Given my moot history in law school it’s no surprise that I’ve been approached repeatedly by a number of different international moots now that I’m a lawyer. But I’ve never seen anything like this before.

A non-profit environmental law organization, West Coast Environmental Law (WCEL), is hosting the first-ever moot court held entirely on Twitter. Participants from different Canadian law schools will make their submissions in 140 characters or less. The intent of the exercise is to bring environmental law issues to a broader audience.

Yes, I’ve always dreamed about being a tweeting judge, and it seems that dream might . . . [more]

An announcement of new legislation being introduced here in Nova Scotia caught my attention recently, leading me to do a little searching which produced something that I find interesting. Considering the history of Halifax, and Nova Scotia in general being a seaport kind of place, it might seem somewhat late the NS Gov’t is introducing legislation to regulate tattoo parlours in the province. The legislation itself is not that fancy in that is simply enabling regulations to be created to regulate the industry.

This bit of news caused me to wonder what other jurisdictions have done regarding tattooing so . . . [more]

Remember the “new math”? Everything you knew and the way you knew it were wrong. You had to be able to calculate in base 3 or base 7. You either couldn’t do your homework or couldn’t help your kids with theirs.

Well, this isn’t that.

New Math is a website where Craig Damrauer makes language sub for numbers and comes up with some wry products. For instance:

Or, to pick something likely even closer to our hearts:

More of a hmmm than a haha. But there are funny equations, true equations, and truly odd equations, and because

you should go . . . [more]

If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. That is the old-fashioned premise behind a relatively new web marketing strategy known as remarketing or retargeting. And if you have had the experience of seeing ads for a specific company or product popping up over and over again as you surf the web, chances are you have already experienced it firsthand.

We are all familiar with the abandoned shopping cart – going partway through the process of selecting and configuring that perfect something [insert your own shopping proclivity here] on a retailer’s website before bailing out just . . . [more]

This is a post in a series appearing each Friday, setting out some articles, videos, podcasts and the like that contributors at Slaw are enjoying and that you might find interesting. The articles tend to be longer than blog posts and shorter than books, just right for that stolen half hour on the weekend. It’s also likely that most of them won’t be about law — just right for etc.

Please let us have your recommendations for what we and our readers might like.

Last April, David Canton noted an Alberta Court of Appeal decision that Leon’s Furniture was justified in collecting licence plate information from people picking up furniture at the store. The AB CA held that the licence plate number was not personal information.

Recently the Supreme Court of Canada refused leave to appeal, a decision that disappointed some privacy authorities.

Are licence plate numbers like Internet Protocol addresses (at least in the eyes of the federal Minister of Justice), in that they point to a machine and not to a person, and a machine that may be used by more . . . [more]

‘Tis the season! For the holidays, et cetera, but more particularly for CLEs which meet the Law Society for Upper Canada’s new requirements for professionalism and ethics. Every lawyer called to the bar in Ontario must complete three hours of continuing legal education approved by LSUC that is directed to instructing on professionalism and ethics. In the mad rush to meet the year-end deadline, CLEs are popping up all over the place directed to this topic.

IT Professionalism and Ethics CLEs: An Introduction

For outsourcing and information technology lawyers, it was a challenge earlier this year to find relevant seminars. . . . [more]

The American group blog Concurring Opinions has posted A Guide to the Eight Most Suspect Types of Law Review Articles. My favourite is number 4:

4. The One-Off

“In my previous article, I made a significant contribution to the literature. In this piece, I will coast on the vapors of that article.”

In the comments section, someone has suggested a ninth category be added:

9. Straight from the Framers!

“In this article, I uncover the original meaning of a clause (phrase, word, or letter) that no one has ever heard of, that no court (or litigant) has ever referred

For authors on SLAW, you know that in today’s world, obtaining a publishing agreement with a traditional publisher means that you have to show your publisher how YOU will market and promote your own book. Those authors with a broad reach will of course be more attractive to a publisher. By the time you contact a publisher, you likely have some blog postings and perhaps print articles on your CV, but how about Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other online marketing tools? What to do and where to do them? And a biggie – how much time to spend marketing rather . . . [more]

Site news for those who read Slaw only via RSS or email

1. Comment Watch:

In the last week there were 44 comments. You might be particularly interested in these:

• The comments on Bob Berring’s post, “Legal Research Training’s End”
• The thoughtful comment by Makwaminising_nini on the post “Dunkin’ the Victim: a Note on Legal-Political Background of the Current Attawapiskat Campaign” by Michael Posluns
• The 9 comments on Simon Fodden’s post “Apple’s Siri on iPhone 4s and Legal Privilege

You can subscribe to the comments on Slaw either as a separate matter (RSS, email) or as part . . . [more]

The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear the Indalex Limited case, which will determine if underfunded pension plans should be treated as a priority when it comes time to liquidate the assets of a bankrupt company.

Although the case deals first and foremost with duties and priorities under the Ontario Pension Benefits Act (PBA) and corporate insolvency under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangements Act (CCAA), the Supreme Court’s pending decision has ramifications for organizations, creditors (lenders) and pension plans across Canada.

This appeal stems from the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal back in April 7, 2011, . . . [more]

Disability insurance is the most complicated type of personal insurance you can own. Even experienced insurance agents can find it challenging, so I pity the poor lawyer that attempts to find enough time in the day to read and understand their policy.

If you’ve read my prior columns, you already know that there is a huge financial risk of going without disability insurance. As a result, it’s extremely important understand how your disability insurance will pay a benefit in the event of a claim. Without getting into too many details, here are 4 questions you should ask about your disability . . . [more]