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Matters of Irish law and law education which make the headlines, particularly related to Contract, Restitution, Freedom of Expression, Media, IT & Cyber law.
Post Frequency: 1/day Last Entry: November 21, 2009 at 08:05:56 Recent Entries: 297
By Eoin O’Dell
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Conference: Recent developments in Irish Defamation Law
Posted on November 21, 2009Next week, the School of Law, Trinity College Dublin, will host a conference on Recent Developments in Irish Defamation Law – Including the Defamation Act, 2009 It will be on from 9:30am to 1:15pm on Saturday, 28 November 2009, in the Davis Theatre, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin...
The Regulation and Perception of Political Advertising
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Political advertising in the morning
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Massaging the political advertising ban
Posted on November 17, 2009Section 41(3) of the new Broadcasting Act, 2009 (pdf) provides: A broadcaster shall not broadcast an advertisement which is directed towards a political end or which has any relation to an industrial dispute. This sub-section (in conjunction with section 41(4), which contains a ban on religious advertising) re-enacts long-standing bans on political (and religious) advertising; though such [...
I spy, but I can?t show and tell
Posted on November 13, 2009Judith Miller published a story which, among other things, named Valerie Plame as a CIA spy. In later grand jury proceedings, Miller declined to name her source, despite a decision of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals that she had to do so, and spent 85 days in prison for her troubles...
Defamation of a company in the still un-commenced 2009 Act
Posted on November 12, 2009In the important decision of the House of Lords in Jameel v Wall Street Journal Europe Sprl [2007] 1 AC 359, [2006] UKHL 44 (11 October 2006) the House of Lords by a majority confirmed the traditional common law rule (see South Hetton Coal Company v North Eastern News Association Limited [1894] 1 QB 133) [...
Technology, students and universities
Posted on November 11, 2009There are some – related – articles in today’s Irish Independent on themes which have featured on this blog. A report published yesterday by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) shows that the number of students going to college has hit a record high (the Irish Times ran the same story under the headline that there [...
Tory Island and Unjust Enrichment ? the conclusion
Posted on November 09, 2009I wrote last April and again last July about the case brought by film-maker Neville Presho, whose holiday home on Tory Island had disappeared in his absence, replaced by a car park for an adjacent hotel. In July, Murphy J held that Mr Presho was entitled to a comparable dwelling on this island or its [...
Core principles in research
Posted on November 08, 2009From the ever-wonderful PhD Comic: Unsurprisingly, you can now buy PhD merchandise – the perfect gift for researchers and supervisors everywhere. If you like this post, please click on this link to pass it on. Thanks! Hide Sites $$('div...
An original and gripping compilation
Posted on November 08, 2009The Kennelly Archive, recently made available online, is a superb collection of photographs providing a rich historical record of Co Kerry in particular and Ireland in general from the mid-50s to the mid-70s. A selection of the most evocative of the photographs has been published in a sumptuous book – Eyewitness (complete with a jacket [...
Publishing Lolita
Posted on November 06, 2009If Lady Chatterly’s Lover isn’t obscene, how about Lolita? Yesterday’s Times has a fascinating story about Peter Carter-Ruck’s advice to George Weidenfeld in advance of the UK publication of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel (with some added links): Lolita: how a lawyer’s cunning plan paid off for Vladimir Nabokov With all the brouhaha over Carter-Ruck allegedly stifling free [...
Rethinking Law, Second Annual Law Student Colloquium at TCD
Posted on November 05, 2009Are you a Law student, undergraduate or postgraduate? Would you like to present a short paper or give a presentation on a legal topic of your choice at a colloquium at TCD on Saturday, 20 February 2010? The second annual Law Student Colloquium, chaired by Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness, President of the Law Reform Commission, [...
Revising the Press Council Code of Practice
Posted on November 03, 2009Principle 10.2 of the Press Council’s Code of Practice provides “The content of this Code will be reviewed at regular intervals”. A piece by Carol Coulter in today’s Irish Times reports on the first revisions of the Code since the establishment of the Press Council: Changes made to Press Council’s code of practice A number of changes [...
Canadian style
Posted on November 03, 2009No, this isn’t a post about the Canadian blog and magazine Precedent: The new rules of law and style. Instead – following on from my posts about OSCOLA (here), the infamous Bluebook (here), minimalist styles for online journals (here), and an emerging Kiwi style (here) – this is a rather belated comment on a post [...
20 slides, 5 minutes, 1 nervous speaker
Posted on November 02, 2009This is a recipe for Ignite talks, and my TCD colleague Conor Houghton recently organised the first Ignite event in Dublin. Ignite Dublin #1 was a great event, with lots of interesting people saying, doing or performing lots of interesting things. And now, by the power of a YouTube channel, you too can have [...
Have you bought a haunted house? Who you gonna call?
Posted on October 31, 2009If not Ghostbusters, then perhaps your lawyers. They would probably consider at least two situations. First, in the context of the formation of contracts, a misrepresentation is a false statement of fact made by one party, which causes another party to enter into the contract, and which gives that latter party the right to set [...
Only in California ? breach of contract and unjust enrichment
Posted on October 28, 2009By Meredith R Miller on ContractsProf Blog, a story that needs no further commentary: Was Carrie Prejean Unjustly Enriched? (Nudge Nudge Wink Wink) You’ll undoubtedly recall that, back in May, we mentioned that Miss California USA (aka Donald Trump) might terminate then-Miss California Carrie Prejean for breach of contract; Prejean was in fact de-crowned, and she sued [...
Does the Irish Constitution prescribe a wall between Church and State?
Posted on October 27, 2009Thomas Jefferson wrote that the First Amendment to the US Constitution erected “a wall of separation between Church & State”. This doctrine of the separation of church and state is taken to work both ways: a secular government should not establish or endow a formal state religion, and religious exercise should be free of state [...
The evolution of man lawyers
Posted on October 26, 2009Among his many accomplishments, Alex Steuart Williams – with Graham Francis Defries – draws and writes the weekly Queen’s Counsel cartoon column in the Times. Williams has just released a new book of cartoons, 101 Ways to Leave the Law...
The Internet never forgets
Posted on October 24, 2009I remember this one time, at BarCamp Dublin, I went to Darren Barefoot?s presentation, and he said Things live forever on the web ? the internet never forgets. Total recall online is now a common trope, and one which forms the starting point of Viktor Mayer-Schönberger’s provocative new book Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital [...
Steep rain
Posted on October 22, 2009One Irish politician recently appealed to another not to do anything “precipitous“. Interesting appeal, but did the appealing (well, actually, unappealing) politician really mean that? The Compact Oxford English Dictionary provides: precipitous /prisippitss/ ? adjective 1 dangerously high or steep...
More practice needed in legal education
Posted on October 20, 2009The title of this post comes from the headline in an interesting and provocative article by Larry Donnelly of NUI Galway (pictured left) in Monday’s Irish Times. His core argument is that the preparation of students for law practice should play a greater role in legal education in Ireland: Historically, law study at third-level institutions in [...
Subrogation and unjust enrichment ? hunting the snark
Posted on October 20, 2009The Hunting of the Snark is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll subtitled An Agony in 8 Fits. In Fit 6, the Barrister dreams that the eponymous Snark serves as counsel for the defence, finds the verdict as the jury, and passes sentence as the judge...
Subrogation and unjust enrichment in the High Court of Australia
Posted on October 19, 2009By means of the doctrine of subrogation, one person is substituted for another in the exercise of that other?s rights against a third person. In the classic triangular fact pattern, it arises where a creditor has rights against a debtor, and the claimant is subrogated to the rights of the creditor against the debtor...
Ban on corporate donations could face legal action
Posted on October 18, 2009Shane Coleman has a fascinating piece in today’s Sunday Tribune (with added links): Ban on corporate donations could face legal action A key part of the newly revised programme for government [scribd, see pp34-35] to end corporate donations to individual politicians and political parties could be open to constitutional challenge … [there is] “definitely a freedom of [...
Innovation, universities and patents
Posted on October 14, 2009Patents encourage innovation – an inventor who is awarded a patent over an invention can exploit it and profit from it, at least according to the Irish Patents Office. Innovation therefore matters, and Innovation Dublin 2009, a week long festival of public events aimed at promoting and stimulating innovation and creativity in the city, begins [...
Don?t mention the hotel
Posted on October 13, 2009Legal Eagle on SkepticLawyer writes: Fawlty Towers fights back My parents just came back from a holiday in Europe, and were telling me about one of the less salubrious hotel rooms they experienced. … [They] were contemplating writing a review for a travel website to warn other travellers that this purportedly ?four star? hotel was not all [...
Proportionality in the ECHR
Posted on September 30, 2009The principle of proportionality is one of the most important, and most mercurial, concepts in the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. Antoine Buyse on ECHR blog brings news of an important new book on the topic: New Book on Fair Balance Jonas Christoffersen, director of the Danish Institute of Human Rights, has just published [...
Protest? Yes, of course! Censor? No, absolutely not!!
Posted on September 29, 2009Free Education for Everyone (FEE) is a grassroots group of students and staff in various third level instititutions which has been set up to fight the re-introduction of fees while campaigning for genuinely free education for all. According to their About Us page: FEE activists have organised protests, occupations and blockades across the country over the [...
Students on Contract
Posted on September 29, 2009As another Senior Freshman Law of Contract course gets underway, what do students really think of the Law of Contract? Jeremy Telman on ContractsProf Blog: Contracts Law & Injustice This year, more than any other year, my students are telling me that they … they find it frustrating because contracts law seems to be set up to [...
Broadcasting Authority imminent
Posted on September 28, 2009The Broadcasting Act, 2009 (pdf) sets the regulatory framework for broadcasting services in Ireland. It consolidates all Irish broadcasting legislation into a single Act, and establishes a new Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI, incorporating the functions of the current Broadcasting Commission and RTÉ Authority)...
Something about law
Posted on September 27, 2009From the New Yorker Cartoon Bank: Image: Man in plush law office talking to woman attorney. Caption: You seem to know something about law. I like that in an attorney. If you like this post, please click on this link to pass it on. Thanks! Hide Sites $$('div...
Revising the statute book is dusty but serious business
Posted on September 27, 2009Further to my three posts on the Statute Law Revision Act, 2007 (also here), I note that the second stage of the sibling Statute Law Revision Bill, 2009 was taken in the Dáil on Thursday. Friday’s Irish Times had a suitably colourful take on it: Bill to repeal statute laws dating back to Henry VIII...
Online disruption of the classical university model
Posted on September 26, 2009A little while ago I blogged about the potential challenge which online education can pose for the traditional model of the university, comparing and contrasting the positions of newspapers and universities as they face online challenges. Now I see that Grant McCracken is also musing that what’s happening to journalism may some day happen to [...
Lust, Satire and Academic Insularity
Posted on September 25, 2009As a counterpoint to the THE’s piece on The seven deadly sins of the academy, about which I wrote here, Mary Beard has exasperatedly pointed out that the entry about lust was – as the author himself has also had to explain – satirical: Sex with students? Is Terence Kealey as misunderstood as Juvenal? … I hadn’t [...
