Expert Opinion

Leveson: watershed for press ethics or

expensive white elephant

Carl Gardner

When Lord Justice Leveson concluded his 22-minute London press conference on 29 November, he was applauded by journalists. Since then, though, he’s found press plaudits hard to come by. To read British newspapers over recent days, you might be forgiven for thinking ‘Lord Leveson’ as he’s so often wrongly called, was some sort of traitor bent on abolishing British freedom (‘Lord Justice’ is his judicial title as a High Court judge; but Leveson is not a lord). Such is the pitch of the public and especially the media debate about his report on the culture, practices and ethics of the press Continue reading

IBA Global Insight February 2013

Does the denial of crimes against humanity mark the outer limit of freedom of speech? The ongoing dispute between France and Turkey over the Armenian genocide sheds light on a complex and sensitive issue.

In February, France’s Constitutional Council – the quasi-judicial body charged with upholding the Constitution of the Fifth Republic – struck down a bill ‘to prevent the denial of genocides recognised by law’. The bill would have created a new criminal offence, punishable by a year’s imprisonment and a €45,000 fine, of:

‘justifying, denying or trivialising the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, defined in Articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court […] or recognised by France.’ Continue reading

IBA Global Insight October 2012

Facebook’s initial public offering (IPO) on 18 May this year could not have seemed more Web 2.0. At 0630 that morning, the social networking business’s 28-year-old founder, Mark Zuckerberg, was already wearing his trademark hoodie. Surrounded by smiling employees from Facebook’s Menlo Park HQ in California, he triggered the remote connection that would ring the starting bell on NASDAQ’s trading floor, 3,000 miles east, on Wall Street. The world’s biggest ever technology IPO had begun.

Immediately, it ran into trouble. Technical glitches at NASDAQ meant that the stock opening took place at 1130 in New York, rather than the scheduled 1100. According to CNBC News, NASDAQ had problems delivering the so-called ‘opening print’, meaning that traders reported having difficulty cancelling or changing orders before the stock sale began. Continue reading

IBA news analysis

UK Defamation Bill: making much

needed headway but still falling short

The UK Defamation Bill, currently nearing the conclusion of its passage through the House of Commons, has been praised for embracing much-needed reform of libel laws, but critics – particularly those in the science community – suggest it doesn’t go far enough in protecting robust and necessary reporting.

Scientific investigation, news and commentary are often subject to accusations of defamation.Under the current law, libel cases have been enormously time-consuming and expensive, leaving many defendants unwilling or unable to defend themselves. As a result, many publishers and scientists shy away from presenting critical studies, evidence and opinion – all central to the very process of science, which relies on peer-review. Current libel laws, therefore, encourage an environment in which the money and influence of big pharmaceutical and healthcare companies can stifle scientific investigation. Continue reading

IBA news analysis

From the USA- Not so intellectual

property

Backed by Obama and hailed as a panacea for unemployment, the overhaul of America’s intellectual property regime has proven popular, but could nevertheless turn out to be a dramatically wrong turn.

Touted as ‘historic’ and as ‘a jobs-creating bill’, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act passed Congress by huge margins, radically changing the US patent system. President Obama embraced the bill, signing it on 16 September. How regrettable. Continue reading

IBA Global Insight October 2011

‘Transparency’ was a recurring refrain during the Murdochs’ parliamentary testimony in July, yet many questions on the phone hacking scandal remain unanswered. As global corporate governance laws strengthen, IBA Global Insight asks how accountable and transparent multinationals – and the lawyers who advise them – really are.

'It’s only when the tide goes out that you discover who is swimming naked,’ Warren Buffett famously observed. Now, following one of the biggest scandals to hit the media world, the Murdoch empire seems highly at risk of exposing a slew of skinny dippers among its ranks, from editors and investigators to politicians and lawyers... Continue reading

IBA Global Insight October 2011

Injuctions against Online Search Engine

Service Providers

Search engines play an essential role in the development of the information society by ensuring the free flow of information and ideas through the Internet. It is widely accepted that search engines must be exempted from liability for information published on third-party websites that are simply listed in search results. Although the European Union (EU) e-Commerce Directive (Directive 2000/31/EC) refrained from including a specific exemption of liability for search engines (having provided such for mere conduit, hosting, and caching services), most EU countries grant that exemption... Continue reading

August 2011

Whistleblowing has increased as a result of the financial crisis, but laws to protect those who speak out are often lacking, which makes Wikileaks a welcome development, for some.

Wikileaks has put whistleblowing on the agenda in dramatic style. The revolutionary website has established itself as the means for disclosing information that governments and major corporations would rather keep under wraps. In doing so – most notably revealing record-breaking bundles of classified information relating to the Iraq and Afghanistan – it has attracted a barrage of criticism.

Nevertheless, the site – which bills itself as ‘a multijurisdictional public service’ and has published more than 75,000 US military intelligence reports about the war in Afghanistan and, more recently, 400,000 classified US documents about the Iraq War and 250,000 State Department cables – has its fervent supporters. The executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, for instance, has described the site as a ‘journalistic necessity’... Continue reading.

IBA International Bar News, December 2010

The use of social media opens up almost infinite corporate and individual possibilities. Ben Rigby assesses how in-house counsel can make best use of social media for themselves and their employers.

Edinburgh on a dreary October day. Delegates to the Law Society of Scotland's In-House Lawyers Group's Annual Symposium sit attentively. A tall, bespectacled man has started his presentation engaging and loquaciously. The names he conjures up to the audience seem unusual. But then he mentions one in particular. A ripple of recognition sweeps through the room on sight of the familiar blue and white logo. Heads nod. The logo is Facebook's. The subject is social media. The speaker, Struan Robertson, editor of Pinset Mason's award-winning IT law blog, OUTLAW, was outlining the challenges and possibilities of social media for in-house lawyers ahead... Continue reading.

IBA In-House Perspective January 2011

Diana Bentley

With social networking websites (SNS) playing an ever increasing role in everyday life, companies are continuing to explore how best to exploit this new communication tool. However, they also need to set clear, detailed policies for their staff when using SNS for work purposes or when discussing the company in their free time.

They may be relatively new creations but their business is booming. Social networking websites (SNS) that enable members to form links with other users have created vast, global online communities. Chief among them are Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter – all established since 2003. The number of users is growing exponentially and SNS continue to proliferate. While employee use of SNS may deliver real advantages for organisations, it can also involve a range of challenging issues including loss of productivity, negative publicity, disclosure of confidential information and legal claims. But many organisations are positively regulating employee use of SNS with specific policies that provide good guidance for employees and lessen the legal risks involved...Continue reading

IBA In-House Perspective January 2011