Organisers of this week’s Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association’s annual conference could not have predicted that Wales would be experiencing some of the hottest weather of the year when they sourced the freebies in the delegates’ bags.
A plastic red ball attached to a keyring opened to reveal a tightly folded sheet of plastic – which turned out to be a hooded poncho (pictured) – no doubt for guests to whip on during Cardiff’s inevitable rain showers.
If that were not enough, delegates were also offered a free copy of Sir William Jones’ Essay on Bailments – volumes of which were donated by Professor Thomas Watkins KC, chair of the Welsh Legal History Society. Jones, who lived from 1746 to 1794, practised as a barrister in Wales, representing underprivileged clients against powerful interests, sometimes free of charge. He we was also a judge and a philologist.
As Gazette readers will be aware, a bailment is a legal relationship between two parties in common law, where a bailor transfers physical possession of assets or property to a bailee for a certain period of time, but retains ownership.
A note to delegates accepted that an essay on bailments might 'sound like a dry and uninteresting subject'. However in Jones’ hands it became, as described by William Searle Holdsworth’s History of English Law, 'one of the most remarkable books of the eighteenth century'.
Truly something for a rainy day.
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