All articles by Jonathan Goldsmith – Page 39
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EU language war sparked by patents proposal
The other side of the coin of the EU’s welcome inclusiveness and multilingualism is that some things are made worse by it.
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What about the European courts?
Courts have problems, like everyone else. In the UK, there will be much heat over the coming months over the closure programme announced by the government.
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Some lessons for the Legal Services Board
The Legal Services Board can take a leaf out of the American Bar Association’s book when planning its next radical review of legal services.
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Could Beethoven have been a lawyer?
As the euro and the idea of Europe go into freefall, as the UK’s debts mount and swingeing cuts take place, let us talk about something really important: why is it that so few great artists have been lawyers?
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The secret world of GATS
There is a small body of rootless cosmopolitans who meet in windowless hotel rooms a few times a year to discuss the ins and outs of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) as it affects lawyers: free trade agreements, most favoured nation status, mutual recognition, the whole shebang. ...
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A day in the life of an international legal conference attendee
The flowering season for that most exotically located of plants, the international legal conference, has begun. It runs from May to October. It does not mean that there are no legal conferences outside those months...
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You are an EU citizen: do something about it
Much ink has been spilled recently about what it felt like to be a UK citizen during the changes leading to the coalition government – we were being ignored/our wishes were being followed; we were voting for change/we did not know what we wanted; etc (in each case, delete ...
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Lawyers getting connected in the EU
The cliche brands of Facebook, Skype and Google tell us how we have become intimately interconnected, wherever we live on the planet. There will obviously be more of it in the future. One of the great, unsung advantages of the EU is that it is preparing us – not for ...
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The law is about quality not nationality
The news grows worse in the eurozone. The tardiness of leaders to come to the rescue of Greece has made a crisis for all of us, and leads me to think about the role of nationality in the EU, with a particular focus on how it plays out in the ...
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Give a little whistle!
I am playing Jiminy Cricket this week, trying to keep you on the straight and narrow – in relation to views about the European Union: 'If you start to slide, give a little whistle! Give a little whistle!'
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A five-year Action Plan for justice in the EU
The UK has been going through waves of Cleggmania, but has largely ignored the EU as it undergoes the process of how it will be governed for the next five years. Now the EU has published its own plans for the next five years in the justice sector.
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In memory of Joanna Agacka-Indecka
Last weekend, I was on one of the beautiful country walks which abound around Brussels when I received a text message from my president, to say that the head of the Polish delegation to the CCBE and president of the Polish Bar Council, Joanna Agacka-Indecka, had been among the victims ...
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Europe and the law – an embarrassment at election time
I have read that UK citizens are already bored by the general election. Before you have glazed over entirely, let me offer some insights into the corner that concerns me: the junction of law and Europe.
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All you need to know about victims of crime in the EU
Since we are entering a general election period, it is timely to speak of a group that will be a focus for pledges and one-upmanship all round: victims of crime. Crime victims are high on the European Commission’s agenda, too. This
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D-I-V-O-R-C-E, EU style
The new justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, took to the stage this week as the country-and-western singer, Tammy Wynette. With big blonde wig and microphone, she belted out her hit from the 1960s, D-I-V-O-R-C-E. Although the member states in the audience had dressed in their Stetsons, string ties, and snakeskin boots, ...
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Lawyers and torture: should we see the memos?
One of the characteristics of the US is that they take good things to excess - witness their presidential election process, or the 37 different varieties of salad dressing offered in a deli. At present, they are taking another good thing to excess: arguing over the role of lawyers in ...
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Gunfight at the EU Corral?
We had a glimpse of the future this week. There was a shoot-out at the EU Corral involving the new justice commissioner and the member states. The weapon used was the Lisbon Treaty, and the quarrel broke out, beyond the tumbleweed and swinging saloon doors, over the need for minimum ...
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Lord Ashcroft isn’t the only one with tax problems
This is a good week in which to speak about another group of people – apart from non-domiciled peers of the realm – who are currently having problems with taxes in different parts of Europe. Lawyers have their tax problems, too.
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A new judicial architecture for Europe
The reference to judicial architecture in the title is not to the buildings in which judges sit and decide cases – although if that is your interest, there is a European group for people who share your hobby. There is a European group to cater for nearly every taste.
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Is our fear of identity cards harming us?
Here is a topic to raise the blood pressure of every patriotic UK citizen. Whereas on the continent, benign democratic societies flourish with a population which carries ID cards, somehow it is thought that darkness will descend on the UK if ID cards are ever introduced.