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Author: Eoin

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

In the Dock, in Paris « EJIL: Talk! « Libel Tourism and Academic Freedom

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If I lose, I will stand convicted of a crime, branded a criminal. The complainant will not enjoy a windfall as in London, but considerable moral satisfaction. The chilling effect on book reviewing well beyond France will be considerable.

In preparing a defense we faced a delicate challenge. The case was otiose for two reasons: It was in our view an egregious instance of ‘forum shopping,’ legalese for libel tourism. We wanted it thrown out. But if successful, the Court would never get to the merits –  and it was important to challenge this hugely dangerous attack on academic freedom and liberty of expression. Reversing custom, we specifically asked the Court not to examine our jurisdictional challenge as a preliminary matter but to join it to the case on the merits so that it would have the possibility to pronounce on both issues.

via ejiltalk.org

Prof. Joseph Weiler discusses his experiences of being on trial for criminal defamation in France.

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Chinese walls and palm tree justice | Baby Barista blog via guardian.co.uk

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BusyBody was talking about her case at chambers tea yesterday which involves a student appealing a decision by his college to expel him. ‘It was a complete kangaroo court,’ she said.

‘I’ve always loved the image that conjures up,’ said TheVamp. ‘You know, a huge kangaroo of a judge and all the little joeys coming up before him and with none of them able to sit still for a second. All bouncing up and down on the spot trying to make their submissions.’

via guardian.co.uk

There are more clichés and metaphors in the post, but this passage raises a profound issue: Is this really how college decisions to expel students are taken?

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The Volokh Conspiracy » Judge Posner Criticizes the Bluebook (the Most Popular Legal Citation Format Manual)

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Eugene Volokh • January 25, 2011 5:32 pm

The article is The Bluebook Blues, published in the Yale Law Journal, which is one of the journals that publishes the Bluebook itself. The review is short (a bit over 10 pages of text) and very readable. An excerpt:

Many years ago I wrote a review of The Bluebook, then in its sixteenth edition. My review was naïvely entitled “Goodbye to the Bluebook.” The Bluebook was then a grotesque 255 pages long. It is now in its nineteenth edition — which is 511 pages long.

I made a number of specific criticisms of The Bluebook in that piece, and I will not repeat them. I don’t believe that any of them have been heeded, but I am not certain, because, needless to say, I have not read the nineteenth edition. I have dipped into it, much as one might dip one’s toes in a pail of freezing water. I am put in mind of Mr. Kurtz’s dying words in Heart of Darkness — “The horror! The horror!” — and am tempted to end there.

via volokh.com
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Comparing Abortion to the Holocaust « Strasbourg Observers

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Amid all the discussion regarding the A., B. and C. v. Ireland judgment, it is interesting to note that last week, in one of its first freedom of expression judgments of 2011, the European Court of Human Rights was called upon to consider an interesting issue surrounding abortion, namely the conviction for defamation of an anti-abortion activist for comparing abortion to the Holocaust.

The applicants in Hoffer v. Germany were anti-abortion activists who had handed out pamphlets outside a medical clinic in Nuremburg.

via strasbourgobservers.com

This post on the Strasbourg Observers blog was written by Rónán Ó Fathaigh, a researcher working on a Ghent University Special Research Fund project entitled “Legal analysis and explorative research of the chilling effect on freedom of expression and information”.

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Judges look to foreign counterparts for guidance, survey shows – The Irish Times – Mon, Jan 24, 2011

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BRIAN FLANAGAN

WE ARE SAID to be living in an era of “cosmopolitan constitutionalism”, in which lawyers and judges increasingly look abroad for guidance when interpreting their own constitutions.

The practice is controversial in the US, where Congress has denounced references to the law of European nations in cases concerning sexual equality and the death penalty.

A judge is said to use “foreign law” when he or she interprets domestic laws by reference to the law of other nations.

In an Irish context, it would include seeking guidance from US Supreme Court decisions say, but not from those of the European Court of Human Rights, whose authority Ireland has officially recognised.

Establishing why judges look abroad, how often they do it, and which sorts of countries they look to will reveal whether “cosmopolitan constitutionalism” is likely to benefit the development of Irish law.

via irishtimes.com

Brian Flanagan is a lecturer in the department of law at NUI Maynooth. He and Sinéad Ahern, a PhD candidate in clinical psychology at UL, conducted an international survey of Supreme Court judges in which the judges were asked in confidence about their use of foreign law. The results will be published in the International Comparative Law Quarterly.

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Lecturers protest over Croke Park deal – The Irish Times – Mon, Jan 24, 2011

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Lecturers protest over Croke Park deal

Former taoiseach Garret FitzGerald at a meeting of academics in the Gresham Hotel in Dublin on Saturday to discuss the proposed implementation of the Croke Park agreement in third-level institutions. Former taoiseach Garret FitzGerald at a meeting of academics in the Gresham Hotel in Dublin on Saturday to discuss the proposed implementation of the Croke Park agreement in third-level institutions.Photograph: Alan Betson

JOANNE HUNT

MORE THAN 200 university and institute of technology lecturers met in Dublin on Saturday to protest against the implementation of the Croke Park agreement in third-level institutions.

The group, which met in the Gresham Hotel, is seeking to protect the right of academics to permanency and tenure until retirement age. They said this “bedrock on which academic freedom rests” was under threat.

The Croke Park deal, along with the Hunt report on higher education, proposes longer working hours and shorter holidays, tighter management control and performance-related pay.

They also open up the possibility that academics deemed to be substandard by management could be sacked.

via irishtimes.com

 

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Symposium: The Restatement (Third) of Restitution and Unjust Enrichment

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Washington and Lee University School of Law and the American Law Institute are pleased to announce a conference on

Restitution Rollout: Restatement (Third) of Restitution and Unjust Enrichment

on February 25, 2011 in Lexington, Virginia.

The American Law Institute (ALI), the leading legal-reform organization in the United States, restates basic legal subjects to inform the legal profession what “the law” is in a particular subject. In 2010, the ALI approved the Restatement (Third) Restitution and Unjust Enrichment (2011), the subject of theRestitution Rollout.

Restatement (Third) of Restitution and Unjust Enrichment replaces the original Restatement of Restitution, promulgated in 1936. Restatement Third restores the full title, Restitution and Unjust Enrichment, that appeared on the Tentative Drafts of the original Restatement but was dropped when the official text was published, thus emphasizing that the subject matter encompasses the independent body of law of unjust enrichment, and not simply the remedy of restitution.

At the conference, ALI Reporter Andrew Kull and ALI Director Lance Liebman will introduce the Restatement Third of Restitution. They will be joined by leading Restitution and Contracts scholars including Joe Perillo, Lionel Smith, Emily Sherwin, John McCamus, Peter Linzer, and Caprice Roberts, among others.…

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