Creativity in the law

May 28, 2008

thomas.jpgLaw.com’s newsletter arrives with a curio: the 100 most creative moments in American law. The idea of compiling the list came from the palpably creative brain of Robert Blomquist, a professor at Valparaiso University School of Law. Blomquist surveyed American law professors for their views, and came up the following by way of a Top 10:

  • The Constitution of the United States (1787) and the ratification debates (1787-1788)
  • The Declaration of Independence (1776)
  • The Bill of Rights (1791-1792)
  • The Articles of Confederation (1777)
  • The Ordinance of 1787: the Northwest Territorial Government
  • Marbury v. Madison (1803)
  • President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
  • The Judiciary Act of 1789
  • President Lincoln’s suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus during the Civil War (1861-1865)
  • Brown v. Board of Education (Brown I & Brown II) (1954-55)

    • Blade is pondering the UK equivalent. If you have any ideas for a UK Top 10 (100 might be pushing it) Most Creative Moments in the Law, post a comment here.

     

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    From the inside of the maze, ethically outwards

    February 9, 2012

    Curious times in the media; strange days at The Times.

    Would ‘Dacre Cards‘ – the system of licensing journalists proposed by Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre – have prevented the embarrassment now palpable at the Times over the NightJack story?

    Times editor James Harding’s evidence to the Leveson Inquiry seemed heartfelt and contrite, albeit that the paper’s former long-serving and much-respected lawyer, Alastair Brett, seems to have been, er, rather dropped in it. Clearly, mistakes were made with regard to NightJack by young reporter Patrick Foster who, once he had hacked into NightJack’s account and thus discovered his identity, then embarked on a quest to expose it via legitimate methods. This, as Inquiry counsel Robert Jay QC put it, was “rather like working from the inside of the maze out”.

    But had Foster been licensed via a Dacre Card, would this unsavoury episode in the Times’s history have been avoided?

    We suspect not. A raft of laws were in existence at precisely the time when many News of the World journalists seemed to believe that they were entitled to hack any phone they liked. Those laws forbade them from doing so, and yet made no difference. Aside from the obvious objection to them – that they will squeeze out freelancers and citizen journalists – Dacre Cards would simply amount to something to circumvent.

    What is really required is an ethical shake-up, from top to bottom. Society generally – not just journalists – needs a sense that some things are just plain wrong.

    Supreme Court on Twitter

    February 6, 2012

    Something remarkable happened today. Yes, the Supreme Court launched its Twitter feed. It even has a Twitter policy, one of caveats, disclaimers and little by way of illumination but regardless: who would have thought that the successor body to the House of Lords would stoop to engage with the world of tweets, hashtags and retweets?

    We look forward to the day when court business will be conducted via Twitter. Meantime, check out this link for an excellent blog on the Supreme Court.

    Not so right said Fred

    February 2, 2012
    fred hat

    So Farewell, then, Sir Fred Goodwin.

    Now you are just Fred.

    Not Right Said Fred, but plain Fred.

    The Forfeiture Committee did for you.

    No one had heard of it before,

    But Dave said it had to act, and it did.

    Trouble is that no one knows what to think.

    Is it ‘Alas, poor Fred‘,

    Or ‘Hurray! Sir Fred is dead!’?

    We don’t know.

    Do you?

    By A. Mob, aged 1,378 and a half.