December 17, 2012 – 6:16 am
Making sense of the world requires–nay, demands–that we find patterns in events. And, as part of modernity, we’ve become used to the clear-headed, formalised pattern-finding of law and science. There are ways to look for explanations, and things that ought properly to be discarded along the way. That’s why we have ‘legal method’ and ‘scientific […]
By skepticlawyer
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Also posted in Law, Science, Skeptics
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Tagged 2DayFM, Bolam Test, Cardozo J, Charlie Brooker, Dom Joly, Jacintha Saldhana, legal method, Matt Rubinstein, Palsgraf v Long Island Railway Co, Sandy Hook Elementary, scientific method, The Fisher King, Westboro Baptist Church
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December 8, 2012 – 6:06 am
I love cases. I simply love cases. I love the drama of them, and I love to go hunting for extra facts about the case. The case of Lumley v Wagner (1852) 1 De GM & G 604; 42 ER 687 involved Johanna Wagner, a famous German singer (and the niece of Richard Wagner). She […]
By Legal Eagle
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Also posted in History, Law, Music, Personal liberty, Saturday chit-chat
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Tagged Benjamin Lumley, contract, Frederick Gye, inducing breach of contract, Johanna Wagner, lumley v gye, lumley v wagner
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October 19, 2012 – 5:02 am
…My mother used to say, when she reminded my siblings and me to keep still tongues in our heads. As a general rule, it is a bit discomforting to reach one’s mid-thirties and discover that one’s dear old ma was right more often than not, but there it is. I’ve been put in mind of […]
By skepticlawyer
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Also posted in Australia, Britain, Free Speech, History, Law, Media, Personal liberty, Privacy
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Tagged Alan Jones, Andrew Bolt, April Jones, Azhar Ahmed, Communications Act 2003 (UK), Deakin Lecture, defamation, Delete, destroy the joint, Geoff Clark, Grobbelaar v News Group Newspapers Ltd, Infamia, Infamia (court order), Malcolm Turnbull, Matthew Woods, Michael Brutsch, Racial Discrimination Act, s 127, s18C, speech codes, Steve Horwitz, Viktor Mayer Schonberger, Violentacrez
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The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a landmark case is being brought in New England, where a landowner is being charged with manslaughter after a toddler from a neighbouring house wandered into his yard, got through the unmaintained fence and drowned. Mr Cameron [the pool owner] was inside his Armidale home watching television one afternoon […]
By Legal Eagle
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Also posted in Children, Law, Motherhood, Parenthood
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Tagged Children, criminal law, criminal negligence, deterrence, drowning, manslaughter, negligence, pool fence, precedent, swimming pool, tort
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I am extremely proud to announce that my book has been published today. Here is the little summary from the publisher’s website: This book defends the view that an award of an account of profits (or ‘disgorgement damages’) for breach of contract will sometimes be justifiable, and fits within the orthodox principles and cases in […]
By Legal Eagle
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Also posted in Academia, Books, Economics, England, Equity, Intellectual property, Law, Personal, Philosophy, Restitution
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Tagged account of profit, Accounting for Profit for Breach of Contract, Attorney General v Blake, breach of contract, compensation, contract law, deterrence, Equity, fusion fallacy, heresy, house of lords, Intellectual property, Katy Barnett, law and economics, obligations, performance interest, private law, property law, punishment, tort law, vindication
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Recently the High Court has had to decide when it was likely that a person might eat hot chips. Seriously. In Strong v Woolworths [2012] HCA 5, the unfortunate plaintiff slipped and fell on a hot chip which had been left on the ground outside Big W at Centro Taree Shopping Centre. She suffered serious […]
February 21, 2012 – 1:37 pm
When we lecturers write exam questions involving hypothetical legal problems, we create a string of mishaps which happen to one poor hypothetical plaintiff. Occasionally students complain that these scenarios are not realistic. This morning in the Herald Sun, I read this story, and I think I’ll show it anyone who complains about unrealistic bad luck […]
February 6, 2012 – 3:58 pm
Lowering the Bar has a post detailing a negligence claim against the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity and one of its drunken frat boy members. Shortly, the plaintiff was injured after the drunken ATO member attempted to fire a bottle rocket out of his backside, but it exploded instead, startling the plaintiff, who fell off an […]
February 1, 2012 – 12:12 pm
In The Age today there’s an article about a couple with a severely disabled child suing an IVF practitioner in negligence: Debbie and Lawrence Waller love their 11-year-old son, Keeden, but they believe he should never have been born. Just days after Mrs Waller gave birth in August 2000 following IVF treatment, Keeden suffered a […]
By Legal Eagle
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Also posted in Children, Law, Motherhood, Parenthood, Pregnancy, Welfare
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Tagged Cattanach v Melchior, disability, Harriton v Stephens, High Court of Australia, Keeden Waller, negligence, public policy, tort, Waller v James, welfare, welfare state, wrongful birth, wrongful life
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January 29, 2012 – 11:50 pm
Various people wrote thoughtful responses to my piece on the distinction between principled and means-end limits to law in the context of the ongoing Melinda Tankard Reist v Jennifer Wilson dust-up. I was rather busy last week and so didn’t respond; I figured I ought to respond, so here are some comments and thoughts (still, […]
By skepticlawyer
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Also posted in Feminism, Free Speech, Law, Music, Personal liberty, Politics, Popular culture
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Tagged #MTRsues, abortion, Anne Summers, Brendan O'Neill, Code Napoléon, Collective Shout, comorra, david cameron, demand inelasticity, Eva Cox, Jennifer Wilson, jurisprudence, Kanye West, Melinda Tankard Reist, nadine dorries, pornography, Prohibition, Ron Paul, Russell Blackford, war on drugs
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