Hello blasphemy ? Bye bye debate?
Posted on September 23, 2009I’ve been putting some slides together for a talk I’m doing tonight at Ignite Dublin #1, and my colleague Dr Neville Cox provided me with the Sunday Independent cartoon which was the subject of the only attempt to prosecute mount a prosecution for blasphemy in Ireland since the adoption of the Constitution (Bunreacht na hÉireann) [...
Libel tourism, online defamation and multiple publication
Posted on September 22, 2009In the UK, the Ministry for Justice (logo, left) has just begun a consultation process seeking views on the “multiple publication rule” at common law under which each publication of defamatory material can form the basis of a new defamation claim, and in particular on the effects of this rule in relation to online archives...
The Free World Centre
Posted on September 21, 2009From the Guardian: Fighting for free speech Is offence the new censorship? The launch of the Free Word Centre seeks to reopen the debate about freedom of expression Ursula Owen It’s entirely appropriate that the new Free Word Centre, which is launched tonight, is based in Farringdon Road...
Cartoons in the Academy
Posted on September 20, 2009From Kelly Anders on the Faculty Lounge: Cartoons in the Academy Cruise the halls of a typical grouping of faculty offices in any law school, and several cartoons are sure to adorn the walls and doors. Some are funny in a mild-mannered way, while others can be quite political...
Advice to Freshers: Don?t Panic
Posted on September 20, 2009As our new first year students arrive this week, there is a strong orientation programme for them, to ease them into Trinity life. Trinity News, one of the student newspapers, writes in praise of Trinity’s old-fashioned freshers’ week; another college’s publication last week looked at Freshers’ First Steps; and GoToCollege has some useful tips for [...
The benefits of the Press Council
Posted on September 19, 2009Using the Press Ombudsman and Press Council mechanisms will allow media complaints to be settled without lawyers, as expensive legal processes will be invoked much less frequently following the enactment of the Defamation Act, 2009 according to the Press Ombudsman, Prof John Horgan...
The sins of academics and students
Posted on September 18, 2009The current edition of Times Higher Education (I can’t get used to this odd title, I keep wanting to add “Supplement“; but it was dropped some time ago, so I must resist the temptation) has articles on the temptations that academics and students find hard to resist...
Ave, Salve, Vale
Posted on September 17, 2009Tragic news: Dr Gernot Biehler – An Appreciation The Law School is very sad to announce the passing of our beloved friend and colleague, Dr Gernot Biehler, husband of Professor Hilary Delany, on Sunday 13th September. … We will always remember him with the greatest affection and respect...
Kingsfield on Higher Options
Posted on September 16, 2009This time last year, I found myself explaining to concerned parents at the Higher Options Fair that law students’ small lecture load does not necessarily mean a small work load. Plus ça change. My colleagues have found themselves explaining much the same thing today at this year’s event...
Fulsome pedantry
Posted on September 15, 2009Yesterday, one Irish politician called on another to make an apology to the Irish people. This would just be another forgettable eddy in a political coffee cup were it not for the fact that the demand was for a “fulsome” apology. Can this be right? The Oxford English Dictionary (pictured left) in its entry (sub [...
The shape of (third-level) things to come?
Posted on September 14, 2009Techdirt points to an article in Washington Monthly which raises the possibility of College for $99 a Month. The theme of the piece is that the next generation of online education could be great for students, but catastrophic for universities. As if we didn’t have enough to worry about...
Death of a libel tourist
Posted on September 14, 2009The letters’ page of the Irish Times as often features well-crafted prose and well-argued cases as it does pithily funny remarks and occasionally insane arguments. In any event, a letter often serves either to remind me of an article I had not properly considered, or to bring to my attention a piece I had simply [...
Peak productivity
Posted on September 13, 2009From the ever-wonderful Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD), a graduate student comic strip: If you like this post, please click on this link to pass it on. Thanks! Hide Sites $$('div.d3688').each( function(e) { e.visualEffect('slide_up',{duration:0...
New kids on the block
Posted on September 11, 2009I’ve just discovered the wonderful new(ish) blog Human Rights in Ireland, a group blog about – well, the clue is in the name – human rights issues in Ireland and on Irish scholarship about human rights more generally. With apologies for the nkotb title, I can say without fear of contradiction that there’s lots of [...
Academic freedom and DNA privacy
Posted on September 10, 2009Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, the scientist behind DNA fingerprinting, in a BBC interview to mark the 25th anniversary of that discovery, has spoken of the importance of allowing academics freedom to research. He said that academics should be able to pursue “unfettered, fundamental, curiosity-driven” research of the kind which led to his discovery...
100 years of Legal Scholars
Posted on September 07, 2009And so to the University of Keele, for the centenary conference of the Society of Legal Scholars in the United Kingdom and Ireland (SLS). The SLS is a leading learned society for those who teach law in a university or similar institution or who are otherwise engaged in legal scholarship, and many of the events [...
Tech support
Posted on September 06, 2009From xkcd, via Rumble Strips, a flowchart with which we can all identify – sometimes I’m the tech support, sometimes the baffled “not computer person”: Bonus links from xkcd (1): some other entertaining flowcharts; (2) a very clever Legal Hack; and (3) my favourite, a chess photo! If you like this post, please click on this link [...
Journalism and Blogging in the New York Review of Books
Posted on September 05, 2009There is a wonderful essay by Michael Massing in the current edition of the New York Review of Books about the deepening relationship between print and online journalism. In form, it’s a review of Eric Boehlert Bloggers on the Bus: How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press (Free Press | Amazon), which traces the [...
A salutary tale of a mistaken price
Posted on September 04, 2009Via ContractsProf, I learn that US discount retailer Best Buy will not honour a $9.99 big-screen TV deal which it had offered for sale on its website, because the terms on the site reserved its right to revoke offers or correct errors even if a credit card has already been charged...
Announcing the Irish Law Quarterly
Posted on September 03, 2009It is exciting news that there is to be a new online peer-reviewed Irish law journal, the Irish Law Quarterly. (Don’t be cynical: it is exciting news; and the world – or at least Ireland – really does need another one). According to the home page: The ILQ is an innovative journal which aims at broad [...
Globalisation alla Berlusconi: libel suits in many jurisdictions
Posted on September 02, 2009Here we go again with yet another case of a head of state seeking to use the courts to curb uncomfortable press coverage. It is a popular tactic the world over – Charlie Haughey infamously relied on threats of libel action to stifle investigation of his private and financial affairs – and it is [...
From Lefkowitz via lines to Limerick
Posted on September 01, 2009It has become a rite of passage to stand in lines overnight or longer to be early in line to buy concert tickets, or houses off the plans (at least during now extinct Celtic Tiger years), or places in a school, or early into a sale in a favourite shop...
University Reform would set a Dangerous Precedent!
Posted on August 24, 2009On the process by which decisions are taken in the University, Intersecting Sets has this quote from Cornford’s sardonic Microcosmographia Academica (html | pdf): No one can tell the difference between a Liberal Conservative Caucus and a Conservative Liberal one...
Laff, laff
Posted on August 23, 2009On Australia Day, if you can’t forget Skippy, then you can’t forget Lassie either. From Strange Brew via the Language Log: Language Log adds a further joke – I wonder if Simon Fodden would call this a lapdog? If you like this post, please click on this link to pass it on...
Two journalists? conceptions of source privilege
Posted on August 22, 2009In today’s Irish Times obituary of Robert Novak (pictured left, on the cover of his autobiography), there is an excellent summary of the Judith Miller affair. From the obituary (with added links): Conservative US columnist revealed identity of CIA officer … Six years ago, he crowned his long record of controversial disclosures by revealing the name and [...
Stop Press: Vincent Browne recants!
Posted on August 17, 2009In his column in yesterday’s Sunday Business Post, Vincent Browne (to coin a phrase, the éminence terrible of Irish journalism, pictured left) gives a guarded welcome to the Defamation Act, 2009, and pours cold water on the recent Supreme Court decision about journalist source privilege...
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Posted on August 16, 2009… You’ll wish that summer could always be here Nat King Cole Those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer Or not, if you’re five: If you like this post, please click on this link to pass it on. Thanks! Hide Sites $$('div...
Lawyers for Typography
Posted on August 14, 2009A little while I ago, I blogged about the deservedly-popular site Typography for Lawyers; now a story by Joel Alas in the Financial Times (hat tip: The Faculty Lounge) brings news of lawyers for typography, or more to the point, potential litigation about the most (in)famous font type in the world – Times New Roman...
Towards an All Black Book?
Posted on August 13, 2009By way of update to my post on Legal Citation, I note that Geoff McLay on 15 Lambton Quay (the Faculty Blog for the Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Law) writes: The proposed uniform legal style guide for New Zealand A group of academics, editors and publishers led by myself and Justice Chambers has been developing [...
The elements of academic freedom
Posted on August 12, 2009As universities grapple with reducing budgets, their autonomy from government comes increasingly under scrutiny, and traditional academic values such as academic freedom come under threat. As a consequence, a recent story in Times Higher Education concerning a recent attempt to define academic freedom in detail, makes for fascinating reading (with added links): What is freedom? Choosing [...
Who will examine the examiners?
Posted on August 11, 2009Marking exams, grading papers, and evaluating assessments are the bane of academics’ lives (even worse, in my view, than the ever multiplying waves of administrative paperwork that seem to be taking over the university). During the early summer annual exam marking season, Mary Beard and Ferdinand von Prondzynski had some interesting observations about the process; [...
Report of the Working Group on a Court of Appeal
Posted on August 10, 2009I’ve written about this report twice already. The first occasion was when a committee chaired by Ms Justice Susan Denham of the Supreme Court was established to consider the necessity for a new Irish Court of Appeal (this was in part a response to an article on the point which Judge Denham had written the [...
Mobile phones, again
Posted on August 09, 2009Given my views about mobile phones in class, I’m grateful to John Naughton for his post about this YouTube clip: If you like this post, please click on this link to pass it on. Thanks! Hide Sites $$('div.d3238').each( function(e) { e...
FoE in the EHRLR
Posted on August 08, 2009The current issue of the European Human Rights Law Review ([2009] 3 EHRLR | table of contents (pdf) | hat tip ECHR blog) contains a wonderful piece by my colleague Ewa Komorek entitled “Is Media Pluralism a Human Right? The European Court of Human Rights, the Council of Europe and the Issue of Media Pluralism” [...
Ding, ding! Seconds out, round one: National Portrait Gallery Wikipedia v Wikipedia
Posted on August 07, 2009Roll up, roll up, for the next great online copyright bout. In the red corner, weighing in at almost 153 years old, is the venerable National Portrait Gallery, an institutional heavyweight if ever there was one. In the blue corner, weighing in at just over 8 years old, is the upstart Wikipedia, a sprightly bantamweight [...
