Cris van Eijk
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crisveijk.bsky.social
Cris van Eijk
@crisveijk.bsky.social
International law, the (space) commons, and how they're made.
PhD @newcastleuni.bsky.social | 🇺🇸🇳🇱🏳️‍🌈 | 🔊: krɪs van aɪk | he/him

https://www.ncl.ac.uk/law/study/research/students/current-pgr-students/cristian-van-eijk/
Pinned
Excited to share my new article, 'The Exclusive Making of Space Law', just published in Leiden Journal of International Law. This article took 3 weeks to write the first draft, but 3 years to finalise, and I'm grateful to everyone who helped me along the way.

doi.org/10.1017/S0922156524000554
The exclusive making of space law | Leiden Journal of International Law | Cambridge Core
The exclusive making of space law
doi.org
Reposted by Cris van Eijk
February 12, 2026 at 1:32 PM
Reposted by Cris van Eijk
My new article "Kant as Methodology: Race, White Ignorance, and Intellectual Responsibility" is now out in Critical Philosophy of Race (Penn State University Press).

Open Access copy here: jasminekgani.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...

(summary of core arguments in thread below)
@lseir.bsky.social
February 10, 2026 at 12:11 PM
Every image of space is an image of the past - except the ones billionaires are selling, which are always unprecedented.
February 12, 2026 at 9:49 AM
See also: "single-sex spaces", here framed as some age-old social tradition we have a human right to enjoy - but are just a cruel, false recategorisation of many different *gendered* spaces.

I'd also argue "biological sex" is very much not what many trans /queer people are trying to define.
February 11, 2026 at 5:27 PM
Yes!!
February 11, 2026 at 3:42 PM
Perhaps some recommended reading for this PhD position in Neo-Malthusian Eugenics:

doi.org/10.4337/jhre...
February 11, 2026 at 2:36 PM
Thanks!! I bump into the paywall over there so often that it's not on my regular list of sites to check, but tbh it probably should be...
February 9, 2026 at 11:53 PM
Oh god, they've copy/pasted the metadata from 03/2025 anyway. Did you happen to have RIF numbers from the recent posting, by any chance? I see the update annoucement but not any further details 😅
February 9, 2026 at 11:45 PM
Wait, where have they posted them? I'm only seeing 2025 releases from last March?
February 9, 2026 at 9:51 PM
Reposted by Cris van Eijk
@georgeclarke.bsky.social UCU - 10 strike days begin this week at Northumbria University over pension "robbery" www.ucu.org.uk/article/14401
10 strike days begin this week at Northumbria University over pension "robbery"
Northumbria University will be hit with ten days of strike action from Thursday 12 February in a fight to save staff pensions, the University and College Union (UCU) announced today
www.ucu.org.uk
February 9, 2026 at 11:18 AM
Indicator that a country**
February 9, 2026 at 12:37 AM
I’ll say it again: for me, the necessary indicator of a country might successfully begin a lunar settlement is whether it can consistently operate an inter-regional public transport system for 15-20 years.

Affordable, reliable, comfortable trains - in inhabited, oxygenated, temperate places.
February 9, 2026 at 12:34 AM
Reposted by Cris van Eijk
So bleak that net zero, a decade old Conservative climate policy that is wholly inadequate in scope and ambition, is now too radical for parts of the Labour Party
February 8, 2026 at 9:46 PM
Reposted by Cris van Eijk
Unfortunately, that's not how UK journalism works if the story involves trans people. Groups like the Good Law Project put out news-story-like content bc reporters aren't reporting.

The Good Law Project does it well, and I fully trust their data - but in a better world it would be a news story.
February 7, 2026 at 2:04 PM
Reposted by Cris van Eijk
This is an important read. I don't want to take anything away from it. However:

It really should have been a news item informed by the Good Law Project's data. It isn't bc the British press has shut out any story that contradicts anti-trans talking points.

goodlawproject.org/new-data-sho...
New data shows surge in trans kids’ suicides following healthcare rollbacks | Good Law Project
A freedom of information request by Good Law Project has found that deaths by suicide of trans young people under 18 surged following the withdrawal of gender-affirming healthcare
goodlawproject.org
February 7, 2026 at 1:49 PM
To bang the obvious drum: while we sometimes falsely remember Boris Johnson's resignation as having been caused by PartyGate, it was in fact his appointment of Chris Pincher (*twice*) - despite knowing about his long pattern of sexual assault and misconduct, and then lying about having known it. 👀
February 6, 2026 at 2:39 PM
Reposted by Cris van Eijk
Finally out! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Longer post to come but for now, key take-aways: international pressure matters, domestic pressure matters, international treaty law (however contested) matters, and super importantly these days, civil servants who believe in international law matter!
Stealth Change: How the United States and the United Kingdom Embraced International Humanitarian Limits on Nuclear Use
This article analyzes how American and British policy shifted, from rejecting to accepting the applicability of the law of armed conflict (LOAC) to nuclear use. Through a study of primary and secon...
www.tandfonline.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:36 AM
Even more wild given that 'developing countries' is a term used repeatedly throughout lots of the legal and normative documents drafted by COPUOS.... As in, the Moon Agreement and the latter 4 Principles. 😬
February 6, 2026 at 9:49 AM
In Dec, the US explained its no vote on a COPUOS resolution (the 7th such vote in UN history) with:

"the references to gender are ambiguous and unclear. The United States expects that UN resolutions use terminology that clearly refers to women and men, girls and boys, and avoids ambiguous terms."
February 6, 2026 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by Cris van Eijk
If you've recently experienced any adverse decisions from NARA—personnel/promotions, contracting, FOIA, etc.—you really ought to speak with an attorney; those decisions may have been unlawful.
Can't stress enough how *crazily illegal* this is:

Rubio may have been exercising authority after he no longer lawfully could

Byron—running NARA day to day under that authority—may have taken actions that are void from the beginning

Byron may *not* lawfully serve as/perform functions of Archivist
*BREAKING: Rubio is out as acting Archivist, and has illegally named an ineligble political appointee to "to serve and perform the functions of archivist"—which he did not have the authority to do.

My reporting expands on @federalnewsnetwork.com's scoop:
🧵

lastcampaign.substack.com/p/rubio-out-...
February 5, 2026 at 12:39 AM
Reposted by Cris van Eijk
*BREAKING: Rubio is out as acting Archivist, and has illegally named an ineligble political appointee to "to serve and perform the functions of archivist"—which he did not have the authority to do.

My reporting expands on @federalnewsnetwork.com's scoop:
🧵

lastcampaign.substack.com/p/rubio-out-...
Rubio out at NARA; illegally names ineligble political appointee to serve as Archivist
Rubio has no authority to name anyone to serve as Archivist or perform those functions
lastcampaign.substack.com
February 4, 2026 at 11:43 PM
Democracy dies in darkness and this Amazon Prime Day you can get exclusive offers on light switches and blackout curtains!
February 4, 2026 at 8:10 PM
Reposted by Cris van Eijk
I'm going to a conference on Friday about the Supreme Court's reliance on "history and tradition," and truly one of the many many problems with originalism is how it often flattens & distorts history, creating jurisprudence that reflects the history of domination but not the history of resistance
February 4, 2026 at 1:58 PM
new slide image on the general experience of researching redacted/classified materials just dropped
When @jasonleopold.bsky.social told me the Justice Department inexplicably redacted the “J.P.” from “J.P. Morgan” in a J.P. Morgan research note, I didn’t believe him.

But here it is:
February 4, 2026 at 3:39 PM