cearta.ie – Page 149 – the Irish for rights

The Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is 50 this year, and its famous symbol is 50 today (hat tip: Opinio Juris; BBC):

The images (from left to right) are the first ceramic CND badge, an early tin badge, and the current badge.

The symbol was

designed in 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a professional artist and graduate of the Royal College of Arts. He presented his early designs to the Peace News office in North London and, significantly, to the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War, one of the groups that helped to set up CND. The symbol was first seen in public during the 1958 Aldermaston march and from that moment onwards became identified with CND and its objective of nuclear disarmament.

Ironically the symbol itself is a mix of the military semaphore signals N – representing nuclear – and D – representing disarmament (semaphore alphabet). However, Holtom, a conscientious objector during the Second World War, subverted this use of semaphores by placing the D over the N, the â€œupside down logoâ€? signifying his anti-military principles.

This can be clearly seen in the following graphics:

The CND peace symbol will doubtless understand if I say that I am sorry that it is just as relevant today on its golden anniversary as it was in when it was first adopted in 1958!…

So farewell then, Norman French (again)

18 March, 200828 March, 2008

| 2 Comments

| General, Law

I have blogged already (here and here) about the Statute Law Revision Act, 2007. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the Oireachtas should feel very flattered indeed.

Earlier this year, the Law Commissions of England and Wales and of Scotland published their 18th report in a series of proposed statute law repeals (pdf) (hat tip: Slaw). The Statute Law (Repeals) Bill was introduced into the House of Lords on Wednesday 27 February 2008 by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath. On the day that NPR reports that State Representative Byron Rushing (Dem) is mounting an effort to repeal out-of-date laws in Massachusetts comes news that the UK’s Bill received its second reading today in the House of Lords. …

It’s about time

18 March, 200816 January, 2009

| 2 Comments

| Universities

For too long, Irish universities have hoped that the many developments in graduate funding to develop a Fourth Level in the Irish university sector in recent years would trickle down to offset the ongoing cuts in third level undergraduate funding. It hasn’t happened. Moreover, it was never going to happen. In effect, funds were taken from the broad-based undergraduate sector, and eventually returned in part to highly targeted elements of the post-graduate sector. It is a short-sighted policy: if there is no support for the undergraduate sector, whence will the graduates come for the post-graduate sector? It follows, therefore, that a successful, generously funded, fourth level needs to be constructed upon an equally successful, and equally generously funded, third level sector. …

Carnival! Carnival!

17 March, 200817 March, 2008

| No Comments

| Media and Communications

Blawg Review describes itself as the blog carnival for everyone interested in law:

A peer-reviewed blog carnival, the host of each Blawg Review decides which of the submissions and recommended posts are suitable for inclusion in the presentation. And the host is encouraged to source another dozen or so interesting posts to fit with any special theme of that issue of Blawg Review.

In celebration of St Patrick’s Day, this week’s carnival (as opposed to this one), Blawg Review #151, is ably hosted by DaithÃ Mac SÃthigh on Lex Ferenda. He begins:

Raise a glass (or the Legal Antiquarian’s Lawyer Stein) to the Irish! Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Dublin and from the legal blogosphere and welcome to this week’s Blawg Review, back at Lex Ferenda after a not-too-unsuccessful tryout for the team in Blawg Review #128. Of course it’s not just the week or month of that most famous of Welshmen, Patrick; the Ides of March are commemorated by What About Clients? and David Giacalone at ethical, esq. St. Patrick’s Day is a public holiday in Ireland and in Northern Ireland; Life at Work (in New Zealand) weighs in with some amusing observations on holidays from work.

…

Manhunt II and the value of persistence

16 March, 20087 November, 2010

| 4 Comments

| Censorship, IFCO, Media and Communications

The Manhunt II saga is probably finally over in the UK (hat tip: Daithí off-blog), but perhaps there is one further stage left in Ireland.

