Paolo Sandro
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paolosandro.bsky.social
Paolo Sandro
@paolosandro.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Public Law and Legal Theory @lawatleeds.bsky.social, author of 'The Making of Constitutional Democracy: From Creation to Application of Law' (Hart 2022), Open Access at
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4562656#
Pinned
Incredibly grateful to Kara Woodbury-Smith for her perceptive and very generous review of my book 'The Making of Constitutional Democracy: From Creation to Application of Law' (which is fully Open Access, link in the skeet below) on Law and Philosophy. 🙏

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
Holy CRAP.

Retired engineer takes random pics of *kids*, without consent or attribution, bins them into “autistic” or “not autistic”, and uploads that “data” for free on Kaggle.

Well over a HUNDRED papers are published, 38 in Springer Nature, 25 in IEEE, using it.

And no reviewers objected? WTF.🧪
Springer Nature retracts, removes nearly 40 publications
The dataset contains images of children’s faces downloaded from websites about autism, which sparked concerns at Springer Nature about consent and reliability.
www.thetransmitter.org
December 8, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
One of today’s Russian papers suggests that “The Russian army may take advantage of the cooling of the United States to the Ukraine issue...experts predict the possible opening of two new fronts.” #ReadingRussia
Today's Russian papers: blaming Europe, crumbling infrastructure
YouTube video by Steve Rosenberg
youtu.be
December 9, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
The woman who is smiling beatifically in the background while RFK Jr and Sean Duffy advance this extraordinarily anti-woman agenda is none other than Isabelle Brown, an influencer who can also be seen in this screen capture (from her own TikTok account) enjoying a, in her words, "hilarious meme."
December 8, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
What’s notable about this moment is that the expectation is already baked into the Trump admin’s practice that they can fire whoever they wish, given the court’s already stated positions and tendencies. So the Jenga tower has already fallen almost regardless of the foregone outcome
December 8, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
My colleague Paul Gowder @gowder.io & I have written up an analysis of some of the major legal problems presented by Northwestern's "deal" with the Trump administration. You can read and/or download it here: www.theuniversityunderthreat.org/updates#h.hk...
Updates
2025.12.08 | Northwestern Law Professors Detail Legal Violations in Northwestern/Trump “Deal” For Immediate Release December 8, 2025 Download this document as a PDF here Northwestern Pritzker School...
www.theuniversityunderthreat.org
December 8, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
The only way to assure individual liberty is to hand unprecedented governmental power to the guy engaged in blatant democratic backsliding
Kavanaugh: Broad delegations to unaccountable agencies are dangerous for individual liberty! We have used the major questions doctrine to prevent agencies from overreaching.

Sauer: MQD not a substitute for the removal power for the president
December 8, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
chromosonally testing my gingerbread.

('gingerbread people' seems a little unnecessary to me but nowhere near as silly as getting mad about it)
Nothing says getting into the festive spirit like going online to shout at some biscuits
December 8, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
Sky News: You just said you don't want to leave any 'stone unturned'. Those words were used by Sajid Javid in 2018 when he ordered what you are calling for. Are you saying you failed and did leave 'stones unturned' when you were in government?

Badenoch: I'm not here to build a time machine. ~AA
December 8, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
The dialogue between Mark Elliott and Lord Sales here is fascinating. Ironically enough, in my thesis I conclude that parliamentary intent - at least as judicially conceptualised - rarely if ever makes it into drafting considerations. A point which courts perhaps need to consider.
Lord Sales devoted a recent lecture on the principle of legality to responding to my critique of one of his judgments. Here, I argue that our disagreement ultimately turns on sharply contrasting, and increasingly consequential, visions of the constitution
publiclawforeveryone.com/2025/12/07/t...
Taking the constitution seriously: A response to Lord Sales
The incoming Deputy President of the Supreme Court devoted a recent lecture to a critique of my commentary on his judgment in the Spitalfields case, highlighting differences between us concerning t…
publiclawforeveryone.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
Genuinely struggle to acknowledge someone even said this
She compares the boat strikes to Jesus breaking the sabbath to heal someone.
December 7, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
Lord Sales devoted a recent lecture on the principle of legality to responding to my critique of one of his judgments. Here, I argue that our disagreement ultimately turns on sharply contrasting, and increasingly consequential, visions of the constitution
publiclawforeveryone.com/2025/12/07/t...
Taking the constitution seriously: A response to Lord Sales
The incoming Deputy President of the Supreme Court devoted a recent lecture to a critique of my commentary on his judgment in the Spitalfields case, highlighting differences between us concerning t…
publiclawforeveryone.com
December 7, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
Thames Water is a test for the British economy.

