John Cotter
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drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter
@drjohncotter.bsky.social
2.1K followers 1.5K following 1.3K 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 · 13h
They basically went through a CSN phase for two albums.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 13h
They are a weird group in the sense that their two best albums (and they are excellent) (Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty) are almost completely atypical of the rest of their output, which was a lot of hippy noodling. But those two albums alone would be a legacy.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 1d
Of course, there’ll be a whole team in Bavaria and in Liechtenstein.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 1d
Yes, but on solemn occasions, you will have to co-commentate and interject in a hushed tone every so often with things like, “while this is all very impressive, we must remember that this is just some guy and the real king is over the water.”

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 1d
Yes, for balance, you will also have to appear.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 1d
For balance, every time the BBC does royal coverage, they should bring on a Jacobite to argue that Franz von Bayern is the real king. And every time Charles III is mentioned, they should be obliged to say, “or Francis II according to the Jacobite succession”. No matter how tedious it becomes.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 2d
He was even an in-story character at one point.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 3d
There’s something of the professional wrestling heel commentator about Trump and his minions: lying outrageously about what is happening about what is happening right in front of your face. It’s the Bobby “The Brain” Heenan style of communications.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 3d
We’re seeing a level of dehumanisation of the ‘other’ (the ‘other’ being anyone who opposes them) among Trump and his supporters that you would normally only see in a war-time situation. In their eyes, a person shot dead in cold blood had it coming if they simply opposed ICE.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 4d
The Supreme Court would rule it unconstitutional, because reasons. I mean, no reasons.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 4d
At some point, a regime becomes so criminal that it cannot afford to lose power lest it face the consequences. And to hold on to that power, it ensures that everyone working for the regime from top to bottom gets its hands dirty, so everyone is equally invested in keeping the regime in power.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 4d
The likes of Farage will calculate what they can just about get away with saying at any particular time. The current climate is bringing the full extent of their extreme beliefs into the open.

Reposted by Steve Peers, Federica Genovese

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 4d
None of this should be particularly shocking. Brexit was an attack on the post WW2 order. Attacks on the ECHR and Refugee Convention the same. Farage and Co would rather we forget the lessons of the Second World War.
adamjschwarz.bsky.social Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 4d
Farage asked whether international law still matters:

“The concepts of international law, frightfully popular in Islington and Hampstead… [are] no longer, as they were intended originally, fit for purpose”.

Reposted by John L. Cotter, Bob Hudson

adamjschwarz.bsky.social
Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 4d
Farage asked whether international law still matters:

“The concepts of international law, frightfully popular in Islington and Hampstead… [are] no longer, as they were intended originally, fit for purpose”.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 5d
One wonders whether these are conversations he’s had with Rubio and Miller on the phone in the next room doing accents.

Reposted by John L. Cotter, Laurent Pech, Markus W. Gehring

verfassungsblog.de
Verfassungsblog @verfassungsblog.de · 6d
On 18 December 2025, the EU Court of Justice clarified that Frontex is subject to effective judicial accountability. 🇪🇺⚖️

CATHARINA ZIEBRITZKI on the W.S. et al and Hamoudi vs Frontex rulings – and how they might reshape EU liability law at Europe’s borders.

verfassungsblog.de/w-s-et-al-an...
Quote: “The Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice did not allow the EU agency with the most far-reaching powers to get away with structural irresponsibility.”

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 6d
What the US needs for national security isn’t Greenland, but a rational, sane leadership that isn’t burning almost every alliance it has.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 7d
In fact, their weak, mealy-mouthed responses, to the extent he or the people around him notice or care, would only heighten his/their pre-existing contempt. European leaders might as well have shown some dignity in the circumstances. 2/2

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 7d
I think European leaders in failing to condemn the US invasion of Venezuela out of some fear of provoking Trump’s ire are missing the point that (a) Trump clearly doesn’t care what they think anyway, (b) Trump couldn’t hold them in more contempt anyway. /1

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 8d
I support international law. By which I mean, I look out for its results from time to time and own an international law-arbitrary crime of aggression half-and-half scarf.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 8d
(albeit thin) justification rather than “it’s ours because we can”.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 8d
I am myself reeling to an extent: is this an extension of business as usual (looking through a longer lens, you can go back to the invasions of Florida, Mexico, Cuba, Grenada, Panama, etc. and paint this as business as usual)? As I hint at above, post WW2, there has tended to be an attempt at some…

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 8d
You can tell people are reeling because they’re saying things like, “this isn’t about terrorism or drug trafficking; it’s about American imperialism and oil”, as if still stuck in a time when there would be some thin tissue of lies offered in justification. He said it out loud, guys.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 8d
A boots-on-the-ground military occupation of Venezuela? Good luck with that, guys.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 8d
Isle of Wight too.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 8d
Infantino: “Guys, sit down, it was the FIFA Peace Prize for *2025*.”

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 8d
PM Farage logic: start a cheeky little war with [insert foreign country here] to make China and Russia think twice.

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 8d
If you need a slogan

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 8d
Half-baked versus overcooked federalism.
drjohncotter.bsky.social John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 8d
Constitutionally, what we’re seeing is an overly pluralistic, divided, and weak executive power in foreign policy (partly from institutional design and partly from political choice) (EU) struggling to react meaningfully to the actions of an overly powerful, unitary, and unaccountable executive (US)

drjohncotter.bsky.social
John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 8d
As always, there are two truths here at the same time: (1) EU institutions could chose to do more; (2) EU institutions could be given more latitude and strength to do more. See also, the internal democracy and rule of law crises.