RSS FeedInternational Intervention in Libya
By David Olevson and Ekaterina Perchenok
With the conflict in Libya and throughout the Middle East escalating every day, we must keep conscious of the inherent bias of our news outlets. While our hearts go out to civilians caught in the line of fire in this wave of unrest, collective international reaction must be carefully planned and scrutinized, as the possible consequences could be devastating with regards to human rights and casualties.
If the course of the international intervention in Libya is anything to go by, we seem to have forgotten some of the important humanitarian lessons learned in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. So far, several hundred missiles have been deployed, with the total civilian casualties remaining unknown. There have even been reports of child soldiers being recruited. Regardless of one’s stance on the general legality of this intervention, with no end in sight, the events are becoming more troubling each day.
UN Security Council Resolution 1973 authorized “all necessary measures” to protect the civilian population in Libya from pro-Gaddafi forces. The resolution demands an immediate ceasefire and a political (rather than military) resolution to the conflict. While the resolution clearly states in paragraph 4 that “all necessary measures” are to be taken to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack, it explicitly excludes sanctioned occupation. This statement is, without a doubt, an admirable ambition. The document also recognizes the important role of the League of Arab States to the legitimacy of this international response. This recognition is a significant acknowledgment of the complex regional tensions and geopolitics on a grander scale. Despite these attempts at added legitimacy, the document lacks in several areas. It does not provide for any definition or limitations on what course of action may be followed, it does not state which countries should take leadership roles or even which will participate, and the only limiting criteria within the resolution is the exclusion of sanctioned occupation. (For more on the Resolution, click here)
International intervention is now nearing its second week in Libya, with no end in sight. Some have even speculated that it may be months before an end is reached. If we are to prevent a new generation of child soldiers from being used for civil war, countless casualties and the further displacement of large groups of people, decisions must not be rash and must be carefully scrutinized. While we may want to help those being abused by a brutal dictator, the outcome of our response must not result in a prolonged civil war. While revolutions provide exiting headlines for Western news outlets, the West quickly becomes bored as new crises appear. Societal and social infrastructure problems are not solved by brief limelight and donations for the ‘cause of the day’, the problems must be solved with careful social building blocks that take years to reinforce. Only then can the issues be solved, and hopefully children be spared from the dim future they likely face.
For further reading, you may find this and this interesting.
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David Olevson and Ekaterina Perchenok are first year law students at the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University. David received his undergraduate degree from Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario, majoring in Political Science. Ekaterina completed her degree at York University, specializing in Global Political Studies.
Jason Kenney’s Failed Immigration Reforms
Jim Creskey at The Embassy:
Kenney—with some help from Prime Minister Harper and Public Safety Minister Vic Toews—used the arrival of two boatloads of Tamil asylum seekers in an attempt to prod public opinion toward the idea that “bogus” refugee claimants were overrunning Canada.
Pretending to punish smugglers—who were largely phantoms out of reach of Canadian authority—he put forward Bill C-49, which resolutely set out policies that would punish the refugees themselves.
C-49 was a profoundly flawed piece of work that proposed building special prisons for refugees who had the good luck to escape to Canada from foreign murder and mayhem but the bad luck to have been caught using the help of a smuggler. Further punishments included the withholding of family reunions as well as healthcare and other services.
It was a strategy that promised to sweep up more votes from ordinary Canadians who could be sold the idea that they needed to be protected from a flood of illegal arrivals. It was pure theatre, with the two ministers and even the prime minister turning up at the two rusting hulks, the Ocean Lady and the Sun Sea, to promote their bill, the extremely wordy Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada’s Immigration System Act.
Facebook ‘Friend Poaching’
When was the last time you sent a friend request on Facebook? When was the last time you got sued for it? Complexions v Complexions Day Spa & Facebook, is, according to Santa Clara Internet Law professor Eric Goldman, the first case to involve Facebook ‘friend poaching‘.
The case is currently in front of the New York Northern District Court, and involves two spas doing business under similar trade names, and Facebook. The plaintiff spa notified Facebook of a trademark infringement, which prompted Facebook to remove the page. For this action, the plaintiff is seeking damages in lost sales and marketing potential.