Open access in the Irish Times
Posted on August 07, 2009I have written several times on this blog about open access journals, and I have re-posted some of the wickedly funny cartoons served up daily by Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD). Open access journals are the focus of PhD’s cartoon yesterday (it’s too big to repost here, but click through and enjoy – then come [...
Identity theft, unilateral mistake as to identity, and wordle
Posted on August 06, 2009I can’t make up my mind whether wordle is a pretty annoying gimmick or an useful analytical tool which produces pretty results. The image on the left is a wordle anaylsis of the interesting decision of the House of Lords in Shogun Finance v Hudson [2004] 1 AC 1101, [2003] UKHL 62 (19 November 2003) [...
The political advertising ban rears its ugly head again
Posted on August 06, 2009I’m sorry I’m coming to this too late to attend the gig, but I’ve only just seen this piece by Lorna Siggins in today’s Irish Times (with added links): RTÉ denies censorship of Afri advert over Rossport reference RTÉ has denied that it has refused to broadcast an advertisement for a social event in Dublin tonight that [...
The decreasing value of an academic reference
Posted on August 05, 2009A New York woman who says she cannot find a job is suing the college where she obtained a bachelor’s degree, because the college’s Office of Career Advancement did not provide her with the leads and career advice it had promised. Perhaps someone somewhere along the line didn’t write her a good enough reference...
Copperfastening the right of journalists to protect sources?
Posted on August 04, 2009Marie McGonagle, NUI Galway, writes in today’s Irish Times that the judgment in Mahon Tribunal v Keena [2009] IESC 64 (31 July 2009) (also here (pdf)) copperfastens the right of journalists to protect sources (with added links): The vital public watchdog role of the press was upheld by the Supreme Court … That decision, particularly as it [...
Website disclaimers
Posted on August 04, 2009Following on from my comments about email disclaimers, via TJ and OUT-LAW.com here and here, I learn of the decision of the Court of Appeal in England and Wales in Patchett v Swimming Pool & Allied Trades Association Ltd [2009] EWCA Civ 717 (15 July 2009) on the efficacy of website disclaimers...
So, does Irish law now recognise a journalist source privilege?
Posted on August 02, 2009As I wrote in my previous post, the Supreme Court in Mahon Tribunal v Keena [2009] IESC 64 (31 July 2009) (also here (pdf)) allowed the appeal against the decision of the High Court in Mahon v Keena [2007] IEHC 348 (23 October 2007). Fennelly J delivered the judgment of the Court, in which Murray [...
Supreme Court allows journalists? appeal
Posted on July 31, 2009The Supreme Court has held that two Irish Times journalists can assert a privilege to refuse to answer questions about their sources, reversing the High Court decision in Mahon v Keena [2007] IEHC 348 (23 October 2007). From the Irish Times breaking news website: Court upholds Mahon appeal The Supreme Court has upheld an appeal by [...
Blasphemy: Pluralisation and Content
Posted on July 30, 2009In The Godfather, Part III, Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) laments Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in. I know how he feels (though without the mafia connections, obviously). I had intended yesterday’s post to be my last on blasphemy for some time, but then Eoin Daly, a PhD student in [...
How will the blasphemy offence work?
Posted on July 29, 2009It’s a pity that Part 5 of the Defamation Act, 2009, relating to blasphemy, has dominated the coverage of the Act at home and abroad, since the legislation does considerably more than that. It is radical modernisation of Ireland’s defamation laws, and is a vast improvement on what had gone before...
Contract law explained?
Posted on July 26, 2009What my students really think of Contract law, via Courtoons:
Typography for Lawyers
Posted on July 24, 2009I love this website: Typography for Lawyers. Typography is the visual component of the written word, and even though the legal profession depends heavily on writing, legal typography is often poor. So, Matthew Butterick has started that site as a guide to typography for lawyers - in his view, good typography makes written documents more [...
Monkeys and blasphemy
Posted on July 24, 2009On the monkeys-and-typewriters principle, I suppose it was inevitable that Kevin Myers would eventually write something with which I would agree. He did, today, in the Irish Independent: I have the right not merely to offend people, but to intend to … The Ahern law on blasphemy must be the first law ever whose instigator is desperately [...
Restitution of overpaid VAT - clouds and silver linings
Posted on July 23, 2009EU law has thrown up some very abstruse issues, none more so that the compatibility of national VAT regimes with European VAT Directives. Where there has been a charge to tax pursuant to national rules which infringe EU law, then that overpayment of tax can be recovered...
President signs Bills
Posted on July 23, 2009From the Irish Times breaking news site: President McAleese signs controversial Bills into law President Mary McAleese has this morning signed the Defamation Bill 2006 and the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009 into law. … Update: from RTÉ news: President signs controversial bills into law; and from the Irish Times: Ahern welcomes Bills’ enactment; see also Belfast Telegraph [...
President?s decision tomorrow
Posted on July 22, 2009For anyone who is as impatient as I am to find out what President McAleese has decided after her meeting this evening with the Council of State, the RTÉ News website is reporting: The meeting of the Council of State called by the President ended at around 10pm...
Blasphemy provisions clash with Constitution
Posted on July 21, 2009In today’s Irish Times, a piece by yours truly under the above headline: Blasphemy provisions clash with Constitution The President has very few unconstrained powers, and the Council of State is convened only rarely, but this evening they will all move centre stage, when the Council convenes to advise the President whether to refer two controversial Bills [...
Is Lady Chatterley?s Lover obscene?
Posted on July 21, 2009No, at least so far as the law is concerned. But after its initial publication in 1928, it was not until the 1960s that litigation in the US and the UK allowed it to become generally available. An op-ed by Fred Kaplan in the today’s New York Times, entitled The Day Obscenity Became Art, (with [...
Impossible research
Posted on July 19, 2009An acerbic view of academic research, via the ever-wonderful Piled Higher and Deeper:
Tory Island and Unjust Enrichment - continued
Posted on July 18, 2009I wrote in April about the case brought by film-maker Neville Presho, whose holiday home on Tory Island had disappeared in his absence, replaced by a car park for an adjacent hotel. At that stage, Mr Justice Murphy suggested that there may be a restitution claim for the hotel?s use of the site as a [...
Another twist in the tale of the Defamation Bill
Posted on July 17, 2009The saga of the Defamation Bill, 2006 is not over yet. Article 26 of Bunreacht na hÉireann (the Irish Constitution) allows the President, after consultation with Council of State, to refer a Bill to the Supreme Court for a determination of its constitutionality...
Seeing justice done?
Posted on July 16, 2009As the slow march towards a new Supreme Court for the UK nears its destination, the Times has a piece about its newly refurbished premises: The United Kingdom?s new Supreme Court will open its doors for business on October 1, with the first inbuilt facilities in Britain for broadcasting in court...
New Open Source Law Journal
Posted on July 15, 2009The European Legal Network, a professional network of legal experts facilitated by the Freedom Task Force which promotes free software licensing as part of the work of the Free Software Foundation Europe, has just announced the launch of the International Free and Open Source Software Law Review...
Legal Alchemy
Posted on July 13, 2009Albie Sachs is a remarkable man. His official bio begins On turning six, during World War II, Albie Sachs received a card from his father expressing the wish that he would grow up to be a soldier in the fight for liberation. He began that fight as a seventeen year old law student; as a lawyer, [...
Traffic Data Retention, Irish-style, returns to the legislative agenda
Posted on July 13, 2009The Communications (Retention of Data) Bill 2009, published last week, has caused a bit of a stir in this morning’s newspapers. It will give effect to EU Data Retention Directive 2006/24/EC of 15 March 2006 (blogged here) which recently survived challenge by the Irish Government in the European Court of Justice, and it will replace [...
So am I?
Posted on July 12, 2009Via Peter Black’s Freedom to Differ blog, I came across this video from the Society for Geek Advancement:
The template for journalism?
Posted on July 11, 2009A Leader in today’s Irish Times welcomes the passing of the Defamation Bill, 2006, and argues that it will set an appropriate template for the practice of journalism in Ireland: The template for journalism The Defamation Bill has concluded its passage through the Oireachtas, with a few deserved wobbly moments on blasphemy, and now awaits the signature [...
Defamation Bill passed by the Seanad
Posted on July 10, 2009Having been passed by the Dáil (lower house of parliament) earlier this week, today’s papers are full of the news that the Defamation Bill, 2006 was passed yesterday by the Seanad (upper house of parliament) (the full debate is here); all that is now required for it to become law is the signature of the [...
Pleading defamation defences
Posted on July 09, 2009In a recent post, I discussed newspaper reports of a recent High Court case in which Quinn Insurance Group lost a High Court bid to strike out parts of the Sunday Tribune?s defence to forthcoming libel proceedings taken against it by the insurance company; and I promised to return to the case as soon as [...
Defamation Bill passed by the Dáil
Posted on July 08, 2009As recently prefigured on this blog, the Government has indeed used the legislative guillotine to force through their final amendments to the Defamation Bill, 2006. According to the RTÉ news website: Libel law revisions pass the Dáil The legislation to revise the country’s libel laws has been passed in the Dáil and will now go to the [...
Sympathy for the devil?
Posted on July 05, 2009No, it’s not about a Rolling Stones song, or a Jean-Luc Goddard movie, but instead, in another sign of the times, it’s a cartoon about lawyers from the wonderful Non Sequitur cartoon strip: The box on the top left corner says: Why unemployed lawyers have trouble getting sympathy...
Putting blasphemy in its box
Posted on July 04, 2009As I have said before on this site, the best reason for freedom of expression is commentary like this, from the always-incisive Martyn Turner in the Irish Times on Friday (03 July 2009) (click on the image for the full-size version from the Irish Times website):
Privacy. The Lost Right
Posted on July 01, 2009The title of this post is the provocative title of a recently published book from Oxford University Press written by Jon L Mills (on the author, see University of Florida Levin College of Law | University of Miami School of Law; on the book, see Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Google Books | OUP; [...
Mobile phones in class
Posted on June 28, 2009By way of update to my recent post about laptops in class, here’s Torill Mortensen thinking with her fingers about recent research on the consequences of mobile phones going off in class: Why we don’t like cell-phones in class … Apart from being annoying, distracting and rude, ringing cellphones makes students forget what they learned before [...
Dress codes - who?ll be the judge?
Posted on June 27, 2009I have already written on this blog about reforms to judicial dress in England and Wales (the image on the right is a well-known example of the previous judicial court dress). No comes news that Ireland may follow suit. From today’s Irish Independent (with added links): Fashion guru revamps judges’ robes Fashion guru Louise Kennedy has been [...
Perspectives on Academic Freedom
Posted on June 26, 2009One of my favourite blogs is Erin O’Connor’s Critical Mass, a blog dedicated to commentary on the state of academe in general and American higher education in particular. She is invariably interesting and unfailingly provocative, if not always right; and her discussions of academic freedom in all its guises have helped to clarify what I [...
