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VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸

@vidyakumar.bsky.social

7.7K followers 2.8K following 250 posts

Critic, Lawyer, Senior Lecturer in Law, DPhil (Oxon) @SOASLaw School, London UK, ✍🏾 on Revolution, Int'l & Consti' Law, Space Law, Legal Theory & History, Human/Labour Rights, Law+Lit , Feminist, Founder: Race & the UK Constitution Ass'n (RUKCA) (She/Her)

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VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸 @vidyakumar.bsky.social · Nov 10

To the insane amount of new followers from the X-odus, below is some info about me and my interests, it's a bit dated. New work on "Revolution and International Law in the Americas", on "Race in the UK Constitution" and on "the JCPC in Southern Rhodesia" coming soon. #InterdisciplinaryScholar

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VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸 @vidyakumar.bsky.social · 12h

I'll be speaking today at the publiclawproject.bsky.social's Annual Conference ("Strengthening the Constitution" @hsfkramer.bsky.social ) on a wonderful panel on "Race & the UK Constitution". If there, please say hello! Thanks to Nicole Chen for the invite! @soasLAW @raceukconstitution.bsky.social

Public Law Project Annual Conference 2025

Formerly known as Judicial Review Trends and Forecasts - PLP's annual conference returns for a day of insight and forward-looking discussion.

publiclawproject.org.uk

Reposted by VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸

Michal Schatz @miyyka.bsky.social · Jul 12

The next Verso Palestine Pamphlet from Adam Hanieh, Robert Knox, and Rafeef Ziadah is here 🇵🇸

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Reposted by VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸

Ståle Holgersen @holgersen.bsky.social · Aug 8

Part 1 here 👇

journalspectre.bsky.social @journalspectre.bsky.social · Aug 5

In the first part of this essay, out now, @holgersen.bsky.social argues that, capitalism actually necessitates crisis to survive. Ståle Holgersen is the author of Against the Crisis: Economy and Ecology in a Burning World from @VersoBooks.

Part two - Friday 8/8

spectrejournal.com/what-are-we-...

What Are We Waiting For? – Spectre Journal

This two-part essay draws upon crisis theory and the history of economic crises to reflect on the current turbulence and the next economic crisis. The first part of the essay begins by drawing on the ...

spectrejournal.com

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Reposted by VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸

Jay Owens @jayowens.bsky.social · Aug 8

perhaps we'd all have more fun on dating apps if we reoriented our goals to ‘investigative journalism’

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Reposted by VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸

Bryan Based International Order 🇨🇦 @bryanpeeler.bsky.social · Aug 8

After reading this I may never stop barfing

Jay Owens @jayowens.bsky.social · Aug 8

Lede of the year, jesus christ:

‘It is a sunny Sunday in June and I am sitting in a Porsche with a man I recently matched with on Bumble, two Spanish sighthounds, an intersex DJ and Curtis Yarvin.

“Let’s go Team Fascist!” shouts my match as he pulls away.’

Sharing link: on.ft.com/4m5rTV4

Sunday at the garden party for Curtis Yarvin and the new, new right

What you learn at a gathering of neoreactionaries, Very Online rightwingers and the formerly cancelled

www.ft.com

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VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸 @vidyakumar.bsky.social · Aug 8

Just read it a few hours ago, it is astonishing.

Reposted by VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸

Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️‍⚧️ @leftiestats.bsky.social · Aug 7

🚨 BREAKING | Labour is set to impose a sweeping ban on trans people using any "single-sex space".

In EHRC guidance that Labour is set to approve, trans people will be barred from accessing toilets, gyms and changing rooms that match their gender.

(Source: @TheTimes)

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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · Aug 8

Is the UK the "dirty man of Europe"?

Apparently so - our bathing water is 5x worse than the EU's.

"Once again, when it comes to environmental regulation, enforcement and protecting people’s health, the European Union leads the charge." @pimlicat.bsky.social

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · Aug 6

‘Whatever Graeber is writing about, whether it is the history of democracy or the relationship between slavery and debt, he is usually trying to solve a problem in the present or to expose its latent potential.’

@leninology.bsky.social on David Graeber: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Richard Seymour · Baseline Communism: David Graeber’s Innovations

In his critique of economics, as in his philippic against ‘bullshit jobs’, Graeber stresses the political decisions...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Reposted by VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸

Dr. Sandra Duffy Golden @sandraduffy.bsky.social · Aug 6

Keir on the tv saying he wants to 'make people feel better off.'

You could work on making us BE better off, maybe?

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VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸 @vidyakumar.bsky.social · Aug 6

The view of genocide from Outer Space: Free 🇵🇸!

