Guy Baldwin

🇦🇺 Lecturer in Public Law and Human Rights at Manchester. BA Japanese Studies/LLB (UNSW) PhD Law (Cambridge). NSW qualified. Views own. Fiction @theviewsnovel

[Guy Baldwin @GuyJBaldwin]

I'm delighted to have been awarded a Yorke Prize by @cambridgelaw for my PhD thesis, "The Justification and Limits of Liberty of Conscience". A monograph based on the thesis will be published in 2026 with @hartpublishing

[Guy Baldwin @GuyJBaldwin]

@lsolum Thanks Lawrence, I confess it was just a humorous comment!

[Guy Baldwin @GuyJBaldwin]

What about gaslighting? How well does that work?

[Lawrence Solum @lsolum]

Meers, Halliday, Leishman, Stojanovic, and Tomlinson: a survey experiment finds that responsibility, remedy, and regret enhance public satisfaction with administrative apologies — but reason-giving has no discernible effect. Recommended. https://t.co/OAxgsbI3Z5

[Guy Baldwin @GuyJBaldwin]

@jameswmullen Me too 😂

[Rachel Moiselle @RachelMoiselle]

Ireland now provides Russia with 99% of all alumina from the EU. The utter shame of it. Where is the outrage?

[Guy Baldwin @GuyJBaldwin]

@danepps @SSRN Here's the response apparently: https://t.co/Jq8fA4HOIS

[Leonid Sirota @DoubleAspect]

So this is happening! Many thanks to the reviewers, and to those who have read my proposal and sample chapter draft, and heard me present ideas that will be going into this over the years. I'm looking forward to sharing more as the manuscript takes shape.

[Guy Baldwin @GuyJBaldwin]

@DoubleAspect Congratulations!!

[Dan Epps @danepps]

Wow. @SSRN is over. This is quite unfortunate, and infuriating. Law profs, we need a replacement.

https://t.co/x55YiLeQ1k

[Guy Baldwin @GuyJBaldwin]

@weiss_hadas Submitting something just raises hopes that are inevitably dashed. It's kinder for the journal not to allow submissions at all

[Hadas Weiss @weiss_hadas]

every academic press and journal needs a clear ban on submissions. research should be disseminated by word of mouth

[Guy Baldwin @GuyJBaldwin]

The video is AI, but the song isn't - I made it in Logic and it's me singing

[Guy Baldwin @GuyJBaldwin]

My "Without Music" video is now on YouTube https://t.co/wcjY3IQJwL

[Seth Frantzman @sfrantzman]

What bothers me the most about the Nowak case is how he had no chance. He was stabbed, and in other cases maybe he would have received assistance, maybe the perpetrator would have run away and then people would have helped, an ambulance would have come.

But he wasn't just stabbed. Then a systematic process began. The knife was hidden by a family member. A second family member made the call to police and lied. This set in motion the police response which judged Nowak the perpetrator without interviewing him or anyone. He was cuffed and couldn't even speak as he was cautioned that he was arrested.

It wasn't just the police response, it was that he lay wounded and dying and those around him were all a family, involved in hiding the weapon, lying to police and telling police when they arrived that Nowak wasn't stabbed.

The whole system was against him, in his own country he was completely alone, surrounded, with no chance to survive. From the moment the perpetrator decided to stab him, he had no chance. The entire system worked against him.

And when you see the video of the perpetrator and family, they act like this is a completely normal day...like they would just walk away and it was fine. No sense of shock, no sense of shame.

[LoLNothingMatters @DastDn]

"Gaza Genocide" is such an elegantly toxic piece of gaslighting. Invent a Holocaust facsimile to blame on Jews, appropriating one of their defining tragedies & weaponizing it against them. And then accuse anyone of challenging your lies of Holocaust denial, devaluing that as well

[Guy Baldwin @GuyJBaldwin]

I have written a humorous novel about working in a law firm. You can buy it in paperback or ebook on Amazon: https://t.co/3knEsV8zTR

[Guy Baldwin @GuyJBaldwin]

@John_Attridge @weiss_hadas This is the crossover event we have been waiting for

[Guy Baldwin @GuyJBaldwin]

@weiss_hadas Do I need to unfollow and follow again?

[Don't Look Away @ExposingHamas]

This day in history, June 1, 1941:

The Farhud began in Baghdad, as pro-Nazi rioters attacked Jews during Shavuot, murdering 150-180 people, injuring hundreds, r*ping women, and looting 1,500 homes and stores, marking the beginning of the end for Iraq's 2,500 year old Jewish community.

The Farhud began in Baghdad on June 1, 1941, during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.

