General – Page 28

Fáilte, IJLS!

13 July, 2010

| General, Irish Law, Legal Journals and Law Reviews

As prefigured here a little while ago, there is a new peer-reviewed Irish legal journal, the Irish Journal of Legal Studies. The publication of Volume 1, Issue 1, 2010 has just been announced on the journal’s homepage, and the contents of the first issue are as follows:

Sexual Violence: Witnesses and Suspects, a Debating Document by Mr Justice Peter Charleton and Stephen Byrne. From the abstract:

This article explores the rules of evidence and criminal procedure as they apply in sexual offence cases, in the context of recent empirical accounts of attrition rates in sexual offences, and having regard to the rights of the accused and the need to maintain a fair balance that limits the potential for injustice.

The Constitution and the Protestant Schools cuts Controversy: Seeing the Wood for the Trees by Eoin Daly. From the abstract:

This article argues that special financial arrangements for Protestant secondary schools, recently controversially withdrawan, constituted a species of constitutionally permissible, if not constitutionally required, accommodation of religion. This controversy also serves as a prism through which to view the broader limitations of the constitutional framework for the guarantee of religious freedom in the education context.

Managerialism in Irish Universities by Professor Steve Hedley.…

Shrek and the Law of Contract

4 July, 20103 August, 2010

| 5 Comments

| Cinema, television and theatre, Contract, General

Faustian bargains are at the heart of Shrek Forever After, the final chapter in the Shrek franchise, and those bargains raise interesting questions for the law of contract (even as the marketing of the film has raised others).

Like Australia (and in many ways even more than the obvious Paper Chase) Shrek Forever After is really A Movie About Contract Law!

Warning: plot spoilers When the movie begins, our hero, Shrek, is suffering a classic mid-life crisis; he is dissatisfied with married life, and pining for the old days, when he was a terrifying ogre rather than a domesticated tourist attraction. Rumpelstiltskin, the evil and manipulative magic deal-maker, offers Shrek the opportunity to spend a day as a real ogre again, in return for another day from Shrek’s childhood. The YouTube clip at the top left is the scene in which Rumpelstiltskin cajoles Shrek into agreeing. Having signed on the dotted line, Shrek is transported into an alternate reality. At first, he enjoys being fearsome one again. But the catch – and there’s always a catch – is that the day Rumpelstiltskin takes is the day of Shrek’s birth. This means that Shrek was not there to rescue Princess Fiona in the first movie; and her desperate parents, King Harold and Queen Lillian, turned to Rumpelstiltskin, and signed over the kingdom of Far Far Away to him in return for having all of their problems disappear.…

The litigious Prince

27 June, 201013 April, 2023

| No Comments

| General

From one of my favourite fun blogs, Being Five, a cartoon strip called The Artist:

Being Five is was 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 above, his friend Vince is visiting, and Georgie introduces introduces him as the best artist in kindergarten.
In the second panel, Vince says that he wants to be called Picasso in future.
In the third panel, Georgie says: “Ok, here’s a picture by the Artist formerly known as Vince”.

The notoriously litigious artist ~~now~~ once again known as Prince [before his sad demise] ~~has of late~~ had been on the receiving end of an action for breach of contract in Ireland. …

Alex puts blogging into perspective

30 May, 201030 May, 2010

| 1 Comment

| Blogging, General

Putting blogging into perspective, via Alex:

Clive disappeared for a week to think about life. When he got back, Alex told him that his colleagues were worried.
Clive exclaimed: “But it was all on my blog. You mean you didn’t read it?”.
Alex replied: “No, of course not .. No one does .. Why would we?”.…

Academic Freedom in the Universities Act, 1997

24 May, 201024 May, 2010

| 6 Comments

| Academic Freedom, Censorship, Freedom of Expression, General, Universities

Academics for Academic Freedom logo, via their site I’m sorry not to have been able to acknowledge the celebration of AFAF‘s International Academic Freedom Day on the day itself by a wonderful blog carnival on the right to learn, ably convened by Deirdre Duffy, and hosted by the ever-wondrous Human Rights in Ireland blog. I’ve blogged on academic freedom on many previous occasions (see especially here and here), and I’d like here look at some of the Irish legal aspects of the issue.

Section 14(1) of the Universities Act, 1997 (also here) provides that Irish universities have “the right and responsibility to preserve and promote the traditional principles of academic freedom” in the conduct of their internal and external affairs, and that they are entitled to regulate their affairs in accordance with their “independent ethos and traditions and the traditional principles of academic freedom”. This is an important guarantee of institutional autonomy, and is a sine qua non for the right of academics to teach, research, publish and participate in public debate without fear of retribution from their institutions. That right is secured by section 14(2) of the Act, which provides:

A member of the academic staff of a university shall have the freedom, within the law, in his or her teaching, research and any other activities either in or outside the university, to question and test received wisdom, to put forward new ideas and to state controversial or unpopular opinions and shall not be disadvantaged, or subject to less favourable treatment by the university, for the exercise of that freedom.

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xkcd on blogging

23 May, 201024 May, 2010

| No Comments

| Blogging, General

From xkcd:

Hint: to get the full effect, mouse over the image.…

The fairy tale of privacy in the digital age

16 May, 201016 May, 2010

| 3 Comments

| General, Privacy

A cartoon commissioned from Chris Slane for this year’s Privacy Awareness Week:

Image: Two children are walking in a forest. They appear to be carrying PDAs; there are many public electronic devices (phones, ATMs, internet booths) on the trees; there is a cctv camera on a tree; there is a spy satellite overhead; and one of the background trees is in fact a communications mast. Peering out from behind a tree towards the back of the scene, a witch following them is studying her own PDA.
Caption: Alas, Hansel and Gretel had left a digital trail.

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