One thing has become clear in the last few months: Hollywood has declared war on the Internet. Rupert Murdoch and his colleagues, not content with grossing billions of dollars on their blockbuster movies have decided to spent some of those billions to lobby congress to try and get legislation passed that would give them the ability to more quickly (and with minimal due process) shut down file sharing sites that they think are hosting pirated content. Of course, Mr. Murdoch has demonstrated that he has a fairly fuzzy understanding of how links and such work so if it’s up to . . . [more]

The 2012 Conference in Toronto will mark the 50th annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries and provide an occasion to highlight many of the accomplishments of the association and its members over the decades since its creation. One of many accomplishment worthy of note is the Index to Canadian Legal Literature for which CALL provided both the inspiration and the support required to create a Canadian publication that met international indexing standards.

The Proposal for a New Index

In December 1983, The Canadian Law Information Council and The Canadian Association of Law Libraries developed a proposal to . . . [more]

♬ Every day create your history
Every path you take you’re leaving your legacy…♬

Music and lyrics by Michael Jackson, James Harris the 3rd and Terry Lewis; recorded by Michael Jackson.

Law students across Canada are about to make history. They are preparing to argue a Legal Appeal using twitter.

Marketwire has reported that Yana Banzen and Kowlasar Misir, two students at the University of Ottawa’s Law School, are gearing up to participate in the world’s first ever Twitter Moot, scheduled for 21st February at 1pm EST.

This Twitter Moot is a project of West Coast Environmental Law. Accordingly, it . . . [more]

Today’s a holiday throughout much of Canada today. In Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan it’s Family Day. In Prince Edward Island it’s Islander Day. And in Manitoba it’s Louis Riel Day. However, even in those provinces, folks who work for the federal government will be toiling today. It’s all very Canadian.

And it’s all by way of saying that things will be quieter than usual here on Slaw today.

See you tomorrow. Most of you. . . . [more]

[ français / English ]

Comme vous le savez peut-être, Éducaloi est un site d’information juridique grand public qui explique le droit en vigueur dans la province du Québec au Canada. Cette phrase peut sembler anodine, mais chacun de ces mots compte. Dans cette chronique, je vous expose un problème lié à cette première affirmation, auquel nous avons récemment fait face.

La partie « site d’information juridique grand public », vous comprenez. Nous informons le public sur leurs droits et leurs obligations, et ce, dans un langage simple et accessible. Là où ça se corse, c’est dans la seconde partie . . . [more]

When Apple released the iPhone 4 in the U.S. in June 2010, some customers quickly noticed some problems. The phone’s case, which doubled as an antenna, gave variable reception depending on how the phone was held. Apple held a press conference 3 weeks later, providing free replacement cases or the option to return the phone to users who requested it within a 2-month period.

American customers who did not take up this initial offer subsequently launched 18 separate class-action lawsuits against Apple, alleging “misrepresenting and concealing material information in the marketing, advertising, sale, and servicing of its iPhone 4–particularly as . . . [more]

Durnin & Fisher v Victoria Hospital, 2012 ONSC 320*

Summary (added Feb. 19, 2012)

The Supreme Court of Canada stated in R. v. Sheppard, [2002] 1 S.C.R. 869 at para. 24, 2002 SCC 26 that

at the trial level, the reasons justify and explain the result. The losing party knows why he or she has lost. Informed consideration can be given to grounds for appeal. Interested members of the public can satisfy themselves that justice has been done, or not, as the case may be.

It is my opinion that the reasons in this case do not adequately . . . [more]

Well, as Simon Chester alerted us it would, CanLII has just now clicked the odometer over as the millionth judgment comes on line. Here’s the graphic evidence (courtesy of Colin Lachance):

Fittingly, perhaps, the millionth judgment was an opinion from the Supreme Court, S.L. v. Commission scolaire des Chênes 2012 SCC 7.

That’s a whole lot of precedent. Use it wisely, Canada. . . . [more]

Imagine my chagrin: there I am in a linguistics class in second or third year university and for the first time in my life I pronounce the word “ubiquitous”—only I don’t. What I say is more or less “you-bi-QUEE-shus.” Well.

It’s that way with some words, even for those with big vocabs. Written and spoken English are two different languages, after all, and we don’t always get to say what we see in cosy company. That’s where “misles” comes in. It’s not hard to imagine someone pronouncing “misled” as “MYzld,” particularly someone learning English. But even the best of the . . . [more]

A few weeks ago, Connie Crosby wrote about the challenge for law librarians in earning a law degree, especially if they’re already working in a law library and don’t want to attend law school full time. Around the same time, John Papadopoulos wrote about how the Legal Literature and Librarianship class at the University of Toronto’s Information School is always oversubscribed. It appears there is an opportunity here to fill.

After many years of planning, last June, the Canadian Association of Law Libraries/Association canadienne des bibliothèques de droit presented a week long program called the New Law Librarians’ Institute. . . . [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 week, the International Bar Association (IBA) published The Impact of Online Social Networking on the Legal Profession and Practice, the first comprehensive report on the potential impact of online social networking within the legal profession.

The IBA conducted a 31-question survey of some 60 bar associations and/or law societies from 47 jurisdictions (all continents were represented). Questions were related to the appropriateness of the use of online social networks by legal actors, with a particular focus on judges and lawyers.

Among the highlights:

• Almost 70 per cent of respondents felt that it is acceptable for lawyers and judges