It came after years of rising Nazi influence in Iraq. German propaganda spread through Arabic radio broadcasts, Mein Kampf was translated and published locally, and pro-Axis Iraqi nationalists, including supporters of Rashid Ali al-Gailani and the former Mufti of Jerusalem, helped poison public life with antisemitic hate.

When the pro-German Iraqi regime collapsed, Baghdad’s Jews believed the danger had passed. Instead, soldiers, policemen, Futtuwa youths, civilians, and Bedouins turned on them. For two days, mobs hunted Jews through the city. Between 150 and 180 Jews were murdered, around 600 were injured, women were raped, and about 1,500 homes and stores were looted.

The Farhud shattered one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. Jews had lived in Iraq since the 6th century BCE, long before Islam reached the region. But after the massacre, many Iraqi Jews understood that their future in Iraq was dying. By 1951, about 124,000 of Iraq’s 135,000 Jews had left for Israel.

Those who stayed behind faced more persecution, discrimination, arrests, frozen bank accounts, job dismissals, and fear. In 1969, Ba’athist Iraq publicly hanged 14 people accused of spying, nine of them Jews. Baghdad Radio invited people to “come and enjoy the feast,” and hundreds of thousands reportedly came to watch, dance, and celebrate under the bodies.

The Farhud was one of the main events you could look to in order to understand the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the entire middle east. It was an event my own family told me about, and that convinced them to move to Israel themselves.

Like many Jewish refugees from across the region, they knew the road ahead would be hard. They knew they would have to leave most of their property behind, use whatever money they had to bribe their way through several Arab countries, and arrive in Israel with almost nothing, often living in poor transit camps, the Maabarot. But they had no real choice.

I am deeply grateful for the sacrifices they made, and for the courage it took to build a better future, and an amazing life, for all of us here.

[Jennifer A. Frey @jennfrey]

Every academic press and journal needs a clear ban on AI writing.

[Dr. Brian L. Cox @BrianCox_RLTW]

🚨 BREAKING international law development‼️

The current foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran insisted today that the "ceasefire between Iran and the US is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon."

This is a MASSIVE admission that must not go unnoticed because it confirms that widespread popular rhetoric claiming the 🇺🇸 + 🇮🇱 attacks against 🇮🇷 violate international law involving the resort to force has been erroneous all along. Here's why.

First off, both @POTUS @realDonaldTrump & @IsraeliPM @netanyahu, as well as their respective governments, have consistently justified Ops Epic Fury & Roaring Lion, respectively, in part because of Iran's direct support for regional proxies such as #Hamas #Hezbollah #Houthis etc. So even if #IRGC had never fired a single rocket @Israel, direct support for terrorist proxies would constitute an adequate legal justification to attack Iran.

This is one reason official statements from both 🇺🇸 & 🇮🇱 consistently refer to an "ongoing armed conflict" when explaining the legal basis for such attacks (pic 1, top for an example from 🇮🇱; pic 1, bottom for an example from 🇺🇸). Iran directly supports & controls proxies such as Hezbollah; the nature, duration & intensity of attacks against 🇮🇱 rise to the level of armed conflict; so attacks against 🇮🇷 - whether by 🇮🇱 or 🇺🇸 - involve engaging in an ongoing armed conflict.

That's been the consistent position of both 🇺🇸 & 🇮🇱.

What about Hezbollah? Do they consider their conflict against 🇮🇱 to be tied directly to the conflict in 🇮🇷? Yes, of course - and they always have.

For example, Hezbollah suspended its campaign of attacks directed against 🇮🇱 when a bilateral ceasefire agreement between 🇮🇱 & 🇱🇧 was signed in late Nov 2024. Any guesses what event led Hezbollah to resume attacks against 🇮🇱?

That's right! The joint 🇺🇸 🇮🇱 targeting mission early in Ops Epic Fury & Roaring Lion that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Trump announced the death on Truth Social on Feb 28 & Iranian state media confirmed the same later that day. The next day, Hezbollah announced it launched drone & missile attacks directly against 🇮🇱 "in retaliation for the pure blood of the" Ayatollah (pic 2).

Fastforward from March 1 to earlier today, and we see messaging from Trump confirming he has talked both to Bibi & Hezbollah. And as Trump summarizes the discussions, "Israel will not attack them (Hezbollah), and they will not attack Israel" (pic 3).

Of course, initial reports tonight indicate that arrangement was short-lived. But the broader context of the arrangement was a warning from 🇮🇷 that any ceasefire agreement must cover "all fronts, including in Lebanon" (eg post QTd here).

But why is that exactly? The closest straight-line distance between 🇮🇷 & 🇱🇧 is ~440 miles or so. Most personnel & equipment formally assigned to IRGC is positioned in 🇮🇷 - what's left of it, anyway. So why would 🇮🇷 insist that "ceasefire between Iran and the US is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon."

