The Bible tells Christians that ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Matthew 4:4). The aphorism is echoed in the title and plot of Vladimir Dudintsev’s anti-Stalist novel Not by Bread Alone. Now it is the main title of a recent book about the importance of higher education in developing modern societies built upon the fundamental values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law: Sjur Bergan Not by bread alone (Council of Europe higher education series No 17; 2011). Public debate often assumes that the only purpose of higher education is to prepare gradutes for employment, and this view feeds back into third-level entry requirements and second-level curricula. Hence, we see an increasing focus on “training” (rather than educating) graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (with attendant risks to the arts, humanities, and social sciences). This third-level policy brings a concommitant focus at second-level on bonus CAO points for maths generating calls for bonus points for science and a compulsory leaving certificate science course (perhaps to the detriment of the study of foreign languages; and quite how this stands with the Minster for Education’s stated aim of moving away from the CAO points culture is unclear).…
Category: General
A devastating analysis of the proposed wording of the judicial pay amendment by @extemporeblog
Some extracts from a longer and fascinating post:
First, the proposed wording does not restrict the permissible justifications for a pay-cut in any serious way. …
Second, the proposed wording contains no apparent constraint on the “classes” of other public servants whose pay must be reduced to permit a judicial pay-cut. ….
Third, on a literal reading, the wording doesn’t require any equivalence or proportionality between the pay-cuts for other public servants and the judicial pay-cut. If that’s right, the government could impose a 1% cut to the salaries of TDs and Senators, and follow it up with a 50% cut to judges’ salaries.
Fourth, the proposal doesn’t provide a role for any independent body in determining whether a judicial pay-cut is justified. …
via extempore.ie
Judicial pay referendum
Two stories in today’s papers caught my eye; here are some extracts:
JUDGES’ PAY PROPOSED AMENDMENTS
THE GOVERNMENT is proposing that Article 35.5 of the Constitution be amended by substituting the following:
“35.5.1 The remuneration of judges shall not be reduced during their continuance in office save in accordance with this section.
35.5.2 The remuneration of judges is subject to the imposition of taxes, levies or other charges that are imposed by law on persons generally or persons belonging to a particular class.
35.5.3 Where, before or after the enactment into law of this section, reductions have been or are made by law to the remuneration of persons belonging to classes of persons whose remuneration is paid out of public money and such law states that those reductions are in the public interest, provision may also be made by law to make reductions to the remuneration of judges.”
via irishtimes.com
SENIOR JUDGES FACING RUIN FROM POOR INVESTMENTS
A NUMBER of senior judges who suffered huge losses from ill-fated property investments and a meltdown in bank shares face financial ruin, the Irish Independent has learned.
Financial experts have advised up to 10 members of the judiciary that they will not be able to meet their financial commitments.
Let the law save whistleblowers, not silence them | Nick Cohen | Comment is free | The Observer
“To be happy means to be free and to be free means to be brave,” Pericles said in his oration for the Athenian war dead. The ancient Greeks treasured parrhesia, which can translate as “free speech” or “all speech” or “true speech”. Whatever version you prefer, it always carried a notion of courage with it.
The 20th-century French philosopher Michel Foucault developed the theme and argued that speech was only free when the weak used it against the strong. In parrhesia, the speaker chooses “truth instead of falsehood or silence, the risk of death instead of life and security, criticism instead of flattery and moral duty instead of self-interest and moral apathy”. On Foucault’s reading, the worker who criticises his boss uses parrhesia. The boss who shouts down his worker, does not. The woman who challenges religious notions of her subordination is a parrhesiastes. The clerics who threaten her with ostracism or worse are not. In the Chinese legend, the mandarin who knows he must contradict the emperor orders carpenters to build him a coffin and takes it with him to court. Pericles would have approved.
We like to think of ourselves as speakers of truth to power.
via guardian.co.uk
Nick Cohen’s argument for whistleblower protection proceeds from a classical argument for freedom of expression.