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VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸 @vidyakumar.bsky.social · Aug 6

3) finally, just b/c Lord Verdirame ascribes to the declaratory approach to state recognition, it is imp to note that the constitutive approach is recognised by int'l lawyers/scholars as a way to achieve state recognition. (IMO, Palestine can be accepted under either approach)

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VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸 @vidyakumar.bsky.social · Aug 6

whether one looks at the 1948 Nakba, its divide & rule politics, or its genocidal actions post-Oct 7th, Israel has systematically attempted to destroy Palestinians claim to statehood by altering its population, territory, forms of effective govt + relations with other states.

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VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸 @vidyakumar.bsky.social · Aug 6

2) his inability to recognise that Israel's clear and indisputable (& illegal) effective control over Palestine/Gaza has allowed it to manipulate/destroy those very "facts" used to meet the Montevideo conventions criteria of statehood;

VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸 @vidyakumar.bsky.social · Aug 6

Quotation: "For example, if [UK] policy is that the protracted frustration of self-determination justifies recognition of statehood “notwithstanding the facts”, ..."

VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸 @vidyakumar.bsky.social · Aug 6

Lord Verdirame seems also to think the legal right of self-determination is a question not related to the question of Palestinian state recognition (see quotation 👇🏾) which leads to my second point.

VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸 @vidyakumar.bsky.social · Aug 6

His only comment on this makes it seem as if it is a discretionary matter of UK foreign policy, rather than a fundamental legal right in international law, one that Israel (the colonial occupier), Britain and the international community must fulfil.

VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸 @vidyakumar.bsky.social · Aug 6

Not impressed by Lord Verdirame's arguments here, specifically:

1) his lack of attention to the recognised right of Palestinians to self-determination in international law (including the right of those under colonial rule to armed resistance).

www.ejiltalk.org/the-british-...

The British Statement on Recognition of Palestine: A Reply to Marko Milanovic

In disagreeing with a letter on the possible British recognition of Palestine, which I signed with other parliamentarians, Marko contends that the argument that Palestine satisfies the Montevideo crit...

www.ejiltalk.org

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VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸 @vidyakumar.bsky.social · Aug 6

www.ejiltalk.org/the-unyieldi...

The Unyielding Right to Assist Civilians in Gaza

The United Kingdom, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates began airdropping humanitarian assistance into Gaza in the last days of July. They did so as the number of children dying of starvation grew. T...

www.ejiltalk.org

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jadehawk "FREE ŁINK" @jadehawk.bsky.social · Aug 5

this is why the "oh, everything is gonna be ok after the midterms/next presidential elections" ppl are blowing my mind.
what are you even saying, the destroyed satellites aren't going to un-destroy themselves and NASA doesn't have any spares lying around

futurism.com/white-house-...

White House Orders NASA to Destroy Important Satellite

The White House has instructed NASA employees to destroy two major, climate change-focused satellite missions.

futurism.com

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Reposted by VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸

Randi Mayem Singer @rmayemsinger.bsky.social · Aug 5

From a report today on @npr.org: People held at Alligator Auschwitz have no legal path out. ICE says they're held on state charges, so Federal immigration judges can't hear cases for bond or anything else. The state hasn't charged them, so state judges can't hear the case because there's no case. 1/

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Rachel Gilmore @rachelgilmore.bsky.social · Aug 5

A parliamentary report has been leaked, and it confirms that Canada has been exporting military goods to Israel, including in 2024.

I reached out to Minister Anand’s office about this newly public report.

They said it's accurate -- but it doesn't contradict their statements.

How? Let's discuss:

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Adil Haque @adhaque.bsky.social · Aug 5

In December 2024, five months after an initial warning from Dutch intelligence, Lieutenant Cayley, a former military prosecutor, received a direct threat:

"I was directly threatened, and I was told that I was an enemy of the state of Israel and I needed to watch my back."

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Reposted by VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸

Dr Carole McCartney 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ @ctmccartney.bsky.social · Aug 5

How higher education is going. Student pretends to write an essay, Prof pretends to mark it.

Dirk Eddelbuettel @eddelbuettel.com · Aug 3

Tom Fishburne cartoon from https://marketoonist.com/2023/03/ai-written-ai-read.html aptly describing how AI creates messages from three bullet points into expanded text ... which is fed at the other end into AI to extract three bullet points. Lossly, one assumes.

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VidyaKumar 🕵️🪐🚀💫⚖️🇵🇸 @vidyakumar.bsky.social · Aug 5

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/student...

Students ‘becoming anonymous’ to academics as teaching load soars

Growing class sizes and expanding workloads blamed as students doubt those teaching them know who they are