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Archive for December, 2010

The Language of Law Reports

In the United Kingdom and in Canada the history of the language of law reports is as much about the influence of the French language as it is about the use of English. To a lessor extent such history is also about the influence of Latin.

Consider that the first English law reports were in the French language for over 300 years, specifically:

– the first English law reports are found in the Year Books that run from 1260 to 1535 and they were written 100% in the French language. See page 99, The Language of the Law by David . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Publishing

Rating Law Enforcement Online

Mark Schatzker of The Globe noted this week the launch of a new website, JudgeMyCop. Given the scrutiny towards police officers in the GTA following the G20, it’s no surprise that there are Schatzker provides a few amusing parodies of the conflicts, both on the side of law enforcement and the side of the protesters.

Also not surprising, the still emerging blog already has a couple of entries related to the G20, largely links to mainstream media. But many of the existing officer reviews on the site largely deal with what appear to be legitimate offences, dealt with perhaps . . . [more]

Posted in: Practice of Law: Future of Practice, Technology: Internet

Justice, With Eyes Wide Open

Here’s a book for the lawyer on your Christmas gift list: Representing Justice, by Judith Resnik and Dennis E. Curtis (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010). From the blurb:

By mapping the remarkable run of the icon of Justice, a woman with scales and sword, and by tracing the development of public spaces dedicated to justice—courthouses—the authors explore the evolution of adjudication into its modern form as well as the intimate relationship between the courts and democracy.

From the review in the New York Times, we learn:

Lady Justice’s familiar blindfold did not become an accessory until well

. . . [more]
Posted in: Reading: Recommended

The Friday Fillip

Though my father didn’t name me Autolycus[tippy title=”Autolycus”] My father named me Autolycus; who
being, as I am, littered under Mercury, was likewise
a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles.

Winter’s Tale, Act 4, Scene 3 [/tippy], I, too, am something of a “snapper-up of unconsidered trifles,” as anyone who reads Friday Fillips will agree. It’s often the little things, the throw-aways, that prove to be, if not treasures, then sources of delight.

Take comic books. Yes, my mother, too, threw them away, in my case while I was away at university pondering matters of great moment. Those slim, cheap — “trashy” . . . [more]

Posted in: Miscellaneous

Recordings as Transcripts

Many judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings these days are recorded on audio- or videotape, rather than by a court reporter taking notes in person then transcribing them. Usually the audio tape is then transcribed, at least if someone needs a transcript. 

The recordings are often taken as the (or an) ‘official’ version of the proceeding. For example, a practice direction of Ontario’s Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) treats recorded and transcribed proceedings on an equal footing. The rules of practice of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission provide in Rule 2.237(a), “If the hearing is recorded on videotape or some other video . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Technology

Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Complains of “Impenetrable Legislation”

England’s top judge, Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge (that’s a great name!) has complained that “impenetrable” criminal justice legislation is causing major delays in British trials.

The remarks are contained in the most recent annual report of the Court of Appeal Criminal Division.

In his introduction, Lord Judge writes:

“It has been another year of unremitting commitment to the administration of criminal justice. That is as it should be. What remains less tolerable is the continuing burden of comprehending and applying impenetrable legislation, primarily but not exclusively in relation to sentencing. The search for the legislative intention in the

. . . [more]
Posted in: Substantive Law: Foreign Law

Judging a Lawyer by Their Cover

Cynthia Vukets of The Star covered today a new study that predicts the success of lawyers based on their law school yearbook photo,

A University of Toronto professor has found that he can predict how much money a law firm will make just by looking at university yearbook photo of the managing partner.

“We found that power is what predicts their success,” said Nicholas Rule, a psychologist. “It’s the impression of power that one gets from someone’s face.”

He took yearbook photos of the managing partners of the 100 top US law firms and showed them to college students. Students

. . . [more]
Posted in: Education & Training: Law Schools, Practice of Law: Practice Management

R.I.P. Delicious

It looks like Yahoo will be shutting down the social bookmarking service Delicious.com. Or Del.icio.us as we first knew it.

Techcrunch reported the story earlier today, citing Yahoo layoffs that included the entire Delicious team. The post was based on a leaked internal presentation slide that showed a number of services on the chopping block, including: Delicious, Altavista, Buzz, MyBlogLog, Yahoo! Bookmarks, and Yahoo! Picks.

There were other sources mentioned in the post, so it’s very likely this is more than a rumour. And while it’s entirely possible the user base will be heard, and the service saved… I . . . [more]

Posted in: Technology: Internet

Google’s Ngram Viewer

I’ve only just come across Books Ngram Viewer, a Google Labs tool that lets you derive graphs from their Books database at the text level. You can enter up to three terms and graph the frequency with which each term occur in a given corpus over time. Drawn from five million of the 15 million books Google has digitized thus far, there are five corpora in English, and one for each of Chinese (simplified), French, Spanish, Russian, and German.

In English, the basic corpus has books ranging from 1500 to 2008 and is offered without any filtering except as . . . [more]

Posted in: Miscellaneous

Quebec Government Appeals the Eric v. Lola Alimony Case

On December 15, 2010, the Attorney General of Quebec, Jean-Marc Fournier announced that the Quebec government has decided to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada the Eric v. Lola case to determine whether common law partners should have the right to claim alimony after a breakup.
Posted in: Substantive Law, Substantive Law: Judicial Decisions

Rebuilding a Law Library, Part 3: Is There a Place for Law Reports?

[This is the third in a series of articles about the trends, theories, principles and realities that have influenced the redesign of the new library of Osgoode Hall Law School – part of the renovation and rebuilding of the law school currently underway. This instalment is written in response to Eric Appleby’s recent post on “The Future of Headnotes”.

When you walk into an academic law library, the first that meets your eye is row upon row of bookstacks as far as the eye can see, filled with published law reports. It’s an impressive sight; and, in the 21st . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Information