The Legal Research Society

The Society will be taking a break over the Christmas holidays, but we'll be back with a programme for the new year by the end of January. We have a number of discussions and presentations in mind. We'll start out with a roundtable discussion regarding global warming towards the end of January. Any suggestions can be posted in the comments section and would be much appreciated. Till then, best wishes to all for this holiday season!

The Society is pleased to announce the final two research presentations for this calendar year. Eleanor Sharpston, the British Advocate General at the European Court of Justice , will present a paper on Friday 08 December. Dr Lorenzo Zucca will present a paper on Monday 11 December in preparation for the International Conference on Conflicts between Fundamental Rights . Friday 08 December, 12pm, Room 613 MacRobert Building Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston ‘European Citizenship and the Fundamental Freedoms: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?’ (moderated by Prof Paul Beaumont) Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston will present a paper as part of the Law School’s Research Seminar Programme. The Legal Research Society is proud to have collaborated with the Law School to bring one of Britain’s foremost European lawyers to Aberdeen. Further information about the Advocate General can be viewed at the website of the European Court of Justice . Monday 11 December, 5pm, Taylor A15 Dr Lorenzo Zucca ‘Con

This Tuesday, November 28, at 5 pm, in Taylor A15, the society will be discussing the tension between existing copyright law and the sharing of music and movies over the internet. Resolved: (1)File sharing encourages artistic creativity, allows new artists more access to consumers, and should be encouraged. (2) Copyright protection provides too much protection for corporations and artists, and should be amended so as to provide more access for consumers and the general public. File sharing has grown in popularity with the spread of high-speed internet connections. Though legal per se , file sharing is most often used to share copyrighted materials such as music and movies. Recently, some record companies and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) have initiated lawsuits against individuals, as their efforts to pursue the file sharing networks have largely proved unsuccessful. Record companies have argued that the advent of file sharing has hurt their profits and

Donn Zaretsky's Art Law Blog has an interesting piece on litigation surrounding Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan . Two of the "participants" in the movie, a couple of inebriated college students from South Carolina, are bringing suit in Los Angeles Superior Court. You can view the complaint here . Incidentally, whoever drafted it needs to work on their spelling. The students, who might I say looked like complete idiots, are alleging that the production crew got them drunk, and then took advantage of their state. They were paid $200 for their participation. They are asserting causes of action for fraud, rescission of contract, false light, appropriation of false likeness, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Borat is a smart cookie, and he made the participants in the film sign a consent form, which Slate has made available here . However, there are a couple of problems with it. First, the production com

The Legal Research Society is pleased to announce its research programme for the coming months: Tuesday 14 November, 5pm, Taylor A15 Ole W. Pedersen (co-authored with Anne-Michelle Slater) ‘Devolved Scotland and Environmental Justice’ (moderated by Justin Borg Barthet) Scotland has been a devolved administration since 1999. In this period environmental justice has received increasing attention from a variety of participants and stakeholders on the Scottish political scene. This paper seeks to explore and analyse the emergence of environmental justice in Scotland today. This is done by, outlining the devolution arrangements of the Scottish Parliament and touching upon the implications this has in the area of environmental law. The paper then goes on to consider the origin of environmental justice in Scotland and assesses the development of environmental justice as a concept at governmental level, by analysing the Scottish Executive’s stance on environmental justice and tracing the conce

The Law School has organised a workshop regarding 'The Place of Religion in the European Public Sphere. 'The single most important issue in the future of our polities.'' The workshop will take place on Friday 3rd November at the Advocates Hall Concert Court and on Saturday 4th November at MacKay Hall, King's College . Please click here for further information. A copy of the programme can be downloaded by clicking here .

The first roundtable discussion held by the Society was certainly thought provoking. A number of important and indeed fundamental issues were raised regarding the possible limits to the right of freedom of expression and the manner in which those limits should be policed. The following is a personal account of what I understood and took from the debate. This does not reflect the Society’s position or that of any of the participants at the discussion. I hope that this post will serve to stimulate further discussion. Perhaps the most important notion forwarded throughout the course of the discussion was that human rights are not values-free. It is inevitable that there will be political overtones when discussing the manner in which the law should or should not regulate society. Clearly there is some tension between freedom as a cornerstone of democracy on the one hand, and respect as a building block of a coherent and integrated society on the other. Several participants at the di

Just in time for our debate the Deutsche Oper Berlin cancelled the performances of Mozart's 'Idomeneo' causing a huge row amongst politicians. In the epilogue added to the original version, Idomeneo, King of Crete, was supposed to pull the heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed out of a sack. Police advised the Deutsche Oper about potential disturbance due to the showing of Mohammed's head. They had no concrete evidence, though. Many (eminent) German politicians criticised such self-censorship in "anticipatory obedience) (as one commentator wrote). As a consequence the Oper now plans to stage "Idomeneo" once a security concept is found. The following links give an overview: Mozart Opera Dropped Due to Terror Threat: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2186167,00.html Political and Cultural Leaders Condemn Opera Cancellation: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2187241,00.html Opinion: Beware the Slippery Slope!: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/

Next Tuesday, October 24th at 17.00, the University of Aberdeen Legal Research Society will hold its first roundtable discussion on the topic of freedom of expression and censorship. The meeting will take place in Taylor Building room A15. The discussion will examine the tension between censorship and freedom of expression in the context of the recent Jyllands-Posten Muhammad editorial cartoon controversy. For those who want to look at the cartoons, this website has posted all of them , with English translations. This is an image of the page layout as they originally appeared in the Ryllands-Posten. We have decided not to show the cartoons at the meeting, out of respect to our muslim colleagues. Here are two very different opinions of the controversy: You can read the opinion of Reza Aslan, who was offended by the cartoons, here . To read a very different perspective from Christopher Hitchens, click here . Here are a number of other links meant to spark intellectual debate.

Welcome to the Legal Research Society’s space on the web. The Legal Research Society organises symposia where students and staff present their work to colleagues and get valuable feedback in an open and friendly environment. We also organise roundtable discussions on topical matters where a lively debate and a healthy exchange are always the order of the day. In addition, we've hosted learned guests who have come to the University of Aberdeen to discuss their work with research students and staff at our Law School . Finally we organize occasional film nights where we watch movies and discuss their legal and political implications. We are mainly focussed on postgraduate research students in law but we are open to anyone who is interested. This site is used to create discussions of legal interest and to keep you updated on the Society’s activities. There are also a number of links to legal blogs and other resources that we hope you might find useful. Committee members for the yea