Intermediary liability: because you’re worth it (L’Oreal v eBay) | TechnoLlama
Dealing specifically with the issue of intermediary liability present in the e-commerce directive, the ECJ declares:
“6. Article 14(1) of Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (‘Directive on electronic commerce’) must be interpreted as applying to the operator of an online marketplace where that operator has not played an active role allowing it to have knowledge or control of the data stored.
The operator plays such a role when it provides assistance which entails, in particular, optimising the presentation of the offers for sale in question or promoting them.
Where the operator of the online marketplace has not played an active role within the meaning of the preceding paragraph and the service provided falls, as a consequence, within the scope of Article 14(1) of Directive 2000/31, the operator none the less cannot, in a case which may result in an order to pay damages, rely on the exemption from liability provided for in that provision if it was aware of facts or circumstances on the basis of which a diligent economic operator should have realised that the offers for sale in question were unlawful and, in the event of it being so aware, failed to act expeditiously in accordance with Article 14(1)(b) of Directive 2000/31.
Pensive mood
As I’ve said before on this blog, Being Five is one of my favourite fun blogs. Here’s a recent cartoon strip called Pensive:
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Being Five is a comic strip about a kid named Georgie who blogs using voice recognition software (since he can’t read or write yet).
In the first panel, he says: “People are getting to know me by reading my blog! They’re realising that I’m a very deep, pensive, philosophical, insightful little fella!” (Just like I hope readers of this blog regard me).
In the second panel, Georgie is startled by a voice (presumably his mother’s, from downstairs) calling “Georgie, I baked cookies”.
In the third panel, Georgie repsonds manically: “COOKIES!” (At this point, I deny all similarities).…
Taxing and woolly data retention laws will discourage new business – The Irish Times – Fri, Apr 15, 2011
KARLIN LILLINGTON
The cost and complexity of new data legislation creates difficulties for new investors
AS THE implications of our recently enacted data retention legislation sink in, internet service providers – defined broadly – are beginning to express concern.
The Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011, signed into law in January, does not merely target telecoms companies or conventional ISPs, say legal experts. Operators of cyber cafes, and any hotel or hostel that offers internet access to customers, are likely to fall under its remit.
Handlers of internet and e-mail data – including those who operate data warehouses – may now have obligations to store user data under this Act. Even people who run internet discussion boards fall into a grey area, depending on how they manage e-mail services for board members.
Data handlers must not only store, but maintain and manage data in such a way as to make it quickly accessible to law-enforcement agencies upon request and – in a move that has been questioned by privacy advocates such as Digital Rights Ireland – the Revenue service.
Doing so will generally involve software, employee and hardware costs. These could prove crippling to smaller service providers and cause hotels to question whether to offer internet access at all.
CommBank’s ‘heavy-handed’ tactics after ATM glitch: police called in
CommBank’s ‘heavy-handed’ tactics after ATM glitch: police called in
The Commonwealth Bank is referring about 100 of its customers to police for criminal prosecution as a result of the recent ATM glitch that allowed people to overdraw their accounts, the head of the NSW Police fraud squad says.
Meanwhile, in Victoria, police confirmed that the bank referred two customers for investigation, who had been summonsed to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on May 13 charged with theft.
The revelations come after the bank was accused in a report on ABC radio’s AM program this morning of using “unfair and heavy-handed tactics” when trying to recover the funds that were overdrawn from accounts last month after the bank deliberately took its ATMs offline following a database maintenance glitch.
The bank, which announced a $3 billion profit for the half year ended December 31, 2010, has written to customers – including welfare recipients – threatening them with legal action if they do not repay the money in full and has also closed accounts without notice.
via smh.com.au
And here’s another story from the SMH about the issue. This is a sequel to the story blogged by Legal Eagle on Skepticlawyer, noted here, similar to an Irish story before Christmas, blogged here.