When is a guillotine a good thing? When it?s used on a Defamation Bill?
Posted on June 26, 2009In this morning’s Irish Times: Defamation Bill to pass within weeks The Bill to reform Ireland?s libel laws is likely to be enacted within a fortnight, three years after it was published. The Defamation Bill was introduced by then minister for justice Michael McDowell in 2006 to repeal the existing legislation which dates from 1961...
No Supreme Court judgment yet in journalists? sources appeal
Posted on June 12, 2009It is said that patience is a virtue. It seems that the Supreme Court is determined to make us all virtuous. As we eagerly await their decision in the appeal from the decision of the High Court in Mahon v Keena [2007] IEHC 348 (23 October 2007), it appears we shall have to hold our [...
European Charter on Freedom of the Press
Posted on June 10, 2009Jörges hands over the Charter to Reding (Photo: EUobserver) On 25 May 25 2009, 48 editors-in-chief and leading journalists from 19 countries adopted and signed the European Charter on Freedom of the Press in Hamburg. In ten articles, the Charter formulates principles for the freedom of the press from government interference...
Creative Commons in Ireland: Cimín Cruthaitheach in Éireannn
Posted on June 08, 2009There is a tension at the heart of creativity. On the one hand, I might be moved by the muse to write/paint/create something interesting (I know, if you’ve read anything on this blog, you might wonder if that muse has ever struck, but bear with me)...
Laptop fever
Posted on June 08, 2009Ireland’s leading celebrity academic blogger discusses a the theme of Laptops in class: Laptop fever … the laptop is now a common sight in the lecture theatre or classroom, with an increasing number of students bringing them along and using them visibly...
Facebook and Privacy
Posted on June 07, 2009Via Chris Slane’s wonderful Privacy Cartoon Portfolio, a poster for last month’s Privacy Awareness Week in New Zealand:
Cowengate caricatures ?didn?t bother? Cowen: why the fuss?
Posted on June 06, 2009On the top right hand corner of a cover of Hot Press (pictured left) runs a quote from the Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Brian Cowen: Those paintings didn’t bother me It is a teaser for a full interview with Jason O’Toole in which Cowen talks about the current economic crisis and his party’s electoral prospects...
Plans for an Irish Court of Appeal?
Posted on June 05, 2009Some time ago, in a similarly titled post, I discussed the establishment of a committee chaired by Ms Justice Susan Denham of the Supreme Court which was to consider the necessity for a possible new Court of Appeal. I thought it a good idea then, and still do now...
What is unjust enrichment? is it comedy?
Posted on June 05, 2009Charlie Webb poses the provocative question “What is Unjust Enrichment?” in the title of an important piece just published in (2009) 29 (2) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 215-243. His basic point is that whilst the existence of a law of Restitution concerned with reversing unjust enrichments is largely uncontroversial, the ability of unjust enrichment [...
Universities? Declaration of Independence? - again
Posted on June 04, 2009A little while ago I mused that Irish universities seeking the freedom to set their own fees might decide to declare independence from government not just on fees but on all matters. But I thought then that it would never happen. However, the old adage “never say never” occurred to me this morning, reading the [...
Freedom of information: a comparative legal survey
Posted on June 03, 2009From Michael Lines on Slaw: Freedom of information: a comparative legal survey UNESCO and its Communication and Information Sector have just released a new edition of Freedom of information: a comparative legal survey, and it is free online. The survey was prepared by Toby Mendel, Law Programme Director with Article XIX...
Existential musings
Posted on June 02, 2009If you have ever wondered is there any thing more boring than drafting a contract? then Ken Adams (pictured right, author of the invaluable Manual of Style for Contract Drafting and of one of my favourite blogs) has (necessary? welcome?) reassurance.
The Law of Trek
Posted on June 01, 2009I just couldn’t resist this piece by Christine Corcos from the Law & Humanities blog [with added links]: Re-Examining Star Trek In his review essay on Star Trek: The Exhibition [link], Edward Rothstein [wikipedia] points out a number of anachronisms and anamolies, most stemming from the original television series and its spin-offs...
Another tweet
Posted on May 31, 2009The first one’s here. Today’s comes from this week’s New Yorker:
A bank error in your favour is not a gift from God
Posted on May 31, 2009Well, I mean, yes idealism, yes the dignity of pure research, yes the pursuit of truth in all its forms, but there comes a point I’m afraid where you begin to suspect that if there’s any real truth, it’s that the entire multi-dimensional infinity of the Universe is almost certainly being run by a bunch [...
Rugby, property, and the interpretation of contracts
Posted on May 28, 2009Perhaps rugby is replacing property as the Irish obsession du jour. There are many ways in which they overlap. For example, during the property boom, it was not uncommon for sports clubs to sell off some of their lands to developers, in return not only for the cash but also for improved facilities provided by [...
The liability of rescuers
Posted on May 27, 2009The Law Reform Commission last night (pdf) launched its new Report on The Civil Liability of Good Samaritans and Volunteers (pdf), following up on its November 2007 Consultation Paper (pdf) on the issue. The Common Law does not recognise a duty to attempt a rescue, even where the rescue would be relatively easy, and the [...
Oh defamation, where is thy sting?
Posted on May 19, 2009Two defamation stories from the Irish Times. The first concerns an interesting variation on the old defamtion saw, the sting of the libel: An Irishman’s Diary … In the Language of Flowers ? a Victorian invention by which tortured lovers and the like used to send coded messages ? nettles signified ?cruelty? or ?slander?...
It?s not Smart, it?s unjust enrichment
Posted on May 12, 2009From today’s Irish Times comes news of a pending claim for restituiton of unjust enrichment: Former Smart Telecom CEO sued for sum of ?1.16m SMART YUROE Broadband (SYB) and related companies have sued former Smart Telecom chief executive Oisin Fanning for more than ?1...
Why protect free speech?
Posted on May 11, 2009Index on Censorship has published a short edited extract from Ideas That Matter: Key Concepts for the 21st Century (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2009) by AC Grayling, Professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, in which her provides a compelling and pithy case in favour of free speech and against censorship: It?s a surprise to [...
Criminal libel; one faltering step forward, now two steps back
Posted on May 06, 2009A little more than a month ago, I wondered why legislators are so loath to repeal criminal libel provisions. However, in a subsequent post, I acknowledged that section 34 of the Defamation Bill, 2006 as introduced provided for the abolition of the common law offences of criminal libel, seditious libel and obscene libel...
Journalists? source privilege: one privilege or two?
Posted on May 05, 2009Journalists’ source privilege is in the air. In the US, the House of Representatives has recently passed a (not particularly readable) Bill recognising a journalists’ source privilege (the Free Flow of Information Act of 2009), and it has been introduced into the Senate...
The limits of the ECHR?s protection of journalists? sources
Posted on May 04, 2009In my previous post, I outlined some of the international instruments which provide for the protection of journalists? sources. The leading court decision on the issue is the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the seminal and hugely influential Goodwin v UK Application no 17488/90, [1996] ECHR 16 (27 March [...
World Press Freedom Day, 2009
Posted on May 03, 2009Today is World Press Freedom Day. According to Koďchiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO [with added links]: Every year, World Press Freedom Day provides an opportunity to affirm the importance of freedom of expression and press freedom ? a fundamental human right enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...
International instruments on the protection of journalists? sources
Posted on May 03, 2009World Press Freedom Day is an appropriate day on which to consider the protection of journalists’ sources on the international plane. It is a protection that is embodied in many international instruments. For example, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has always had media freedom at the heart of its operations...
Ranking law journals
Posted on April 24, 2009The Australian Research Council has recently completed its consultation process to develop ranking tables for journals. Controversy led to the Humanities and Creative Arts list being unavailable for a time after publication, but it seems to be available now...
Where stands the Defamation Bill, 2006 on the Government?s legislative agenda?
Posted on April 23, 2009With all the coverage of Government ins and outs at Minister of State level, it was easy to miss yesterday’s announcement by Government Chief Whip Pat Carey of the Legislative Programme for the coming parliamentary session (Irish Times report | Government press release)...
? or of the blogosphere?
Posted on April 22, 2009The First Amendment to the US Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; …”. Does that and similar declarations of press freedom extend to the blogosphere? The question is made more difficult in the context of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human [...
How to make Contract Law interesting?
Posted on April 22, 2009This one, from Contracts Prof Blog, speaks for itself: Relive your 1L Contracts class at home! With better looking people! After what has seemed to most Contracts professors an unconscionably long time, the TV series The Paper Chase has finally come out on video...
Google, Amazon, Citron
Posted on April 21, 2009If you liked my posts about the gatekeeper responsibilities of search engines, then you’ll have loved last week’s furore over Amazon’s decision to disable search and sales ranking for “adult” material. I followed the controversy via John Naughton’s Memex 1...
Cowengate: no use crying over spilt milk
Posted on April 21, 2009Silvio Berlusconi and Mara CarfagnaThough not by Filippo Panseca Yesterday’s Times Online has a short piece which begins [with added links] A scarf is the only thing protecting the modesty of Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, in a painting of him and his Minister for Equal Opportunities, Mara Carfagna, 32, a former topless model, as angels...
Tweets on Twitter
Posted on April 19, 2009Via the great John Naughton, the ultimate tweet about twitter:
Another heckers? veto; another failure of freedom of expression on campus
Posted on April 09, 2009Via 9th Level Ireland, I am alerted to the following story [with added links]: Euthanasia lecture cancelled A controversial public lecture on euthanasia has been cancelled minutes after it began when a group of over 20 protestors disrupted it. The guest speaker
Tory Island and Unjust Enrichment
Posted on April 05, 2009Tory Island is a small island of striking natural beauty off the northwest coast of Co Donegal. So, film-maker Neville Presho must have thought himself a lucky man to have a holiday home there. Until one day he returned to the island, and found that the house was gone, replaced by car park for an [...
Libraries
Posted on April 03, 2009On Slaw, Michael Lines lauds a presentation by Paul Holdengraber, Director of the Public Education Program at the New York Public Library: Yesterday?s Keynote was probably one of the best talks on any topic I have ever heard. Inspiring, elevating, and hilarious, Paul Holdengraber delivered a wonderful message about reading, conversation, and libraries that has to [...
Cowengate and seditious libel
Posted on April 02, 2009I wonder whether anyone has suggested that Conor Casby’s caricatures of Cowen constitute a seditious libel? It’s not that fanciful a question: the common law crime still exists, and has been used against milder criticism. But the mere fact that the question can be asked in this context demonstrates just how ridiculous the crime actually [...
Reminder: Rethinking Law - Law Student Colloquium at TCD on Saturday
Posted on April 02, 2009Are you a Law student, undergraduate or postgraduate? If so, you should come along to a colloquium in TCD next Saturday, 4 April 2009, from 11:00am, and hear other law students present short papers across the full range of the law. Full information about this exciting event is available here, and attendance is free, but [...
