General
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Sunday, July 27th, 2008A belated note: the UK has abolished the offence of blasphemy. It was a stupid offence for any number of reasons, not least of which is that it only applies to insulting Christianity. I’m with Norightturn, who reckons it’s time to follow suit in NZ. Blasphemous libel is still in the Crimes Act. There has […]
Book Review: Thomas’s muscular take on the project of judging
Friday, June 27th, 2008“The Judicial Process: Realism, Pragmatism, Practical Reasoning and Principles” By Justice E.W. Thomas Cambridge University Press Don’t be put off by the scholarly title. For anyone with an interest in judging, this is a readable and provocative critique of the way many judges go about their job. Justice Ted Thomas’s views about his craft are […]
Desperately seeking relief
Thursday, June 19th, 2008Readers will know I’m a generally fan of free speech. But I would support a ban on the use, by all politicians in every election year, of the word “desperate”.
Hello?
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008Is that the courts’ decisions of public interest department? [Note: I originally unfairly said that the Ministry of Justice ran this. But it’s the judges who run this website and decide what gets posted]. Don’t you think Justice Miller’s decision on abortion law might qualify? A media release explaining its essence might be helpful, too. Really, you’ve only got […]
Judicial Smackdown II: The Empire Strikes Back
Saturday, May 31st, 2008Well, one judge does anyway. You’ll remember that Justice Fogarty controversially ruled that some of the the guidelines for cameras in court were illegal (I discussed the ruling here). Another High Court judge, Keane J, has disagreed. In R v Crutchley, he said that the guidelines are “entirely compatible with a trial judge’s duty to secure that justice is done.” […]
Review of Review of the Law of Privacy
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008Earlier this year, the Law Commission released its Review of the Law of Privacy. It’s well worth a read. It demonstrates what a nebulous and problematic concept privacy is. The review is part of a four-stage inquiry into the whole gamut of privacy laws, including the Privacy Act, public registers, the tort, and other privacy-related laws. […]
Regulating broadcasting content
Monday, May 26th, 2008You may know that the government is having a big think about what to do about the patchwork of increasingly moth-eaten laws and regimes that govern broadcasting content. It has produced discussion papers and invited feedback. The submissions are here. More on this soon.
Flashbacks
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008A few of these posts might be familiar to those who have subscribed to the discussion group NZMLJ. From time to time, I’ll reproduce some posts of interest from the archives.
How the Clean Slate Act applies to the media
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008The Clean Slate Act effectively expunges people’s old, minor criminal offences. But does that mean the media can’t publish them? Reading the Act as a whole, it looks like it doesn’t. Yes, it’s an offence for a journalist to ask someone to disregard the Act, which allows people to lie about particular convictions if they […]
We’re free. Really.
Thursday, May 1st, 2008The latest world press freedom rankings are out. As usual, we’re in the top 10, where we’ve been for at least the past five years (this year, we’re 9th equal, actually). Those who like to rhapsodise about the US First Amendment and American press freedom might like to ponder that country’s rankings for the past […]
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