International Law

The House always wins

Posted on March 12, 2008
It’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, 2008
At 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, 2008
Daithí 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, 2008
I’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 [...

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Appeal overturns food review case

Posted on March 10, 2008
Under 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, 2008
There 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, 2008
In 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, 2008
According 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, 2008
From 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, 2008
In 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, 2008
According 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, 2008
Required 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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