The good, the bad, and the ugly
Posted on April 01, 2009Three stories from today’s Irish Times caught my eye. First, the good. The Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Ombudsman launched their first annual report yesterday. The press industry undoubtedly did a good thing in establishing the Press Council and the Ombudsman, and yesterday’s report on the first year of operation [...
Cowengate follow-on: a question, and more pictures at the exhibitions
Posted on March 29, 2009Emerson, Lake and Palmer performing their 1971 album version of Pictures at an Exhibition The Cowengate controversy certainly caught the imagination this week; and, by way of update to my earlier posts on the topic, I’ve collected some more links about the affair below...
Why should ?Anon.? get all the best lines? Reflections on anonymous political speech
Posted on March 28, 2009Given that I have strongly defended anonymous speech on this blog (here and here), Sarah Hinchliff Pearons’s blogpost Accountability and Anonymity: Rethinking the Value of Anonymous Speech caught my eye. Her basic point is … not to argue that we should not try to prevent lawsuits designed to stifle free speech...
Cowengate and Freedom of Expression
Posted on March 26, 2009Suzy must get the prize for the best political coinage of the day, for - so far as I can see - it is she who has given the name “Cowengate” [but see also Cerandor] to the sturm und drang surrounding satirical portraits of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Brian Cowen (the more popular, but less [...
Bentham and judicial retirement
Posted on March 26, 2009Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) (left) was a utilitarian philosopher, whose radical ideas on education inspired those who founded University College London. Nowadays, the Bentham Association (formerly the Bentham Club) is the Alumni Association for UCL’s lawyers, and it annually hosts a Presidential Address from an invited senior lawyer...
Cowengate: Pictures at an exhibition
Posted on March 26, 2009Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgksy’s Pictures at an Exhibition, performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen at the BBC Proms in August 2006 This post is an addendum to Cowengate and Freedom of Expression (above)...
Why are legislators so loath to repeal criminal libel provisions?
Posted on March 25, 2009Article XIX, the Global Campaign for Freedom of Expression, is an international human rights organisation which defends and promotes freedom of expression and access to information worldwide. Defamation is one of the Global Issues on which they focus...
International and European Perspectives in Legal Education
Posted on March 13, 2009The theme of the afternoon plenary session of the third Legal Education Symposium was on International and European Perspectives in Legal Education As if she didn’t have enough to do as one of the organisers, this session was chaired by Prof Blanaid Clarke, and the session examined the ongoing the Bologna Process, which aims to create a [...
Developing legal education (including Laptops in class, again!)
Posted on March 13, 2009As with the first set of parallel sessions, the second set of parallel sessions in the third Legal Education Symposium also covered a diverse range of interesting topics. There was another session on Experiential Learning, this one chaired by Prof Colin Scott of the School of Law, University College Dublin...
Issues in legal education
Posted on March 13, 2009The first set of parallel sessions in the third Legal Education Symposium covered a wide range of fascinating topics. The session on Experiential Learning was chaired by Dr Suzanne Kingston of University College Dublin. Edward Phillips, Department of Law, University of Greenwich spoke about Legal Method and Legal Reflection: Experiential Learning in the Law School...
Teaching experiences in legal education
Posted on March 13, 2009The theme of the morning plenary session of the third Legal Education Symposium was Teaching experiences in legal education It was chaired by UCD School of Law’s new Dean, Prof John Jackson, and the session examined the various ways in which the traditional legal curriculum could develop, including the integration of clinical education and interdisciplinary perspectives...
Covert surveillance, privilege, and iniquity
Posted on March 12, 2009Caption: Hey boss. I’m not sure our covert surveillance is real covert any more In general, the public interest in the proper administration of justice requires that people called as witnesses before courts must answer all questions put to them, on pain of being held in contempt of court...
Services and overpayments
Posted on March 11, 2009The English Court of Appeal recently considered two interesting issues in Furmans Electrical Contractors v Elecref Ltd [2009] EWCA Civ 170 (10 March 2009). Furmans were subcontractors installing electrical cabling on jobs on which Elecref were electrical contractors...
Rescue from the runaway truck
Posted on March 11, 2009Suppose you see a runaway truck, and seek to stop its progress before it does real damage - what legal claims arise? In an earlier post, I referred to two of the possible claims: first, if you stop it from injuring others, but are yourself injured in the process, you can sue the tortfeasor who [...
Education and training
Posted on March 10, 2009The National Competitiveness Council yesterday published a Statement on Education and Training; from the announcement on the website: Education is central to our ability to improve our quality of life and wellbeing through success in selling goods and services on international markets...
Article 10 and the Duke of Brunswick
Posted on March 10, 2009William VIII, Duke of Brunswick (pictured left; 1806-1884) was ruling duke of the Duchy of Brunswick from 1830 until his death. A famous eccentric, he bequeathed at least two interesting events to history. First, he lost a famous chess game to Paul Morphy (the Bobby Fischer of his era)...
Back to the future of law reviews?
Posted on February 26, 2009There are two things wrong with almost all legal writing. One is its style. The other is its content. Fred Rodell “Goodbye to Law Reviews” 23 Virginia Law Review 38 (1936) at 38. Leaving aside their citation styles, there may be a third problem with law reviews: their paper format...
Who will keep the keepers? II
Posted on February 25, 2009It never rains but it pours. Having recently blogged about about Emily Laidlaw’s article on search engine accountability, I’ve just come across the similarly important article by Oren Bracha and Frank Pasquale on Federal Search Commission? Access, Fairness, and Accountability in the Law of Search 93 Cornell Law Review 1149 (2008) (pdf)...
The original Brandeis brief
Posted on February 24, 2009Louis D Brandeis (left), as lawyer, and as judge of the US Supreme Court, championed such unpopular causes as freedom of speech, privacy and worker protection. Arising from his belief that law is a device to shape social, economic, and political affairs, one of his enduring legacies is what has become known as the Brandeis [...
The power of letters
Posted on February 24, 2009Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty (the National Council for Civil Liberties), has an editorial letter published in today’s Guardian which begins: Sir - 75 years ago today, in a Britain strained by economic crisis and social unrest, and in the long shadow of international conflict, the birth of the National Council for Civil Liberties was announced [...
Who will keep the keepers?
Posted on February 23, 2009I have had occasion to comment on this blog that the Roman poet Juvenal asked Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (who will watch the watchers?). Emily B Laidlaw, in her fascinating article, Private Power, Public Interest: An Examination of Search Engine Accountability, raises the parallel question of who will keep the keepers? In the vast new [...
Legal citation, again
Posted on February 22, 2009Updating Legal citation: Bonus link: Offences against the library (via Daithí) updates Consequences.
Justice in Measure For Measure
Posted on February 21, 2009Image via Wikipedia I have already glanced at the legal issues in The Merchant of Venice on this blog; but Shakespeare dealt with issues of justice and mercy in many other plays as well. Consider for example Measure for Measure (wikipedia | full text | Project Gutenberg), which juxtaposes imperfect justice on earth with merciful justice [...
Football and fiduciaries
Posted on February 19, 2009What if a footballer’s agent, in negotiating for his client, makes a secret deal with the club for himself on the side? This is how Jacob LJ opened Imageview Management Ltd v Jack [2009] EWCA Civ 63 (18 December 2008). It concerns the bung, which is almost as endemic in football as referees, the offside trap, [...
Arrest, lay litigant, sentence
Posted on February 18, 2009Law reports from Monday’s Irish Times: Offences must correspond under European Arrest Warrant MJELR v Laks (High Court, 14 January 2009, Peart J) [2009] IEHC 3 An application for the surrender of Polish man to serve a 10-month sentence in Poland under a European Arrest Warrant was refused on the basis that there was not sufficient correspondence between [...
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Follow-Up Conference
Posted on February 17, 2009In July 2008, Ireland was examined by the UN Human Rights Committee under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The report is here (scroll down to the Irish section, click on the E in the right-most column - so far as I can tell, the UN server won?t accept a deeper link, unfortunately), [...
Serendipity
Posted on February 16, 2009One of my favourite blogs meets one of my favourite radio prgrammes. This is how the radio show’s website introduced the programme: The Destruction of Carthage - “Delenda Carthago!” The North African city of Carthage was rich and powerful, but in the second century BC it suffered a terrible fate...
Blessed are the cheesemakers
Posted on February 15, 2009Monty Python’s Life of Brian Scene II, the Sermon on the Mount, from the perspective of back of the crowd, where Jesus can barely be heard over the hubub: GREGORY: What was that? … MAN #1: I think it was ‘Blessed are the cheesemakers...
The Rushdie fatwa 20 years later
Posted on February 14, 2009Rushdie: I’m glad I wrote Satanic Verses at BreakingNews.ie referring to this interview Geoffrey Wheatcroft on Reflections on a fatwa in the International Herald Tribune Lisa Appignanesi on The Satanic Verses at 20 at Index on Censorship; and listen to her here on the Guardian website Bernard-Henri Lévy on Emblem of Darkness at Index on Censorship Anniversary of Rushdie [...
Fault in Contract Law
Posted on February 13, 2009From the University of Chicago School of Law Faculty Blog: Audio/Video: Fault in Contract Law In September, Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law Omri Ben-Shahar and Fischel-Neil Visiting Professor of Law Ariel Porat organized a conference intended to reevaluate the role of fault in contract law...
Joseph Raz on ?Innovative Interpretation?
Posted on February 13, 2009The Irish Jurisprudence Society, with funding from TCD’s Long Room Hub Initiative, will host a public lecture by Professor Joseph Raz (Oxford and Columbia) at 7pm on Wednesday 25 February 2009 in the Lloyd Institute Building (pdf map here; dynamic map here)...
Witnessing in The Accused
Posted on February 12, 2009From the Law and Humanities blog (links added): Witnessing in The Accused Posted by Christine Corcos Jessica A. Silbey, Suffolk University Law School, has published “A Witness to Justice,” in Studies in Law, Politics, and Society: A Special Symposium Issue on Law and Film (Austin Sarat, ed...
Impossibility, Impracticability, and Frustration
Posted on February 11, 2009In the first issue of the Journal of Legal Analysis (to which I devoted a previous post) I am particularly taken with Melvin Eisenberg’s “Impossibility, Impracticability, and Frustration” (html | pdf). The abstract: Three fundamental concepts underlie the principles that should govern unexpected-circumstances cases...
Data retention ironies
Posted on February 10, 2009I can’t make up my mind whether it’s ironic or not that the European Court of Justice has upheld the Data Retention Directive on Safer Internet Day. I’ll let Digital Rights Ireland tell the story: European Court upholds data retention? for the time being The European Court of Justice has given its decision today in the Irish Government [...
The future of law reviews
Posted on February 09, 2009It seems that sales of paper law reviews and journals are declining. For example, the Harvard Law Review had 8,760 subscribers for its 1979/1980 volume, but only 2,610 for its 2007/2008 volume. Now, via Volokh and Ambrogi, I learn of the appearance of the Journal of Legal Analysis, published by Harvard University Press...
