Emma Patchett
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eepwrites.bsky.social
Emma Patchett
@eepwrites.bsky.social
Lecturer in Law Northumbria - law and literature, critical border studies, law and film, place and migration in speculative fiction
Reposted by Emma Patchett
CFP for the Second International Conference of Critical Legal Geography, Concepción, Chile: 17-20 March 2026

“the South should not be reduced to a source of raw data that are to be inserted or simply included into the Northern theory factories” Diana Ojeda & Nicholas Blomley (2024) ‘Grounding…
CFP for the Second International Conference of Critical Legal Geography, Concepción, Chile: 17-20 March 2026
“the South should not be reduced to a source of raw data that are to be inserted or simply included into the Northern theory factories” Diana Ojeda & Nicholas Blomley (2024) ‘Grounding legal geography: Conversations on law, space, and power across disparate geographies’. Politics & Space, 42(3):325-333 at 326. I had the pleasure of attending the First International Conference of Critical Legal Geography, which was held in Turin, Italy in February 2024.
lukebennett13.wordpress.com
September 25, 2025 at 3:06 PM
'A cinematic jurisprudence of homemaking in His House' - engaging with the 'subversive' act of homemaking in the asylum process through law-as-film, based on a critical reading of Remi Weekes' 2020 film His House - JPPEL www.emerald.com/jppel/articl...
October 22, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Reposted by Emma Patchett
The lines from the ledge(r): ink, paper, photograph, mountain

"I started to draw pictures. Not of people, or buildings or street scenes. Of mountains. It was fun at first, then a fascinating pastime, building a mouontain on a blank sheet of paper...Memories crowd in on you as you delicately bring…
The lines from the ledge(r): ink, paper, photograph, mountain
"I started to draw pictures. Not of people, or buildings or street scenes. Of mountains. It was fun at first, then a fascinating pastime, building a mouontain on a blank sheet of paper...Memories crowd in on you as you delicately bring to life on paper the various features of the mountains you have seen so often. Your pen moves through a mist of dreams..."
lukebennett13.wordpress.com
August 26, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Archives of Arrival: Place is not a backdrop; it’s part of the record.
open.substack.com/pub/therefug...
Archives of Arrival: Place is not a backdrop; it’s part of the record.
Place is not a backdrop; it’s part of the record.
open.substack.com
October 2, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Reposted by Emma Patchett
Commentary on asylum hotels considering how govt can develop dignified community-based housing that meets multiple social needs. Warehousing people in camps and continuing a failed experiment in privatisation causes nothing but further harm @geogdurham.bsky.social theconversation.com/after-the-ep...
After the Epping Forest case, the government needs to be bold and build asylum housing that works
Asylum housing needs to come back under public control.
theconversation.com
September 12, 2025 at 12:41 PM
The 'spatiotemporal politics of the asylum system linger well after an ‘end’ point of the state decision has been reached...the fragmented governance of the asylum system is made visible in its temporal margins [& in] the extension of this system beyond its legal edges' @sarahhughes90.bsky.social
#OpenAccess in TIBG:

'Theorising legal gaps geographically: Exploring the transition from asylum seeker to refugee in the UK' by @sarahhughes90.bsky.social

This paper explores the '28-day gap' between the approval of an asylum claim and the ending of government support.

doi.org/10.1111/tran...
September 17, 2025 at 6:02 AM
Reposted by Emma Patchett
So shocked Conor Gearty has died

He was a fearless lawyer, teacher and writer

He was also one of the wittiest, smartest people you’d ever meet. It was an honour to call him a friend