The plaintiff is further claiming that the defendant spa knowingly ‘friended’ it’s customers to the defendant spa’s own Facebook page, creating an unfair advantage for the defendant spa. For this, the plaintiff is seeking injunctive relief and monetary damages.
The case is yet to be decided, and according to Goldman, it’s likely to be the first of many such cases. Among the keen to see how this case unfolds is American University blogger, Dana Nicoletti, who notes that “it will be extremely interesting to see how the Northern District of New York treats these contentions, and how other businesses react to a decision.” Whatever the decision, businesses will have to think twice the next time they so much as log onto Facebook.
The Virtual Lawyer
So, you’ve slogged your way through law school and you survived the Bar exam. And, perhaps only now you’re realizing even the 75th percentile doesn’t add up to an office, much less a corner office, and all those pamphlets you read three years ago were a bit of a hoodwink.
Instead of remaining virtually a lawyer after law school (i.e., all that fresh-minted lawyer status without that lawyer job), maybe you should start thinking of a life as a virtual lawyer.
If you’ve got the GPA and a nice internship or two under your belt, then this information is not for you. In fact, you’re probably so deep in your firm’s pocket you don’t have time for this kind of light reading, or you’re using the four free hours you have a week to spend your outrageous paycheck.
For the rest of us, though, the explosive growth of ecommerce has sowed a fertile land where we can plant a virtual shingle, or contract our work out to digital firms.
Web sites like LegalZoom.com are getting the jump on providing people with legal documents that enable them to handle their legal affairs pro se – without attorneys. Considering this shift toward legal autonomy, it pays for attorneys to think about ways to attract Internet clientele to their services via the Internet.
And, Web businesses are catching on.
Employment hubs like Elance.com have set aside specific areas for online legal services. Here, clients can post their legal issues and potential legal representatives bid to win contracts on those services. It is revolutionizing the way people think about approaching the legal industry.
Imagine – instead of calling Ajax Legal Services and setting up an appointment (which hopefully includes a free consultation), clients just describe what they need and let lawyers bid each other out.
So, you say to yourself, “That sounds horrible. Why would I want to waste my time achieving the lowest bid to do a ton of legal work?” The answer is – what else are you doing?
While law school grads in Canada face a different environment than US law grads, numbers from the US legal market suggest new lawyers still face challenges in finding legal employment after graduation. A Northwestern Law Study found that 15,000 legal jobs at large US law firms have vanished since 2008. And according to a report by the National Association for Legal Career Professionals on fall 2010 law school recruiting, “entry-level recruiting volumes have not returned to anything like the levels measured before the recession”.
The short story is you’ve got to gut it out and get with the times if you really want to practice law. And now, the virtual route is just as viable as the traditional route if you’re willing to face the competition and do your time in the trenches.
What about jurisdiction and providing legal services across state lines, you ask? That’s a good question. You can be on the cutting edge, and companies like DirectLaw.com are paving the way.
If you’re unconvinced, use the most valuable skill you likely learned in law school – networking – and coordinate with other disenfranchised attorneys to organize your own multi-jurisdictional conglomerate.
It’s not impossible. It’s the future.
James Madeiros is a recent law school grad and staff writer at Criminal Justice Degree Schools, a resource site for criminal justice degrees and careers.
Equity & Diversity Pre-Law Internship Program Proposal
See below for an initiative by Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
Equity & Diversity Pre-Law Internship Program Proposal
Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP (the “Firm”) has a strong commitment to providing legal services in a workplace which is rich in perspectives, backgrounds and cultures. In achieving this commitment, starting in the summer of 2011 the Firm wishes to offer an opportunity for an undergraduate student from a Canadian University to work in a law firm environment focussing on equity and diversity initiatives within the Firm. Currently our plan is to run the Internship in either May or June.
By creating an Equity & Diversity Pre-Law Internship Program, this will result in the creation of a position within the Firm’s Toronto office to work on equity and diversity initiatives and projects within the Firm (the “Pre-Law Internship”).
The Pre-Law Internship will provide an opportunity for an undergraduate student who is considering law school to gain work experience in a law firm environment, to observe lawyers in the workplace and to perform a variety of tasks and work on specific projects in the areas of equity and diversity. The Firm will define the scope of the tasks and activities for the Intern.