Simple. Because Iran directly controls, supplies, & supports Hezbollah, and Hezbollah is carrying out attacks against Israel as Iran's proxy (geographically) next to Israel.

That's how Iran regards the relationship, as this QTd post from the FM explicitly affirms. That's how Hezbollah sees it, since they renewed attacks against Israel "in retaliation for" the death of Ayatollah Khamenei (again, pic 2). And that's what 🇺🇸 & 🇮🇱 have been saying all this time (again, pic 1).

This proxy relationship & the resulting legal justification for directing attacks against 🇮🇷 is clear to all the relevant stakeholders, and they've been making decisions & engaging in armed hostilities accordingly.

So, is there anyone out there who seems to have ... missed the memo? Absolutely. For starters, every single academic & "international law expert" in the West who has claimed all along that the military campaign by 🇺🇸 & 🇮🇱 against 🇮🇷 violates international law involving the resort to force.

Consider, for example, the letter published in April @Just_Security written by @tomdannenbaum @bechamilton @AdHaque110 @oonahathaway @RonaGabor & signed by "over 100 international law experts" expressing "profound concern about serious violations of international law" in relation to the conflict in Iran (pic 4).

Now, I have been asked to assist with a critical analysis of the main points raised in this letter as part of a group project the results of which will hopefully be published in the not-so-distant future. So I am thoroughly familiar with this particular publication & can affirm there is actually little it gets right regarding the analysis of international law - despite the seemingly impressive qualifications of many of its contributors & signatories.

Even so, for present purposes I will focus just on the jus ad bellum (int'l law involving the resort to force) concerns raised in the letter.

As you can see from the attached screenshot, the experts claim, "The strikes launched by the United States and Israel on February 28, 2026 clearly violated the United Nations Charter prohibition on the use of force" (pic 4).

After presenting a standard summary of the existing use of force framework reflected in the Charter (a standard summary that should be revisited btw), the authors simply state, "Iran did not attack Israel or the United States" (again, pic 4).

Read that statement again. "Iran did not attack Israel or the United States."

What do you think about that claim, based on all the evidence presented above? None of the relevant stakeholders seem to agree, yet here are "over 100 international law 'experts'" asserting simply that Iran didn't attack Israel in the lead up to Ops Epic Fury & Roaring Lion.

Indeed, if you navigate to the article (https://t.co/y8bj0MeCgv) & search for keywords like "proxy" or "Hezbollah" or "Hamas" or "October 7", guess how many returns you'll find.

That's right. None. Not a single mention of the proxies 🇮🇷 has been using to attack 🇮🇱 since 10/7, and no acknowledgement of the "ongoing armed conflict" justification repeatedly provided by 🇺🇸 and 🇮🇱.

The governments of the United States and of Israel get it. Hezbollah gets it. And if it wasn't clear before, it's explicitly understood now - Iran gets it. But an overwhelming majority of "international law experts" throughout the West obviously do not get it.

Of course, there is an important discussion to be had regarding why so many "international law experts" don't understand international law as it is actually applied in practice, regarding the longstanding pacifist / progressive ideology that fosters such widespread errors, regarding how public perception is misled - indeed manipulated - in large part because the news media reports on these fallacies since they are purveyed by "experts" & media professionals don't themselves typically know any better, regarding how these widespread misunderstandings artificially erode public support for such operations by erroneously characterizing them as "illegal", regarding how this phenomenon ends up supporting the strategic objectives of our adversaries, and so on.

There will be time & opportunity to address these & similar concerns related to the broader context in due course.

For now, simply remember this. Iran explicitly considers Lebanon & its terror proxy Hezbollah as a "front" in the current conflict & links any ceasefire agreement in 🇮🇷 directly to that "front" in 🇱🇧. This is consistent with the long-standing understanding of stakeholders such as 🇺🇸 + 🇮🇱 + Hezbollah as well.

This is considered a "front" by 🇮🇷 because it directly funds, arms & supports its terror proxy Hezbollah in 🇱🇧 as it attacks 🇮🇱. And as 🇮🇷 explicitly acknowledges, then, this "front" is part of the same ongoing armed conflict both 🇺🇸 & 🇮🇱 have repeatedly cited when providing the international law justification for attacks against 🇮🇷.

And for all these reasons, popular allegations by "international law experts" throughout the West that attacks by 🇺🇸 & 🇮🇱 directed against 🇮🇷 "clearly violated the United Nations Charter prohibition on the use of force" are, in a word, false.

#TheMoreYouKnow #legaldisinformation