You remember the school yard taunt, don’t you? “Finders keepers, losers weepers!” Well, I think it’s my duty as a sometime teacher of Property Law to warn the public that it’s not quite accurate. This came to my mind because of a story I read in the Herald Sun today: A couple will be charged [...]
March 25, 2010 – 11:47 am
[Cross posted at Fortnightly Review, the new online journal founded by IPRIA and the CMCL at the University of Melbourne. Please check out Fortnightly Review - it's well worth a look.] 1. CYBER-BULLYING Cyber-bullying in Australia – Facebook It’s not only Lara Bingle and other celebrities who have to worry about cyber-bullying, “sexting” and how [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Posted in Internet, Law, Media, Society
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Also tagged breach of confidence, breach of privacy, bullying, cyber-bullying, defamation, Facebook, Fortnightly Review, freedom of speech, giller v procopets, intentional infliction of mental suffering, Internet, Lori Drew, Privacy, Sexting
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March 23, 2010 – 12:45 pm
The Second Circuit of the Court of Appeals in the US has handed down a decision concluding that it’s permissible for a judge to use Google to confirm a hunch in some circumstances (United States v Bari). The defendant was one Anthony Bari who was released on terms from prison after committing a bank robbery. [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Posted in Internet, Law, Media
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Also tagged civilian law, common law, evidence, evidence law, Google, Internet, judges, Technology, use of evidence
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Believe it or not, it’s now possible to commit contempt of court by soliciting your supporters to send hundreds of e-mails to the judge. The case arose when a salesman, Kevin Trudeau, who apparently sells weight loss cures via infomercials on US TV was taken to court by the US Federal Trade Commission for deceptive [...]
February 3, 2010 – 9:01 pm
A friend alerted to me to an interesting case reported in the New York Times involving monetary restitution to a victim of child pornography who goes by the pseudonym “Amy”. When she was 8 or 9 years old, Amy’s uncle had filmed her in a series of pornographic photographs known as the “Misty” series. Amy [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Posted in Children, Equity, Human/Civil rights, Law, Restitution, Society, anthony daniels
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Also tagged aims of criminal law, child abuse, child endangerment, Restitution, restitution for wrongs, rights of the child
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January 14, 2010 – 7:12 am
Via Jason Soon’s Sick of Politics blog I came across an interesting piece by Clive Hamilton on talented artists who commit crimes. Like Jason, I think it’s probably the first time I’ve been in unqualified agreement with Clive. Wonders will never cease. Hamilton says: Should artistic talent place those who possess it above the law? [...]
November 16, 2009 – 7:02 am
There’s not much to say about this story except that it is utterly outrageous: An Aboriginal boy, 12, will face a children’s court today charged with receiving a stolen Freddo frog. The chocolate frog, allegedly shoplifted by the child’s friend from a Coles supermarket in regional Western Australia, usually sells for about 70 cents. The [...]
November 15, 2009 – 9:51 pm
The High Court is on fire at the moment. It has handed down a case declaring certain procedures under the Criminal Assets Recovery Act 1990 (NSW) as unconstitutional: International Finance Trust Company Limited v New South Wales Crime Commission [2009] HCA 49. Put shortly, Acts such as these allow the government to effectively force disgorgement [...]
October 21, 2009 – 9:29 am
It is not long ago since our society believed that hitting a child to discipline her was necessary. When I was in very early primary school we still worried about “getting the strap”, although I think corporal punishment had been outlawed by then, but there was still a collective consciousness of “the strap” and what [...]
October 5, 2009 – 9:41 pm
Keysar Trad has written an article in The Age today calling for Australians to reconsider their attitudes to polygyny (where a man has multiple wives). He says: Who someone marries first is an accident of history. If a man who has an affair had met his mistress before his wife, he may have married her. [...]
