She's Off Trekking in Malaysia..

Time immemorial:
time beyond legal memory. Not how long a late afternoon land law lecture seems to have lasted to its wearied listeners. Simply the formal beginning of English law, September 3, 1189 — the accession of Richard I. Today, an ancient custom can have the force of law, such as a right over land, if it can be shown to have existed since “time immemorial”. The Statute of Westminster in 1275 fixed 1189 as the earliest date from which evidence in land disputes could be considered because then, in 1275, a living man might be able to testify about what his father had told him existed in 1189.

Hey guys, have you felt the tentacles of Moses already? hahahaa... I sure do hope he is not reading this. :P

This "cut-and-paste-from-somewhere-else" is getting to be quite a habit of mine. Reason being simple, I am a lazy bastard or rather a wastrel. Guess, even this part is becoming a bit too repetitive.

Anyhow, the past weeks had been a mad rush into preparing for trials and from some close sources, I heard that I have become quite a workerholic even since I took a break from school last year. I asked Rene (This woman is currently engaged in trekking activities somewhere in Malaysia to fulfil the role of The Wandering Amazon) if the same is true and she in her coolest tone said: "Yes. Look at you, you are living in your work and you are smoking way too much for my comfort." (She ended that with a pretty mean stare *pout*)

With that, I felt the rush of panic and turn on my laptop to inspect the contents of my C drive.

I'm safe. The porn folder's still there. *wink*

Off to Mahjong... Byeee!!

TIMES ONLINE 08/08/2005

The bogus 'lord' who told warring islanders he was the Queen's envoy
By Dominic Kennedy, Roger Maynard and Jack Shenker


A SELF-STYLED British lord regarded by inhabitants of a gold-rich tropical island as a special envoy from the Queen has been denounced as an impostor by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

James Nesbitt’s meddling on Bougainville has been blamed for a wave of mass hysteria resulting in excited crowds flocking to an abandoned airport expecting Her Majesty to land. The traveller was last seen two weeks ago, apparently stuck in a remote no-go zone which has been thrown into disarray by the suspicious death of a rebel leader.

The setting for this Indiana Jones-style adventure is an island in the far eastern edge of Papua New Guinea between the Solomon Sea and the Pacific. Bougainville was once home to one of the world’s most prolific gold and copper mines, abandoned in the 1980s after a campaign of sabotage by guerrillas armed with bows, arrows and spears. Natives still pan for gold and legend has it that a hoard of ingots is hidden somewhere in this volcanic land.

Mr Nesbitt made an illicit landing in a Cessna aircraft near the former Panguna copper mine on September 30 last year. The aircraft’s owner and pilot, from Australia, were fined £60,000 by a court in Papua New Guinea for the unauthorised trip.

The Briton’s arrival, with Jeff Richards, an Australian, could hardly have come at a more sensitive time. Bougainville, watched by a special United Nations mission, was preparing for elections to give the island some autonomy. The poll was part of a peace deal ending a civil war that cost 10,000 lives and closed down the mine.

The colourful figure of Francis Ona, a rebel leader and notorious saboteur, was boycotting the elections, threatening their success. Mr Nesbitt and his Australian companion disappeared into the jungle, heading for a no-go zone controlled by Mr Ona’s militia, the Meekamui Defence Force. Odd pledges emerged. The militia issued a statement claiming that the men were on a humanitarian mission. The rebels claimed that “Lord James Rex Nesbitt” and “Prince Jeffrey Richards ” were arranging for the UN to recognise their kingdom.

It was announced that the Queen, whose representative was “Lord Nesbitt”, would attend an independence ceremony in the village of Mr Ona, the area’s self-proclaimed king.

The authorities tried to calm the people. David Gordon-McLeod, the High Commissioner, issued a public statement saying that Mr Nesbitt “does not represent the British Government”. A joint statement from Bougainville’s Governor and the main party leader said: “Stories went out in Central Bougainville that the Queen was coming to Guava. Lots of people spent the weekend before at the airport, waiting for the Queen. They waited without result and left in anger and frustration.”

President Bush was also expected, to be followed by jet aircraft, submarines and ships laden with money.

The June elections were a success. But the island’s future has been shaken by the death of Mr Ona, a robust 52-year-old, on July 24, supposedly from a one-man outbreak of typhoid. Rebels refused to release his body for a postmortem examination and the funeral was marred when a man was reportedly tied up for “using sorcery to kill him”.

