination looking for clues, trying to understand what happened. I tried to hide my friend and that terrible bullet hitting him, but I would try to look around. I stayed up all night for many nights in a row researching every conspiracy theory."

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan, Steve Peers, John L. Cotter , and 1 more

atrupar.com
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4d
JD Vance: "I remember watching every video of the assassination looking for clues, trying to understand what happened. I tried to hide my friend and that terrible bullet hitting him, but I would try to look around. I stayed up all night for many nights in a row researching every conspiracy theory."

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 4d
Still a huge club, btw.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 4d
I’ve always said it’s the precise moment it ceases to be funny that we’ll know Manchester United are no longer a big club.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 4d
In future, I’m just going to tap on this meme.
Bernie Sanders meme: “I am once again asking that people read Articles 1-10 of the Treaty on European Union.”

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 4d
Apart from the stupidity of the “I’m for the European Single Market but against free movement” take commonly heard in the U.K., it never seems to dawn on the people saying it how insulting it is: “we like your money and goods, but you? Eww.”

Reposted by John L. Cotter

donnchalaw.bsky.social
Donncha O’Connell @donnchalaw.bsky.social · 6d
I have a letter in today’s Irish Times about Ireland and the ECHR and the apparent shift in the Irish government’s position towards reform of the Convention signalled recently by the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan TD #ECHR

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 6d
Going to offer a 25-page fully redacted paper to the internal REF audit entitled ‘Schrödinger’s 4-Star REF Output’.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 6d
Just sold all my shares in black redacting pen companies. Off to shop for yachts.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 7d
Undoing all these perverse and tawdry “honours” will be therapeutic. Just like scraping all that tat off the Oval Office walls.
washingtonpost.com The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 7d
The Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations said the renaming vote was unanimous.

Yet Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the board, said she was “muted on the call and not allowed to speak or voice my opposition.” https://wapo.st/4schjzl

Reposted by Steve Peers, John L. Cotter

washingtonpost.com
The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 7d
The Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations said the renaming vote was unanimous.

Yet Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the board, said she was “muted on the call and not allowed to speak or voice my opposition.” https://wapo.st/4schjzl

Reposted by John L. Cotter

adelinamarini.bsky.social
Adelina Marini @adelinamarini.bsky.social · 8d
A new episode in the fight between captured Constitutional courts and the CJEU. A Member State cannot rely on constitutional identity to disregard the values in #Article2TEU, especially the rule of law, effective judicial protection, independence of the judiciary curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/...
curia.europa.eu

Reposted by Maarten Vink, John L. Cotter, Laurent Pech , and 1 more

stevepeers.bsky.social
Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 8d
CJEU, border controls

🚨 MASSIVE defeat for Frontex in two judgments - the agency is liable if it assists Member States to do pushbacks etc in breach of human rights; rules of evidence are simplified for migrants curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/Jo...
Press release summary of the judgment. Full text in the link

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller, Steve Peers, Juliet Lodge , and 4 more

jakubjaraczewski.bsky.social
Jakub Jaraczewski @jakubjaraczewski.bsky.social · 8d
🇪🇺⚖️🇵🇱 Revenge is a dish best served cold (and after five years). Moments ago, CJEU, in the case Commission v. Poland, found that the Polish Constitutional Tribunal has not only violated EU law with its anti-EU rulings, but also was (is) not an independent court established properly by law. 1/

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 8d
Being opposed to Erasmus+ is (unsurprisingly) the most Brexit thing ever: being unhappy about something that in no way effects you negatively (or at all) but which might improve the life of someone else.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 8d
The sentiment that inspired your post is very much shared though.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 8d
You’re also inviting a lot of emails after the two days asking about the prize.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 8d
🤔
Carlill v Carbolic Smokeball Company advertisement

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 9d
You’d have to have a heart of stone not to feel for the members of the FIFA committee who awarded Donald J Trump with the highly prestigious FIFA Peace Prize. To see it brought into such disrepute so early must be devastating for them professionally.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 9d
It’s one of the frustrations of life that the people who voted for Trump and who should now be feeling like complete idiots are almost invariably complete idiots and therefore won’t be feeling like complete idiots.

Reposted by John Foot, John L. Cotter, Holger Nehring , and 3 more

stevepeers.bsky.social
Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 10d
Uk to rejoin Erasmus scheme - set to be confirmed formally tomorrow
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
UK to rejoin EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme
Exclusive: British students will be able to participate in EU-wide scheme from January 2027, sources say
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Tobias Lock, John L. Cotter, Aoife O’Donoghue

anuragdeb.bsky.social
Anurag Deb @anuragdeb.bsky.social · 10d
Just in time for Christmas, a detailed look at the possible remedies for breaches of Article 2 of the Windsor Framework. Launched today and ft. @aoifemod.bsky.social @colinmurray.bsky.social, @sylviademars.me, Eleni Frantziou and me. A great gift for the whole family 😊

nihrc.org/publication/...
Publication - Research: 'Windsor Framework Article 2: Enforcement and Remedies’ | Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission
Research: 'Windsor Framework Article 2: Enforcement and Remedies’- The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) is a national human rights institution with A status accreditation from the Unit...
nihrc.org