Our federal election is swiftly approaching, and all signs point to a close race. We sometimes become disillusioned about the worth of each individual vote, but a tight three-way contest will demonstrate the importance of every ballot. I don’t say ballot to metonymically refer only to each individual’s participation in the election process, but literally each […]
Legal Humour
Festive Footstools and Best Wishes from the Osgoode Library
It's the last week of exams before the New Year holiday break at Osgoode. The students are stressed. We have seen them doing jumping jacks in the group study rooms. So we weren't so surprised when we discovered this expression of student anxiety while closing the library last night. What can it mean? I put […]
"That's the letter U and the numeral 2"
With the recent passing of Casey Kasem, known primarily in the US as the voice of the "American Top 40" radio countdown and as the voice of Shaggy in the "Scooby-Doo" cartoons, I thought of one of Kasem's more notorious outings, and one that was an early example of current hot-button topics such as copyright, […]
Perfect Timing
Just to give you something to look forward to when you’ve finished your exams and papers, the library will have four especially interesting-sounding books available for your reading enjoyment by April 30. First on the list is The Emergency Sasquatch Ordinance and other real laws that human beings have actually dreamed up, enacted, and sometimes […]
Disaster strikes!
In the wake of this year's spate of wild (and wildly destructive) weather, including July 8th's record-breaking torrential deluge that flooded swathes of the city, crippling transit, leaving thousands without power for days, and which will ultimately cost upwards of $600 million in property damage, there are a number of questions of a legal nature that […]
Summer viewing, Part 1 - Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law
Now that exams are done and the summer has started (never mind the hail last Sunday), it is an opportunity for a collective exhale and a chance to mentally re-calibrate before starting all over again in September (or before going off to bar ads and articling). Following in the footsteps of Sandra Geddes's blog post from a […]
Stylistic Flair - A time and place?
In a post from a few weeks ago, I lamented the lack of flair in legal writing. Although it's certainly not a "need-to-have", it's certainly a "nice-to-have". Throughout legal education and practice, you will likely have to read many, many decisions, and most of them are - to not put too fine of a point […]
Law and Order: Overthought
I'm sure that pretty much all denizens of law schools have, at some point watched at least one episode of Law and Order (or its many, many spin-offs) and, in all likelihood, groaned at some point. While it's undeniably entertaining, it is also frequently larded with clichés, improbabilities, bad law, and an overly Manichean outlook. After twenty years and […]
Superheroes and the law?
While the law can be alternately deadly serious or patently ridiculous (often in the midst of a single case!), it is always refreshing to read legal writing where the author is clearly enjoying the material. If you learn something - even better! In December 2010, I read about a novel new legal blog in the […]
Death and Taxes and Zombies
Law reviews are not usually noted for their humour. However, Adam Chodorow, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Innovative Ventures at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, addresses this shortcoming in legal scholarship and another major policy shortcoming in a forthcoming article in the Iowa Law Review. […]