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Author: Eoin
Dr Eoin O'Dell is a Fellow and Associate Professor of Law at Trinity College Dublin.
Speak for yourself, Brian
I’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
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- Image via Wikipedia
Academics and pay cuts
Associate Professor of Finance at TCD, Dr. Brian Lucey, was on Nightly News with Vincent Browne (TV3) tonight [ed: that was last night; extracts from the show are available here] saying he would not mind taking a pay cut as he’s a very well paid public sector worker and can afford to do so. Of course he also thinks others should follow his lead.
I imagine it might be a bit frosty in Senior Common Room tomorrow as he takes his coffee. Some of the more lowly or maybe that should be less onscreen academics might have a bone or two to pick. And others might point to media appearance fees and column remittances that Dr. Lucey may be earning as a result of the bank crisis that make it ok for him to take a cut.
Is there an appetite for pay cuts in Irish academia I have not yet heard about?
Student vs. University
You 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 an interesting post that in this case I’ll make an exception. The list is the 2008 ABA Journal Blawg 100, the 100 best Web sites by lawyers, for lawyers, as chosen by the editors of the ABA Journal. The winning blog in the Law Professors category is Jonathan Turley, and this recent post of his caught my eye:
…Punitive Extraction: Dental Student Wins $1.7 Million From Four Faculty Members for Dismissal
In an impressive verdict, Alissa Zwick a former dental student at the University of Michigan has won a $1.72 million verdict with punitive damages from four faculty members (Dr. Marilyn Lantz, an associate dean, and Drs. Bill Piskorowski, Mark Snyder and Fred Burgett) for her dismissal for alleged academic deficiencies. It is a rare verdict in an area generally left to the discretion of faculty.
The trial in the case lasted 14 days and the jury found that the faculty had violated Zwick’s due process rights, awarding a $1 million punitive damages award and $500,000 for emotional distress.
Mark Twain exercises the Privilege of the Grave
In 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 convention prevent us from exercising it, so that the only time we can really exercise it is from the grave, whence we don’t care what others might think of the views which we might express. …
A Christmas Contract Carol
It 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”. Another – perhaps even more famous, and certainly seasonal – example is provided by Scrooge, the anti-hero in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Of this name, the OED says that it is used “to designate a miserly, tight-fisted person or killjoy” (here‘s an example from yesterday’s Irish Times).
This is all by way of introducing a post by Keith Rowley on ContractsProf Blog entitled Ebenezer Scrooge on Contract Formation. He sets out a conversation from the screenplay of a movie version of the story which does not seem to appear in the book. This is neither the first nor the only time that screenplays have taken liberties with this book, my favourite movie version certainly does. In this case, the conversation is added to illustrate Scrooge’s heartlessness at the beginning of the story (before his conversion to the spirt of Christmas at the end of the book).…
It could be you?
Be 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 that, although he was in arrears, he was still a member of the syndicate and thus entitled to a one-fifth share of the winnings. The matter was not resolved amicably, and it went to court. …
Shylock’s appeal: illegal contracts, specific performance and damages
I 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).
A Jewish moneylender in Renaissance Venice, Shylock had made a loan to Antonio, in default of which he would be entitled to a pound of Antonio’s flesh. Antonio defaulted, and Shylock sought specific performance. But, after Portia’s advocacy on behalf of Antonio, the Duke of Venice ruled that Shylock was entitled to a pound of flesh but not a drop of blood, and refused both specific performance and damages in lieu. More than that, for seeking to take Antonio’s life, Shylock was disgraced and forced to convert to Christianity, and his property was forfeit (though half was ultimately settled upon his daughter Jessica, who had converted to Christianity and eloped with her suitor, Lorenzo). …
Normal service is being resumed: religious and political advertising bans
Regular 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 here | here | here | here | here | here).
Edit: The remainder of this long post discusses the validity of such bans in the US, the ECHR, Ireland and the UK, by way of background three recent developments: debate about a failure to take a current legislative opportunity to amend the Irish legislation, another ban on an Irish religious advertisement, and an ECHR decision striking down a political advertising ban. …