The death of Mr Ona sent shares in Bougainville Copper, which owns the mine, soaring more than 20 per cent. Rio Tinto, which owns the company, said: “This was sheer speculative buying which we had no control over. The mine has been closed since the 1980s and we have no access to it. It is a dormant project sitting on our books. There is absolutely no consideration at the moment of the mine being reopened. We have no knowledge of the activities of the two men you mention.”

How “Lord Nesbitt” will leave Bougainville is uncertain since no aircraft may land to rescue him without permission. Police have been told to arrest him on sight.

The Foreign Office told The Times: “Mr Nesbitt is mischief-making. Until such time as he becomes a consular case, that’s as far as it goes.”

# Do you know Mr Nesbitt? E-mail david.brown@thetimes.co.uk

REAT PRETENDERS

# Arnaud du Tilh convinced villagers in 16th-century France that he was Martin Guerre, deceiving Guerre’s wife until his real identity was exposed in court

# In 1994 DNA tests on the body of Anna Anderson disproved her claim to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov, the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia

# Arthur Orton’s claim to be Sir Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne, who had gone missing at sea in 1866, appeared to fool Sir Roger’s mother even though he was much bigger than her son

# Dr James Barry, a celebrated physician who treated casualties from the Crimean War, was a woman, which became apparent only after her death

# In 1995 Brian MacKinnon, 32, a Glasgow University dropout, posed as Brandon Lee, 17, so that he could return to his old school and apply to medical school

FROM TIMES ONLINE 19/07/2005

It's like the Olympics ... the world's top legal eagles are descending on London
By Frances Gibb

Autumn's 50th Commonwealth Law Conference will be a gathering of the great and good
FORGET THE Olympics — lawyers in London are jubilant at scooping a legal event that rivals many in the sporting world. This autumn 2,000 lawyers will descend on the capital when London plays host to the Commonwealth Law Conference (CLC) for its golden jubilee on September 11 to 15.

The event, which was launched in London 50 years ago, will draw a prestige line-up of chief justices, senior judges and lawyers from throughout the world. Colin Nicholls, QC, president of the Commonwealth Lawyers’ Association (CLA), said: “It is a bit like going for the Olympics — you have to bid for it. But because we had the first conference here in 1955, it is exciting that it is coming back.”

The four-day event is a “gathering of the great and the good in the Commonwealth, where the finest legal minds meet together”.

He adds: “They span every kind — judges, government lawyers, private sector lawyers, academics, legal executives and paralegals.”

But it is far from a mere talking shop. Lawyers will meet to debate action on issues from law, liberty and terrorism to globalisation and the environment; as well as disaster relief, corruption, capital punishment and the future of the legal profession. There are also sessions on HIV-Aids, disaster relief, corporate social responsibility and family law and the child.

Nicholls says: “Lawyers are facing marathon issues. The tension, for instance, between draconian measures aimed at protecting citizens from the threat of terrorism and ensuring that their human rights as far as possible are protected. It’s about achieving a balance.

“There is systemic corruption in the developing countries. Some have enormous problems and they acknowledge it.

“You get it particularly in the lower courts where there are underpaid judges working alone in remote regions — and not just judges, but court staff, lawyers . . . and then there is the problem of subordination of witnesses.”

The conference does promote policy change. Delegates will hear how both Nigeria and Kenya have introduced legislation.

“You have to have the political will to set up anti- corruption commissions that can institute proceedings,” Nicholls says.

From the UK, the roll call of speakers includes the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf; the Master of the Rolls, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers; and the senior law lord, Lord Bingham of Cornhill, as well as a host of leading lawyers such as the QCs Lord Lester of Herne Hill, Baroness Kennedy, Edward Fitzgerald, Ben Emmerson and Clive Nicholls.

But it is not all judges and barristers. The annual Law Society conference, the flagship event for England and Wales’s 100,000 solicitors, will this year combine with the Commonwealth Law Conference and the society is host for the event.

Peter Willliamson, chairman of the CLC 2005 organising committee and past president of the Law Society, says: “The line-up of speakers, representing the highest levels of the judiciary and practitioners renowned throughout the Commonwealth, is one of the most impressive ever to have been gathered in a legal conference in London.” The mix of the two events would give solicitors a rare chance to debate key topics on law and practice “within the vibrancy of an international conference”.

In its 50 years the CLC has gone through a few changes. The first event in 1955 drew 700 lawyers: it was when Lord Kilmuir was Lord Chancellor. Then it was the Imperial and Commonwealth Law Conference. The “Imperial” has long since been dropped.

