From a story in today’s Global Reinsurance newsletter

Executives guilty in Gen Re/AIG case – 26 February, 2008

Former Gen Re and AIG executives face more than 1,000 years in prison … 

Four former senior executives of General Reinsurance and one from American International Group were found guilty of securities fraud and conspiracy by a federal jury.

Collectively the five defendants face more than a 1,000 years in prison and $213.5m in fines.

This is the case where the company executives were accused of setting up phony reinsurance schemes (about $500 million worth under which Gen Re undertook no risk)  . . . [more]

Amazing what retired Canadian family law professors get up to.

The Law Foundation of Ontario has launched a project on access to legal information and legal services by linguistic minorities and persons living in rural or remote areas. It recognizes the challenges faced in gaining access to legal information and services by persons who do not speak English or French and persons living in rural or remote areas of the province. George Thomson will be leading it.

This project will focus on access to two components (legal information and legal services) by two groups who can face isolation in

Amazing what one stumbles over.

A website devoted to the cultural significance of law school T-shirts, all I regret to say from the United States and mostly from the Eighties and Nineties. Information in cyberspace has never been quite as geeky. . . . [more]

I’m having to scan through a lot of search results in CanLII, looking for cases that might be appropriate to include in some teaching materials, so I’m paying attention to the five keywords or phrases that are used to classify the various judgements (about condominiums in Ontario, as it happens). Some of the five-word clusters — “pentalogs”? — provide an intriguing narrative arc, if not quite what I’m looking for, and I found myself imagining what might have underlain these very short stories. Herewith some examples:

• caveat emptor — bulldozer — latent defect — leak — purchaser
• spousal support

1. Introduction
A recent Global Television poll claims that 90% of Canadians are upset with Canada’s criminal justice system. Can anything be done to change this perception? Not while we have our present Constitution.

2. Constitutional Mistakes
The criminal justice system got off to a very bad start in 1867 when the framers of our Constitution made two fundamental mistakes.

First, they gave the subject of criminal law to federal legislators. This mistake overlooked the fact that most criminal conduct like most civil misconduct are best controlled by local or provincial law makers. The federated common law nations of Australia . . . [more]

Usually in this spot I point you away from words, because, well, you’ve already used too many of them and something other is required. But today it’s more words, this time as objects in a video.

“The Child” is a short video by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet in which he tells the story of the birth of a child using typographical elements. Simple, effective, enjoyable. . . . [more]

Huge tip of the Slaw collective headgear to our friend Michael Geist for being one of the winners of the Electronic Frontier Foundation 2008 Pioneer Awards: three awards, to the Mozilla Foundation and its Chairman Mitchell Baker, University of Ottawa Professor Michael Geist, and AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein.

Michael’s stance on the threat to community implicit in copyright change was one of the major reason’s for his win:

Dr. Michael Geist is a law professor at the University of Ottawa. Last year, he led the public protest to proposed Canadian copyright law changes that would have

A recent ruling the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench merits mentioning, the ABQB has ruled that caps on rewards for soft tissue injuries in auto accidents is unconstitutional. The justice minister of Alberta has already promised that the decision will be appealed. And lawyers in New Brunswick who plan to mount a challenge to that jurisdiction’s soft tissue cap, have seen this ruling as boon to their ambitions. The long and the short of this case and this post is that if you are interested: stay tuned, the appellate roller coaster is just getting warmed up! . . . [more]

My temporary return to teaching has got me using PowerPoint again, now de rigeur in today’s law school classroom, and it’s reminded me of my like-hate relationship with that tool. I’m certain that if anyone with serious presentation chops looked at our academic slides they’d be horrified, because we probably make every mistake in the book. But doing it right two or three times a week for hours at a stretch isn’t easy; it’s the rare bird who can combine personal passion with restrained verbiage on the big screen and get the timing right as well.

I’m sure our readers . . . [more]

It’s show time! You bring the popcorn — and the willingness to look behind the silver screen, as it were. DigitalDomain is a special effects company that’s been part of a host of movies you’ve seen, and probably more ads than you wished. It works magic with bits and bytes and shows you how they’re integrated with the rest of the scene’s analog (i.e. real) actors and scenery. It’s all here — in movies, natch.

It probably makes most sense to start by viewing the “Company” reel, which contains a montage of what DD has done. And then you . . . [more]

The recently elected Australian Government yesterday made a long awaited apology to the Stolen Generation of the Australian Aboriginal people. The broadcast can be heard here

By way of background, the apology was recommended by the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families in 1997, also known as ‘Bringing them Home’, which can be found on Austlii. For many Australians this apology is long overdue. . . . [more]

Creative Commons and Public.Resource.Org have announced that they have made available the equivalent of 1,858 volumes of US Supreme Court and appeals courts decisions. The release is the first of a series to be made over the next few months, and there will also be an initial Requests for Comments period, when the technical suitability of the download will be discussed. More coverage at OA News. . . . [more]