Scribere Decisis

I have a terrible habit of talking a talk while consistently not walking the same walk. It’s been a bother to know that I could absolutely destroy a conversation with some intellectual macho posturing. Unfortunately I parallel Ozymandias in the sense that I will also sneer and state “Look apon my works and despair!” while nothing beside my fat ego remains.

This blog came from a frustration that I kept failing to read and write. The ironic part is that I am incredibly performative in my interest in academia because my ego is so swollen that a bruise could possibly burst it. So this year, I’m focusing on reminding myself that my brain is a muscle that I need to train by writing more. In the age of AI, I think it’s an important skill to have if one wants to defy the threat of brainlessness. But enough about me. You’re here for a reason, that being a blog for you to read that. So let’s trot along before either of us get too bored of the other!

Why on bloody earth is this blog called Scribere Decisis then, you might ask. The term was a twist on the legal doctrine “stare decisis”, meaning to stand by past decisions. It’s a term to describe when Judges decide to obey old precedents in the law to resolve a case. It’s a form of enabling certainty through tradition, which has its own problems (Lord Denning famously dissented in A and B v C and D, which I reccomend that you read when you have a minute). When I first started this blog, I was a bit dense and thought latin = good stuff, hence the pompous title. Which, anyone with a sniffle of understanding of latin literature knows this assumption could not be further from the truth.

I picked up some latin and became sincerely humbled when I learned this truth for myself. Therefore I redeemed my arrogance by pretending that “Scribere decisis” grew to become a play on this precedent of “doing the done thing”. (*It’s subversive, people! Look how clever I am with my revisionist take on things. I’m clearly using the irony of my writing as a vehicle to criticise that when people want to remain ‘safe’ or maintain approval within the legal and cultural world by adhering to singular narratives, they miss out on developments and new structures that can better support the world around them. Tray bong! Tray, tray bong!!!) Thus, this blog is really both a love letter to the past and a side eye to our present narratives surrounding it. I am a corporate sellout, and very much unemployed, so a lot of this blog will be looking at shipping and corporate law. I also write more on legal matters over on “The Scoop”, so if you are enthusiastic about law and cannot get enough of it, I reccomend you migrate over there for a good read every now and then.

I write two blog series; “Us Ignoble Chimps” and “We Listen and We Judge”. These are fortnightly and will look at different aspects. Ignoble Chimps triples as my podcast and tiktok series on literature, cultural theory and art. I reccomend this simply because I thrive on validation as a reason to perfomatively read as a sardine on the District Line every morning commute. We Listen and We Judge focuses on new court disputes, why they arose and what I, as an unimportant and anonymous citizen with just a GDL, think a qualified individual of 25+ years of practice should have done (so a sports commentator but for the courts). I focus on the UK jurisdiction, with the occasional look at Nigeria, Denmark and EU.

That’s all I have to write today. I sincerely hope you enjoy what is to come the next few months. If I disappear, I sincerely hope it is because I got snatched up in the arms of employment and not because of my lack of discipline. However, my vanity will still ensure I post on instagram, x.com and tiktok at @scriberedecisis.

Sincerely,
Via Ifede OJ.