Safer Internet Day, 2009
Posted on February 09, 2009Safer Internet Day takes place each year in February to promote safer and more responsible use of internet and mobile phone technologies; this year, it’s today, 10 February (last year’s is blogged here). As the Irish contribution, the Office for Internet Safety, the National Centre for Technology in Education, the National Parents Council (Primary), Childline, [...
Legal Education Symposium, 2009
Posted on February 09, 2009The Third Annual Legal Education Symposium will be hosted by UCD School of Law in the Quinn School of Business, UCD (pictured left) from 9:30am on Friday 13 March 2009. The morning plenary session, on Teaching Experiences in Legal Education, will be chaired by UCD School of Law’s new Dean, Prof John Jackson, and the speakers [...
Delay, family home, admissions
Posted on February 09, 2009Law reports from today’s Irish Times: Case against Motor Insurers Board can go ahead O?Flynn v Buckley (Supreme Court, 22 January 2009) Kearns J (Denham and Hardiman JJ concurring) [2009] IESC 3 The Supreme Court upheld a High Court order dismissing an application from the Motor Insurers Board (MIB) seeking to have proceedings against it separated from proceedings [...
Proprietary Restitution
Posted on February 07, 2009The question of when unjust enrichment can give rise to proprietary rather than personal remedies is a fraught one. Like Fermat’s Last Theorem, there may be a truly marvellous solution, but it is still elusive. Nevertheless, we are several steps closer to the proof, thanks to William Swadling’s very important article on (the weaknesses of) [...
Signs of the Times?
Posted on February 06, 2009A sign of the times, from the front page of today’s Irish Times: Law Society starts planning for unemployment among solicitors CAROL COULTER, Legal Affairs Editor THE LAW Society is seeking a ?career development adviser? to help solicitors and trainee solicitors find careers outside law...
ECHR on Arts 6, 8 and 10
Posted on February 06, 2009The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was promulgated by the Council of Europe in 1950. The European Court of Human Rights was established under that Convention to enforce the rights protected by it, and it has recently handed down three very interesting judgments concerning Articles 6 (fair trial), 8 (privacy), and 10 (speech)...
Game about law
Posted on February 05, 2009Inspired by the posts below, my game about law - for lawyers and non-lawyers alike - is the following question: can the readers of this blog provide non-US examples of misunderstood legal statements? To begin, I offer the common misunderstanding about the basic words “legal” or “lawful” and “illegal” or “unlawful”...
Rethinking Law - Law Student Colloquium at TCD
Posted on February 05, 2009Are you a Law student, undergraduate or postgraduate? Would you like to present a short paper or give a presentation on a legal topic of your choice at a colloquium at TCD on Saturday 4 April 2009? Individual presentations will last 10-15 minutes. Prospective participants may consider presenting a paper on a topic in which [...
This is not just a VAT case
Posted on February 04, 2009It’s an unjust enrichment case from your M&S. For those who have a taste for this kind of thing, this morning brings momentous news. The teacakes litigation is over! Eventually! After more than 13 years! See Marks and Spencer plc (Appellants) v Her Majesty?s Commissioners of Customs and Excise (Respondents) [2009] UKHL 8 (4 February [...
The Future of Free Expression in a Digital Age
Posted on February 04, 2009Jack Balkin, on his blog, has just posted a paper under the above title on SSRN. It is a very insightful consideration of some very important theoretical and practical issues. Here’s abstract: In the twenty-first century, at the very moment that our economic and social lives are increasingly dominated by information technology and information flows, the [...
Updates
Posted on February 03, 2009In no particular order, here a few posts which caught my eye recently which update issues on which I have blogged on this site. I am Chicken (Hear Me Squawk…) updates Chicken Soup for the academic soul The crossed purposes of legal education updates The Goals of a Law School Education Students have been sold a lie (hat [...
Hecklers must not have a veto
Posted on February 03, 2009I’m very disappointed with the Literary and Debating Society of NUI Galway. Having wrapped themselves in the mantle of freedom of expression over their invitation to David Irving, they let the mantle slip last night. Having invited former Taoiseach (Prime Minister) to a public interview, the event had to be abandoned because of protests by [...
Legal Citation
Posted on February 02, 2009The Oxford Standard for Citation Of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) is fast establishing itself as the UK’s standard system of legal citation. It is at present undergoing revision, and the Editors welcome comments and suggestions by email before the end of the month...
Specific Restitution
Posted on February 02, 2009Recently posted on SSRN, a very important paper by Colleen P. Murphy (of Roger Williams University School of Law) on “What is Specific About ‘Specific Restitution’?” (forthcoming Hastings Law Journal, Vol. 60, 2009). Here’s the abstract: An important functional difference among restitutionary remedies is between giving a plaintiff the monetary value of the defendant’s unjust enrichment [...
Data protection, sentencing, experts, judges
Posted on February 02, 2009Law reports from today’s Irish Times: Data Commissioner’s prosecution can go ahead Realm Communications Ltd v Data Protection Commissioner: High Court, Judgment was given by Mr Justice McCarthy on 9 January 2009 [2009] IEHC 1 The Data Protection Commissioner did not act unlawfully in issuing summonses against a company using text messages for marketing purposes (Realm) without the [...
Consequences
Posted on February 01, 2009Via University of Louisville Law Faculty Blog: Bonus link: In a similar vein, see Lawyer’s Humor, Circa 1875 from the Legal History Blog.
Ethical reporting of suicide
Posted on February 01, 2009Spirit Moves is a discussion programme on RTÉ Radio which explores ethical issues that arise from current news events. It is broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 on Sunday evenings at 6:00pm; it is re-broadcast on RTÉ Choice (one of RTÉ’s Digital Radio Stations) on Monday afternoons at 4:00pm; and episodes are available to stream here...
Plagiarising ?plagiarism?
Posted on January 31, 2009On the eternal question of what constitutes plagiarism, via Critical Mass, a post that speaks for itself: Welcome to the desert of the real I know you ask yourself constantly: “What does plagiarism look like in the age of simulacrum?” Now we know: In 2007, after several high-profile plagiarism scandals, Southern Illinois University released a 17-page report on [...
St Bridget?s Day
Posted on January 31, 2009Anois teacht an Earraigh le Antaine Ó Raifteirí (1784-1835) (source) (audio here) Anois teacht an Earraigh beidh an lá dul chun síneadh, Is tar eis na féil Bríde ardóidh mé mo sheol. Ó chuir mé i mo cheann é ní stopfaidh me choíche Go seasfaidh mé thíos i lár Chondae Mhaigh Eo...
A true verdict?
Posted on January 30, 2009In a previous post, I looked at the restrictions on publishing jury deliberations. Now comes the news that, in the UK, the Attorney-General has been given the go-ahead to prosecute The Times: The Attorney-General has been given permission to bring contempt of court proceedings against the publishers of The Times and the foreman of a jury [...
Recent Contract Law Scholarship
Posted on January 29, 2009The most recent New York University Law Review (vol 83, number 6, December 2008) has two wonderful pieces about the Law of Contract, one relating to the old chestnut of efficient breach (a doctrine that has taken root in US law, but not elsewhere in the common law world), the other relating to the theoretical [...
Recent speech cases
Posted on January 28, 2009From a European Court of Human Rights press release: Orban v France (application no. 20985/05) The Court held unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights on account of the applicants? conviction for, among other offences, publicly defending war crimes, following publication of the book [...
Happy Data Privacy Day, 2009!
Posted on January 28, 2009Via Ghosts in the machine, Slaw and the BBC, I am reminded that today, January 28, is Data Privacy Data (about which I have blogged in previous years). There is an extensive Council of Europe site; there is an Irish page here; and both Intel and Google are stepping up to the plate...
Free speech means freedom for the thought we hate
Posted on January 27, 2009Freedom of expression matters most where the expression in question is unpopular: if it it is to mean anything, it must mean “freedom for the thought that we hate” (US v Schwimmer 279 US 644, 655 (1929) Holmes J); it covers not only mainstream ideas which hardly need protection, but also those that [...
Freedom of speech for unpopular speakers; or, High flyers brought low
Posted on January 27, 2009This post is by way of an out-of-date footnote to the previous two. I never thought I’d see the day when I would willingly come to the defence of Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, but - never say never - it’s happened! O’Leary revels in his unpopularity, a result as much of his airline’s lack [...
Irving at the Lit & Deb: A reply to Prof Schabas
Posted on January 27, 2009Since writing my previous post, I have read (hat tip: Ninth Level Ireland) a trenchant statement of the opposite view by Prof William Schabas, Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway. His argument is twofold. First, he refers to the EU Framework Decision on racism and xenophobia (pdf)...
Privacy, refugees, children
Posted on January 26, 2009Law reports from today’s Irish Times: Photos of sex offender may not be published Callaghan v Independent News and Media Ltd: Northern Ireland High Court, Judgment was given by Mr Justice Stephens on January 7th, 2009 [2009] NIQB 1 An unpixelated photograph of sex murderer Kenneth Callaghan, from which he could be identified, cannot be published...
Are some goats more equal than others?
Posted on January 25, 2009Legal Eagle, on Skeptic Lawyer, tells us that a goat is being held on suspicion of committing an armed robbery in Nigeria. Rather than being a page from George Orwell’s Animal Farm, this is actually not quite as bizarre as it seems on first blush...
Sedition and Lčse-majesté
Posted on January 25, 2009Two Australian stories recently caught my eye; and, although at first blush the only link is Australia, there is in fact a deeper connection. The first is from the BBC news Website: Writer jailed for Thai ‘insult’ Australian writer Harry Nicolaides has been sentenced to three years in a Thai jail for insulting the monarchy...
Three internet tropes
Posted on January 25, 2009Three articles in today’s Observer demonstrate three recurrent internet tropes. First, Goodwin’s law. In its original form, it stated that as a usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one...
What?s on in Trinity?
Posted on January 24, 2009There are three really interesting things on in Trinity at the moment. First, the 1930s Cleudo poster on the left is for a fascinating exhibition in the Old Library (the building that houses the Long Room and the Book of Kells) about crime writing in the 1920s and the 1930s...
More on Madoff, O?Brien, and Restitution
Posted on January 24, 2009Further to my recent post on Restitution in the news!, two pieces in today’s Irish Times caught my eye: Breifne O’Brien faces new claims for ?997,000 TWO MORE claims have been brought to court against Breifne O?Brien, operator of an investment scheme, for the repayment of money given to him...
Non-religious advertising
Posted on January 23, 2009The British Humanist Association (BHA) ran an entertaining advertising campaign on London buses last year, and it has just announced that it will run the campaign nationwide. The campaign is built around the slogan: However, religious groups - including Christian Voice - complained to the Advertising Standards Authority, arguing that the bus campaign broke the advertising [...
