As Kelly said in a previous post, there are certain cases that attract our attention for both their quirkiness and deeper societal meanings. With several hundred years of cases, there are many, many quirky ones across my jurisdictions. There has been one particular case that has stuck with me for the past few years as …
The media spotlight has once again fallen upon the heir to the British Throne, Prince William, and his long term girlfriend, Kate Middleton. The recent attention has been garnered due to the fact that betting shops (commonly referred to as bookies) in England and Wales are no longer taking bets on the year that Prince …
Constitution Day and Citizenship Day is observed each year on September 17 to commemorate the signing of the Constitution on September 17, 1787 and “recognize all who, by coming of age or by naturalization, have become citizens.” Both the Law Library and the Library of Congress have many resources for researching the Constitution. The Law …
On my drive to work at the end of last week I heard the joyful news on the radio that singer Katy Perry and British actor/comedian Russell Brand have announced that they are going to get married. Wonderful! The second part of the announcement was that Katy Perry loves the UK so much that she wants …
Residents of Christchurch, the second largest city in New Zealand, continue to have sleepless nights and worry-filled, emotional days as the aftershocks keep coming – nearly a week after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck at 4:35am on Saturday, September 4, 2010. Apart from all the shaking, there’s also the worry about the amount of time …
The recent one year anniversary of the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, the man convicted in 1999 of the Lockerbie bombings, prompted me to to delve a little further behind the headlines. Al-Megrahi was released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds after doctors diagnosed him with terminal prostate cancer. I thought …
The title of this post comes from the New Zealand Alcohol Advisory Council’s (ALAC) latest ad campaign targeting the drinking culture. One of ALAC’s previous campaigns had the punch line “it’s not the drinking – it’s how we’re drinking.” Anyway, you get the idea – if you need to have ad campaigns telling the country …
In the course of monitoring significant legal developments in the jurisdictions that I cover, I often come across amusing or quirky stories that make me smile, but also make me think (possibly because I’m a total geek…). I mean, when you analyze or discuss these stories you realize that there might be deeper underlying societal …
The Australian federal election is being held on August 21. The current Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, announced the election on July 17, a couple of weeks after she replaced Kevin Rudd as leader of the Labor Party. The (very brief) election campaign is in full swing, with various issues coming to the forefront of the …