A new blog

[MrMeaner]

Hi guys,

I haven't been around here for a while. Off season does that to a bloke. In the meantime, I have set up a blog. I talk about whatever takes my fancy at the time. Some of it is undoubtedly complete rubbish. Hopefully, there is something decent amongst the dross.

There is nothing footy related there yet but no doubt once the season gets going I won't be able to help myself.

So, if you are interested in seeing what an over-educated lefty lawyer and (new) PhD student thinks (and let's face it, who doesn't) head over to here.

MrM

PS. If you head over to the blog, you will see my true identity.

 

[The Smaller Warrior]

Easy mate,

Will check it out when I get a moment.

Mine as: www.matt-tarrant.com

Cheers

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

......So, if you are interested in seeing what an over-educated lefty lawyer and (new) PhD student thinks (and let's face it, who doesn't) head over to here.

MrM

PS. If you head over to the blog, you will see my true identity.

What's you PhD topic MrM?

 

[MrMeaner]

What's you PhD topic MrM?

I'm going back to my first love, history. I'm looking at prosecutions for seditious libel in eighteenth-century England. So, something that is relevant for all of us.

 

[MrMeaner]

On the off chance that my post revealing my PhD topic has not put you to sleep, I have more detail here, which probably will.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

So was Gandhi's act of marching 300kms+ to the sea with followers and making salt and avoiding paying the tax on salt an act of sedition??

When he was arrested a month later after hundred of thousand others took up this act of civil disobedience, was he arrested for sedition or something else???

 

[MrMeaner]

I'm sorry REH but my knowledge of Gandhi is woefully inadequate. From the brief bit of googling I did this morning, it seems that he was arrested and charged with sedition in the 1920s but this was before the salt march. I'm not sure what the charges were after the salt march, or even if there was a charge.

The kind of sedition I am interested in is seditious words, that is, speech that is said to incite people to rebellion. In the eighteenth-century, that was what the concept of sedition was limited to (at least in the law). There were other charges that were used for actual civil disobedience and unrest - usually treason.

It is the evolution of the right to freedom of political speech that is my main interest. That's why I am looking at the eighteenth century.

If you are interested in high profile cases in which sedition has been alleged, the most recent is in relation to Arundhati Roy after a speech she gave in which she said that Kashmir 'had never been an integral part of India' (see here).

The most recent Australian cases were in the 1940s and involved members of the Communist Party (see R v Sharkey).

 

[tribey]

Blog/Doctorate needs more Ally McBeal.

 

[Powerstufff]

G'day MM
We met very briefly when I was in Melbourne years ago, I can't remember how i knew you were a BF poster unless we had arranged to meet. Am I correct that you later went out with a lady with a username also based on a clever law based pun? Anyway I read this today which might interest you if you haven't already seen it or its source material.

Blog/Doctorate needs more Ally McBeal.

Here's an item for you tribey

 

[tribey]

Here's an item for you tribey

Finally have a reason to watch Leno for the first time since he knifed Coco. {=0P

 

[MrMeaner]

G'day MM
We met very briefly when I was in Melbourne years ago, I can't remember how i knew you were a BF poster unless we had arranged to meet. Am I correct that you later went out with a lady with a username also based on a clever law based pun? Anyway I read this today which might interest you if you haven't already seen it or its source material.

Thanks for the link Powerstufff. I hadn't seen it yet. Yep we arranged to meet before a game over here.

I'm not sure who you are talking about in the second part of your post. I have not (knowingly) gone out with anyone else on BF.

And tribey, I think you're right. Ally McBeal captured the essence of legal practice - the unisex toilets, getting out at a decent hour each night to drink with workmates and cases that resolve in 45 mins. It is remiss of me to not acknowledge it. Consider me chastised.

 

[Powerstufff]

.....I'm not sure who you are talking about in the second part of your post. I have not (knowingly) gone out with anyone else on BF......

I must have imagined it then, something about 'briefs' no doubt.

 

[malph]

So, if you are interested in seeing what an over-educated lefty lawyer and (new) PhD student thinks (and let's face it, who doesn't) head over to here.

Don't do it. Run away.

Nah, good luck! It's fun and exciting for about the first five weeks.