Legal Rigidity and Digital Fluidity: Relationships between the State and the Internet

This paper shall focus on the transformative nature of technology, namely in facilitating criminal and terrorist activity and the unique challenges to regulation. The Internet requires a re-examination of static concepts of territorial boundaries and legal jurisdictions which contribute to uncertainty in regulation.

Law and the Quest for Autonomy in the Western Tradition

This paper shall focus on the evolving features of autonomy and normativity in Western societies. The autonomy of Law as a product of deliberate will, regardless of other metaphysical or scientific considerations, is perpetually questioned in modern discussions of legality.

Does the insanity plea allow the infringement of the public’s right to security or is taking away the plea an infringement of yours?

This paper will focus on an assessment of the plea ‘not guilty by reason of insanity.’ The piece will seek to interrogate how the mentally ill are treated by the judicial system, whether the NGRI plea is reasonable, and the ways in which the legislative system must adapt to ensure that mental health is prioritised.

The Gender Recognition Act: Past, Present and Future

This article shall focus on the landmark 2004 Gender Recognition Act and associated legal cases. It will explore the legal rulings that lead to the Act being passed, the content of the Act and the impact this had on the transgender community in the UK, including subsequent legal issues.

The Case Against Rudolf Nureyev: A Legal Case Study of the KGB’s Pursuits against Defectors

This article will investigate the legal investigation against Rudolf Nureyev that led to his defection, as well as the legal limitations placed upon him by the USSR after permanently settling in the West. It will also track the legal pursuit of restrictions against the dancer by the KGB that lasted for almost his entire life.

Is Innovation a sound justification for Medical Patents?

This essay will interrogate the legality of medical patents, arguing that one ought to reject the traditional utilitarian framework often used to justify IP law. Instead, this essay will turn to a more deontological justification for IP rights in UK law.

The Limits of Liability: Anglo-American Organisations and Vicarious Liability from the 19th Century to the Present

This paper, ‘Limits of Liability’, shall focus on the recent history of the concept of vicarious liability in Anglo-American common law from the 19th century to the present.

How Should the State Interact Constitutionally with Corporations which have significant power and influence over its population? Lessons from the Impeachment of Warren Hastings, 1788-1795

How to maintain constitutional accountability over large corporations is an increasing theme in contemporary politics. The impeachment trial of Warren Hastings in 1788-1795 addressed this directly with the behaviour of the East India Trading Company. What lessons for today are illustrated by this historical trial?

Detention of Private Persons by Private Persons as a Delictual Wrong: Liability for Deprivation of Liberty in Scots Private Law

Jonathan Brown is a lecturer in Scots Private Law at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Previously he was a lecturer in law at Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University. Jonathan considers himself to be a private law generalist and dabbling legal historian. His recent publications include work on medical jurisprudence, the law of defamation and the relation between the Roman law of slavery and modern Scottish human trafficking legislation. The present essay is intended to provide a modern account which places acts amounting to wrongful detention effected by private persons within the taxonomy of iniuria.

Truth or Consequence: How the 1950s Quiz Show Scandal Shaped American Audiences

This paper offers an overview of the 1950s American quiz show scandal that revolved around the ‘rigging’ of CBS and NBC programs The $64,000 Question and Twenty-One during an unprecedented transformation and rapid growth of the postwar American media landscape.