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Category Archives: Academia

Political correctness on campus

January 21, 2010 – 8:36 pm

Via a friend, I came across this interesting piece on political correctness on US university campuses. The author starts out with a salutary tale:
In 2007 a student working his way through college was found guilty of racial harassment for reading a book in public. Some of his co-workers had been offended by the book’s cover, [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Education, Free Speech, Human/Civil rights, Literature, Personal liberty, Politics, Racism, Society | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (43)

Pin Striped Prison

December 21, 2009 – 6:11 am

I’ve just read The Pin Striped Prison by Lisa Pryor (2008, Picador, Pan Macmillan Australia, Sydney). Pryor was a law student who now works as a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald.
Pryor is exploring a number of questions: what drives young people to want to become lawyers? Why do many lawyers decide it is not [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Books, Education, Law | Tagged , , , | Comments (23)

Confidence and privacy

December 7, 2009 – 9:46 am

I went to an interesting seminar the other day on breach of confidence law. The seminar included a number of speakers and spanned Australian, UK and US law on the subject, as well as a historical consideration of the piecemeal manner in which breach of confidence law developed.
Apparently breach of confidence was a relative latecomer [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Equity, Free Speech, Intellectual property, Law, Media, Privacy, Public Policy | Tagged , , , , | Comments (2)

Marking time

November 30, 2009 – 9:50 pm

I haven’t been about much for a number of reasons, the principle of which is that I agreed to mark some law exams for a colleague, and they’re due back on Thursday. There’s a tight turn around, so I’m finding I have to average around 10 papers a day to keep up with my schedule. [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Law, Personal | Tagged | Comments (5)

Now this is a good thing

October 28, 2009 – 6:00 am

Well, I think it is, anyway:

Oxford University is hoping to welcome its first Aboriginal Australian students next year, it has been announced.
From next month, applications for two scholarship places are being accepted.
The university said although it had a significant number of students from Australia, an indigenous Australian had never studied there.
The scholarships will pay for [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in General | Tagged , , , | Comments (56)

‘The German Emperor’s lower passage was blocked by the French for years and years’

September 9, 2009 – 11:45 pm

Mocking the stupid is not — generally — considered very nice. It is, however, fun. Via Dave Bath (on Facebook) I have encountered the best example of mocking the stupid I’ve seen in many a long day.
Background: I thought lawyers had it tough when it comes to teaching students and newly minted clerks that just [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Fark!, History, Law | Comments (21)

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak…

May 6, 2009 – 9:06 am

I was at an event for restitution lawyers the other day, when one of the academics present made a good point. She said that she thought restitution lawyers had “tidy minds”. They wanted the law to be tidy. I think she is absolutely correct. The desire is that like cases be treated alike, regardless of [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Equity, Law, Restitution | Tagged , | Comments (36)

Blue

April 12, 2009 – 5:48 pm

This Garfield cartoon pretty much sums it up for me right now (it’s always been one of my favourites).
I’ve said before, “Sometimes I feel like I’m juggling multiple balls and if I don’t watch out, I’ll drop them all.” I think I’ve reached the point where I’ve dropped the balls. I had a plan this [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Children, Depression, Feminism, Motherhood | Comments (51)

On being deserted by the Explanation Fairy ™

February 14, 2009 – 12:32 am

One of the things I’ve always strived for when I write is clarity.  Most of the time in my writing career, I’ve been successful in achieving this clarity, and people haven’t had to come back to me with queries like ‘what does this mean?’ and ‘please explain’. Other faults – my disagreeable politics, my abysmal taste, [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Education, Fark! | Tagged , , | Comments (26)

Efficient breach canned by HCA

February 13, 2009 – 8:31 pm

What happens when you sign a contract? How binding is it? Can you force the other side to perform their side of the bargain?
Non-lawyers might be surprised to learn that from the perspective of contractual remedies, the principal remedy is damages, with specific performance of the contractual obligation said to be a secondary remedy when [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Economics, Equity, Law, Restitution | Tagged , , , | Comments (15)