The blogs in this series by emerging and leading equality scholars examine the questions and ideas in Meghan Campbell’s new monograph Hanging in the Balance: Why Justification Matters to Feminist Legal Practice through the prism of their own research on equality. Vandita Khanna examines how justification operates in the context of race inequality in the … Read more
To my friend, the editor, I’d love to write you a detached academic essay, but oh my heart, I am so angry at the minute that I could spontaneously combust. Can you feel it, through the text? Can you feel the pulse of my rage? Anger is an energy. Stay angry, little Meg. Tropes and … Read more
Picture Jane Austen’s unpersuaded Anne Elliot or even Charles Dickens’ Miss Havisham. The spinster is often understood as an unpleasant term for a woman of a certain age who has not married and does not have children. In contrast, the bachelors unmarried status gave him a carefree vibe, leaving him available for the roles of … Read more
There are many extraordinary things about the UK Supreme Court’s (UKSC) decision in Dillon. It is unpicking of at least half of Article 2 of the Windsor Framework – specifically undoing the elements that protect human rights in Northern Ireland post Brexit. Its use of interpretive tools to undertake what I’m sure it regards, to … Read more
The publication of The Katie Simpson Review on 27 April 2026 marks a pivotal, albeit devastating, moment for legal reform in Northern Ireland. Commissioned by the Minister of Justice in the absence of traditional mechanisms like a Domestic Homicide Review (DHR), the report exposes the systemic invisibility of femicide within Northern Ireland’s legal system (Department … Read more
Reflections from organising the Engaging Utopias workshop, 9-10 of March in Dublin. Utopia can be understood as “the expression of the desire for a better way of being or of living” and, for instance, may entail a critique of the present, as well as political imagination or active struggle. As yet, literature on topics such … Read more
Last week, the Social Democrats put up a post on Instagram telling their followers to ‘Dig out your Repeal the 8th Jumpers… Our work isn’t done, so we’re getting the gang back together…The Reproductive Rights (Amendment) Bill 2026. Coming Soon.’ The timing of this felt incredibly serendipitous because it just so happened that I’d dug … Read more
This blogpost is republished with the kind permission of An Clogán Journal. Please consider a subscription to this new print and online magazine of politics and culture at https://www.anclogan.ie/ In 2016, I took up a job working in the Oireachtas. On my first day in my new job, I learnt that the colour of Official … Read more
It is no understatement that AI chatbots have become a part of daily life for many people, at least since OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022. But, as is so often the case, as exciting new technologies become available, they can also introduce new forms of gender-based violence. As has been seen with deepfake generation technology … Read more
There are many striking moments in Testimony, the recently-released documentary from director Aoife Moore, that centres the voices and experiences of people affected by Ireland’s systems of institutionalisation and forced family separation. The testimony from women who spent years imprisoned and working for nothing in Magdalene Laundries or who were forced to give up their … Read more