I will miss him, terribly. Thoughts with his family, in London and Longford

www.matrixlaw.co.uk/news/profess...
Professor Conor Gearty KC (Hon) - Matrix Chambers
It is with shock and sadness that we mourn the sudden passing of our valued colleague, and a founding member of Matrix, Professor Conor Gearty KC (Hon). Should you wish to leave a message of condolenc...
www.matrixlaw.co.uk
September 12, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Emma Patchett
surely we can come up with something better for 7 billion people than being lorded over by a bunch of plundering elderly murder and torture enthusiasts who whisper to each other about printing spare organs so they can immiserate others in perpetuity
September 4, 2025 at 4:24 AM
“At its root, it is a story of public penny-pinching and market forces causing a problem that is then made worse by politicians promising a quick fix or finding a convenient scapegoat” @trillingual.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Targeted by the right, Britain’s asylum hotels are places of fear and disorder. Bad political decisions made it so | Daniel Trilling
In the frenzy of racism and culture warring, the issue of why hotels are used gets overlooked, says author Daniel Trilling
www.theguardian.com
August 10, 2025 at 10:06 AM
My article on asylum accommodation and the construction of the home in law & film just published in JPPEL - A cinematic jurisprudence of homemaking in his house (2020) url: www.emerald.com/jppel/articl...
August 5, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Great article by @trillingual.bsky.social that highlights the way in which Starmer perhaps embodies the ambivalence of human rights law:the capacity for radical change on the basis of universal dignity vs a conservative reaffirmation of nation state neoliberalism www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Starmer v Starmer: why is the former human rights lawyer so cautious about defending human rights?
The long read: Many of his supporters hoped the prime minister would restore the UK’s commitment to international law. Yet Labour’s record over the past year has been curiously mixed
www.theguardian.com
August 2, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Reposted by Emma Patchett
It says a lot about where we're going that the BBC is now running stories in which they ask lifeboat crews whether they will apologise for using their boats to save lives
July 30, 2025 at 8:03 AM
‘centrist parties amplify crisis talk, catering to simplistic and dangerous control fantasies, offering only more borders, as well as “border spectacles” – performative but nonetheless violent & racist acts of exclusion’ @mauricestierl.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
An effigy of refugees, burned by a crowd: this is where Europe’s brutal fantasy of border control has led us | Maurice Stierl
The shocking scene in Northern Ireland is the result of a decade spent militarising Europe’s fringes – and dismissing the human cost, says migration and border researcher Maurice Stierl
www.theguardian.com
July 30, 2025 at 8:42 AM
“Rather than stay asleep alone amongst the colonial ruins of utopia, we invite you to dream radically together otherwise” @jochamb.bsky.social www.uu.nl/en/opinion/t...
The Utopia*Art*Politics Collection
The concept of utopia has a dark colonial past that lives on through overgrown dreams that leave little space for other possible futures. The Utopia*Art*Politics Collection explores the alternative po...
www.uu.nl
July 26, 2025 at 5:26 AM
Reposted by Emma Patchett
Criminalise all elements of the genocide machine, sanction Israel, secondary sanctions on its trading partners.
July 22, 2025 at 6:05 AM
Reposted by Emma Patchett
The police (wrongly) inform a peaceful protestor that holding a Palestinian flag and signs deploring genocide is an offence under the Terrorism Act. This is the deranged policing environment the government has created.
Police in Canterbury today informed a protestor that the phrase "Israel is committing genocide in Gaza" could be considered a declaration of support for Palestine Action and therefore a terrorism offence.
July 16, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Reposted by Emma Patchett
I wrote about Trµmp's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, the abduction of Mahmoud Khalil, the trial of Mitsuye Endo, the example of Japanese American incarceration, pledging allegiance to war, the inherence of fascism, and my grandfather's Alien Enemy Wind-Up Doll™ @thebaffler.com: t.ly/n07l7
July 10, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Reposted by Emma Patchett
For years, human rights advocates have warned of the criminalisation of migrants & activists at Europe’s borders.
With @balkanizator.bsky.social & @lolahierro.bsky.social we shed light on the opaque role of Frontex and Europol in drawing thousands into this dragnet.
wearesolomon.com/mag/format/i...
Frontex unlawfully shared thousands of people's personal data with Europol
Under the banner of fighting migrant smuggling, Frontex has collected, and unlawfully siphoned to Europol, personal data for years—quietly drawing thousands of migrants, as well as EU citizens aiding ...
wearesolomon.com
July 8, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by Emma Patchett
Surreal is the right word.

Two completely indistinguishable positions on small boats from a Tory & a Labour MP on Newsnight yesterday.

Neither one of them capable of making a case that stands up to the slightest logical pushback. Pathetic.
Zoe Gardener calls our Labour and the Conservatives over small boat arrivals @zoejardiniere.bsky.social

Part 1/3
July 8, 2025 at 6:36 AM
Reposted by Emma Patchett
"The #weaponisation and securitisation of #migration has a long history,” says Stierl, “the hybrid warfare narrative [...] is just the latest attempt to justify European deterrence efforts in places like #Libya, where the humanitarian situation is unimaginable for those stuck there.”
July 4, 2025 at 4:33 AM
Reposted by Emma Patchett
The Mediterranean continues to be a graveyard for people attempting to seek asylum in Europe.

🔊We must never accept such tragedies as normal. Let’s continue to advocate for EU migration and asylum policies that protect and support people in need.
Italy: One dead, several missing as migrant boat sinks near Lampedusa
A migrant boat capsized between Tunisia and Italy, leaving one dead and several missing, amid rising Mediterranean fatalities. Meanwhile, there are growing legal concerns over Italy’s contentious depo...
www.infomigrants.net
July 2, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by Emma Patchett
Today, the UK government intends to ban the non-violent protesters Palestine Action as a "terrorist" group, exposing anyone supporting them to terrorism charges. In 2 days, 380,000 people have watched this video on YT alone.
You're going to need a bigger prison.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECkV...
Sharing This Video Could Get You 14 Years in Prison
YouTube video by Double Down News
www.youtube.com
June 30, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Reposted by Emma Patchett
It’s publication day of my new book, Legal Geographies of Water
The Spaces, Places and Narratives of Human-Water Relations.

Even better: it’s on sale!
Legal Geographies of Water: The Spaces, Places and Narratives of Human-Water Relations
This book deepens our understanding of humanity’s diverse relationships with water and the law, providing a critical assessment of this relationship, and charting the course towards a more sustainable...
www.routledge.com
June 30, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Reposted by Emma Patchett
The German government will stop funding civilian sea rescue operations.

🔔Saving lives is not a favour. It's a moral and legal obligation.
Germany to stop funding migrant rescue ships in Mediterranean | The National
Almost 750 people reported dead or missing after attempting perilous sea crossing so far this year
www.thenationalnews.com
June 30, 2025 at 8:25 AM