We Canadians thought that allowing a parliamentary committee to very briefly and very, very politely interview a nominee for the Supreme Court of Canada last winter was a big deal. And they even did it on TV! Wow, that sure made us feel innovative. Maybe even a little too radical for Canada.

Many expressed worries that this could lead to an overpoliticization of the judicial appointment process in Canada.

Well, our friends in the great Republic to the South seem to have an even bigger problem: the rapidly growing influence of big money in judicial elections for state supreme courts. . . . [more]

Yesterday, Yahoo & Flickr announced geo-tagging which combines Yahoo maps with photo overlays. Users can easily drag their photos using an overlay tool to position them on a Yahoo map, and voila! Want to know what Vancouver looks like? — check out the photos. Very cool.

So what does this have to do with law, technology, research, or any combination of the above? Well, one of the things I try to do when new web-technologies come out, is to re-think them with either a legal or library perspective. For example, rather than geo-maps, I’d like to take the floor maps . . . [more]

Professors Charlie Nesson of Harvard Law School and his daughter, Rebecca Nesson, a computer scientist and instructor at Harvard Extension School, are giving a course this fall called Law in the Court of Public Opinion that will be taught in part at least within the virtual world of Second Life and by their online avatars.The course description says this:If we do say so ourselves, the course will be unlike any that has ever been taught.... Throughout the course we will be studying many different media technologies to understand how their inherent characteristics and modes of distribution affect the arguments that are made using them. Students will be immersed in this study through project-based assignments in which they will be using these technologies to make their own arguments.

[I]f a rare event (10/1000) is reported by a very reliable witness (80/100), the chances that the rare event happened is closer to its base rate (10/1000) than the accuracy of the reliable witness (80/100)
Psychology of Compliance & Due Diligence Law: “What does a 18th Century Philosopher have to Offer the 21st?“

I didn’t do well with statistics in university. Didn’t do it at all, really. Which is my loss, because now probability fascinates me: it’s the next frontier for reason for most of us.As has been discussed a fair bit lately, thanks to potential catastrophes . . . [more]

Observe Willie JohnstoneNot that Wullie.

WillieA spokesman for Her Majesty’s Court Service confirmed that the court had filed a complaint against Mr Johnstone, who is married and is originally from Ayr in Scotland. is being investigated by the Law Society after he dropped his trousers inside a packed court in protest over security measures.

See what you’re reduced to when you don’t have Charter remedies to protest unreasonable search.

And so without further ado, here’s Willie:
. . . [more]

After a very long absence I recently rediscovered the books of Henry Cecil in our library and wanted to recommend them to any SLAWers who do not know of this gem of a writer, and his wonderfully funny stories about English law. A lawyer and later judge himself Cecil published around thirty books about the humorous trials and many tribulations of lawyers, judges and assorted villains. Written mainly in the fifties and sixties the few I have recently re-read seem little dated and I know that little has changed. My wife started reading “Brothers in Law” which recounts the story . . . [more]

Le 09 août dernier a été jugée par la Supreme Court of New Jersey l’affaire Jaliyah Muhammad v. County Bank of Rehoboth. Comme les affaires Dell et Rogers, que nous avons commenté à plusieurs reprises ici et là, et encore là), et qui, soit dit en passant, seront entendues par la Cour suprême) (la notre) respectivement le 13 et le 14 décembre 2006, il s’agit d’une broutille, d’un presque rien, une «coquetterie juridique» sur le plan de l’enjeu financier, qui a pourtant pour effet de faire avancer le droit sur la délicate question de la compatibilité entre . . . [more]

I’ve been watching this wiki list of Vancouver Web2.0 companies grow for the past month or so. I’m not sure every entry could be considered a Web2.0 company, but then again, I’m not sure I buy into the 1.0-vs-2.0 differentiation anyway. For me, lists like this are an easy way to track local web innovation.

If anyone knows of a similar list for the TO, Ottawa, East Coast, or another Canadian market, please feel free to share. . . . [more]

Today is the first day of the extraordinary Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert where an entire city will be created over the next few days, focussing on the theme of Hope and Fear – the creation and envisioning of the Future:

The centerpiece of Hope and Fear will be a sleek Art Deco palace, the Pavilion of the Future.

Imagine 35,000 people suddenly arriving in the desertI know, small by Notting Hill standards, but there is a legal system in Notting Hill – and running water, and one senses the needs for norms, institutional mechanisms and (in . . . [more]

Google doesn’t yet have an Office 2.0–a full suite of hosted productivity applications aimed at the Microsoft Office crowd, especially the small- and medium-sized firms–but starting [today] companies or organizations can deploy Google email, calendar, chat and Web page (Page Creator) hosting for free (ad supported). The set of Google communications applications is an extension of Gmail for Your Domain, and has some limited UI customization and administration features. Later this year, Google will offer a subscription service with additional storage and support options.
ZD Net: Between the Lines, “Google Office ‘version 1.0’ debuts“

For an . . . [more]

Tussy needs advice – and where better to get it than Slaw.

My young Canadian friend Tussy Mohr needs some advice from the Slaw community – given its diversity of backgrounds and experience. She’s like many recent graduates – wants to go to law school but is uncertain about the choices.

She’s got a good science undergraduate degree from one of the top Canadian universities, a very respectable LSAT, but faces a dilemma. Should she apply to law schools in Canada or in the United States for an LLB/JD degreeShe has a romantic transborder liaison which makes the US option . . . [more]

Chers Slawyers, pour la deuxième fois cette semaine je suis très heureux d’annoncer que il y a un collaborateur nouveaux (et “core”) chez Slaw. Dominic Jaar est deja bien connu ici à cause de son blogue propre, WIM: Wines and Information Management. “Par jour” il est conseiller juridique à Bell Canada (Beaudin Legault). Bienvenu, Dominic.

Dear Slawyers, for the second time this week I’m happy to announce that we have been joined by a new core contributor. Dominic Jaar is already well known to us because of his own blog, WIM: Wines and Information Management. His day job . . . [more]