Guy Baldwin

I'm delighted to have been awarded a Yorke Prize by @cambridgelaw for my PhD thesis, "The Justification and Limits of Liberty of Conscience". A monograph based on the thesis will be published in 2026 with @hartpublishing

Counterpoint: These kids are more or less fine. They’re drunkenly enjoying their spring break. Better to be socializing and partying with friends in real life than doomscrolling on X in isolation and hyperventilating about how awful America is.

I just saw the much talked about film “Project Hail Mary.” It's very entertaining and uplifting and features a fine performance from Ryan Gosling. But what most intrigued me were the powerful Christian themes at play in it. The title, of course, refers to the Hail Mary pass in football, since the adventure undertaken is a fairly desperate attempt to save the planet. But it also becomes eminently clear that the reference is not just to football but to the Blessed Mother herself, for the Gosling character is undoubtedly a Christ-figure. I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but it involves a willingness to sacrifice one's life utterly in order to deliver the entire human race from disaster. It is, of course, no accident that Gosling's character is called Ryland Grace, for throughout the movie, his presence and actions constitute undeserved favor to others. A particularly intriguing character in the film is a sober German scientist who relentlessly presses Grace to make the supreme sacrifice, even when he is unwilling. She represented for me the great moral demand that presses upon us throughout our lives, continually summoning us to self-gift. A last observation: Jesus had a second in command whom he called Peter (the Rock); Ryland Grace has a very unusual sidekick whom he calls “Rocky.” I'll leave it at that. I know lots of people say that Christianity is in irreversible decline and that we are inhabiting, at least in the West, a post-Christian society. I'm not so sure. Like it or not, we remain a Christ-haunted culture—and a film like “Project Hail Mary” makes this clear.

This is called "terrorism"

The framing by @CNN is if anything too tough on these Pennsylvania teenagers. Careful review of the video footage shows they just slipped and accidentally threw the bombs, which could happen to anyone.

Huh. Fully operational IRBMs. I guess President Trump and U.S. defense officials had access to information regarding Iran's missile capabilities that was not available to leftwing tankies, New Right dipshits, and journalists.

> Iran just proved it has operational IRBMs with ~4,000–4,500 km range, far beyond its acknowledged official 2,000 km cap > First direct strike on US/UK assets outside the Middle East (Diego Garcia is in the Indian Ocean). > One missile failed, one intercepted by US Navy SM-3 > probably a retaliatory strike for Starmer allowing the Americans to use British bases for strikes to help reopen Strait of Hormuz > Iran now credibly threatens Central Europe too, not just Israel/Gulf

The Iranian regime executed a 19 year old for demanding democracy. I stand with his memory and the thousands of other young Iranians. Those who grieve the elimination of Iranian leaders over murdered protesters is telling.

Today I am proud that the second edition of my 7 October Parliamentary Commission Report is being published. It's on 7Octparliamentarycommission.co.uk We cannot allow history to be distorted and 7 Oct denial to win @AppgIsrael #7October #Israel

This paper by Anna Lukina explores a synthesis between Hans Kelsen’s and Carl Schmitt’s contrasting #legal theories about the relationship between law and the state. Read: spkl.io/6019Axgxd Subscribe: spkl.io/6015Axgxc #LawTwitter

It can download pdfs and never read them?

no one in academia is cool. absolutely nobody at all.

Unreal numbers 👀⚡️ "JPMorgan estimates that, had Germany not phased out nuclear power, the country would have generated 50% less electricity from fossil fuels and 84% less electricity from natural gas in 2024. Electricity prices in Germany would have been around 25% lower, and the country would have imported half as much electricity.."

Don’t let the Green Party gaslight you. Mothin Ali was at a pro-regime rally. He was literally standing in front of an Islamic Republic of Iran flag. It is repulsive.

