The most recent issue of Reform, the journal of the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC), is devoted to Native Title.

As noted by Professor David Weisbrot, ALRC President, in his Comment, the Commission has played an instrumental role in advancing the ideas of native title in Australia (based on Indigenous customary land tenure).

However, he writes that most observers feel that the framework developed for resolving native title disputes has developed many weaknesses:

“Mabo [ (1992) 175 CLR 1 ] and the subsequent Wik case established the basic common law principles, but the detailed laws and procedures

This is slightly off-topic, though I would argue it all goes back to the classic discussion of Wine and the Law. And here is some legal discussion on wine law from Fermentation.

My friend Charles Hodgson of Podictionary fame has just written:

Compare and contrast:

· First book, a year to write, three years to sell, a year and a half to bring to market
· This book, five months to write, eight days to bring to market

The blurbs on Amazon say: “A great read.” -Rod Phillips, author of A Short History of Wine, “Certain to find . . . [more]

I attended day 1 of the Mesh conference yesterday. (I had a conflict for today – but a colleague is going in my place.) Some video from the event is already on the Mesh site.

The highlight for me was the keynote by Mike Masnick of Techdirt. Anyone interested in changing business models and how to conduct business on the web should follow the Techdirt blog.

Microsoft had one of their Surface devices there. If you ever get a chance to play with one, you should. Multitouch technology will be included in Windows 7. That could lead to . . . [more]

♫ Tell me something good
Tell me that you like it …
What I got to give will sho nuff do you good.. ♫

Lyrics and Music by Stevie Wonder, recorded by Rufus and Chaka Khan, “Tell me Something Good“.

While Simon Chester may be leading the discussion on the application of Twitter for lawyers, there is no question that Twitter has proven its value for legal technology conferences.

There were many new and exciting aspects about ABA TECHSHOW 2009 including Richard Susskind’s keynote address on the end of lawyers. But to me, in looking back at . . . [more]

Most of us tend to look outside our offices for threats or dangers. However, you should also be aware of potential inside dangers. Statistics show that the majority of incidents involving the destruction or loss of data were perpetrated by current, soon-to-be dismissed or recently dismissed employees. Few, if any, know more about your firm’s systems than your employees, and few, if any, are in a better position to cause major damage.

In particular, your IT staff, employees with advanced technology knowledge, and outside technology support people are potentially the greatest threat because they have the greatest knowledge about your . . . [more]

While Worldlii covers many jurisdictions, it missed last night’s decision in Malvolio v. Olivia argued before the Supreme Court of Illyria. [Nothing to do with Marmont’s division of the Illyrian territory into 96 cantons, each with a justice of the peace. The rest of the judicial hierarchy consisted of 11 Tribunals of First Instance and a supreme court of Illyria – see Napoleon and the transformation of Europe by Alexander I. Grab at 191.]

Shakespeare apparently missed out the denouement of the story of Twelfth Night, where Malvolio did not go sheepishly to gaol, but responded by suing Olivia . . . [more]

As Simon announced last year, the Library of Congress Web Archive set out to ensure an electronic archive of significant legal blogs – and Slaw was included.

The announcement this week read: The Law Library of Congress is pleased to announce the launch of the Legal Blawgs web archive. Harvesting began in 2007 and the archive has grown to more than 100 items covering a broad cross section of legal topics.

We have three captures:

October 10/02/08 *
November 11/06/08 *
December 12/05/08 * . . . [more]

I teach a Directed Readings in Law Reform course at Osgoode Hall Law School. The assignment (not my creation, but used the first year the course was taught and I thought it a good idea) is to develop a law reform proposal, ostensibly to the Law Commission of Ontario. Thus the students are to use the LCO’s mandate and take into account its values and principles and approaches to the analysis of law reform projects. Although the LCO’s mandate explicitly includes the consideration of technology to increase access to justice, none of the students — who are “regular” age law . . . [more]

Olivier Charbonneau and I will be engaging in a conversation in 13 days with the LegalIT audience on how Web 2.0 tools are being used by lawyers.

A retired lawyer friend in Chicago tells me that Twitter is being used by sophisticated lawyers and firms down there. There seems to have been a lot of buzz at TechShow too.

But can anyone tell me how exactly lawyers are using Twitter? In the delivery of legal services? Or as a networking, communications and marketing tool? Or in some other way? . . . [more]

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has a splendid project available online on the practice of deep packet inspection, or DPI (not to be confused with “dots per inch”). Essentially, DPI involves the examination of a message sent over the internet at the deepest level, a level ordinarily assumed to be private, and is usually done by governments concerned about security or law-breaking or by internet service providers seeking to extract (or introduce) marketable information. DPI is the basis upon which, for example, service providers might “throttle” some flows in favour of others that are, typically, more lucrative. . . . [more]

….and so once again, best wishes from all of us on the faculty to you, the class of 2012, as your journey through law school begins.

Before I yield the microphone, I have some news to share both with you and with my colleagues: that little lottery ticket I bought on a lark at the corner store last month turned out to be the sole winner of the $6.7 million jackpot. When the dean returns to her office, she’ll find my graceful letter of retirement on her desk.

And so, as this is my last official function here, and as . . . [more]

The Australian government has announced its plan to build a high-speed fibreoptic network that will cost upwards of $30 billion. The government rejected proposals from the private sector in favour of this plan, which will see public-private partnerships and the sale of the government’s share after five years of operation. Between the Lines has the story.

This will be the largest infrastructure project in the country’s history and will generate nearly 40,000 jobs.

Now if only the Canadian government would wake up and invest in the future in this way… . . . [more]