Search engines and Internet defamation: Of publication and legal responsibility

When the Internet user keys a search term and clicks “enter”, a series of snippets, images and html links will appear typically running into several web pages. In the case of Autocomplete suggestions, the result appearing on the bar changes with each keystroke even before the user clicks “enter”. As a result, in the course of finding search results from the original search term, the user is constantly provided with suggestions of other search terms. The search results and Autocomplete suggestions may be defamatory of individuals and businesses by associating them with dishonest and improper activities or conduct. Should search engines be regarded as a publisher of such defamatory search results and/or Autocomplete suggestions? What is the appropriate legal approach for establishing search engine responsibility in such instances? The paper considers the above questions by reference to case precedents drawn primarily from common law jurisdictions and commentaries on the liability of search engines and other Internet intermediaries as well as policy rationales and considerations.     

Distorting Fundamental Norms of International Law to Resurrect the Soviet Union: The International Law Context of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Netherlands International Law Review - Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which commenced on 24 February 2022 represented just the latest, albeit most devastating, intervention in a neighbouring...     

Plank fence penetration into automobiles-implications for prevention initiatives

The wooden plank fence presents a deadly but unrecognized hazard to motorists. We hypothesize that fence plank injury is prevalent and results in significant morbidity and mortality. Databases of the University of Kentucky's Level I Trauma Center and the Fayette County Coroner were retrospectively analyzed over a 12-year period (1995-2006). One hundred and twenty-eight subjects were involved in vehicle contact with wooden plank fences. One hundred and twenty-three subjects were evaluated at the Emergency Department of our trauma center; 35 (27%) had a patient-plank interaction (PPI). Men (30/35) were more frequently involved (86%), and average age was 32.8 years. Thirty-two (91%) were drivers; 14/35 (40%) died from PPI-related injuries. The most common cause of death was blunt head trauma in 13 of these 14 fatally injured subjects (93%). This study provides new data underscoring the frequency, lethality, and economic consequences of this injury mechanism. Further research is needed to quantify the national prevalence of this problem and develop injury-mitigating strategies pertaining to roadway or fence design.     

Assessing Jail Inmates' Proneness to Shame and Guilt: Feeling Bad About the Behavior or the Self?

This study of 550 jail inmates (379 male and 171 female) held on felony charges examines the reliability and validity of the Test of Self Conscious Affect -Socially Deviant Version (TOSCA-SD; Hanson & Tangney, 1996) as a measure of offenders' proneness to shame and proneness to guilt. Discriminant validity (e.g., vis-à-vis self-esteem, negative affect, social desirability/impression management) and convergent validity (e.g., vis-à-vis correlations with empathy, externalization of blame, anger, psychological symptoms, and substance use problems) was supported, paralleling results from community samples. Further, proneness to shame and guilt were differentially related to widely used risk measures from the field of criminal justice (e.g., criminal history, psychopathy, violence risk, antisocial personality). Guilt-proneness appears to be a protective factor, whereas there was no evidence that shame-proneness serves an inhibitory function. Subsequent analyses indicate these findings generalize quite well across gender and race. Implications for intervention and sentencing practices are discussed.