May 20, 2006
Blawgs Abroad: WAC? Catalogue of The West and Asia Nearing Completion.
"Americans do tend to think that the rest of the world is rather far away and not terribly important." Delia Venables, UK legal IT commentator, in UK's Law Gazette, March 2, 2006.
On Friday, May 26, look to this site for the completion of our ongoing catalogue of active non-U.S. legal weblogs for the following countries and jurisdictions:
I The West
Canada
United Kingdom
Ireland
Sweden
The Netherlands
France
Spain
Portugal
Germany
Poland
Switzerland
European Union
South Africa
Australia
New Zealand
II Asia
China
Hong Kong
Japan
Korea
Singapore
India
Posted by JD Hull at 02:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 23, 2006
Round III of It's All Happening At the Zoo: Australian/New Zealand Blawgs?
Any good and active Australian or New Zealand blawgs out there? Australia is now a "player" and, hey, these folks like to trade, fight, talk and hold forth, too. For background, see this February post on the attempt to put together a list of good non-US blogs in English. So far we've done western European and China blogs. Bill Gratsch's well-known and much visited Blawg.org has collected quite a few blawgs for a number of foreign jurisdictions, including Australia--but I'd like to know what you and the Australian/NZ blawgers think. So pitch us. Courting Disaster, by a Melbourne lawyer now in Cambridge seems like a lively one. So does Australian Legal Eye, which also covers New Zealand and Asia Pacific markets. Any others?
J. Daniel Hull
Posted by JD Hull at 10:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 10, 2006
Human and Naked: Brits Who Blawg--Part 2
Interesting statistics from The Economist: In 2000, the United Kingdom had a population of about 60 million, and the US had 285 million, or close to 5 times as many people as the UK. Yet in 100 years between 1901 and 2001 the UK boasted 88 Nobel Prize winners (most of them English) and the US 179. So the UK hatches 50% as many Nobel Laureates as the US with an overall talent pool one-fifth the size.
Moreover, 60 of the 88 UK Nobel prizes were in Chemistry, Physics or Medicine. So Brits [heart] science and "tech", too--and they are obviously very good at it. In legal tech and IP, here are two more Brits who blawg with great sites:
1. Justin Patten at Human Law, subtitled "Law, Technology and People" combines, in a novel and interesting way, IP and Employment Law. This is an active blog by a guy in Hertfordshire, just north of Greater London, who can both write and cover the issues even-handedly.
2. Naked Law, "UK Technology Law Laid Bare by Cambridge Lawyers" is written by the Cambridge office of London-based Mills & Reeve, a relatively large UK firm. It focuses on legal and regulatory developments affecting IT and technology in the UK. I'm going to monitor this one as well--lots of talented people in this key UK firm.
Posted by JD Hull at 02:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 07, 2006
Brits Who Blawg with Attitude.
Our firm's practice has taken us to the southern UK quite a bit: London, Suffolk, Kent, and Cardiff, Wales. During one of those trips I detoured to Lindsey, in Suffolk, a still tiny village where my mother's side of the family left in 1632 via Ipswich, England to go to a place called Groton, Massachusetts, named for another tiny village near Lindsey. I got hooked on the countryside, and on the people, too. So I like the English. Not because I "claim" them, or even that they claim me. Indeed, English clients and lawyer friends alike used to openly worry that socially I'm too outgoing and "American friendly" for tea time.
It's true that the English are wordier than Yanks; it's also true that they are about 10 times more careful than Americans are about what actually comes out of their mouths. Socially, an American is always an embarrassing accident waiting to happen. Brits assess the terrain.
But whether they admit it or not--and they generally won't--Brits are very much like Americans, and in ways other than government, law and a shared language base. They mix humor with business, they are driven, they address personal and professional difficulties with optimism, self-deprecation and grit. And they vent, rant and even attack like us. In this sense, two of the English legal weblogs I discovered in our search for good non-U.S. blawgs are operated by true American cousins:
1. Diary of a Criminal Solicitor by "Gavin", who gives you detailed and funny blow-by-blow tours of his often frustrating days through Legal London, along with sounding off about "anything and everything" that gets up his nose; and
2. Geeklawyer, by an IP lawyer who once did R&D in the U.S. for the "evil American empire" and who blogs about IP, civil liberites, the legal system, and "angry liberal" things. He's got a motorcyle named "Ruthie", too.
Both of these are worthy reads-- besides, these guys are fun.
Posted by JD Hull at 02:09 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 06, 2006
Calling All "Foreign" Blawgs: "Amazing Countries, Amazing Practices!"
And often with legal systems amazingly similar to our own--apologies to Gerry Riskin but I love his blog and its name.
Any more re: western Europe or Asia blawgs out here?...Rupert White at the UK's Law Gazette--a magazine with circulation of 110,000 published by The Law Society of England and Wales, the regulatory and representative body for 116,000 solicitors--was kind enough to do an article about our efforts at What About Clients? to identify, link with and learn from non-U.S. blawgs. The article is "US Litigator Reaches Out To Euro Blogs". In the interest of disclosure, the bracketed expression "[an exercise in navel-gazing]" in the article's quote of me was a prudent and kind substitution by Rupert of my characterization of the sometimes insular nature of American blawging. (I had used the term "wankfest".) Anyway, to break that pattern, a few weeks ago we started asking for recommendations on active but good western Euopean blawgs and Asia blawgs. The idea is at the February 23 post in "It's All Happening At The Zoo". The results so far are in the comments and linked to this site.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 02, 2006
Once Again: Asia Law Blawgs, Anyone?
So far Tom Welshonce and I have located (and listed on this site) U.S./China-based China Law Blog by Seattle's Harris & Moure and ChinaBlawger by Beijing's well-known IP and business firm Lehman, Lee & Xu, founded years ago by my visionary IBLC friend Ed Lehman. Any other active and worthwhile English versions ones out there?
Posted by JD Hull at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 26, 2006
Round Two: Asia Blawgs?
Are there any good and active (updated at least weekly) China law, Japan law or other Asia blawgs out there you can recommend? See February 23 post. I'm still interested in locating legal weblogs currently available in English which either (1) originate in or (2) are about jurisdictions outside of North America. This week is Asia week.
Posted by JD Hull at 07:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 21, 2006
Revisited: European blawgs anyone?
I'm still compiling a list of active worthwhile European legal blogs--especially those originating from or about the UK, Germany and France (English versions if possible), western Europe generally and the European Union. I've received some good responses (in comments to February 16 post) If anyone else of any nationality can recommend European sites they like and visit frequently, I would appreciate it.
Posted by JD Hull at 07:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 16, 2006
European blawgs anyone?
I'm compiling a list of active worthwhile European legal blogs--especially those originating from or about the UK, Germany and France (English versions if possible), western Europe generally and the European Union. If anyone of any nationality can recommend European sites they like and visit frequently, I would appreciate it.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:35 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack