Who is the greatest American President?  A common question asked amongst history buffs and occasional magazine pieces.  Lincoln gets the nod more  often than not as does Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Then things get contentious; Reagan, Teddy Roosevelt, John Adams etc…

In terms of impact on the world Thomas Jefferson is by far the most important President.  On this day in 1803 he effected the Louisiana Purchase, buying the French occupied Louisiana Territory 833,000 acres for $11,250,000.  That includes 11 states; Montana, Wyoming, North Dakot, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Louisiana.  The USA moved from a strip of states huddling the Atlantic Coast to a major country with massive potential.  With California coming into the Union after the Mexican American War the American Century was inevitable. One must wonder what the French would think these days.  Had they kept the Territory perhaps French would be the international language.  What about the Russians who sold Alaska to the United States.  It is now a gold mine,oil reservoir and general honey pot for minerals and resources.

The National Human Rights Consultation was a deeply flawed process.  Frank Brennan took the Committee around Australia and got plenty of air time.  But the process was so predictable.  The GetUP crew and pro charter people organised mass mail ins giving the impression that there was huge support for a Charter of Rights. But it was so obvious that it lost impact.  Their excitement  about the effectiveness of the Charter model surprised me.  It is an anaemic and ineffective model. On the other side the shrill and hysterical write ups by the Australian and burnt offerings by conservative columnists tended to the apocalyptic.  The obsession about “unelected judges” subverting the Parliament became embarrassing, especially when falling from the pen of lawyers.  Did the concept of the common law escape their attention.  And did they avert their eyes from the somehow miraculous operation of the judiciary in the American context.

The Federal Attorney General’s response to the Brennan Report is as insipid as the process.  No Charter of Rights, no bill of rights but an Australian Human Rights Framework.  Sounds good.  But less impressive in practice.  It is, in the AG’s words: Read the rest of this entry »

Today is the centenary of the death of Samuel Langhorne Clemens – the incomparable Mark Twain.  There are so many sites devoted to him, his quotes and travels that I can’t possibly do justice to him.

Along with George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway he is my literary hero.  A master of the written word and no respecter of tradition.  That is as high a praise as I can give anyone.

Huckleberry Finn is the quintessential perfect American novel.  When I read it in Year 10 I knew I was experiencing something special.  I have returned to it every couple of years and get something new every time.  Next to Hemingway at his best it is the most effective prose I have read.

Where Mark Twain soars is his ability to skewer the pompous and satirises the rest.  In this time of over earnest chest beating, political correctness in its current guise and bleating about morals and standards we are desperately in need of another Twain.

Vale Mark Twain.

Something is definitely off in Lower Merion school district.  It is located in Philidelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.  Some genius(s) in the school system installed peeping tom technology on students’ lap tops which then took more than 56,000 images of students using the lap tops at school and home.  The Guardian has run  story on today.  As usual the dopes who purpertrated this gross invasion of privacy picked a bizarely inappropriate response to deal with a mundane problem, lap tops going missing. Putting aside whether that was a smart way of dealing with the problem the program was activated on lap tops which were not stolen, missing or otherwise being used in an inappropriate manner.

It gets better.  The officials outed themselves when one confronted a student about supposed drugs he had in his bedroom.  Turns out the drugs were sweets.  The obvious querry is “How do you know what is in my room>”  Next port of call, a lawsuit.  In the Australian context the Listening Devices Act is the only real option however I think there would be scope to rely on nuisance or trespass coupled with a breach of confidence in Giller v Proscepets.  It might be a stretch but the law is developing.  All the more reason to have a proper statutory breach of privacy cause of action.

Two decisions of the Supreme Court last week, provide a very detailed and useful analysis regarding applications to set aside a subpoena and a summonses.  In Burchell & Anor v Hill & Ors a non party sought to set aside a subpoena issued under Rule 42A.01.    In Re Bill Express Limited (in liq) , the applicant, appealing from a decision of Gardiner AsJ,  sought to set aside a liquidator’s summons for production.

Burchell & Anor v Hill & Ors

Facts

The plaintiff issued a subpoena to the National Australia Bank Limited, a non party. The NAB objected to Read the rest of this entry »

For privacy practitioners the problem with transferring data overseas is a real cause for concern. In the Daily Mail’s NHS sends confidential patients’ records to India despite pledges it would not.  The obvious problem is the lax privacy controls in India and the variable conduct of Indian companies.   The purpose for the export is to transcribe notes.  The real problem is matching files to identifiers.  The claims that the firms in India comply with current data protection has a hollow ring to it.  Unless you can enforce the laws of the land there is no point claiming there has been compliance.

When police but up against a thorny freedom of expression issue the results are rarely enlightened exercise of discretion.   On Easter SaturdayEaster at Market Square Shopping Centre the police reportedly shut down a cruxifiction re enactment.  Why.  Because it was offensive and there had been complaints. According to the police spokesman:

”The closing down of the display was not about religious beliefs. It was due to numerous complaints from the public regarding offensive behaviour,” a police spokeswoman said.

Just to be clear, the offensive behaviour is the recreation by an actor of Jesus on the cross, smeared with fake blood.  How is that not about a religious belief.  As to the offensive behaviour what exactly is the offensive behaviour, as understood by the law.  That someone finds Read the rest of this entry »

In Blackman & Ors v Gant & Anor Vickery J considered a very interesting no case application by the Second Defendant.  This is a case that has drawn considerable press coverage, including in the Australian and the Age.

FACTS (pars 4 – 11)

The Plaintiffs are the artist Charles Blackman and his trustee, Robert Dickerson.  The Second Defendant is Peter Gant, an art dealer.  Gant originally supplied three works of art to a Helen Stewart , another art dealer, together with two valuations of the works.  She was the former First Defendant.  Stewart sold the works to a a Robert Blanche, giving him a copy of the valuations.  The evidence is that Blanche relied upon one of the valuations when purchasing the works and used the other for insurance valuation purposes.  When, later, Blanche was advised that the works were not authentic he returned them to Stewart who refunded his money.  Stewart then returned the works to Gant.   The Second Defendant maintains the works are authentic.  The issue before Vickery J was confined to the Second Defendant’s no case application.

ANALYSIS

The Plaintiffs claim, at [12], that the valuations impliedly represent that the works were authentic and consequently a breach of Read the rest of this entry »

It is a regular feature of the Simpsons to have the good burghers of Springfield transform into a mob is baying for a knee jerk reaction to a complex moral/social issue.  At the moment of truth, when the situation takes its crazy course to high farce, Helen Lovejoy, appears centre stage, panicking and screaming “Will someone please think of the children!” It is wickedly clever satire because the problem, whatever it is, has nothing to do with children or their morals.  Screaming public morals is no new trick Read the rest of this entry »