I have recently seen an increase in coverage in both the U.S. and the UK about the provision of aid to foreign countries (commonly referred to as Overseas Development Assistance, or ODA). Many countries are facing the question of how much assistance to provide to other countries in need when they are struggling domestically. I …
The Holiday season flew by again this year. It truly is my favourite time of the year. When not frantically cooking or wrapping gifts, I always spend a part of my time feeling a bit homesick. I compensate for this by watching Masterpiece Classics on PBS; although, there are only so many period dramas I can …
Despite a line that I once heard in a movie that the United States is the only country in which unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are sighted, the United Kingdom appears to have its fair share of unexplained phenomena across its skies too. The UK’s National Archives has published an extensive array of documents of sightings and policy …
As mentioned in my previous post, during my day-to-day work at my cool job, I never know what I’m going to stumble upon. It so happened that, as I was gathering information for my post on sumptuary laws, I came across a page of ‘legal curiosities’ compiled by the UK’s Law Commission and published by …
The English are, generally speaking, a fairly genteel group of people. Hunting in England is now relatively uncommon, with fox hunting (very controversially) legislated against in 2007. Even owning a gun is rather unusual and involves a long and highly regulated process. I definitely noticed a huge contrast when I first moved here – during hunting season deer …
In a related theme to gruesome, violent ads (commercials) being removed from programming in the UK, as described in my previous blog post, the UK has censored an entire film (movie). The Human Centipede II has failed to get a certification (rating) from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). The BBFC is an independent, non-governmental …
In my morning perusal of the newspapers the other week I came across an article saying that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK’s independent regulator for advertising in the media, has banned two film (movie) trailers for the movie The Mechanic, one of which was aired during the show Glee. The ASA has a …
With the marital celebrations of Prince William and Kate Middleton only a week away, the question flying around some people’s minds is whether Will and Kate have a pre-nuptial agreement (also known in England as a ‘marital property agreement‘) in place. The use of pre-nuptial agreements has not been widespread in England, due mainly to …
Britain’s coalition government announced in September that, pursuant to a pledge in its Programme for Government, it is conducting a review of the U.K.’s extradition arrangements. The review will be led by a retired Law Lord, who presided over the inquiry into the death of Princess Diana, and two independent lawyers with expertise in extradition …