International Law

Is compulsory judicial retirement constitutional? or judicious?

Posted on March 03, 2009

Is Ireland corrupt?

Posted on March 02, 2009

Suicide in the media

Posted on March 01, 2009

I cannot live without books

Posted on March 01, 2009

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Al-eee-bee, al-eee-ass, all-egged

Posted on February 28, 2009

Interpreting Contracts

Posted on February 27, 2009

Back to the future of law reviews?

Posted on February 26, 2009
There 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, 2009
It 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, 2009
Louis 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, 2009
Shami 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, 2009
I 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, 2009
Updating Legal citation: Bonus link: Offences against the library (via Daithí) updates Consequences.

Justice in Measure For Measure

Posted on February 21, 2009
Image 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, 2009
What 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, 2009
Law 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, 2009
In 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, 2009
One 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, 2009
Monty 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, 2009
Rushdie: 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, 2009
From 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
From 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, 2009
In 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, 2009
I 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, 2009
It 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, 2009
Safer 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
Law 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 [...

This is not just a tax form

Posted on February 08, 2009
Via Irish Election:

Proprietary Restitution

Posted on February 07, 2009
The 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) [...

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