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May 03, 2005
Case Notes by Gary
Slapper
THE head of the Lebanese General Security Directorate recently
announced that he had decided to sue himself. Jamil Sayed
indicated that his purpose was to clear his name of negligence
in relation to the murder of the former Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri in February. How Mr Sayed will be able to examine and
cross-examine himself in court is unclear.
This type of reflexive, self-reproachful legal action is not
unprecedented. In 1985, Oreste Lodi sued himself in California
in an unsuccessful attempt to gain a tax advantage but his
action was described by the Court of Appeals as a “slam-dunk
frivolous complaint”.
Self-trial is also not unknown. Francis Evans Cornish was
appointed Queen’s Counsel in Canada in 1857, when aged 26. He
became Winnipeg’s first elected mayor in 1874, which gave him
status as a magistrate. In this capacity he once had to try
himself on a charge of being drunk in public. He convicted
himself and fined himself $5 with costs.
Cornish, however, was a balanced and even-handed magistrate
disposed to consider all relevant evidence, so he then stated
for the record: “Francis Evans Cornish, taking into
consideration past good behaviour, your fine is remitted.”
THE record for the world’s longest lecture has just been
broken by Errol Muzawazi, from Zimbabwe. At Jagellonian
University in Crakow, Poland, he delivered a lecture for 88
hours and four seconds. He is, presumably, unlikely to win an
award from his students for best lecturer. For long-distance
loquacity events, though, lawyers are in a different league.
According to a standard definition, an opening speech from
counsel in a criminal or civil case is one “briefly outlining
the case”.
In 2004, the opening speech for the claimants in Liquidators of
BCCI v Bank of England ran for 79 days. This year, counsel for
the bank passed the 80-day mark in his opening speech for the
defendant. Equally, judgments from the Bench are not always
brief. In a complicated land case in 1976, about Ocean Island in
the West Pacific, phosphate, and the Banaban people, Sir Robert
Megarry, vice-chancellor, read an exquisitely comprehensive
131,000-word judgment that now occupies 200 pages in the law
reports. It took him three days to read the judgment in court.
LAW examinations often bring out the best in people. In his
entertaining memoirs, Benchmark: Life Laughter and the Law, Sir
Oliver Popplewell (who, having retired as a High Court judge, is
now an undergraduate at Oxford) tells how he took a number of
his Bar examinations while at sea during National Service in
1948. His revision was conducted among 170 men on a stifling
deck with hygiene facilities limited to five cold water sinks.
Antonella Magnani from Arezzo, Italy, is another determined
character. Having been told by her university authorities in
2003 that “giving birth” was not an acceptable reason for
her to miss her law exams, Magnani decided to face a panel of
examiners in hospital after her contractions had begun. She
passed with top marks before giving birth to her daughter Giulia.
But the prize for the most determined law student must go to a
man from La Plata University in Argentina. He did not heed W. C.
Fields’ advice: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try
again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.”
The La Plata student has just graduated after 20 years, having
come unstuck in exams 82 times, including one paper sat 39
times.
The author is Professor of Law and Director of the Centre
for Law at the Open University
gary.slapper@thetimes.co.uk
Times Online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,200-1591826,00.html?gavalidate
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