In "annals of legal chutzpah," murderer Leopold (of "& Loeb" fame) sued to stop a film à clef (COMPULSION, a fave) about his crime, saying the fictionalized aspects hurt him in the community. Ill. Sup. Ct.: you murdered a kid; there's no fiction about you that worsens your rep.

Fascinated to learn that, though not common, it remains possible to bring a common law petition of right as a remedy in contract against the King in situations not covered by the Crown Proceedings Act 1947. Franklin v Attorney General [1974] QB 185, 201, HC per Lawson J.

Looked this up out of curiosity and it's fascinating when states (here Ohio and Oregon) insist on terms no other state uses. What other examples are there of a state using a unique name for a common offense, procedure, or law?

In keeping with the GPO style guide, the Supreme Court uses an en-dash (–) not a hyphen (-) in MS–13 (so it's not MS-13). It's an odd quirk of federal style

If you want to really annoy a lawyer, just try citing bits from law reports like you would any other book chapter ;)

The official proclamation of Australia's dissolution is not befitting the great Commonwealth… so I re-typeset it! God save the King of Australia! Pathetic original below

There's a lot of debate on the best list format for law. Some people like Roman (I,II, III or i, ii, iii), others alpha (a, b, c), others numeric (1, 2, 3). I, however, prefer the bra size method of listing, which I think is the clearest way to tabulate.

Flipping through Family Law textbook, an area that necessarily has a lot of anonymised case. But there are no less than 57 citations with the title ‘Re: A’. Petition to adopt the @legalstyle.co.uk suggestion of deploying full throated pseudonyms in www.legalstyle.co.uk/2022/12/styl...

A few excerpts from one of my favourite essays (always a delight to return to), L. Sprague de Camp’s “Language for Time Travellers”

'It is trite to say that merely preferring one party's case to that advanced by the other cannot, of itself, give rise to a sustainable claim of apparent bias.' In re Haberlin's Appl'n [2025] NIKB 13, ¶ 33, KBD per Humphreys J. www.bailii.org/nie/cases/NI...

A great judge, a true wordsmith, and an author any editor would enjoy working with.

I **ADORE** this little article from Green Bag by a federal judge explaining how he first coined a word and then worked to use it in an opinion so it could make it into Black's Law Dictionary greenbag.org/v13n2/v13n2_...

'Every cased is a story'....but this one is unusually convoluted and odd.

Just the beginning of a tale longer and more twisted than Jarndyce v. Jarndyce.

Five paragraphs in and this is looking pretty wild!

Quite an arresting opening line: 'This is an unusual probate claim in that the deceased says she is very much alive.' www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWH...

Quiz: name the case from the AI generated image!

Someone accused of criminal contempt in the Delaware Court of Chancery has a right to be considered innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of *equity*. See, e.g., State v. Klein, 123 A.2d 740 (Del. Ch. 1956).

Library catalogues should not use academic diacritics like this, meaningless and confusing and bad for typeface support, for public listings. Associate the canonical academic transliteration with a name conforming to more standard Cyrillic-English renderings…

I recently finished Nabokov's Pnin, the first book of his that I've read, and, whilst I am very late to this party… wow, what an incredible writer. The awesome adjectives and alliteration alone are astounding!

The trial of the attacker (just convicted) against Sir Salman Rushdie is a good illustration of the quirks of inchoate offences: attempted murder requires an intent to kill, yet murder doesn't. (This is basic stuff to lawyers but for non-legal followers…)

Legal academics v legal practice: an illustration

Can someone please explain to me why on earth NextDNS allows this option to be turned off?

This would be remarkably more convincing if the ABA hadn't supported the "Twenty-eighth amendment" pseudo claims. They destroyed their credibility, which is a shame, because convincing advocates for the law are needed

2 things from the memo dismissing the case against Eric Adams: 1) oddly the Dep. AG cited the Hyde Amend't [crim. not abortion] by Pub.-L. yet it's 18 U.S.C. § 3006A note. The confusion of statutory notes strikes again 2) What on earth does Vickor Bout have to do with things?

A helpful guide to avoiding a common spelling error thanks to confusion of the #severance tv show and the Prime Minister!

