Thanks to our neighbour, Mary Saulig of Goodmans for lending me her copy of an old acquaintance, Benjamin on the Sale of Goods. But this post isn’t about presumptions of delivery or FOB contracts. It’s about one of the most remarkable stories of a legal author I’ve heard.

Let’s start at the Cimetière du Père Lachaise‎ in the 20th arrondissement, though the website doesn’t list this grave, which has this inscription on the tombstone:

Judah Philip Benjamin, Born St. Thomas West Indies August 6,1811, Died in Paris May 6,1884, United States Senator from Louisiana, Attorney General, Secretary of

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I am relatively pleased with having updated my iPad last night to the newest version of their operating software, being iOS 4.2.

The much-talked-about update provides folders for apps, integrated email accounts, keyword searching within a Safari browser when on a webpage, the ability to have multiple apps open at the same time plus other features that may prove promising in the future (including AirPrint, currently limited to selected HP printers with that feature).

All in all, it was about a 30 minute process, with it taking longer to sort apps into appropriate folders.

What was not immediately stated . . . [more]

A couple of weeks ago The Guardian covered the publication of Feminist Judgments: From Theory to Practice, by Rosemary Hunter, Clare McGlynn, Erika Rackley, a book of judgments (re)written by British feminists to produce the reasoning and results that should have been there in the first place. It’s the product of the UK Feminists Judgments Project.

If all of this sounds vaguely familiar to Slaw readers, I wouldn’t be surprised. The acknowledged inspiration — indeed, the model — for the UK project is the Women’s Court of Canada, an organization that we’ve covered a couple of times . . . [more]

I don’t know if this letter is a significantly new version – I haven’t seen it before and am too lazy to check the scam information sites – but it’s the first time I’ve seen it. It’s worth a read and giggle. It’s the version of the scam that involves scammning the mark by warning him or her that there are scams out there. In this version, the mark is explicitly told that he or she has to travel to Nigeria to get the money. . . . [more]

Lawyers aren’t allowed to hit people in order to win cases (at least not since peine forte et dure was abolished in the UK in 1772 — a mere 238 years ago!). I used to remind my students of this when encouraging them to pay more careful attention to their writing, their true tool of persuasion. That, and their thinking, of course. Which brings me to brains and the perpetually surprising fact that they can be so easily fooled.

We’ve all seen optical illusions, where this looks longer than that although they’re really both the same length. If you’d like . . . [more]

My good friend Reid Trautz just published his always popular annual gift holiday guide for lawyers. And regardless of whether you are giving loved ones hints for yourself or are looking for gift ideas for your favorite lawyer spouse, partner or friend, Reid’s annual gift guide can help make sure you don’t find yet another scales of justice tie under the tree this year.

Reid always has an interesting list of serious and not so serious gifts. The obvious ones are there – yes an iPad is on the list. And there are some great suggestions that are not so . . . [more]

I confess: I love law reform commission reports. I find they are wonderful sources for legal research. Many of the reports provide historical background on an issue and you can often find comparative information about how other jurisdictions have responded.

In the past few days, by pure coincidence, I have come across a wealth of new reports by law commissions in New Zealand, Ireland and Australia:

• New Zealand Law Reform Commission Introductory Issues Paper on Law of Trusts : this is primarily a background paper. It traces the development of the trust from its origins in medieval England through to

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I had the pleasure of going to Japan for the last 8 days or so on vacation with my wife. Overall, we had a wonderful trip that included visiting friends and family, eating good food, and trying a few different “onsen” (Japanese spas). And while I had thought about posting from Japan, my schedule and Internet access did not really permit it. As such, I thought I would post a few comments now that I have returned.

1) WiFi Access: In retrospect, I should have likely brought my notepad (which has an ethernet port). My iPad was less useful . . . [more]

Some new stories from around the world:

Honey – I forgot to renew the domain name

That’s the story out of a free public website in Massachusetts: The site provides the public with online copies of opinions from both the Supreme Judicial Court and the Appeals Court. C. Clifford Allen head of the SJC’s Reporter of Decisions office woke up to find that his website was gone and that a notice — “massreports.com expired on 11/08/2010 and is pending renewal or deletion” – was substituted.

If they did send a (renewal) notice, it must have been caught in

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When I was a kid I used to make models of airplanes. I could spend hours gluing together oddly-shaped bits of grey plastic, anticipating the beautiful flying machine that would emerge from all this bricolage. (I now know that a portion of the charm may well have been the appealing… odour of the glue fumes.) Then I progressed to model train layouts, and built miniature suspension bridges and other nifty stuff. And now I don’t make models of anything, but instead have to contend with life-size (or 1:1, as it’s known in the craft world) objects that are considerably less . . . [more]

The Parliamentary Information and Research Service of the Library of Parliament has released a series of brief background papers on the Canada–European Union trade negotiations that began last year and that are aimed at achieving a “Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement” (CETA). There are ten papers in the series, as follows:

1. Overview of Negotiations [pdf 175kb]
2. Market Access in Agriculture [pdf 170kb]
3. Non-Agricultural Market Access [pdf 163kb]
4. Trade in Services [pdf 164kb]
5. Investment Protection [pdf 166kb]
6. Government Procurement [pdf 157kb]
7. Technical Barriers to Trade and Regulatory Cooperation [pdf 157kb]
8. Intellectual Property Protection [

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Remembrance is the cornerstone of The Royal Canadian Legion's work in Canada...