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On 16 September 2022, Jina Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, from the Kurdish minority, died following her arrest and beatings by morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating Iran’s strict rules requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf. Her death in police custody enraged ordinary Iranian citizens including many women who have expressed solidarity with Ms Amini. Since then the protests, led by women, have swelled, with demands from more freedoms to an end of the authoritarian state.Listen to this critical, timely and important discussion with the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Professor Javaid Rehman. He is in conversation with Dr Gail Lythgoe of Manchester International Law Centre.OUT-LINES in international law is a collaboration between Accountability Unit, Garden Court North Chambers, and Manchester International Law Centre. We aim to bring to the fore and critically assess, in an accessible way, cutting edge issues concerning the application, interpretation, and development of public international law with a key focus on international human rights law, and international criminal law.

Understandably, much of the focus on the autumn statement – the plan for the UK’s finances outlined by chancellor Jeremy Hunt on November 17 – is on its economic impact. But all economic policy making has considerable political significance.

On Wednesday 16 November, the ESIL Interest Groups on History of Intentional Law and International Organisations and Völkerrechtsblog, hosted a book launch for The World Bank’s Lawyers by Dr. Dimitri van den Meerssche (Queen Mary University London).In addition to hearing from the author, discussants included Negar Mansouri (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies), Dr Gail Lythgoe (University of Manchester), Dr. Tommaso Soave (Central European University) and Dr. Ahmed Memon (Cardiff School of Law and Politics). Florenz Volkaert (Ghent University) moderated.

This article discusses the contrasting “temporal regimes” of Extinction Rebellion and the concept of a feminist green new deal. The authors discuss the former’s emphasis on emergency to stimulate disobedient action, particularly out of concern for one’s future children and grandchildren. They argue that, while this emphasis has successfully catalyzed public agency, this agency remains socially narrow, as emergency thinking subordinates the political time central to inclusive movement building, while the personalization of intergenerational concern risks reproducing privilege and asset protection. As a result, actually existing material and symbolic inequalities are characteristically decentered. The authors contrast this with the timescapes of calls for a feminist green new deal, which eschew both crisis narratives and reprocentric futurism. In troubled times, they conclude, it is more productive to reconsider not just when but how to address the demands of climate breakdown

The demise of Liz Truss’s premiership revealed deep divisions within the Conservative Party. Martin Smith and Dave Richards argue the Conservatives are now dominated by two distinct factions: a ‘Bolshevik’ wing with an uncompromising belief in Thatcherite principles, and a ‘Menshevik’ bloc, led by Rishi Sunak, which sees the need to compromise around issues of welfare and health spending to build public support. The party’s future electoral prospects will depend heavily on which of these two factions gains the upper hand.

As part of their research on public expenditure, planning and control in these complex times, Dave Richards, Sam Warner, Diane Coyle and Martin Smith seek to explore a potential emerging paradox in the British government system - centralised financial control in an era of governmental fragmentation.

As part of the original submission of this campaign to the call for evidence we highlighted that the work of the members of our right to clothing network identifies ‘widespread barriers to accessing clothing in the UK’.This second follow-up submission is a response to a request for further information as to the nature of these barriers; the extent to which these barriers disproportionately prevent certain groups or communities from accessing clothing (the equality perspective); and the impact of the pandemic and cost of living crises on access to adequate clothing.

The short-lived Truss Government’s much maligned September ‘mini’ budget placed Treasury orthodoxy in the spotlight. This often-used term can be ill-defined, resulting in crude caricatures and neglect of what the Treasury does well. Targeting the wrong bits of Treasury orthodoxy can cause more harm than good. David Richards, Martin Smith and Sam Warner offer a structural critique of Treasury orthodoxy that extends beyond Whitehall, drawing on insights from the Nuffield Foundation funded research project Public Expenditure Planning and Control in Complex Times. They argue that an important lesson from the recent budget fiasco and now failed Truss Government approach is that instead of undermining the Treasury’s strengths, meaningful reform should focus on areas of innovative cross-cutting work and the pressing need to devolve more fiscal powers to the local level.