I recently came across the site for the International Seabed Authority, an autonomous organization formed under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. From their “about” page:

The Authority is the organization through which States Parties to the Convention shall, in accordance with the regime for the seabed and ocean floor and subsoil thereof beyond the limits of national jurisdiction (the Area) established in Part XI and [the 1994 Agreement relating to the Implementation of that part of the Convention], organize and control activities in the Area, particularly with a view to administering the resources

Those interested in the work of the European Court of Justice, might like to subscribe to the ECJ Blog. Allard Knook, a lecturer in law at the Institute of Constitutional and Administrative Law, University of Utrecht, has regular postings in English on cases decided by the Court. . . . [more]

Lots of chirping about social networking tool Twitter today from various quarters. A few stories I am following:

• In What’s Twitter doing right now? Investors would like to know, Globe and Mail (July 1, 2008), tech reporter Matt Hartley explores the value of Twitter and whether we can expect an IPO soon;
• The Digital Home: How Twitter could be worth nothing in a year, CNet News (July 1, 2008), by Don Reisinger discusses valuation of Twitter (could it really be worth 1 billion dollars?);
• in her article All a Twitter: Want to Try Microblogging?, School Library Journal

I’ve been getting a daily blast of legal-tech news from Lexology, having ticked the IP, IT etc. boxes and those for Canada, the U.S. and U.K. Today, there was a single item under the “Canada” banner: “Employers need to be careful to avoid waiving the protections of written computer and email policies” from the firm of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, a name I’m not familiar with — but then I’m not exactly up on them all. The telltale was the mention of the 9th Circuit Court and then “the Ontario Police Department.” Ah. No . . . [more]

One of my first efforts as Crosby Group has been evaluating the B.C. legislation tracking/research service Quickscribe. An excerpt of the press release is below. I hope you find this report useful. I would love to hear your comments!

Quickscribe: A Comparison and Evaluation Report (White Paper) Released

[June 26, 2008] A new white paper comparing British Columbia legislative tracking services was released today by Crosby Group Consulting. The report titled, Quickscribe: A Comparison and Evaluation Report, was commissioned by Stem Legal Web Enterprises Inc. to objectively identify key differences between Quickscribe Services Inc. and the BC government

Or just around the corner. Adobe today announced the shipping availability of the Adobe Acrobat 9 product line. Acrobat 9 apparently delivers native support for Adobe Flash technology, the ability to unify content in rich PDF Portfolios and PDF document co-navigation capabilities. . . . [more]

Conrad Black has lost his appeal to have his convictions on fraud and obstruction of justice overturned. You can read the judgment here [PDF].

Congratulations, by the way, to the Globe and Mail for making the actual document available and providing a link. I’d only just complained a few days ago about the lack of links on news media sites to to the actual documents involved in news stories. . . . [more]

Last week, the Canadian Judicial Council released its National Model Practice Direction for the Use of Technology in Civil Litigation:

“The Practice Direction provides much-needed guidance to trial judges and lawyers with respect to the best practices for exchanging productions in electronic form, as well as handling paperless trials. Counsel will be encouraged to use a format of exchange which reduces the cost of litigation and improves access to justice.”

“The Practice Direction is accompanied by a Generic Protocol which can be adapted as a checklist and form of agreement between parties to establish a meaningful and simplified exchange

I just noticed this morning that CanLII has introduced a help feature. When you mouse into any of the search entry fields, a popup appears with the various options available to you to do a Boolean search dans les deux langues, naturellement. The graphic below shows what comes up when you mouse over the “full text” entry field.

It’s possible that this has been around for a while and I’m the last to find it — if so, I apologize for the stale news. But CanLII has a habit of introducing changes by stealth, so it might indeed be . . . [more]

Thanks to our friends at Spada’s new Swordplay site for links to an article at the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology on INFORMATION INFLATION: CAN THE LEGAL SYSTEM ADAPT which asks, how do vast quantities of new writing forms challenge the legal profession, and how should lawyers adapt?

It’s written by George L. Paul, a partner in Lewis and Roca, LLP and Jason R. Baron, Director of Litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration.

The piece is well worth your attention. . . . [more]

How many Canadian law students could identify John Humphrey or explain his significance to the law? I certainly couldn’t when we met at a meeting in 1976, convened by the Ontario Human Rights Commission. He was then seventy, a tweedy academic in bow tie, who had come down from the McGill Law School. Only at a break did a friend lean over and tell me that this academic had held the pen for the drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . . . [more]

The Times has continued its excellent series with a whole bunch of new cases: . . . [more]