Shop talk
William Collins •
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 Application of contemporary standards to use of the F%#*-word in public … Context is everything in coming to grips with indecent language … Justice Beach shows the way in Easter egg drama

Criminal Code Amendment (State Sponsors of Terrorism) Bill 2025 ... Interacting with deemed state entities could land you in pokey ... Another layer of counter-terror law to make us all feel safer ... More >>
My Role in Gough's Downfall ... Reporter-at-Large … Scoops that flushed out the deceit behind the Dismissal … Big anniversary chinwag in Canberra on November 11 … The combined forces of Kerr, Ellicott and cousin Garfield … Constitutional manipulation … Maurice Byers to the rescue ... Read more >>

Knit one, purl one ... Iron Lady of legal rectitude endorses Gageler ... The chief justice wants judges on the straight and narrow ... The cardboard cutout model of legislative supremacy ... The evils of judicial activism ... Procrustes on the dance floor with the Legislative-Judicial Foxtrot ... Read more >>
Pay packets for top brass at the Federal Courts ... A stonking $5 million all up ... See more >>
Berlusconi's dream world ... Revenge politics in Italy ... Independence of prosecutors under attack ... Constitutional assault ... The years of lead ... Investigations reopened into old murders ... High drama at Milan's Leoncavallo ... Rome correspondent Silvana Olivetti reports ... Read more >>
"If we’re only picking people who have got completely lily-white records then we’ll be missing out on a lot of people that can contribute to public life."
NSW Premier Chris Minns, endorsing Mal Lanyon, his pick for Police Commissioner, whose contributions to public life include shouting drunken obscenities at a paramedic who came to his aid, and commandeering a police launch for private entertainment on New Year's eve ... Read more flatulence ...

Schmoozing and betrayal ... Judge Water Softener rides into Integrityville mounted high on his horse ... Judicial review of corruption finding ... Intriguing submissions ... Unprecedented assistance to morals monitor ... The scale of the sub-rosa intrigue ... Plenty to think about ... Ginger Snatch reports ... Read more >>
News Desk Special ... Angelic death notices from the bar ... Soapy slips on FOI changes ... Unusual interlocutory costs order for Chris Dale ... Judge ticks off Abbott in letters' page ... Knock About's festive salute to the coppers ... January 19, 2015 ... Read more >>
Justinian's archive
William Collins •
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 Application of contemporary standards to use of the F%#*-word in public … Context is everything in coming to grips with indecent language … Justice Beach shows the way in Easter egg drama
Tulkinghorn •
Saturday, May 22, 2010 The tricky business of making doctors liable for their negligence, while exempting lawyers from liability for theirs … With the High Court on side, how can the lawyers lose? ... Tulkinghorn teases the issue
City Desk •
Friday, May 21, 2010 Portia attended the big chinwag in Melbourne on mediation andnon-adversarial justice … She was singularly unimpressed … It put her inmind of a Billy Graham evangelical meeting … What’s happened to the old lovefor the godless adversarial joust?
Leverhulme •
Friday, May 21, 2010 Leverhulme talks to Michael White, a lad from Brisbane who chanced his armin London … Amid the fantastic challenges of his job he faced a crisis ofhis own … Despite the rewards, Queensland beckons
Magic Circle
William Collins •
Wednesday, May 19, 2010 Guthrie v News Ltd. William Collins, Justinian’s veteran observer ofMelbourne’s curial world, thinks Bruce Guthrie’s win against Harto andBlunders is on the margins of being a Pyrrhic one
Court in the Act •
Wednesday, May 19, 2010 Cross examination … Marvel at how Peter Blunden handles tight cornersin Guthriev News Ltd ... Norman O’Bryan on a roll … Tabloid temperaments flare … Tom Westbrook wades through the transcript
Court in the Act •
Wednesday, May 19, 2010 Peter Blunden works behind Bruce Guthrie’s back to have him sacked as editor of the Herald Sun ... Whether putting news about Collingwood FC on page one sells more papers … Justice Kaye’s observations about Blunden … More from the trial transcript of Guthrie v News Ltd
Percy Lo-Kit Chan •
Monday, May 17, 2010 Later aristo sons went to the bar … Now Hong Kong authorities crack down on poorer grade graduates wanting to be barristers … Right of audience for solicitors expanded … English structure on its last legs … Percy summons ghosts of halcyon days
Roger Fitch Esq •
Monday, May 17, 2010 Terror trial dramas … The Omar Khadr case where the crimes are unknown to the law of war … Manipulating the Military Commission system … New rule that a law of war conviction doesn’t require a law of war violation … Pentagon bans four leading reporters from Guantánamo
Guantanamo,
Law of war,
Military Commissions
City Desk •
Thursday, May 13, 2010 The Opposition is complaining about too much spending … However, it’s not so bad if the government over-spends on Liberal Party pals … Never has a satisfactory answer been given as to why Credit Suisse’s OzCar fee got bigger as the scheme got smaller … Another infamous email from party mole Godwin Grech … Samantha Bowers investigates
City Desk •
Thursday, May 13, 2010 CSR’s brush with Corporate Social Responsibility … Submissions about “commercial morality” frequently are a recipe for disaster … Professor Michael Adams* examines how and why CSR Ltd differs from James Hardie
Thursday, May 13, 2010 Life at Big Law in Japan has parallels with the chimera of the cherry blossoms … All very delicate … Awkward questions take hold in the middle of the night … You’ve arrived on Sugar Mountain, so why the thoughts of kamikaze?
Polly Peck •
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 Outpouring of ennui at the return of Turnbull – freshly repackaged man of principle … Why do allegedly “moderate” Liberals sound so extreme? – The case of George (Soapie) Brandis … Quintet tunes-up … Attorney General’s big ticket budget items
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 A failed milk empire … When a Chinese mainland enterprise registered in The Caymans goes bust the Enterprise Bankruptcy Lawis not much help to investors … Things looking better for creditors of Virgin Islands based Chinese businesses … Still, Honkers remains the pre-eminent financial centre in the region … Percy Lo-kit Chan reports
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 Matters of the heart and mind … Viscount Castlereagh showed Sin City how to get things done … Law and old rope … Plenty of options for Sir Joh’s kaolin … Effrontery aplenty
Bar Talk •
Sunday, May 9, 2010 Much ado … Roger Gyles QC says the silk consultation process is “superficial” ... Selection committee needs to be more rigorous … Some of the major shortcomings in the present system exposed, but by no means all … Bar ‘n’ grill ponders
Deja Vu •
Tuesday, May 4, 2010 There’s no end to the Michael Kirby story … Legal justice chases social justice … Love at first sight, despite the odd clothing
Friday, April 30, 2010 Lawyers can’t write properly … Some can’t talk proper … Now it’s infecting the secretaries … Vicki Mole remembers the Plain English training she got as an articled clerk … It comes in handy
Last year, my secretary was rockin’ the Baltimore street slang, Stringer Bell stylie.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 Remember NSW Supreme Court Justice David Yeldham? ... The powers-that-be knew of his activities in the railway toilets of the underground, but looked the other way … The Police Royal Commission’s final report tracked the history of inaction by ICAC and the Judicial Commission … From Justinian’s hard copy archive, September 1997
Tulkinghorn •
Tuesday, April 27, 2010 Last week Vic CJ Marilyn Warren told a room of journalists that “judges don’t spin” ... Oh yes they do … Some of them not very cleverly … What Marilyn needs is proper spin training from Spiggsie Spigelman … Tulkinghorn investigates ...
Jim Spigelman,
Marilyn Warren