International Law

Signs of the Times?

Posted on February 06, 2009
A 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
Inspired 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, 2009
Are 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 [...

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This is not just a VAT case

Posted on February 04, 2009
It’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, 2009
Jack 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, 2009
In 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, 2009
I’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, 2009
The 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, 2009
Recently 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, 2009
Law 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, 2009
Via 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, 2009
Spirit 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, 2009
On 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, 2009
Anois 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, 2009
In 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
From 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, 2009
Via 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, 2009
Freedom 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, 2009
This 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, 2009
Since 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, 2009
Law 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, 2009
Legal 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 Lèse-majesté

Posted on January 25, 2009
Two 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, 2009
Three 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, 2009
There 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, 2009
Further 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
From 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 [...

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