📜 How many times has the U.S. Constitution been amended? 📝 My colleague Sandy Levinson asked this question in an important essay published in 1991. The full text is available here: conservancy.umn.edu/server/api/cor… 💡 We cannot answer the question without a theory of amendment. What is an amendment, and how do we know when one has been enacted? ☑️ What about the Bill of Rights? Should it count as one mega-amendment or ten separate amendments? ☑️ Or the 21st Amendment repealing the 18th Amendment. Does that count as two amendments, or none? ☑️ Consider also the 27th Amendment, which took 203 years to ratify. Is that too long between proposal and ratification to be treated as valid? ☑️ The Equal Rights Amendment also complicates things. Some believe it is now officially the 28th Amendment, while others believe the amendment proposal expired in either 1979 or 1982. 🤩 This is one of the most interesting questions in the study of the U.S. Constitution.

Great letter in today's FT on the ICJ's Chagos "ruling", by a proper lawyer... 👇

I won't be impressed until Claude eats a whole thing of ice cream and drunk dials his ex

Book launch of Democracy and its Discontents by @BojanBugarcic & Mark Tushnet at @ucl 26th March

Australia condemns Iran's reckless attacks including against civilians and civilian infrastructure in the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Cyprus and Israel. I'm engaging with my counterparts in the region to express Australia’s solidarity & support.

I disagree with Lord Hermer KC, the Attorney General. I don’t accept that international law requires our Prime Minister to deliver a pusillanimous statement setting out the UK’s position whose first point is “We did not participate”. I’ve set out the gist of my approach below. ⬇️   The Prime Minister has refused publicly to support the US and Israel strikes, and also refuses to allow the US to use UK bases, because of international law advice he has reportedly received from Lord Hermer.   International law ought to provide a mechanism to restrain and, if necessary, end despotic and tyrannical regimes such as that in Iran. If the doctrines of international law prove unable to restrain Iranian terrorism and mass murder, and tie the hands of democracies while forcing them to stand and watch Iranian atrocities, international law will have failed. It will have become a fundamentally immoral system of law, and one which is worse than worthless in the modern world.   To be clear: I don’t believe that it is. I think international law is important, and both can and should provide a just legal order. I do, however, have serious questions as to the moral attitudes of some of its expositors; too many international lawyers serenely promote an analysis which ultimately protects tyrants.   Seven points, and some questions:   1 The inherent right to use force in the face of an imminent attack from a hostile nation which is responsible for a pattern of hostile actions exists for good reason: a country cannot be expected to remain idle and just wait for the next attack.   2 Iran has repeatedly threatened to attack the UK’s bases and personnel. Those threats come in the context of persistent Iranian attempts to launch attacks on UK soil, too; the Director General of MI5 has stated, and the PM confirmed last night, that the UK has responded to tens of Iranian-backed plots, presenting potentially lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents. There is also a constant barrage of cyberattacks; while not all cyberattacks are armed attacks in sense of Article 51 of the UN Charter, some may be, and all confirm not just hostile intent but action pursuant to such intent.   3 The UK’s long-standing allies, the US and Israel, were right to consider that they faced further attacks prior to their recent military action, given that (i) Iran has previously attacked both states directly and also through its many proxies; (ii) Iran has repeatedly stated its intent to destroy Israel; (iii) Iran was assessed to be on the brink of acquiring a nuclear capability with uranium enrichment at 60% (which can only be for military use); and (iv) Iran already possessed – as demonstrated by its recent attacks – a sophisticated and effective long-range delivery capability which Israel cannot fully neutralise with defensive weapons.   4 The acquisition of a nuclear capability by Iran represents a genocidal risk for Israel and its people. Iran’s repeatedly stated aim is to wipe the State of Israel, and its inhabitants, off the face of the earth. The slogan of the proxies through which Iran has often attacked Israel is: “God is greater, death to America, death to Israel, curse to the Jews, victory to Islam”. In these circumstances, whether they are characterised as part of an ongoing armed conflict with Iran or as a new use of force based on self-defence, Israel’s actions are justifiable.   5 The UK (and also the US) is permitted under international law to use force to aid another state which is acting in self-defence. Moreover, the UK is under an obligation in international law is to prevent genocide, not just to stop it: stopping an on-going genocide is required, but it necessarily means that action was taken too late. 1/2