It profits by ripping off customers.
Pays dividends, doesn't invest.
Since March TW borrowed £1.47bn.
Paid £900m in fees/interest for the emergency financing.

Can't address crisis without public ownership.
archive.ph/oW8ck/again?...
Thames Water is a test for the British economy
It is a particularly British paradox that one of the country’s biggest companies can both generate hundreds of millions in profit and be at imminent risk of bankruptcy. This is the story of Thames Wat...
unherd.com
December 8, 2025 at 7:28 AM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
The proposals to limit Article 3 are absolutely terrifying. I struggle to think of something that has come out of any UK government which has concerned me more. This must be resisted absolutely.
December 8, 2025 at 6:44 AM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
'The universities of East Anglia and Reading have both reported sizeable deficits in the latest sign that research-intensive non-Russell Group universities are being hit hard by the financial crunch facing the sector.' 1/3
‘Intense competition for students’ behind UEA, Reading deficits
Institutions say impact of recruitment changes behind difficult financial picture but predict stronger numbers in future
www.timeshighereducation.com
December 8, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
Unsurprising mask-off racism from Nick Timothy here.

Upset at the abolition of the two-child limit - because some of (British) kids who will benefit have (British) parents who are the wrong colour (were born in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Somalia, etc).

archive.ph/rycVD
Strip residency of migrants who are a net financial drain, urges Tory MP
Ministers should withdraw permanent residency from those who draw more in welfare than they contribute, a former No 10 adviser has said
www.thetimes.com
December 7, 2025 at 9:30 PM
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Shameful for David Lammy to be arguing perhaps that, while electric shocks to the genitals are definitely out, Europe should look more favourably on, say, sensory deprivation. (In reality, who knows where he's willing to draw the boundary?)
Rights groups warn against UK plans to weaken torture protections in ECHR
Exclusive: Ministers face pushback over potential changes to asylum seekers’ rights before Council of Europe meeting
www.theguardian.com
December 8, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
😂
December 7, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
Israeli surveillance targets US and allies at joint base planning Gaza aid and security, say sources www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Israeli surveillance targets US and allies at joint base planning Gaza aid and security, say sources
Concerns over recording of meetings at coordination centre excluding Palestinians that was set up to provide support for Trump’s Gaza plan
www.theguardian.com
December 8, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
Let me tell you a story. Perhaps you can guess where this is going... though it does have a bit of a twist.

I was poking around Google Scholar for publications about the relationship between chatbots and wellness. Oh how useful: a systematic literature review! Let's dig into the findings. 🧵
December 5, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
Here's the reality this example illustrates:

It's not even just about people blindly trusting what ChatGPT tells them. LLMs are poisoning the entire information ecosystem. You can't even necessarily trust that the citations in a published paper are real (or a search engine's descriptions of them).
December 5, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
After this weekend's racist attacks on the EU, I've written a column about the moral obligation to stop posting on X.

Oh no, wait, I wrote it *two years ago* when it was blatantly obvious what was going on and how it would get much much worse.

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
December 7, 2025 at 10:18 PM
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Dialogue doesn't mean much against an enemy with determination to destroy a sovereign state and people.
Polanski here exhibits classic main character syndrome, as in believing that others are only ever responding to us as opposed to pushing their own agendas.
December 7, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
This sort of carving up of the national population into discrete ethnic blocks based on familial origins is just so much more profoundly unBritish and antithetical to the Western tradition than *anything* happening in Hackney or Tower Hamlets or Birmingham etc
Fashworth-Hayes now leading the charge in trying to convert the talking point from "people shouldn't have kids they can't afford" to "removing the two-child benefit cap is funding the great replacement" is a sign of things to come
December 7, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
UPDATE: Another Chicago-area church has put up an immigration-themed Nativity scene.

A church member at Urban Village Church sent this one along, where Mary, Joseph and Jesus are gone and replaced with a sign that reads: “Due to ICE activity in our community, the Holy Family is in hiding.”
December 7, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Reposted by Paolo Sandro
Being a British parent is so weird bc you're actually worried about paying the sky high rent/mortgage & getting GP appointments but the entire press keeps telling you you're worried there's a trans person or immigrant nearby & the vat on Eton means there'll only be two skiing holidays this year
December 7, 2025 at 7:44 PM