Author: Eoin

Dr Eoin O'Dell is a Fellow and Associate Professor of Law at Trinity College Dublin.

Mark Twain exercises the Privilege of the Grave

| 9 Comments
| Freedom of Expression

Mark Twain, via Wikipedia.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. …

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A Christmas Contract Carol

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| Cinema, television and theatre, Contract

A Christmas Carol, via ContractsProf Blog.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).…

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It could be you?

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| Contract, Irish Society

Lotto panel via the Lotto website.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. …

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Shylock’s appeal: illegal contracts, specific performance and damages

| 3 Comments
| Cinema, television and theatre, Contract

Cover of New Yorker magazine, Dec 22 & 29, 2008.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). …

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Normal service is being resumed: religious and political advertising bans

| 8 Comments
| advertising, Freedom of Expression, Media and Communications

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. …

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Judicial Wigs and Gowns

| 6 Comments
| Court dress, judges, Law

New English judicial robes, via Slaw; as the image has been moved somewhere else on the official UK judiciary websiteI wrote a little while ago about plans for most civil judges in England and Wales to cease wearing wigs, wing collars and bands, and to wear radically simplifed judicial gowns. The change was to come into effect from 1 January 2008, but it was postponed until 1 October because because an insufficient number of gowns had been made in time. The revised deadline was met, and from this month, judges in civil and family courts will wear the new dark blue gaberdine robe with velvet facings (right). The colour – gold, red or lilac – of the strips of cloth under the chin (which to my eye recall the eliminated tapes) indicate the level of judge. The designs, by Betty Jackson, raised some controversy when they were first announced, but they seem fine (if unexciting, and distinctly civilian rather than alien) to me. …

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The first Monday in October

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| judges, US Supreme Court

US Supreme Court, 2008-2009 photo, via ABC.NPR

CNN

New York Times here and here

Washington Post here and here.

Full size image here.



Back row (l to r): Stephen Breyer, Clarence Thomas (is it significant that he’s looking to his right?), Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel Alito.

Front Row (l to r): Anthony Kennedy, John Paul Stevens (is it significant that he’s looking a little uneasy?), Chief Justice John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, David Souter.

Let the games begin.…

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The public library

| 2 Comments
| Carneige, Libraries

Whitechurch Library, from the Library Council websiteI love libraries – from the wonder that is the New York Public Library through the workaday necessity of my university’s very fine library to the welcome of the local lending library – so the following story in the Irish Times caught my eye:

At the library

Few State services provide greater customer satisfaction than the public library. Some 14 million people visited one last year, a rise of one-sixth in five years, according to a national survey of users [Report | Summary | Press Release (all pdfs)] commissioned by the Library Council. …

Ireland has a long tradition of support for public libraries. Legislative backing began with the Public Libraries Act in 1855. In the early 20th century, American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie provided finance for local authorities to build 80 libraries. In 1947, the government adopted the principle of state aid for public libraries [in the Public Libraries Act, 1947]. In the past decade government and local authorities have made a substantial financial investment to improve facilities. …

According to the press release (pdf):

Introducing the survey results, Norma McDermott, Director of the Library Council, paid tribute to library staff whose helpfulness scored a remarkable 97% satisfaction rate among library users.

…

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