The event has since had its share of headlines. The 2002 conference in Zimbabwe was cancelled because of the political situation; and the event in 2003 in Melbourne attracted more coverage than usual through the shopping trips of Cherie Booth, QC. More significantly, it led, during the highly successful Hong Kong conference in 1983, to the formation of the Commonwealth Lawyers’ Association.
icholls, who has been on the CLA council since its formation in 1986, has seen the membership grow. There are now about 100 law association members from the 53 countries, in turn representing a third of the world’s population, he says.

But it is where the CLA has effected change that its legacy can be most clearly seen. Nicholls cites two key events: the adoption of a protocol among Commonwealth countries aimed at good governance and making clear the need for the constitutional separation of powers; and the CLA submission, thought to have been highly persuasive, before the US Supreme Court on the illegality under common law of the detentions at Guantanamo Bay.

There will no doubt be similarly serious issues this autumn. But it is not all work. The social programme of sightseeing, receptions, discos and other entertainment will see to it that this biggest of legal gatherings will also be a good party.

COMMONWEALTH LAW 2005
# Judges and lawyers from 53 countries will debate key legal issues at four-day event from September 11 to 15 at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. Media sponsor: The Times.

# Session highlights: “Liberty, law and terrorism”, chaired by Sir Sydney Kentridge, QC; “Corruption”, chaired by Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, Master of the Rolls; “Judicial independence” — speakers include

Chief Justice Anthony Murray Gleeson from Australia and Lord Mackay of Clashfern; and “Can societies afford human rights?”, chaired by Andrew Li, Chief Justice of Hong Kong.

# Fifty specialist sessions, from corporate and commercial to family law.
# www.commonwealthlaw2005.com; 020-7407 9263

FROM TIMES ONLINE 02/08/2005

Free to hold independent court
BY WILLIAM BLAIR

Ghana's judiciary has withstood very tough times
THE world’s attention has been focused on governance in Africa as never before. The stories have tended to accentuate what has gone wrong. We can easily overlook what has gone right.

This story is about Ghana. It begins in 1979. In June, four days after a coup d’état, a businessman was instructed to report to the military authorities, who detained him. He applied to the High Court in Accra for a writ of habeas corpus. A certificate was produced purporting to show his conviction and sentence before a special court. He claimed that it was forged.

Ordering his release, Mrs Justice Koranteng-Addow said: “One must not lose sight of the fact that in a revolution a lot of things happen and nobody questions the makers of such coups d’état. However, when they seek to clothe their actions with the responsibility of legality, then sitting as a judge I will have to look at how these things are clothed.”

This was one of five coups in Ghanaian history, in the face of which the judiciary had to try to maintain its independence. So far, the events are regrettable, but maybe not remarkable.But what happened afterwards certainly is remarkable. On the night of June 30, 1982, the judge was at home. During curfew hours, she was abducted, murdered and her body doused with petrol and burnt. Two other High Court judges suffered the same fate.

According to Ghana’s national reconciliation commission reporting in October last year, what the judges had in common was that they had ordered the release of people sentenced to long terms of imprisonment by special courts.

Their deaths could easily have been suppressed and forgotten. But they were not. There was an outcry, not least from the legal profession. A special investigation board was appointed under a former Chief Justice, and people were apprehended and punished.

The Ghana Bar Association has instituted an annual memorial of these events — wreathes are laid, commemoration lectures given and a church service held. A measure of how far the country has moved on can be seen in front of the Supreme Court building in Accra. In 2004 a memorial was erected — it bears the inscription “Martyrs of the Rule of Law”.

In terms of governance, Ghana is a success story. The country re-established a multi-party democracy under its 1992 Constitution. In the 2004 elections, turnout at 83.2 per cent was the highest recorded. There is a free and vibrant press. Importantly for the economy, it is beginning to attract tourists.

Change is also in the air for the judicial system. In 2003 Mr Justice George Kingsley Acquah was appointed Chief Justice. Under him, the judiciary has provided for the fast tracking of cases, worked towards a proper career structure for the magistracy and established a Commercial Court which started hearing cases in March.

Crucially, there have been moves to address corruption. A complaints and inspectorate commission was set up in 2003 to receive complaints from the public on any aspect of corruption, incompetence or delay. One judge and some members of the courts service have been dismissed, and in a few cases prosecutions have been brought.

So in good governance terms, an independent judiciary — with the vital backing of an independent legal profession — can claim real achievements in Ghana. As to the murders, in his remarks at the wreath-laying on June 27, the Chief Justice emphasised reconciliation not retribution: “We seek no vengeance, as vengeance is of God. We demand neither excuses nor apologies from anyone.” What he and his colleagues are trying to achieve deserves the fullest recognition and support.

The author, a QC, is a member of 3 Verulam Buildings and gave the 2005 Martyrs Day Commemoration Lectures