In a decision just now handed down, the Alberta Court of Appeal has ruled against the federal government in Reference re Securities Act (Canada), 2011 ABCA 77. The main question put to the court by the government of Alberta was as follows:

1. Does the Parliament of Canada have the legislative authority under the Constitution Act, 1867:
(a) to pass sections 295, 296 and 297 of the Budget Implementation Act, 2009 S.C. 2009, c.2,
(b) to pass legislation that is co-extensive in substance with the Alberta Securities Act and similar to the draft Securities Act appended to the

The Paris Court of Appeal decided in late January that Google was not liable to the holders of copyright in images found through the search engine, for publishing their images or for contributing to infringing uses of the images. A summary of the decision (in French) is here.

The court held that both Google Inc and its French subsidiary were subject to the jurisdiction of the court, and that the searches had occurred in France. However, the images located by Google were those on the publicly accessible sites of the content owners. Google could not be held responsible for . . . [more]

The stress of passing the Bar is present in every student’s mind from the very beginning of their legal studies. In Quebec, the ideal time to apply and find an internship in one of the top prominent law firms is during the second or third year of law school, during what is referred to as the ‘’course aux stages’’ (i.e. the race to find an internship). Not every student participates in the event and only a select few who take part have the privilege of landing an internship. Some students with connections find a spot in midsize firms, . . . [more]

Thumper’s law: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all”.

The cost of not being nice was recently measured in a recent social media defamation settlement. The New York Times (among others) recently reported a $430,000.00 settlement was reached in Simorangkir v. Love.

The Citizen Media Law Project has a great deal of information on this saga, including pleadings.

I would like to see a judicial decision address the issue of whether there is defamation via a 140 character tweet. I don’t think media reports of a settlement are quite enough to settle this . . . [more]

Thanks to a tweet by Colin Lachance, I found out about the U.S. site Supreme Court Haiku, where judgments of that court are rendered in seventeen syllables. Colin challenged Slaw to come up with mini-poems for our own high court opinions, and I’m picking up the glove here, with the hope that our readers will add to my effort.

Supreme Court Haiku follows the typical move of this Japanese form into English, as described in Wikipedia:

Haiku (俳句 haikai verse?) plural haiku, is a form of Japanese poetry, consisting of 17 moras (or on), in three phrases

Everyone’s talking about the future. From LegalTech New York, where the closing keynote was the practice of law in 2020, to IT’s role in the library of the future, and SLA’s FutureReady365 blog. It’s interesting to be reading about predictions on where our profession may be going. One document I came across a while ago was the Association of Research Libraries’ 2030 Scenarios : A User Guide for Research Libraries. I started reading it (it’s 92 pages!) to see if it had any application for a law firm library.

Can you imagine the world in 2030? I can’t, . . . [more]

I frequently stumble across lines that capture precisely a thing I was trying to say on an earlier occasion. Of course, by that time the conversation is long over. It is generally not practical to call up those who were listening to my inarticulate ramblings, and give them the expression I have found (although I am not above trying).

One nice thing about writing on a blog is that you have the perfect means of doing this: the next post. . . . [more]

Since I’m in rural Spain, I’ve no facilities for lengthy posts, so three pointers to interesting items from elsewhere in the world.

Let’s start with the best legal research sites you’ve never heard of. In an interview with LegallyIndia today, the ILS Pune Mooting Team – on their way to DC for the Jessup moot – were asked what research databases they used. Here is the answer:

MPL: How many online databases did you use for mooting research? Which, according to you, is the best online legal database?

Madhupreetha: Westlaw, Lexisnexis, Maxplanck, Oxford reports and Oxford Scholarship online were some

Boasting performance that is an order of magnitude faster than traditional Hard Disk Drives (HDDs), Solid State Drives (SSDs) are quickly becoming a must-have upgrade for desktops and laptops. While HDDs utilize spinning platters that encode data magnetically, SSDs make use of solid-state memory that stores data electronically, therefore eliminating all moving parts and magnetic sensitivity.

While SSDs offer vast performance improvements over traditional HDDs, they introduce new issues for users that would like to wipe data from their SSDs. As pointed out by a recent Ars Technica article, the usual protocol of “secure deleting” files by writing zeroes . . . [more]

But not to smoke in city parks, in Clayton, Missouri, at least. And Arthur Gallagher is fuming about it to the point that he’s hired a lawyer to sue the city for having infringed his constitutional rights. This is hardly a newsworthy event in the land of litigation. What made Courthouse News Service pick up the story was the humorous way in which the lawyer, W. Bevis Schock, set up the complaint. I’ll reproduce the opening bit, and let you peruse the rest of the complaint [PDF] on the Courthouse News site, if you’ve a mind to:

With a bit of effort, the simple and profound 2/3 Rule can transform you and your practice. I have mentioned this rule in dozens of presentations over the last several years and it always gets great feedback so thought it was worthy of a SLAW posting.

This simple rule says the goal of being a happy lawyer with a successful practice can be achieved provided all your clients/matters meet at least 2/3 of the following requirements:
1. You are working on interesting and challenging legal problems.
2. You are working with people you enjoy.
3. You are getting paid for . . . [more]

A few months ago, I left my Blackberry in favour of an Android device and I thought I’d share my experience for any lawyers out there who have been drooling over the many devices that have been hitting the market in the past while and may be wondering about making the switch.

I’ve had my Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant on the Bell Canada network for a few months now and I have to say that I adore it. It’s my first Android device and I switched from a Blackberry Bold that was on the Rogers network.

I’m the only person . . . [more]