As readers of this blog will know, last June the Irish Film Censor’s Office (IFCO), exercised its power to ban Rockstar Games’ Manhunt II, following the lead of many other countries’ authorities, including the UK’s BBFC (see here and here) earlier the same month. When an edited version was submitted, the BBFC reaffirmed their decision in October, but the the BBFCâ€™s Video Appeals Committee (VAC) allowed Rockstarâ€™s appeal in December. In turn, the BBFC appealed this decision to the High Court, which allowed the case to go ahead and then held in January 2008 that the VAC had misinterpreted the relevant legislation and had to consider the issue again (see R (on the application of the British Board of Film Classification) v Video Appeals Committee QBD (Admin) (Mr Justice Mitting) (24 January 2008)). And so the matter returned to the VAC, which this week reaffirmed its earlier decision to allow the game to be released. …

Isn’t it funny, how a bear likes honey?

15 March, 20081 June, 2016

| 4 Comments

| Cinema, television and theatre, General

As every fan of a certain bear knows:

Isn’t it funny
How a bear likes honey?
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
I wonder why he does?

AA Milne, Winnie The Pooh (1926)

As if to prove this, the BBC is reporting that the taste of honey was just too tempting for a bear in Macedonia, which repeatedly raided a beekeeper’s hives, and has now been found guilty of theft and criminal damage (see also Daily Mail | Hearld Sun | News.com.au | NPR | NYT | Reuters | RTÉ | The Telegraph | UPI). My favourite headline from the coverage is the Syndey Morning Hearld‘s Guilty as a bear can bee.

Athough most of the commentary focuses upon the obvious comic elements of the tale, there is actually a rather serious point. …

Reforming Legal Education, or not

14 March, 200810 March, 2009

| 4 Comments

| Carneige, Law, Legal Education, Universities

Surprisingly, according to WordPress Blog Stats, the most popular page on this blog yesterday was The Future of Irish Legal Education, about the second annual Legal Education Symposium hosted by UCC‘s Faculty of Law and sponsored by Dillon Eustace Solicitors. Now, either this blog really does have a serious reader or two, or I need another stats package. Even if the latter is more likely, just in case the former is true, here are two more developments (heading, inevitably, in opposite directions) for the Legal Education junkie(s) out there.

First, Stephen Griffin of Tulane, writing on Balkinization under the heading The Carnegie Report: Can Legal Education Be Reformed? discussed subjecting the Carneige Foundation‘s report on Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law (which I have discussed here and here on this blog – the second post discusses the recent Future of Legal Education Conference | excellent blog analysis here | papers here) to detailed analysis and finding it wanting. …

The House always wins

13 March, 200824 September, 2008

| 1 Comment

| Cinema, television and theatre, Law

It’s amazing how things come together sometimes. On the same day that I see an episode of Boston Legal in which an important sub-plot has a chronic gambler sue a Las Vegas casino for her losses, I read about two examples of life imitiating … well, if not art exactly, then at least entertaining television.

First, there was a story about a real-life US case in which a chronic gambler (a lawyer who should know better) is suing a Las Vegas casino for her losses. Perhaps she was influenced by this episode of Boston Legal? There, the gambling plaintiff won an excellent settlement (and the image above is of her really rather odd lawyers celebrating their unlikely victory, click on it – if you date – for more images from that episode).

Second, not too long after reading about the US lawsuit, I read a message from Prof Charles Mitchell on the Obligations Discussion Group that

in Calvert v William Hill Credit Ltd [2008] EWHC 454 (Ch) (12 March 2008) … Briggs J has declined to make a bookmaker liable for the economic loss suffered by a compulsive gambler who placed bets with them. On the facts a duty of care was owed (some interesting discussion of similar Australian cases) and the duty breached, but the claim failed on causation: the defendant only owed a duty to take care to ensure that the claimant implemented a self-exclusion arrangement, and even if this had been done, the claimant would have gone to another bookmaker and lost all his money there instead.

…