Incitement
Posted on January 22, 2009From yesterday’s Irish Times: Rwanda jails ex-minister over genocide KIGALI ? A Rwandan court jailed former justice minister Agnes Ntamabyariro for life yesterday after finding her guilty of incitement during the 1994 genocide. Ntamabyariro is the first senior former government official to be tried by the authorities in Kigali over the killing of 800,000 minority ethnic Tutsis and [...
Vicarious libaility in the Supreme Court
Posted on January 19, 2009Law reports from today’s Irish Times: O?Keeffe v Hickey [2008] IESC 72 Supreme Court, Judgments were delivered on December 19th, 2008 by Fennelly J (Murray CJ and Denham J concurring) and Hardiman J; Geoghegan J dissenting. Fennelly J Minister not liable for abuse by principal: There was no employment relationship between school principal Mr Hickey and the second-named [...
University fees are looking inevitable
Posted on January 16, 2009The question of the return of university fees has been a concern of this blog for some time (see, eg, here, here, here). Via the invaluable Ninth Level Ireland, I learn of three stories this morning on the issue. Cumulatively, they seem to suggest that university fees are looking inevitable (which, I suspect, means that [...
Holocaust Memorial, 2009
Posted on January 15, 2009The national Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration takes place on the Sunday nearest to 27 January every year (that is the anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp at Auschwitz-Berkenau, and has been designated as Holocaust Memorial Day by the UN General Assembly)...
Contract law and the slave trade
Posted on January 14, 2009Nate Oman, on Concurring Opinions, writes that he has just finished Simon Schama’s Rough Crossings: Britain, Slaves, and the American Revolution (cover left) (Harper Collins, 2007). He is not sparing in his praise for the book, and then comments: As a contract geek, however, the most fascinating part of the book was the story of The [...
Journalists, sources, bloggers, privilege
Posted on January 13, 2009I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers. Mahatma Ghandi [source] With pending decisions relating to the protection of journalists’ sources in the Supreme Courts in Ireland and Canada, to say nothing of a new movie inspired by the travails of Judith Miller (pictured above left), a student note in the current Columbia Law Review (December 2008, [...
Contract, planning, PIAB
Posted on January 12, 2009Law reports from today’s Irish Times: Contract based on undermining planning code cannot be enforced Kelly -v- Simpson: High Court. Judgment delivered by Mr Justice Charleton on December 1st, 2008 A contract based on a price that would not have been achieved but for representations designed to undermine the planning code should not be enforced...
Email disclaimers
Posted on January 11, 2009From John Naughton’s column in today’s Observer By reading this, you agree to stop adding useless disclaimers … consider the curious legalese that is increasingly appended at the foot of emails dispatched from corporate email servers...
On university research
Posted on January 11, 2009The way to get people to build a ship is not to teach them carpentry, assign them tasks, and give them schedules to meet; but to inspire them to long for the infinite immensity of the sea. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Popeye is out of copyright
Posted on January 10, 2009Not only are early incarnations of Mickey Mouse no longer covered by copyright, but as of 1 January last, neither is Popeye (King Features page | Popeye.com | wikipedia), at least in the EU. According to The Times: Popeye the Sailor copyright free 70 years after Elzie Segar’s death ?I yam what I yam,? declared Popeye...
Quick question for privacy lawyers
Posted on January 09, 2009If this had happened in Ireland, would the photos in this story (hat tip: Piste Off: Man Left Dangling With Full ?Northern Exposure? at Ski Resort) be actionable having regard to Sinnott v Carlow Nationalist (discussed here, here, here, here and here), and if so, should they be?
A cautionary tale
Posted on January 09, 2009There may - controversially - be no duty to rescue at common law (see, eg, Alan Calnan (SSRN), David Hyman (pdf)), but the emergency can beget the man (Wagner v International Railway 232 NY 176 (1926) (Cardozo J)), even in New York. However, although danger may very well invite rescue (Wagner (Cardozo J) again), nevertheless, [...
Justice in the Media
Posted on January 08, 2009It’s an old story by now, but I missed it at the time, and I stumbled upon it today. It begins with a worthy event, the Law Society of Ireland’s Justice Media Awards, established to give national recognition to legal journalism in various categories...
Laptops in class
Posted on January 08, 2009In the Law School in Trinity, the proportion of my students using laptops in class has increased year by year, though they have not yet reached the levels attained in US law schools, where the vast majority of students have laptops in class. Whether this is too much of a good thing, however, is now [...
ESB, Xafinity, Madoff: Restitution in the news!
Posted on January 07, 2009In yesterday’s Irish Times, I noticed the following story: ESB to pay rebates on 100,000 overcharged bills The ESB says the payment of rebates to about 100,000 of its customers who were overcharged on estimated bills will be completed by the end of next month...
Privacy in a private place: nude people have rights too
Posted on January 07, 2009In Atherton v DPP [2006] 1 IR 245, [2005] IEHC 429 (21 December 2005) Peart J held that a video recording of a hedge visible from the public road - and thus of the accused causing criminal damage to the hedge - did not constitute an unconstitutional invasion of the accused’s right to privacy...
Speak for yourself, Brian
Posted on January 06, 2009I’m all for freedom of speech, but until there is a realistic possibility of having to decide about this issue, my good friend Brian Lucey is on his own. Maman Poulet reports Image via Wikipedia Academics and pay cuts Associate Professor of Finance at TCD, Dr...
Student vs. University
Posted on January 05, 2009You know how it goes at this time of the year - there are lists, lots of them, both of the best/worst of the year that is past and of resolutions and predictions for the year that is coming. I don’t usually go in for either, but one of those lists directed me to such [...
Mark Twain exercises the Privilege of the Grave
Posted on December 29, 2008In an article written in 1905 but published for the first time in the most recent New Yorker, Mark Twain (left) exercises the privilege of the grave: that of the expression that is really free. In his view, although we may in theory have the right to free speech, nevertheless, in practice, prudence and social [...
A Christmas Contract Carol
Posted on December 23, 2008It is an interesting phenomenon to observe a person’s name becoming a generic description. Take, for example, Shylock, who features in an earlier post on this blog. The name, with a lower-case initial, is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “an extortionate usurer … an abusive term for a moneylender”...
It could be you?
Posted on December 22, 2008Be careful what you wish for. Many of us hope to win the national lottery; but for the members of a Mayo lotto syndicate, winning the ?1,577,578 jackpot on 6 January 2001 did not bring the kind of positive changes they would have wished for. Four members collected the winnings; but a fifth man claimed [...
Shylock?s appeal: illegal contracts, specific performance and damages
Posted on December 21, 2008I learn from this week’s New Yorker (cover, left) that the Cardozo School of Law of New York’s Yeshiva University that Shylock was finally able to appeal the judgment rendered against him in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (advance notice | poster (pdf) | YU news story | photos)...
Normal service is being resumed: religious and political advertising bans
Posted on December 19, 2008Regular readers of this blog will know that section 20(4) of the Broadcasting Authority Act, 1960 (also here) and section 10(3) of the Radio and Television Act, 1988 (also here) as amended by section 65 of the Broadcasting Act, 2001 (also here) prohibit broadcast advertising in Ireland directed to any religious or political end (see [...
Judicial Wigs and Gowns
Posted on October 07, 2008I wrote a little while ago about plans for most civil judges in England and Wales to cease wearing wigs, wing collars and bands, and to wear radically simplifed judicial gowns. The change was to come into effect from 1 January 2008, but it was postponed until 1 October because because an insufficient number of [...
UCD Legal Research Conference 2008: ?Legal Processes Beyond the State?
Posted on October 06, 2008The postgraduate students in the School of Law at University College Dublin will host their third annual Legal Research Conference for postgraduates on 5-6 December 2008. The goal of the conference is to provide a forum for legal researchers at every level of postgraduate study to get together to discuss their research...
The first Monday in October
Posted on October 06, 2008NPR CNN New York Times here and here Washington Post here and here. Back row (l to r): Stephen Breyer, Clarence Thomas (is it significant that he’s looking to his right?), Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel Alito. Front Row (l to r): Anthony Kennedy, John Paul Stevens (is it significant that he’s looking a little uneasy?), Chief Justice John Roberts, [...
The public library
Posted on October 06, 2008I love libraries - from the wonder that is the New York Public Library through the workaday necessity of my university’s very fine library to the welcome of the local lending library - so the following story in the Irish Times caught my eye: At the library Few State services provide greater customer satisfaction than the public [...
NUI Maynooth vs TCD at the top of the Sunday Times university rankings
Posted on September 29, 2008There are lots of university league tables out there; and the University of Edinburgh maintains an excellent page assessing these various leagues and rankings. For example, Times Higher Education (rankings), Newsweek (pdf), Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Wuhan University and all produce annual tables of universities worldwide...
Journalists? Sources - Lessons from Canada?
Posted on September 28, 2008Not only will the Irish Supreme Court have the opportunity on the appeal in Mahon v Keena [2007] IEHC 348 (23 October 2007) (discussed here and here by Daithí) to discuss the constitutional protections, if any, for journalists’ sources, but I learn from The Court that the Supreme Court of Canada will also have a [...
Privacy Headlines
Posted on September 27, 2008From today’s Irish Independent Politicians, not public, want laws on privacy Politicians are ‘crusading’ for stricter privacy laws despite just one-in-five formal complaints coming from the public. A survey of Irish journalism reveals that two thirds of privacy complaints against newspapers and broadcasters come from public figures, particularly politicians, with only one fifth from private citizens...
The disjointed progress of the Defamation Bill, 2006
Posted on September 25, 2008As the Dáil resumed yesterday, last week’s post on libel tourism has prompted me to pick up the story of the tortuous progress of the Defamation Bill, 2006 through the Houses of the Oireachtas [the Houses of Parliament]. When we left it on this blog, it had just scraped the through the Seanad [the Senate, [...
Regulating anonymous blogs?
Posted on September 24, 2008An article by Marcel Berlins in today’s Guardian raises the issue of internet libel, espcially by anonymous bloggers: The web encourages lies and deceit. It’s impossible to know who lurks behind a funny nickname On the whole, I can’t complain too much about the readers who respond to my column online … [but] I seriously considered suing [...
Footnote on Fees and Funding
Posted on September 23, 2008As the debate about the reintroduction of some form of third level fees rumbles on, the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) - a UK think tank established in 2002 with the laudable aim of ensuring that higher education policy development in the UK is informed by research and by knowledge of the experience of others [...
The Judiciary: Who they are and their everyday work
Posted on September 23, 2008The School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin will host a presentation by Prof Sharyn Roach Anleu under the above title at 4pm, Thursday 2nd October 2008, in the Robert Emmet Lecture Theatre (Room 2037, Arts Building (Map)), Trinity College Dublin...
Hari Puttar and the Delhi High Court
Posted on September 22, 2008By way of updating my earlier post Is Harry Potter making a Parody of Copyright Law? the BBC has the following report: Warner Bros lose Hari Puttar case A court in the Indian capital Delhi has rejected a lawsuit filed by Hollywood company Warner Bros against the makers of a Bollywood film Hari Puttar...
