BILETA 2008

Glasgow Caledonian University on 27-28 March 2008

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“Law Shaping Technology; Technology Shaping the Law”

Security and privacy of our personal information is becoming a central theme with the rise in social networking technologies and user generated content. Have sites such as Facebook and YouTube responded in a timely and effective manner to safeguard our data, whilst promoting our rights to free speech.

Technology to combat crime, and technology used to assist in crime will also be a central theme of the conference.

Proposals welcome for novel streams and expressions of interest to convene a stream in any of the following areas:

Social networking
Web 2.0 & Law 2.0
Criminal Justice
Technology & Crime
Privacy and data protection
Legal Education
Copyright and IPR

There will be a prize-winning competition for the best Postgraduate Student Paper presented at the conference.
Full papers accepted and presented at the conference will be put forward for peer-review or special editions of journals in the areas of law, technology and education.

Email abstracts of approx 500 words in MS Word or PDF to m.bromby@gcal.ac.uk before 11 Jan 2008. Early submissions and suggestions for streams (including convenors) are welcome.

ARE THERE ANY DOCTORS OR ASSOCIATES IN THE HOUSE? ABA story on whether the JD or Juris Doctor degree entitles lawyers to call themselves ‘Doctor’.

This is one of the issues I face over here in the UK, especially in academia. Many don’t think that the JD degree in the US is anything more than a second bachelors degree, which I think is totally untrue. It is a graduate degree (or postgraduate on this side of the Atlantic) that is every bit as intense as other graduate degrees, sometimes even more so. You must have an undergraduate degree to go to law school and get the JD. Texas, I should note, allows for use of the term as long as its not misleading — such as using it in a way that confuses the public that you hold an MD if you are a med mal lawyer.

Now, our profession isn’t too big on calling ourselves “Doctor”, and I’m not about to consistently rely on my JD as a reason for people to address me as such. That’s why I rely on this one.

If I can tie it in to IP law for a moment, Burns’s work is all firmly in the Public Domain and thus freely usable by all. His poem Auld Lang Syne is sung all throughout the world, especially at Hogmanay (New Year’s to the rest of the world). The Real McKenzies have a punk cover of the poem, and would not have had to pay any royalties or had any license to play it. If I wanted to subject the world to my horrible singing, I could even release an album of it.