Further to my earlier post about last week’s Current Legal Problem lecture on

Spies Like Us? Frank Snepp and George Blake: Freedom of Speech and Restitutionary Remedies

the paper is now available here, via Scrib’d. It’s a good remedy for insomnia. All comments gratefully received.

If you like this post, please click on this link to pass it on. Thanks!

Hide Sites

Over sixty years ago, the Faculty of Laws at University College London established the Current Legal Problems lecture series and accompanying annual volume as a major reference point for a broad range of legal scholarship opinion, theory, methodology, and subject matter, with an emphasis upon contemporary developments of law. The lectures are held at the Faculty of Law, Bentham House, Endsleigh Gardens, London WC1 from 6-7pm; they are open to the public and free of charge. This week’s current legal issue is:

Spies Like Us? Frank Snepp and George Blake: Freedom of Speech and Restitutionary Remedies

“Espionage is a serious business” sang a moderately famous Irish pop singer of the 1980s. And so it is. It can be even more of a business when former spies seek to publish their memoirs, and things can get very serious indeed if they fail to seek the clearance of their former spymasters in advance. The decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States in Snepp v US 444 US 507 (1980) and of the House of Lords in AG v Blake [2001] 1 AC 268; [2000] UKHL 45 (27 July 2000) make a fascinating pair of cases in which former spies (unsuccessfully) argued that a restitutionary remedy against uncleared publication of their memoirs infringed their speech rights.

The paper will seek to do three things. First, it will present a thorough analysis of the stories behind the decisions. How the opinion for the Court in Snepp evolved is a fascinating tale in its own right; so too are many elements of the Blake saga, not least the question of where the Snepp-like remedy in that case actually came from. So, the paper will begin with these stories, tales and sagas.

Second, it will look at the legitimacy of the restitutionary remedies in the cases in their own terms, and to suggest in particular that whilst there may be some legitimacy to the remedy announced in Blake, there is none for that announced in Snepp. Working out quite why this was so will help to clarify two difficult areas in the law of restitution: how, if at all, the law of restitution can justify awarding restitutionary damages for breach of contract, and proprietary remedies generally.

Third, it will measure the remedies awarded in Blake and Snepp against applicable speech standards (the First Amendment to the US Constitution and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, respectively), and to suggest in particular that the speech analyses in both cases were sadly lacking. Working out quite why this was so will help to clarify a difficult area of free speech law: how, if at all, common law and equitable doctrines and remedies can be made subject to constitutional speech standards.

If you like this post, please click on this link to pass it on. Thanks!

Hide Sites

The Irish Society of Comparative Law (ISCL) was established in June 2008 to encourage the comparative study of law and legal systems in Ireland. They will host a very exciting event tomorrow evening, 26 November 2009, when Professor Esin Örücü (left) of the School of Law, University of Glasgow will speak on the topic:

A Comparatist’s Analysis of the Convergence of Legal Systems.

The lecture will be held in Room 11 of the School of Law, Trinity College Dublin (map) from 5:00pm to 6:30pm. Admission is free, and all are welcome. Queries about the event or the society may be directed to the Vice President or the Secretary.

Prof Örücü is Emeritus Professor of Comparative Law at both the University of Glasgow and Erasmus University in Rotterdam; she is a Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law; and she has been a towering figure in comparative legal scholarship for the last 30 years or more. Her recent book The Enigma of Comparative Law: Variations on a Theme for the Twenty-First Century (Martinus Nijhoff, 2004) – delivering on its musical sub-title in chapters successively headed Overture, Intermezzo, Cadenza and Finale – is a beautifully composed and powerful meditation on the role and function of comparative law. Reviewing it in (2005) 9 (3) EJCL, Jaakko Husa says that the book

… enriches the intellectual diet of contemporary law scholarship. It is hopefully going to be at the forefront of the debate over comparative law theory for the future. To conclude, it is not insignificant that the book was written in a manner genuinely open not only to an American or European, but to a global readership. For … an American reader interested in comparative law/comparative legal studies Enigma offers an exceptionally interesting point of view because it is not entangled in the American web of hostilities and alliances; on many points it may offer genuinely new perspectives to comparative law. For the European reader, it will be proof of an intellectually interesting life outside the ongoing integration-centred debates.