Pressing statistics
Posted on September 22, 2008The statistics for the first six months of operation of the Press Ombudsman make for interesting reading. According to Ruadán Mac Cormaic in the Irish Times over the weekend: Press Ombudsman gets 200 complaints ALMOST 200 complaints were made to the Press Ombudsman in the office’s first six months in operation, new figures show...
Censoring Theatre in Britain and Ireland
Posted on September 21, 2008The Licensing Act, 1737, by requiring that every play to be performed on the English stage must first get a licence from the Lord Chamberlain, effectively constituted him a censor of the theatre until the repeal of the Act by the Theatres Act 1968. An exhibition just opened in the British Library The Golden Generation, [...
Blawg Review #164
Posted on June 15, 20080. Prolegomenon, or Why me? Today is Bloomsday, the centrepiece of a weeklong festival in Dublin celebrating the day in 1904 on which the events of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses unfold, which is the day Joyce first formally went out with Nora Barnacle (the story is told in the enthralling movie Nora; other movies with 16 [...
So is iTunes U good for you?
Posted on June 12, 2008Last week, Trinity College Dublin became the first university in Ireland and one of the first in Europe to launch its own iTunes U site (press release | BBC | Irish Independent | Irish Times | Learning Tech | Lex Ferenda | Silicon Republic | Techno Culture | The Guardian)...
What do University Presidents do all day?
Posted on June 05, 2008I’ve often wondered what my ultimate boss, John Hegarty, Provost of Trinity College Dublin, does all day. Now we mortals at the bottom of the university ladder might actually find out what university presidents do all day. Now Ferdinand von Prondzynski, President of Dublin City University (DCU), has started a blog in which he promises [...
Say No to Ageism
Posted on May 19, 2008This week is Say No to Ageism Week. It is an initiative of the National Council for the Advancement of Older People, the Equality Authority, and the Health Service Executive; and it will be launched by today in the Equality Authority’s offices by Maire Hoctor TD, Minister of State with responsibility for Older People...
Universities and Patents
Posted on April 28, 2008In Ireland, the law relating to patents is governed by the Patents Act, 1992 (here and here) as amended in 2006 (here and here). According to the Irish Patents Office, a patent confers upon its holder, for a limited period, the right to exclude others from exploiting (making, using, selling, importing) the patented invention, except with [...
Data Privacy: Three Cautionary Tales
Posted on April 22, 2008On front page of this morning’s Irish Times, Karlin Lillington writes Garda powers of request for internet data to be widened THE RANGE of criminal investigations for which the Garda will be able to request e-mail and internet data retained by internet service providers has been broadened by the Government...
The Case of the Mistaken Flights
Posted on April 18, 2008Look up, it’s Aer Lingus Aer Lingus used to know how to do public relations - in my youth a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, it had three very powerful advertising campaigns which had a profound effect on me. One used the Gallagher & Lyle song “Breakaway” (YouTube) featuring the lyric “breakaway, [...
More on Baze v Rees
Posted on April 16, 2008As Bridget said in the comments to yesterday’s post about the US Supreme Court’s decision in the death penalty case, Baze v Rees: Intellectual commentary might come later. Here’s my first try.
US Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the lethal injection
Posted on April 16, 2008On the day when the President of the United States welcomes the Pope to the White House, the long-awaited decision of the US Supreme Court on the compatibility of the lethal injection with the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution has been handed down...
Incitement to Anorexia
Posted on April 16, 2008L’Assemblée nationale française (the lower house of the French parliment) yesterday passed a “Draft law aimed at fighting incitement to seek extreme thinness or anorexia” providing for fines of to ?30,000 and terms of imprisonment of up to two years for inciting to “excessive thinness” and more if the incitement results in death (see Associated [...
Something must be done - II
Posted on March 29, 2008The moral of the story in my previous post about cars being preceded by men carrying red flags is that fear of the new often leads to unnecessary regulation. For this reason, in the context of the internet, we need to be careful about over-reaction and over-regulation...
Something must be done - I
Posted on March 27, 2008It is human nature to fear the new. And for many of us, the internet is still new. I have pointed out before that Lilian Edwards observes (in “The internet and security: do we need a man with a red flag walking in front of every computer?” (2007) 4 (1) SCRIPT-ed 1 (March 2007)), rather [...
Complaints against lawyers
Posted on March 25, 2008The Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales and the Office of the Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman were established in 1990. There are plans afoot for their reform (Scotland | England & Wales) but the basic principle of independent oversight of disciplinary matters for the legal professions will not only remain [...
Golden moments?
Posted on March 21, 2008The Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is 50 this year, and its famous symbol is 50 today (hat tip: Opinio Juris; BBC): The images (from left to right) are the first ceramic CND badge, an early tin badge, and the current badge. The symbol was designed in 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a professional artist and graduate of [...
It?s about time
Posted on March 18, 2008For too long, Irish universities have hoped that the many developments in graduate funding to develop a Fourth Level in the Irish university sector in recent years would trickle down to offset the ongoing cuts in third level undergraduate funding. It hasn’t happened...
So farewell then, Norman French (again)
Posted on March 18, 2008I have blogged already (here and here) about the Statute Law Revision Act, 2007. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the Oireachtas should feel very flattered indeed. Earlier this year, the Law Commissions of England and Wales and of Scotland published their 18th report in a series of proposed statute law repeals [...
Carnival! Carnival!
Posted on March 16, 2008Blawg Review describes itself as the blog carnival for everyone interested in law: A peer-reviewed blog carnival, the host of each Blawg Review decides which of the submissions and recommended posts are suitable for inclusion in the presentation. And the host is encouraged to source another dozen or so interesting posts to fit with any special [...
Manhunt II and the value of persistence
Posted on March 16, 2008The Manhunt II saga is probably finally over in the UK (hat tip: Daithí off-blog), but perhaps there is one further stage left in Ireland. As readers of this blog will know, last June the Irish Film Censor’s Office (IFCO), exercised its power to ban Rockstar Games’ Manhunt II, following the lead of many other [...
Isn?t it funny, how a bear likes honey?
Posted on March 15, 2008As every fan of a certain bear knows: Isn’t it funny How a bear likes honey? Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! I wonder why he does? AA Milne, Winnie The Pooh (1926) As if to prove this, the BBC is reporting that the taste of honey was just too tempting for a bear in Macedonia, which repeatedly raided a beekeeper’s hives, and has [...
Reforming Legal Education, or not
Posted on March 14, 2008Surprisingly, according to Wordpress Blog Stats, the most popular page on this blog yesterday was The Future of Irish Legal Education, about the second annual Legal Education Symposium hosted by UCC’s Faculty of Law and sponsored by Dillon Eustace Solicitors...
The House always wins
Posted on March 12, 2008It’s amazing how things come together sometimes. On the same day that I see an episode of Boston Legal in which an importantsub-plot has a chronic gambler sue a Las Vegas casino for her losses, I read about two examples of life imitiating … well, if not art exactly, then at least entertaining television...
The Defamation Bill is passed by the Seanad, eventually!
Posted on March 12, 2008At the second time of asking, and after lengthy debate (which I will analyse in a later post) the Defamation Bill, 2006 finally passed the Seanad [Senate, or Upper House] last night (hat tip, Daithí). The full text of that final debate is now available here...
Beware, unintended consequences.
Posted on March 11, 2008Daithí has just published a wonderful post on the The strange death of criminal libel?. On the issue of criminal libel, he concludes that the Defamation Bill, 2006, currently receiving its Report and Final Stages in the Seanad even as I write this post, will without further amendment provide for * the repeal [...
What is a ?publication??
Posted on March 10, 2008I’ve just noticed something odd about the Defamation Bill currently before the Seanad, and I’ve been looking at it for so long now that I’m annoyed with myself that I haven’t seen this issue before. I was recently asked a very simple question: What is a “publication” for the purposes of the Defamation Bill? Unfortunately, that simple [...
Appeal overturns food review case
Posted on March 10, 2008Under the above headline, the BBC is reporting that “the Court of Appeal [in Northern Ireland] has quashed a controversial libel case, seen as a watershed for press freedom”. As already discussed on this blog (here, here and here) food critics writing restaurant reviews will usually be able to rely on the defence of fair [...
Infamy! Defamation! Haughey!
Posted on March 09, 2008?Infamy! Infmay!? Charlie Haughey (left) (ireland.com | wikipedia) might have said during one of the many political crises he survived, ?They?ve all got it in fo? me!? I don?t know who told that joke about Haughey,* but it?s been going round in my mind this weekend whilst reading Bruce Arnold?s biography of Charles Haughey this [...
What are websites for?
Posted on March 09, 2008There were interesting stories in the media recently, but I have been unable to find any traces of them on the websites of the relevant organisations. Their websites are rather good, and both organisations are media-savvy and tech-savvy, so the continuing absence of any trace of the stories is, to say the least, quite puzzling...
Is email ruining my life? How about yours?
Posted on March 07, 2008In 1971, Ray Tomlinson (left) developed the code that enabled him to send an e-mail between two computers (on ARPANET) for the first time. Now it is as central to the lives of everyone reading this blog, as it is to the modern global economy. However, a little while ago, I blogged about Nora Ephron’s [...
Le Pen is not mightier than le sword
Posted on February 08, 2008According to various news outlets (BBC | BreakingNews.ie | Irish Independet here and here | Irish Times (sub req’d) | RTE | Telegraph) French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen (left!) has been given a three-month suspended jail term and fined 10,000 euros for playing down the Nazi occupation of France, describing it as “not especially [...
A National Strategy for Higher Education?
Posted on February 05, 2008From today’s Irish Times, I learn that a new strategy for third-level sector [is] under way (sub req’d). Seán Flynn writes [with added links]: A framework document mapping out the future of the third-level sector in the State is to be prepared by the Department of Education and the Higher Education Authority...
Terrorism and Speech
Posted on January 29, 2008In The State (Lynch) v Cooney [1982] IR 337, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of a statutory provision [section 31(1) of the Broadcasting (Authority) Act, 1960 (also here) as amended by section 16 of the Broadcasting Authority (Amendment) Act, 1976 (also here)] which allowed the Minister to preclude from broadcast any matter which ?would [...
Today is data privacy day
Posted on January 28, 2008According to Sharon E. Herbert’s superb ghosts in the machine blog: January 28th is Data Privacy Day The IAPP (International Association of Privacy Professionals) has declared January 28, 2008 “Data Privacy Day”, in an effort to encourage privacy professionals to give presentations at schools, colleges and universities next week on the importance of privacy...
The Internet and the Project of Communications Law
Posted on January 28, 2008Required reading for anyone who reads this blog: Susan P. Crawford The Internet and the Project of Communications Law 55 UCLA L Rev 359 (2007) (pdf) Abstract: The Internet offers the potential for economic growth stemming from online human communications...
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NY Jets join Cincinnati, Dallas, Green Bay, Houston & Seattle #NFL teams offering branded state lottery games
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