Heads of venerable law schools stateside have few qualms about dabbling in politics. Noticing that President Trump has a difficult relationship with legal process, Harvard’s dean Martha Minow and Yale dean Robert Post penned a thunderous piece for the Boston Globe. They write: ‘Without the rule of law, we may have a “so-called” president who has in fact become a tyrant.’

What about our own legal dons? Stirringly summoned from [campus] hillside and glen [fen?], letter-writing academics from the University of Kent lament: ‘The British government’s decision to renew its “special relationship” with the United States at this time can only lead, in the short-term, to further suffering and discrimination.’

Let the battle of the “speech marks” commence…

Obiter wondered what English deans, principals and faculty chairs had to say on Brexit. Surprisingly there’s precious little to date from the heads of, to take a sample: Oxford’s law faculty, the Dickson Poon school of law at King’s London, the University of Law or Nottingham Law School.

A very mild crackle on the Geiger counter from Cambridge, though. Here’s law faculty chair professor Richard Fentiman, speaking days before the actual vote to leave. Having ruminated that ‘Switzerland’, ‘Norway’ and ‘Albania’ provided models for a future outside the EU, Fentiman reached for humour [“humour”]: ‘I must say, as a public international lawyer, I’m rather struck by the fact that no one thinks we should be Utopia.’

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