One of the questions in the law of private law remedies is: how do we repair the wrong that has been done? What is the best way of doing this which nevertheless respects the autonomy of the parties and balances their rights? One way in which courts can remedy some wrongs is by ordering the [...]
When you commence a legal action against someone, it follows that you have to bring that legal action to that person’s attention. The law says that you have to serve the documents on the person i.e. give the documents to them personally so that you know that they know about it. As I worked in [...]
As a result of discussions on Twitter with Kat Gallow (who blogs at Curl) I have been thinking about why I love Property Law (yes, #propertylawnerd alert). As Kat noted, property law has a bad reputation amongst law students as dry and boring. However, I believe that nothing is further from the truth. I’m going [...]
I was really sad to read about the recent death of Greg Ham, the flautist from Australian band Men At Work. The cause of death has still not been determined. The worst of it is that right up until his death, Ham appears to have been very distressed about a copyright case, Larrikin Music Publishing [...]
Posted in Australia, Intellectual property, Law, Media, Music, Popular culture, Society
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Tagged Colin Hay, copyright, copyright law, Down Under, Greg Ham, I come from a Land Down Under, Intellectual property, Kookaburra sits in the Old Gum Tree, Larrikin Music Publishing Pty Ltd v EMI Songs Australia Ltd, Men at Work, music, rent-seeking, spicks and specks
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April 17, 2012 – 11:56 am
Like many teenagers, I went through an existentialist phase. But I did not know that there were existentialist cats too. There is a sequel, which I think is even funnier (it’s the moron writhing around, begging for “les cheeseburger” which does it). Henri even has his own facebook page, on which he posts gloomy updates [...]
The other day, Lorenzo alerted me to this post on the Volokh Conspiracy on why academic lawyers failed to foresee that the US Supreme Court would be very negative towards Obama’s healthcare legislation. In the post, Adler argues that it is surprising that anyone expected academic lawyers to have any insight whatsoever into the views [...]
I have just read Suzanne Collins’ series The Hunger Games. ‘Read’ is probably not the right word: ‘devoured’ is more like it. Once I’d started, I had to finish. As I’ve said before I think good writing has a “hook” which makes you want to read on, but also makes you think about people or [...]
Posted in Books, Literature, Personal liberty, Philosophy
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Tagged better angels, dystopia, empathy, fiction, inner demons, Katniss Everdeen, novels, Peeta Mellark, psychology, reality TV, steven pinker, Suzanne Collins, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Hunger Games, violence
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A paramount tension in cases involving disputes over wills is between testamentary freedom (the idea that people are entitled to stipulate how they want their property distributed once they are dead) and, on the other hand, a desire to prevent unfairness. What happens if a parent leaves property to two of his four children? What [...]
Posted in Australia, Law, Public Policy, Religion, Society
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Tagged ACT, Fatama Omari, islam, Mariem Omari, Master Harper, Mohamed Omari, Muslim, Mustapha Omari, Sharia, sharia law, wills
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The High Court has just handed down a case dealing with the question of the availability of an action for money had and received when certain contracts have been found to be unenforceable as a result of illegality: see Equuscorp Pty Ltd v Haxton [2012] HCA 7. Facts: The facts of the case are rather [...]
Posted in Academia, Equity, Insolvency law, Law, Restitution, Taxation
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Tagged action for money had and received, blueberry farms, Companies Act, contract law, Equuscorp, failure of consideration, High Court of Australia, illegality, investment schemes, loans, Peter Birks, prospectuses, restitution law, tax minimization, unjust enrichment, void contracts
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March 11, 2012 – 11:58 am
For those who have been wondering what on earth is going on with the Rinehart family trust and the accusations thrown around by various family members, you need to go read Marcellous’ excellent summary here. UPDATE: Apologies to PAT of the Canberra National Times whose original Rinehart cartoon (of which this is an excerpt) appeared [...]
