Jonathan Mitchell QC

Cybersquatting, or domain squatting, is “a means of making money by registering and holding, at very low cost, a potentially useful or valuable URL. Nothing is done to develop the URL or to create value, but when a business or entrepreneur comes along who needs the domain name to run their business, the domain-squatter extorts as much money as possible in return for freeing up the URL”¹. It was distressing to read that a respectable Edinburgh couple had not only been accused of such a practice but had received a ‘weighty 128-page legal document‘ from the supposed victim when, as appeared from their own account, “we’ve done nothing wrong.”

I hope no reader of mine would imagine Continue Reading »

1. Quotation taken from this page. [back]

In the last year, the majority of advocates stables have established websites (all linked to from this page). The Journal of the Law Society of Scotland reviewed them in March and April 2008.¹ This article notes some statistics as to the comparative popularity of stable websites. Continue Reading »

1. The second of these articles, rather oddly, begins with the now-dead site of the even odder body named ‘Instruct Counsel Ltd’, which was never a stable website at all. [back]

This is, with some additions, the text of my handout for the Human Rights Conference 2008, held on 19 May 2008.

Is Freedom of Information a ‘Human Right’?

The right of access to official information is nowhere protected explicitly by ECHR. Attempts to establish a right of access to official information under Article 10, which protects the right to impart and to receive information, have not so far been successful. Continue Reading »