International Law

Will privacy legislation follow TV3?s disclosure of Brian Lenihan?s illness?

Posted on December 28, 2009
Joe Ryan wrote both an interesting comment on this morning’s post and a great post about the issue on his own blog. My reply to him became too long for a comment, so I’ve upgraded it to this post. First, I should say that I worked with Brian Lenihan for a few years in [...

Nollaig shona

Posted on December 24, 2009
Via Stu’s Views holiday cartoons: Image: Husband opening Christmas cards. Caption: Honey, our lawyer wishes us, but in no way guarantees, a merry Christmas. Bonus link: a longer version of the same wish. PS. The blog title is Irish for “Merry Christmas”...

Last pieces of broadcasting jigsaw put into place

Posted on December 23, 2009
Following the appointments made in October by the Minister for Communications to the Board of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, and the appointments made by the Minister in November to the BAI’s Contract Awards Committee and Compliance Committee, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has now made its appointments to [...

Defamation Act 2009 (Commencement) Order 2009 (SI No 517 of 2009)

Posted on December 18, 2009
The long wait is nearly over. The Defamation Act 2009 will come into force on 1 January 2010. From the Department of Justice [pdf]: Defamation Act 2009 (Commencement) Order 2009 (SI No 517 of 2009) I, Dermot Ahern, Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 1(2) of [...

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Please sir

Posted on December 13, 2009
From the cover of Kathryn Dalziel’s Privacy in Schools: A guide to the Privacy Act for principals, teachers and boards of trustees (Privacy Commissioner of New Zealand, 2009), a cartoon by Chris Slane: Image: teacher and schoolboys in a classroom surveyed by several cctv cameras...

O?Dowd on Defamation

Posted on December 12, 2009
John O’Dowd of the School of Law, UCD, is first into print with a detailed analysis of the Defamation Act, 2009 (pdf): see “Ireland’s New Defamation Act” (2009) 1 (2) Journal of Media Law 173-190. Here’s the abstract [with added links]: The Defamation Act 2009 [pdf] places the law of defamation in Ireland on an almost [...

The Irish Times should appeal the costs order to the ECHR ? Part II

Posted on December 08, 2009
In Mahon Tribunal v Keena [2009] IESC 64 (31 July 2009) (also here (pdf) (to which I will refer as Mahon Tribunal v Keena (No 1)) the Irish Times successfully resisted an attempt by the Mahon Tribunal to compel the Editor and Public Affairs Correspondent of the Irish Times to disclose the source of a [...

The Irish Times should appeal the costs order to the ECHR ? Part I

Posted on December 07, 2009
In a classic example of giving with one hand and taking away with the other, the Supreme Court first held that the Irish Times could assert a privilege to decline to answer questions from a Tribunal, but then ordered the paper to pay the Tribunal’s costs...

The new criminal law defence?

Posted on December 06, 2009
Via Shannon Burns: Image: Defendant standing in front of a judge. Caption: The internet made me do it. If you like this post, please click on this link to pass it on. Thanks! Hide Sites $$('div.d3912').each( function(e) { e...

Contract as promise in Shakespeare?s Comedy of Errors

Posted on December 04, 2009
From Christine Corcos on the Law and Humanities blog [with added links]: Contract Law in the Comedy of Errors Paul Raffield, University of Warwick School of Law, has published “The Comedy of Errors and the Meaning of Contract,” in Shakespeare’s Imaginary Constitution: Late Elizabethan Politics and the Theatre of Law (3 Law and Humanities (2009) [link])...

Speech Art

Posted on December 02, 2009
Randall P Bezanson has just pubished another very important book on on Art and Freedom of Speech (University of Illinois Press, 2009), exploring the decisions of the US Supreme Court relating to artistic expression under the First Amendment. From the abstract: … In considering the transformative meaning of art, the importance of community judgments, and [...

Censor (n.)

Posted on December 01, 2009
A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to. Granville Hicks If you like this post, please click on this link to pass it on. Thanks! Hide Sites $$('div.d4555').each( function(e) { e.visualEffect('slide_up',{duration:0...

The last Irish case on criminal libel

Posted on December 01, 2009
Yesterday’s Irish Times reminds me of an interesting High Court judgment handed down early in the Summer. It’s called Dennehy v Independent Star Ltd trading as The Irish Daily Star Newspaper [2009] IEHC 458 (28 May 2009) and it concerns an attempt to bring a prosecution for criminal libel...

Proportionality in the ECHR

Posted on September 30, 2009
The 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, 2009
Free 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, 2009
As 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
From 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, 2009
Further 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, 2009
A 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, 2009
As 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, 2009
I’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, 2009
In 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, 2009
From 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, 2009
From 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, 2009
As 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, 2009
Using 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
Tragic 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, 2009
This 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...

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