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Who loves international law?

Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Not us, or at least not very much, and less so than our American friends:



Having studied international law, albeit a long time ago, I have limited patience with some of those who bang on about what is or is not a breach of it, as even the most cursory examination of it shows that it is at best protean, and at worst a chimaera.  Note that Pakistan has the largest majority reckoning that the national interest comes first, while the Chinese are the keenest on observing it.  Supposedly.

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posted by Croydonian

The things Belgians get upset about

Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Advertising for credit cards. This is the lead story at Le Soir, by the way.

Visa have been running a radio advert in Belgium in which consumers use credit cards to buy food. In this case, bananas. Pretty shocking, huh? At least it was for 'an expert on poverty and social exclusion' in the pay of the federal government, who brought suit to the jury of advertising ethics. I am NOT making this up.

The complaint was thrown out, the JEP reckoning it was 'not an incitement to over-consumption and thus over-spending'.

I would not doubt but that there are people in these parts who would wish to have the same powers under our law.

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posted by Croydonian

Good grief

Friday, February 13, 2009
This, from The Miami Herald:

"A lawyer for the widow of a Cooper City man who died from lung cancer said Friday that smoker Stuart Hess bears some responsibility for his addiction to cigarettes, but that cigarette maker Philip Morris USA is largely to blame".

For the record, Hess died at 55 in 1997, meaning that he had been seeing health warnings on his cigarette packs since he was 24, the Yanks having introduced health warnings in 1966.

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posted by Croydonian

What kind of reputation does an ex Stasi employee have?

Sunday, November 16, 2008
One that involves injuncting the German language Wikipedia site, apparently. Anyway, Lutz Heilman, for it is he, an MP for the extreme left Left Party has sicced his lawyers on http://www.wikipedia.de/ (if not de.wikipedia.org....). Note that he is all of 42, so his Stasi career shows some enthusiasm, as that particular Babylon fell when he was all of 23. Having been elected via a party list system on PR, I cannot excoriate the voters of any particular town, but the people of the Länder of Brandenburg, Sachsen and Sachsen-Anhalt have a lot to answer for.

While our rather over-reaching defamation laws do not apply on the other side of the Rhine, it puts me in mind of Dering v Uris, wherein an Auschwitz doctor sued a novelist for his depiction of him. What emerged from the trial is that Dering had no reputation to protect and was awarded all of a penny in damges, and had to pay costs too.

Those in command of German can read the entry here, or in English here. It involves allegations of involvement in a porn business and not completing his degree.

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posted by Croydonian

Political insults - Italian style

Wednesday, October 15, 2008
In a hugely cheering development, an Italian court has ruled that 'The language of political polemic can take on more pungent and incisive tones than those commonly used in private life''.

More particularly, 'rimbambito' (senile, gaga etc. A word that I will be field testing at the first opportunity. C) is parliamentary, or in this case, municipal language.

That the word got hurled by a small town mayor in a debate on the Kosovo war. Nothing like sticking to one's knitting, is there?

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posted by Croydonian

You might as well try to copyright bread....

Tuesday, October 07, 2008
This week's most foolish lawsuit comes from Lebanon:

"The president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association Fadi Abboud, said he is preparing to file an international lawsuit against Israel for allegedly "taking the identity of some Lebanese foods" and thus violating a food copyright".

And what are these foods that are so unmistakeably Lebanese, given that Lebanon is a construct that has existed for all of sixty five years?

"Falafel, tabouleh and hummus".

OK, point by point:

Falafel - "The actual origins of falafel are not certain, however, all common theories acknowledge that the falafel was invented several centuries ago, perhaps by Egyptian Copts, or even by the Ancient Egyptians".

Tabouleh - The Lebanese are on slightly less shaky ground here: "a Levantine Arab dish". Note that this page is locked as an editing war is in progress....

Hummus - "One of the earliest verifiable descriptions of hummus comes from 18th-century Damascus and the same source claims it was unknown elsewhere".

Anyway, "According to Abboud, the Lebanese are losing "tens of millions of dollars annually" because Israel is selling and marketing traditional Lebanese dishes. "The Israelis are marketing our main food dishes as if they were Israeli dishes," he charged. "We are working on registering all the foods and ingredients which will be submitted to the Lebanese government so it can appeal to the international courts against Israel," Abboud said".

Now I consider myself an 'ethical consumer' in that I go out of my way to buy Israeli food products where appropriate, and I do not doubt that there are plenty of other folk who buy Carmel, Jaffa etc etc precisely because they are Israeli, thus rather negating Abboud's rather silly contention that sales of hummus and the like are a zero sum game.

Meanwhile, a popular retort on the Haaretz's site is that Jewish Penicillin (chicken soup) ought to be copywritten too. And as the old, old joke goes, 'I had some Middle Eastern food an hour ago and now I falafel....'


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posted by Croydonian

Further great lawsuits of our time

Friday, August 22, 2008
Or they do things differently in India.

Faced with a dispute between two companies owned by the feuding Ambani brothers, the doubtless fatigued beak suggested this:

“Why can’t the brothers go back to the mother and discuss it?”

Perhaps they will sent to the naughty step. Pa Ambani will not be available to administer the switch as he bought the farm some six years ago. Ma A looks fierce.

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posted by Croydonian

Great lawsuits of our time

Wednesday, August 20, 2008
I am indebted to Italy's supreme court for deciding that 'Teachers must not spit at headteachers'. Yes, really.

And there's more:

'The court also slammed the teacher's claim that his actions were an acceptable form of disagreement, ruling that spitting is not a ''legitimate'' means of ''critical expression'''.

In the best Jarndyce and Jarndyce tradition doubtless there will be further litigation needed to clarify the application of the precedent.

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posted by Croydonian

Great lawsuits of our time

Tuesday, June 03, 2008
"A patriotic Uzbek refugee is seeking seeking 1 million kronor ($166,000) in damages from a shopping mall in southern Swedish for degrading the name of his hometown.... The man, who resides in Vaxjö, filed the suit because he feels the Samarkand mall in Vaxjö disrespects his hometown... “Those who decided to use the holy city’s name for their shopping centre showed no respect for the city of Samarkand". Source


I am sure the prospect of free money - doubtless he is also on legal aid or somesuch - from the country that gave him refuge because he no longer wished to live in the country he loves so much that he will litigate for it did not begin to enter into his thoughts.

Presumably adherents of the religion of peace have already tried it on over a certain chain of bingo halls.

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posted by Croydonian