'It is trite law to say that each case is fact specific and that a sentencing judge has a unique feel of any case.' R v Donnelly [2025] NICA 7, para 30 per Keegan LCJ. www.bailii.org/nie/cases/NI...

I don't think I can keep watching the #severance show given that in the latest episode the same book is shown first printed in Garamond Premier Pro Caption (small optical size has distinct 'W') and then later in Times New Roman. Disgracefully poor attention to detail

NEW PEERS ALERT! Including for former Downing Street chief Sue Gray. Meanwhile… how does one pronounce Auchenroch?

I strongly endorse being so pedantic as to join in a concurrence save two footnotes

I know this slam poetry style formatting of allegations is designed to streamline a reply (paragraph 164 is denied/admitted) but it makes complaints unreadable to anyone else.

Lord Campbell was so enamoured of the index he [claimed to have] proposed a bill mandating an index in all books!

I'm so mulish about such things that, if I were in prison and a pardon came with this kind of typo, I would send the pardon back with a request for revisions before agreeing to be released.

Pop quiz: what’s the only country (to my knowledge) with a constitutional imperative to promote the Sanskrit language? It’s not India. Hint: the constitution also requires the promotion of the Greek language (ancient or modern not specified).

Please suggest—besides Polish/polish, are there other words which have capital-letter variant pronunciation in English? (Not a quiz—trying to think of capital-dependent heteronyms)

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal has held that, for contract formation purposes, the 👍emoji is valid assent. via @legalstyle.co.uk on X www.canlii.org/en/sk/skca/d...

NEW: I present, just in time to count down the year, the TOP 25 JUDICIAL SMACKDOWNS OF 2024. Sit back, grab some champagne, and enjoy the BRUTALITY from jurisdictions across the world! (link below) www.legalstyle.co.uk/2024/12/the-...

Brilliant blog piece on fox law by @legalstyle.co.uk. www.legalstyle.co.uk/2024/12/happ...

David Brooks shows his deep grasp of theology certainly not obtained by lazy googling for quotations by to fill copy by calling Simone Weil a ‘Jewish mystic’

Certainly no one would argue this is a good year for the CofE, but marking on a curve, it’s fairly hard to it an annus horribilis given 155 had the Act of 1 & 2 Phil & Mar, c 8 (an Acte repealing all Statutes Articles and Provisions made against the see Apostolick of Rome)

The Constitution Unit Blog published 57 posts in 2024 and, more importantly, Dave has been a wonderful colleague to work with (and has definitely made my job easier!) Catch some of our greatest hits 👇

This is a silly exercise but it’s the end of the year—let’s play English defamation law hypotheticals! Like being back in a media law or torts exam… the feeling we all nostalgically crave (Feel free to chime in with other jurisdictions)

I regret to inform you that the Guardian has gone full ‘freeman on the land’ and is one step away from asking if Magna Carta died in vain… ‘unconstitutional’ is an incoherent claim here showing no understanding of the British constitution.

The Ngāti Paoa Trust Board succeeded against Auckland Council in the CA and so the HC had to revisit costs. Jagose J amusingly points out that now that the Board has the upper hand its submissions on costs have done a 180. Ngāti Paoa Trust Board v Auckland Council [2024] NZHC 3872.

Trite Wednesbury!

To my immense disappointment, the note in the latest Harvard Law Review ‘equal protection prophylaxis’ is not about gender equity in birth control. 138 Harv. L. Rev. 632 (2024).

Oh we say that but it’s a lie; the law was changed specifically to indulge dangerous driving because self-centred motorist juries didn’t want to convict for manslaughter. Killing someone with a car should be charged exactly the same as any other homicide.

Style, not substance, is obviously the explanation. United States v. Monia, 317 U. S. 424, 446 (1943) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting).

The Gov UK AI is exactly as reliable as you’d expect—my drugs gang can be a charity, my seditious organisation needs only a mild licence, and my work to help Islamic State can be a community interest corporation!

If the 2028 election matchup is @mcuban.bsky.social against Marco Rubio, it would be very funny for wordplay because in a different sense the winner would be America’s first Cuban president.