I’m leaving for vacation in about 20 minutes and I don’t want to say I’ve mentally checked out buuuuuutttt…… I may pop up with a post or two over the next couple of weeks or I may save my collected info for a return but before I leave I wanted to make a post detailing some of Canada’s recent Immigration issues (apologies to anyone who may have already seen this).

The flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop illegal immigration. The actions of President . . . [more]

How could we have missed this? A meteorite hit Norway last Wednesday. According to this Norwegian news report, it had the force of an atomic bomb. A discussion has ensued in The Volokh Conspiracy blog as to what exactly this type of impact could mean. Yesterday a clarification in the newspaper was made, explaining that the force of the impact was exaggerated; however:

The original reactions to the witness reports of the meteor, also reported on forskning.no, are attributed to popular astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard, and were slightly guarded and very excited. Røed Ødegaard wrote the original

Thanks to Jon Smithen. Very nice list (though slawless) of legal blogs at
http://3lepiphany.typepad.com/3l_epiphany/2006/03/a_taxonomy_of_l.html

Also on the same blog is http://3lepiphany.typepad.com/3l_epiphany/2006/04/cases_citing_le.html which lists all US Cases citing blogs. Sentencing Law and Policy http ://www.sentencing.typepad.com/ has been cited 21 times in 17 cases. . . . [more]

One learns quickly to be sceptical, if not cynical, about the revenue and profitability figures floated by the legal press and picked up in the main stream media.

I was told years ago by the managing partner of Altman Weil Pensa that the audited financials of the top American firms bore scant resemblance to the AmLaw 100 figures.

Now The Lawyer has come out and admitted that yes, figures might be fudged or even at times overstated.

The article ends with some practical advice for managing partners wishing to number-fudge:

Top tips for making your figures look better or . . . [more]

In a 5-4 split decision today, the Court affirmed the Michigan State Court of Appeals in refusing to exclude evidence gathered in legally questionable circumstancesFor main stream media reaction see the Trib, the Monitor, and excerpts from the opinions on Forbes and the Post.

The Detroit police executing a search warrant for narcotics and weapons entered Booker Hudson’s home in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s “knock-and-announce” rule. The trial court granted Hudson’s motion to suppress the evidence seized, but the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed on interlocutory appeal. Hudson was convicted of drug possession. Affirming, the State Court

Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman at Search Engine Watch write …

“Online newspapers have often ignored search engines, or viewed them with mistrust, relying on the power of their brands to drive traffic. That attitude is changing dramatically at the New York Times, and with powerful effect … “

Read the whole article at Search Engine Watch.

I’ve encouraged the lawyers at my firm to read this article. I think it’s a well-written, easy to follow (for non-geeks) article that explains concepts that I prefer them to understand. The authors explain how most newspaper websites work and why you . . . [more]

Thomas Quine, Manager of Electronic Access at the Legal Services Society of British Columbia wrote to send me a copy of a taxonomy and the working document surrounding it developed by the Public Legal Education and Information Working Group, of which the Legal Services Society is one of eleven members.
The eleven organizations that make up the PLEI Working Group are the British Columbia Courthouse Library Society, the BC Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, The Law Centre, Law Courts Education Society, The Law Foundation of BC, Legal Services Society, Ministry of Attorney General, Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor . . . [more]

This to Slaw from Sharon Wang, a new reference librarian at Osgoode Hall Law School:

How many of us read the printed newspapers everyday and how many read the electronic ones only? Although I prefer to read the E versions, I do not have choices when I’m away from my computer. The good news is we may soon be able to read newspapers through “cheap digital screens that can be rolled up and stuffed into a back pocket”. According to the Epoch Times, this new form of electronic newspaper is just around the corner. Developed by Sony Corp. and

The court adjourned early yesterday. Apparently the court gave Crown counsel a tough time.

Some additional observations from questioning and comments:

Justice Louis LeBel said that “Public safety may be important, but it’s not the whole of the law. If we don’t have the rest we’ll be living in North Korea.” “The bar for procedural fairness must be even higher when deportation to face torture is at stake”.

Justice Morris Fish stated that the true task of the law is to balance the competing interests of the state and the individual, not to give absolute priority to one or the . . . [more]

Chers Slawyers, je suis très heureux d’annoncer que nous avons un nouveau membre, Vincent Gautrais. Il est professeur à la Faculté de droit de l’Université de Montréal et titulaire de la Chaire en droit des affaires et de la sécurité électronique. Il a son propre blogue juridique pour objet de montrer les activités qui sont effectuées autour de cette Chaire.

I’m happy to announce that Slaw has a new core contributor. Vincent Gautrais is a professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Montréal and holds the Chair in Business Law and Electronic Security. He has his own . . . [more]

Thanks to Mark Tamminga for a lead to Google’s Shakespeare project.

While Project Gutenberg has had flat text for ever, it’s nice to have these antique digitized editions publicly available.

Though there is still a strange bias in the language of the texts. Go looking for Molière on Gutenberg, and the plays are available – 19 in English, 5 (only) in French, and one in Finnish. Racine is even more pitiful – 2 in English, one in French and one in Dutch.

Best to go to the motherlode at the Universal Library – ABU: la Bibliothèque Universelle. . . . [more]

In one of my day jobs, I chair the Editorial Board of the American Bar Association’s Law Practice magazineLet me know if this is behind a firewall – cookies tend to get forgotten.

This morning we’re pretty chuffed to realize that we’ve won the blawgreview award for Best Print on Law Blogs.

The prize went to Law|Practice Magazine, published by the American Bar Association for the July/August 2005 issue, Behind the Blogs.

Of course, being MSM it took us almost six months to wake up to the posting of the awards which happened at the end of . . . [more]