Joe Hodson
@joehodson.bsky.social
11K followers 64K following 1.2K posts
Paralegal with masters in international maritime law, interested in languages, ethics, governance, environmental protection and human rights. Mythology-loving humanist.
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Greetings to all my new legal bluesky contacts! Allow me to introduce myself:

I have been the paralegal at the small but formidable London shipping disputes firm Sach Solicitors since just before the pandemic.

I am also slowly preparing to take the SQE.
For the new people checking out the starter packs, may I present the four that I have compiled of people with an interest in the many facets of climate and environment law:

Volume I:

go.bsky.app/RtbVp5X
Reposted by Joe Hodson
"That's why we all need to vote Green" is fast becoming the only ethical and strategic answer to reasonable "I don't want to let the fascists in by splitting the left vote" concerns.
When I said we weren't here to be disappointed in Labour but to replace them. I meant it.

Join.greenparty.org.uk
Poll showing labour and greens neck and neck.
Reposted by Joe Hodson
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Shabaka Mahmood could equally have argued that European rights watchdog criticising the conditions German concentration camps would have been an “intrusion into domestic policy and national security”. And indeed this is exactly why the ECHR was founded. 1/
European human rights watchdog triggers row with Government over warnings
Michael O’Flaherty published letters raising concerns over the treatment of transgender people and policing protests in the UK.
www.independent.co.uk
Reposted by Joe Hodson
My super modern regulatory plan is that any entity named for a thing from Tolkien has to publicly explain why Tolkien wouldn’t immediately throw it into Mount Doom
Tolkein continues to resonate. The new bank being set up by Palmer Luckey and backed by Peter Thiel is named Erebor after the “lonely mountain” in The Hobbit. This was also an interesting line in this rpt on the new bank by @tabbykinder.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/202d...
Reposted by Joe Hodson
Please, if you use AI, don't.

This is the horrendous environmental impact it has, regardless of where it's situated. Not to mention the unethical use of artistic copyright breaches the companies have used to train these systems.
Scottish data centres powering AI already using enough water to fill 27 million bottles a year
The volume of tap water used by Scotland's data centres has quadrupled since 2021, figures show.
www.bbc.co.uk
Reposted by Joe Hodson
The climate promoted by Starmer, Cooper and Mahmood is designed to shut their political opponents out of civil life
Pro-Palestine activist couple have UK bank account closed without explanation
John Nicholson and Norma Turner’s joint retirement savings account was shut by Yorkshire BS
is.gd/ETCPAW
Pro-Palestine activist couple have UK bank account closed without explanation
John Nicholson and Norma Turner’s joint retirement savings account was shut by Yorkshire Building Society
www.theguardian.com
Unanimity is the political threshold from Hel.

It's why Baldr's still there, after all...
🚨 Robert Fico confirms he will veto the 19th package of EU sanctions on Russia until he obtains concessions on "how to address the crisis in the automotive industry and the high energy prices that are making the European economy completely uncompetitive."
Reposted by Joe Hodson
The thing about solar geoengineering is that once you start you cannot stop *ever* unless somehow you have already removed all the multi-billions of tons of carbon emitted since the day you started.

If you stop at the higher CO2 concentration you get virtually instantaneous catastrophic heating.
"If geoengineering works well initially & you see this temperature drop, the tempempation to keep going & extracting fossil fuels will be greater than ever, because it will seem that you have a technologically that can cut off the link between temperature rises & fossil fuel combustion."
Overshoot & Climate Breakdown - Wim Carton & Andreas Malm | #39
YouTube video by Jesse Damiani
youtu.be
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Aylesbury having a Labour MP is one of those things that still surprises, a year on
Another field day for Polanski...
NEW: How a U.S. anti-abortion group has quietly positioned itself as a powerbroker between the Trump administration and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Latest investigation w Elizabeth Dias. 
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...
They Helped Topple Roe v. Wade. Now Their Sights Are Set on Britain.
www.nytimes.com
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This is the inevitable outcome of relentless anti-immigration political rhetoric and a media environment which disproportionately amplifies the voices of racists, giving the indication that they are the "voice of the public" rather than the minority they are.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
‘Frightened to get out of their cars’: Britain’s toxic race debates threaten overseas care workers
Staff are being advised to travel in mixed groups and carry panic alarms as incidents of intimidation spread
www.theguardian.com
Is this the calibre of our reasoning today?

Just start with "done right" without clarifying what that means, garnish with a word salad of vague platitudes about "safeguards", "ethics" and "humility", and let people project what they want those things to mean onto your power-concentrating policy?
The thing about René Girard's theory that sacrificing a scapegoat placates society's bloodlust is that you'd think it would have worked by now.

Hadn't this theory already been falsified by the, erm, aftermath of the Munich Agreement?

Or am I missing something?
And conflating the roles of lawyers and the opposition is further constitutional illiteracy. They are there to uphold the rule of law and help their clients, in that order - not to compete for votes and prepare a viable alternative programme of government.
I would actually prefer it if Parliament made provision that human rights etc. automatically supersede incompatible statutes because they are what it values most highly, but that's not where we're at.
The illustration is constitutionally illiterate, misleading conspiratorialism.

Parliament is free to overturn case law. Judicial review doesn't overturn statutes.

If any law firms are undermining democracy, it's the ones bringing extortionate ISDS claims, not Leigh Day and the like.
Wrote about Leigh Day, the law firm behind every other case against the British state right now. From equal pay to polluted rivers to alleged war crimes www.economist.com/britain/2025...
Meet the real opposition
From ambulance chaser to ministerial Range Rover chaser
www.economist.com
I had not watched Question Time for aeons and the best part of that was the pleasant surprise of a panel of (mostly) xenophobes being made to squirm by a much more reasonable audience, to the point where Yusuf accused the audience of being unrepresentative.

How typical is that these days?
I could watch Zack Polanski utterly wreck Zia Yusuf ALL DAY LONG.
Reposted by Joe Hodson
An outspoken antifascist US-born citizen was stopped from leaving the US. This should terrify you.

(BTW, this is not to imply this is ok for non-citizens or naturalized citizens.)
US anti-fascism expert blocked from flying to Spain at airport
Rutgers University professor who published book on antifa was informed at boarding gate that his trip was cancelled
www.theguardian.com