The same volume of the European Journal of Comparative Law published her valedictory lecture at Erasmus University: “Looking at Convergence through the eyes of a Comparative Law” (2005) 9 (2) EJCL. Building on Enigma, her theme that evening was that, in Europe,

… one of the most important roles that comparative law plays is in the harmonisation and unification of activities, and comparative lawyers are involved in the preparation of the many projects to achieve these ends. Such activity is of ever-increasing significance. Whether the starting point be ‘common core’ studies or ‘better law’ studies, the areas prepared for harmonisation and unification are on the increase.

The place of comparative law in all this is crucial. Firstly, comparative law is a fundamental source for any Europe-wide project, in fact, of European law itself. It is the main tool for working towards European integration. It aids in overcoming exclusive nationalism and shows how the ius commune novum must be based on intercultural communication while leaving room for diversity. … The mere existence of the European Union implies that comparative law has a serious role in the developing of principles. Secondly, the kind of comparative law that facilitates intercultural communication is the one which goes beyond juxtaposing, contrasting and comparing. This strengthens the call for comparative lawyers to be trained in interdisciplinary research problems, to have knowledge of and familiarity with different legal cultures, to have a good command of languages, knowledge of history, economics and politics, and also to receive training in methodology. Thirdly, the work of comparative lawyers in facilitating the achievement of the interrelationship between the overlapping circles to bring about intercultural understanding is vital.

She is certain to return to these themes and variations tomorrow night.

If you like this post, please click on this link to pass it on. Thanks!

Hide Sites

Next week, the School of Law, Trinity College Dublin, will host a conference on

Recent Developments in Irish Defamation Law – Including the Defamation Act, 2009

It will be on from 9:30am to 1:15pm on Saturday, 28 November 2009, in the Davis Theatre, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin.

As regular readers of this blog will know, Irish Defamation law has undergone a number of radical changes in the last twelve months including, most notably, the changes which are to be wrought by the newly enacted Defamation Act, 2009 (pdf). These changes will significantly influence the way in which defamation cases are to be managed and may, potentially, represent a shift in the traditional balance between plaintiffs and defendants in defamation cases. The conference will consider the nature of such changes. Here’s the provisional programme:

  09:00   Registration

  09:30   Paul O’Higgins, SC  The Defamation Act from the Plaintiff’s Perspective
  09:55   Eoin McCullough, SC  The Defamation Act from the Defendant’s
Perspective      
  10:20   Paula Mullooly  The Defamation Act from the Solicitor’s Perspective
  10:45   Questions and Discussion

  11:00   Tea/Coffee Break

  11:15   Brendan Kirwan BL  Injunctive Relief and Remedies
  11:40   Ray Ryan BL  Key Points of Practice and Procedure in Defamation
  12:05   Dr Eoin Carolan BL  Alternative Causes of Action
  12:30   Dr Eoin O’Dell The Defamation Act: The Constitutional Dimension
  12:55   Questions and Discussion

  13:15   Conference Ends

  14:30   Ireland v South Africa    (Croke Park)

For more information or to make a reservation, please phone ((01) 896 2367), fax ((01) 677 0449), email, or visit the website.

Other forthcoming events in the Law School are listed here; other forthcoming Law events in Ireland are listed here by Darius.

If you like this post, please click on this link to pass it on. Thanks!

Hide Sites

Are you a Law student, undergraduate or postgraduate? Would you like to present a short paper or give a presentation on a legal topic of your choice at a colloquium at TCD on Saturday, 20 February 2010?

The second annual Law Student Colloquium, chaired by Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness, President of the Law Reform Commission, will bring together law students to present and discuss their work under the general theme of Rethinking Law. Law students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, and researchers from all institutions, are invited to attend and participate. In a new and exciting development, there will be prizes for the best undergraduate papers.

For more information, check out the poster (pdf | jpg), visit the website, or send an email to the organisers as soon as possible. And, if you’re interested in participating, (of course you are, aren’t you?), please email a provisional title and a 400-500 word abstract of your proposed paper before 5pm, Friday 4 December 2009. Provide your name, educational status and institution in the e-mail, but provide the title and abstract in an attachment which should be anonymous.

The first event was a great success, and I’m sure that the second iteration will surpass it. So, go on, present your ideas on rethinking or challenging existing law, current understandings of the law, and received wisdom. It will be a lot of fun, as much for those who present the papers as for those of us whose preconceptions are challenged by the presentations.

If you like this post, please click on this link to pass it on. Thanks!

