In the U.S., some Members of Congress have started reporting about their activities on the floor using social networking tool Twitter. In a blog comment, Texas-based Christopher Glenn explains the meaning of this to him as a U.S. citizen:

So in June, I was made aware that the House of Representitves Congressman for my district, John Culberson just started using Twitter. Just because it seemed interesting, I added him (www.twitter.com/johnculberson).

Shortly thereafter, he tweeted “I am on the House floor. I am voting yes for Community Health Centers which provide medical care to uninsured Americans.”

This completely

Apple’s new iPhone App Store (which allows developers to create applications for the iPhone) is now available on iTunes 7.7 (you can download it here). Once you have access to the store, you can browse “All iPhone Apps,” “All iPod Touch Apps,” and “All Free Apps.” . . . [more]

Law librarians dutifully tell their students that s. 11(3)(c) of the Statutory Instruments Regulation, C.R.C. 1978, c. 1509 requires that proclamations must be published in the Canada Gazette, Part II. We also them show them various alternative ways to find coming into force information, including, among other things, the Orders-in-Council website.

This week, however, I experienced “proclamation by media release” regarding the coming into force of the Wage Earner Protection Act and subsequent amendments to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act. This Act was “proclaimed in force” by the Minister in a . . . [more]

Last week, Simon insisted that he wouldn’t be getting an iPhone when it’s introduced this week to Rogers’ lineup. Turns out he’s not alone – 52,000 people have signed a single online petition, and there are more petitions out there. There were rumours – now debunked – that Rogers was blocking access to the petition site.

The rumour mill has really started to spin out of control, though, with stories about Apple’s response. First, there were stories that the company was limiting Canada’s supply to punish Rogers – leading to thousands of job cuts among Rogers temp staff who . . . [more]

bit.ly (that’s the whole URL) is a new URL shortening service. What may set it apart from the current faves, such as TinyURL, or any of the nearly 70 alternatives, are some special features such as your ability to use your own keywords, the fact that they show you your latest 15 shortened URLs when you visit their site, and the (promised) fact that they will save every page you shorten, and not just the URL, forever.

The URLs here at Slaw aren’t too bad: they’re typical WordPress links. But from time to time you may want to shrink . . . [more]

Ann Sherman has presented a study on self-represented litigants in the Supreme Court of P.E.I. to the Community Legal Information Association of that province. The executive summary is available here, and a PDF file of the whole report can be had here. . . . [more]

Les lecteurs du journal du Midi La Provence s’amuseront par le cas d’un criminel accusé qui est invité à servir de juré dans sa propre procès:

Un Aixois doit comparaître en septembre devant la cour d’assises, il est suspecté d’avoir commis un meurtre . . . [more]

Small footnote to the SCC’s recent decision in Simpson v. WIC and Mair.

LeBel J’s concurring judgment mentions blogs:

[73] This is all the more true in an age when the public is exposed to an astounding quantity and variety of commentaries on issues of public interest, ranging from political debate in the House of Commons, to newspaper editorials, to comedians’ satire, to a high school student’s blog. It would quite simply be wrong to assume that the public always takes statements of opinion at face value. Rather, members of the public must be presumed to evaluate comments

We’ve mentioned Carall’s ((Note that the website at http://www.carallnet.org/ appears to be defunct and isn’t operating)) annual conference before but they’ve scored a coup at their Jamaica conference this year in getting both the Attorney General and Minister of Justice Senator Dorothy Lightbourne and the Chief Justice of Jamaica Zaila McCalla to speak about the importance of law librarians, as well as difficulty attracting graduates to the legal system.
. . . [more]

A ruling released July 1st in the copyright infringement case Viacom v. Google has created a stir in the online world. Judge Louis L. Stanton in the U.S. federal New York Southern District Court ordered Google to produce to Viacom:

all data from the Logging database concerning each time a YouTube video has been viewed on the YouTube website or through embedding on a third-party website

I recently came across the site for the International Seabed Authority, an autonomous organization formed under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. From their “about” page:

The Authority is the organization through which States Parties to the Convention shall, in accordance with the regime for the seabed and ocean floor and subsoil thereof beyond the limits of national jurisdiction (the Area) established in Part XI and [the 1994 Agreement relating to the Implementation of that part of the Convention], organize and control activities in the Area, particularly with a view to administering the resources

Those interested in the work of the European Court of Justice, might like to subscribe to the ECJ Blog. Allard Knook, a lecturer in law at the Institute of Constitutional and Administrative Law, University of Utrecht, has regular postings in English on cases decided by the Court. . . . [more]