(Re-)Setting the Scholarly Agenda on Transjudicial Communication

We consider the contributions made by Robert H. Bork's Coercing Virtue (2003) and Anne-Marie Slaughter's A New World Order (2004) to the ongoing debate over the citation of foreign law in United States courts. While empirically minded sociolegal scholars might be tempted to dismiss these books as mere op-eds, that would be a mistake. Taken with the spate of other recent work, they supply the makings of an agenda for rigorous research devoted to understanding the exchange of law among nations.     

Is it a fair deal to tell tales on the tabloids?

Legal context. A recent High Court judgment, Fraser-WoodwardLimited v BBC and Brighter Pictures Limited, is of key interestto those that use or advise upon the use of copyright materialfor the purposes of criticism or review. Key points. This case involved the use of newspaper photographsof David and Victoria Beckham in a television documentary aboutthe relationship between celebrities and the press. The programmeillustrated its theme using screenshots of tabloid newspaperpages, which inevitably included a number of photographs. Theclaimant was the copyright holder in respect of a number ofthe photographs, and alleged that their reproduction in theTV programme was an infringement of copyright. The defendantssuccessfully relied upon the fair dealing and incidental inclusiondefences to copyright infringement. Practical significance. Although each fair dealing case willultimately turn on its own facts, Mann J gave a very usefulreview of the state of copyright law in this difficult area.