Hide Sites

The Hon. Mr. Chief Justice Balakrishnan, Chief Justice of India, will deliver a Guest Lecture at the School of Law, TCD:

Judicial Activism Under the Indian Constitution

It will be held on Wednesday, 14 October 2009, at 6:00 pm in the JM Synge Theatre, Room 2039, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin (map).

If you would like to attend, please contact the Law School, by email, by mail to School of Law, House 39, Trinity College, Dublin 2; by phone to (01) 896 2367 or by fax to (01) 677 0449.

It promises to be an interesting evening. The label “judicial activism” is often used loosely, sometimes to describe the judicial process, sometimes to castigate judges as failing to confine themselves to reasonable interpretations of laws, and instead substitute their own political opinions for the applicable law. I particularly reocmmend the posts on Balkinization. The issue, a long-time staple of constituitonal jurisprudence, came to the fore again during the confirmation hearings for US Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor. But the debate is not confined to the US: rather, it arises where-ever there are Courts – so judges in Canada, Australia, the European Court of Justice, and Ireland are all routinely praised and criticised accordingly. The perspective from another court and another country will be fascinating indeed.

If you like this post, please click on this link to pass it on. Thanks!

Hide Sites

And so to the University of Keele, for the centenary conference of the Society of Legal Scholars in the United Kingdom and Ireland (SLS). The SLS is a leading learned society for those who teach law in a university or similar institution or who are otherwise engaged in legal scholarship, and many of the events at this year’s conference are centred around the celebration of its centenary. Over four days this week, there are several plenary sessions and nearly 30 subject sessions with several papers each, so I won’t be live-blogging the whole thing, but I hope over the next few posts to give a flavour of some of the papers and presentations I attend. It’s usually a great conference, and I hope that it’s not hubris to hope that the SLS is around for the next 100 years as well.

Update (10 September 2009): the centenary was a theme in many of the set-piece presentations at the conference. Two in particular stand out. First, on Tuesday 8 September, Prof David Sugarman reflected on key moments in legal scholarship and education in the UK in the last 100 years – what struck me was just how much like 1950s UK law schools Irish law schools currently are. Second, on Wednesday 9 September, Prof Ray Cocks and Prof Fiona Cownie (this year’s President of the Society) spoke in a largely light-hearted way about the highs and lows of the Society’s history. They drew upon their book A Great and Noble Occupation! The History of the Society of Legal Scholars (Hart, 2009) which was launched at the conference. Founded in 1909, the Society was lucky to survive two world wars, the low esteem in which university law schools were held both in the academy and by the professions, and self-inflicted wounds in the refusal to admit women until the late 1940s or law teachers outside universities until much later in the century. Nevertheless, it survived, and in the last third of the twentieth century, it began to prosper – it is now a learned society promoting research scholarship, a central point for policy debate within the legal academic community, and the means by which that community can engage with the professions and wider society.

If you like this post, please click on this link to pass it on. Thanks!

Hide Sites

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 in a letter to this newspaper.

Little has changed. As is reported elsewhere in the same edition, students from the University College London Student Human Rights Programme, have prepared a report setting out the current assaults on liberty in the UK, under the suitably Orwellian title of The Abolition of Freedom Act 2009. It was prepared for this weekend’s forthcoming Convention on Modern Liberty (organised by the UK’s leading human rights campaigners, including Liberty and the Guardian) and it makes for chilling reading.

The situation is equally as grim in Ireland. Today’s Irish Times carries an article by Elaine Byrne on a forthcoming report prepared by her for Transparency International on serious shortcomings which have weakened the quality of Ireland’s democracy. The same edition carries an article on the financial costs associated with the forthcoming data retention regime being challenged by Digitial Rights Ireland. More generally, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) was formed in 1976 for reasons similar to those which motivated the 1934 letter writers; and – as I have already noted on this blog – it too is one of the organisers of a forthcoming conference on the state of civil liberties in Ireland.

Were it not for such organisations, more of our civil liberties would be eroded by stealth. What liberties we still have we owe to their vigilance. So, what are you waiting for? Get involved: click on the links in this post; click on one of the buttons in the right-hand column; or find your own way to begin to contribute. Lest they perish, we must all do our bit to protect our civil liberties, human rights and fundamental freedoms.

If you like this post, please click on this link to pass it on. Thanks!

Hide Sites