In addition to fostering a working relationship with the student who is awarded the Pre-Law Internship, another benefit of the program will be the development of a mutually beneficial relationship between the Firm and the participating Universities. Moreover, the students will benefit from exposure to life in a law firm and lawyers may act as a mentor to the student who has future career aspirations in law.
The Firm would be responsible for:
- providing the Intern with a variety of activities and tasks as well as to ensure a positive experience at the Firm;
- providing the Intern with feedback and evaluation on tasks performed;
- compensating the Intern for a 4 week period at a rate of $20/hour.
Interested applicants should email their application to Kari Abrams, Director of Student Recruitment and Development at kari.abrams@blakes.com.
Agenda: Access to Justice
Justice Gloria Epstein, Dean Lorne Sossin, Matt Cohen, Judith McCormick, and OBA President Lee Akazaki on The Agenda with Steve Paikin:
Law School Hustlin II
Mike Lickver and Jesse Mighton do it again.
From 3 Kilometres to 3 Clicks Away
Most law students are not strangers to the limitless potential of the internet. The internet has been tamed for us to apply to write the LSAT(s), apply to law schools, receive our acceptance(s), select our courses, pay our tuition, download slides for some classes (which offer them), networking, blogging, applying for jobs, et cetera.
However, that list is currently missing an important use of the internet that law students should (arguably) have access to: online lectures of law school classes (in audio, video, or both).
If law students had the option of physically attending class or virtually attending class, which do you think they would prefer? Think both. Why should law students be “falsely imprisoned” into choosing how to attend class. The real issue here is that law students should have the CHOICE of attending class either virtually or physically.
The technology to enable this important choice is prevalent throughout our society. Podcasts, YouTube videos, and even online universities have allowed online learning and education to become reality – just three clicks away – instead of three kilometres away.
But who would benefit? Many mature students have revealed to me that law school is like an insatiable hunger that ravishes their time. I would even assert that the same comment applies to traditional students straight out of university. Law school undoubtedly sprints by and the pace can approach the speed of sound; hence, online lectures would allow students (mature or traditional) to choose the pace at which they can run (or walk) through the lectures. How I wish I could pause the professors in some of my classes and press rewind! Moreover, online lectures would offer students the flexibility to “attend” class according to their preferred time. Many nocturnal students would agree. Even the law school administration would potentially benefit from admitting more students, albeit some law students currently looking for jobs would raise an eyebrow to this.
While there is a plethora of advantages and disadvantages to carving out this choice for law students, the discussion should begin to take place and not be left to future law school administrations or students to tackle.
In essence, why not allow law students the freedom to choose how they want to attend lectures (virtually or physically) and learn the curriculum in law school? Just because something has been engraved in the past for centuries, logic (appeal to tradition) dictates that old is not always gold.
$650,000 lap dance
A man has has accepted a substantial settlement for his injuries after he ventured too close to a stripper’s spiked heel during a lap dance. Michael Ireland claimed the stripper’s heel punctured his eye socket and broke bones in his face after she accidentally poked him in the eye with it at the Cheetah Club near West Palm Beach. Ireland accepted the club’s $650,000 settlement offer, according to Nbcmiami.com.
Natalie Fraser, Lawyers Weekly; February 4, 2011
Law is Cool wins Blawg Review of the Year
Blawg Review is an international peer-reviewed blog carnival, presenting various recent blog posts with a legal connection, traveling to different legal blogs every week. I had the pleasure of hosting Blawg Review 249 on Slaw, and Blawg Review 278 here on Law is Cool.
In Blawg Review 300, the editor at Blawg Review looked at the posts for 2010 and took various submissions from the online legal community for the Blawg Review of the Year. Last night the announcement was made that Blawg Review 278 was the winner.
This is great exposure for the site and the Canadian legal community, so let’s hope we have more Canadians hosting future Blawg Reviews in the coming year.
How to land a Job after Law School
A Glimpse into Future Recruitment: Got Game?
You may think that I’m playing with you, but a Dutch law firm – Houthoff Buruma – uses “The Game” to separate the wheat from the chaff in terms of graduating law students in the Netherlands.
