Monthly Archives: September 2009

REUTERS | Ricardo Moraes

There is a legal textbook which illustrates the varying tests of responsibility in relation to a glass of water falling off a table.

  • Deliberate act – a man hits the glass with a baseball bat and it falls to the ground and smashes.
  • Recklessness – the man is dancing wildly around the room and knocks the glass off the table with a high kick.
  • Negligence – the man is sitting at the table having an animated conversation and knocks the glass over with his elbow.
  • Strict liability – the man is lying on the floor asleep at one end of the room. The glass is on a table at the other end of the room and it falls off for no apparent reason.

I suppose that the more imaginative amongst you might argue that the last example may well qualify as force majeure, but let’s not overcomplicate this… Continue reading

REUTERS | Navesh Chitrakar

Edward Davies has written a blog post about time, and the balance lawyers have to strike between giving their advice in the timescale required by the client, and also ensuring that they take sufficient time to ensure that that advice is correct.

In an adjudication context, as an adjudicator, time is the most challenging aspect of all. Continue reading

REUTERS |

When I was at university each department produced a T-shirt with what we would now call a “corporate strap-line”, intended to convey the essence of their area of expertise. I have to confess that I can’t remember what the law department’s T-shirt said; we are talking over 30 years ago.

The best of all the T-shirts was from the psychology department which featured a pair of piercing blue eyes with the words “we understand you” printed below… Continue reading

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