Our congratulations to Public.Resource.Org a non-profit organization focused on enabling online access to public government documents in the United States. Today it won a $2 million award from Google’s Project 10¹⁰⁰ competition – 10¹⁰⁰ is 1 googol – which called for “ideas to change the world”.

Google’s competition garnered 150,000 ideas from more than 170 countries. Google whittled that list down to a final 16 ideas for public vote. Public Resource came in second equal, after FIRST a non-profit organization that promotes science and math education around the world through team competition.

The Law.Gov initiative aims to make . . . [more]

The Canadian Press is reporting that they have accessed an internal report which indicates that the real impact of Bill C-25 – An Act to Amend the Criminal Code, may be felt unevenly. Specifically, those in rural communities and Aboriginals may bear the brunt of the legal reforms.

The Bill, also known as the “Truth in Sentencing Act,” forces judges to impose 1-for-1 time for credit in pre-trial custody, unless written explanation is provided otherwise. For a number of reasons judges had previously been allowed to provide more credit for pre-trial custody, in practical recognition of the poorer conditions, . . . [more]

Intellectual property researchers should have a look at WIPO Lex, a new reference resource from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) that provides up-to-date information on national IP laws and treaties of the members of WIPO, the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. It currently features the complete IP legal texts for over 60 countries with substantial coverage for a further 100 legal systems.

IP history buffs can also explore Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900) sponsored by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (Great Britain). It is a “collection of key primary documents from five countries—the United States, . . . [more]

On September 16, 2010, the Ontario Court of Appeal rendered an important ruling that examines discrimination based on disability under human rights law. The ruling confirms a lower court judgment that two individuals are entitled to long-term disability benefits under the Ontario Disability Support Program Act (ODSPA) because of their severe dependence on alcohol. The Court decided that denying such benefits violates Ontario’s Human Rights Code.

The government of Ontario announced today that it has appointed former Chief Justice of Ontario, Roy McMurtry, to review the Public Works Protection Act. That is the so-called “secret G20 law” that purported to give police the authority during the G20 summit to search anyone coming within 5 metres of the large fence surrounding the summit in downtown Toronto.

The government’s announcement explains that Mr. McMurtry plans to make a report by the Spring of 2011.

Given that it is a short, six-section Act that is over seventy years old, the review should hopefully not be very complicated. As . . . [more]

A colleague has made me aware of TransLex.org, a free website providing access to and information about transnational legal research.

The site can be searched by keyword with filters for such things as type of text (Court Decision, Arbitral Awards, Doctrine, Clause, Legislation or Principles) or language (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Portugese and Latin).

The site can also be searched or browsed by one of 4 categories (the descriptions below are taken directly from the site):

1) Principles: The TransLex-Principles contain more than 120 principles and rules of transnational law, the New Lex Mercatoria, supported by . . . [more]

Rafia Zakaria is an American lawyer and Ph.D. candidate at the Political Science at Indiana University. She writes in the September 2010 issue of Guernica about how she has used Shari’ah (Islamic law) to enhance the rights of a female client from Jordan who had been married, abused in the U.S., and finally divorced.

Rudi Stettner of the IndyPosted gives a summary of the predicament of Zakaria’s client,

The woman had married a fellow Jordanian in a whirlwind courtship and followed him to America. It very quickly became apparent that the man had an American mistress. When Zainab (The young

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The OBA has graciously allowed me to reproduce an excellent tip sheet by The Hon. Justice Stanley Scherr for presenting spousal support claims. It was previously published in Matrimonial Affairs, the newsletter of the Ontario Bar Association family law section.

1. Always come with the Spousal Support Advisory Guideline (SSAG) software calculations for any appearance where you are seeking spousal support.
2. Imputation of income is often on the table, so bring different SSAG scenarios based on a range of incomes.
3. Make sure that you also present NDI (net disposable income) software calculations. The court will want to see that the

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It’s no secret, and no puzzle, that lawyers’ attention generally follows the money. Indeed, with the possible exception of criminal law as romanticized on TV, the public’s view of law itself is shaped by this legal currying of currency and its sources.

But that same public’s actual encounters with the law often happen in areas that have a tiny bar or no bar at all. One of these is with respect to municipal by-laws. In a city of any size, there will be thousands of these laws regulating much of the activity and paraphernalia of everyday life: where and when . . . [more]

An Alberta woman did. She waited 19 years to be compensated over gender discrimination by her employer in an Alberta Human Rights Tribunal decision rendered on September 2, 2010. Her relentless battle against Mobil Oil Canada to receive the same pay as a man in the same position won her a damage award of more than $650,000.

A former Field summer student wrote this on my Facebook Wall:

I read your post on Slaw, but I can’t tell: what do you think of the new McGill changes? Are they retroactive– should we cite old cases with the new style? Won’t that make it difficult or impossible to do effective Westlaw citation searches? Do we *have* to follow the dumb ‘no periods!’ suggestion despite it being totally ridiculous? I’ve noticed the new AB courts judgments haven’t changed their style. If the SCC doesn’t start using the new guide suggestions (esp. the periods thing) in the upcoming term,

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As readers will doubtless know, there’s a good deal of unrest in some quarters about the impending visit of the Pope to the United Kingdom. (He lands in Edinburgh on Thursday.) As the scandals about child rape by priests have multiplied over the last few years, calls for justice in the courts have grown. Of particular interest is the suggestion that the Pope should be arrested upon his arrival in Britain, and, in the words of English barrister and author, Geoffrey Robertson, prosecuted:

“under international law, for having assisted in the protection of sex offenders in a mass

. . . [more]