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'A Plea in Law for Equal Marriage'
As many of you know, I won the 2012 Law Society of Scotland Essay Award for a piece entitled ‘A Plea in Law for Equal Marriage’. The question to which my paper was a response was this: An MSP would...
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Straight ducks, gay Romans, Kiwis, homeschooling, and the lesser Poe
In Skeptical circles, Poe’s Law is an axiom suggesting that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between parodists of religious or other fundamentalism and genuine proponents, since they...
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The unforeseeable plaintiff
Making sense of the world requires–nay, demands–that we find patterns in events. And, as part of modernity, we’ve become used to the clear-headed, formalised pattern-finding of law and science. There...
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The Laws Are Made for People…
…And not people for the laws. First, an apology for my lengthy absence. I have discovered that working and studying at the same time is difficult, so much so that I have resolved never to combine the...
View ArticleGovernment by expert, scientists, and those Platonic Guardians (again) #QEDcon
Over the weekend, I was a guest at this really rather splendid skeptical convention (responsible for the terrific animation above). I and my fellow panellists (three lawyers, one science writer) got...
View ArticlePrivilege: an advice
[A long time ago, I promised various skeptical friends that I would write a post on the idea of 'privilege', something about which I have had grave doubts for some time. Unfortunately life and work got...
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No PETA, No Kill
NORFOLK, Va. — Even some supporters do not know what to make of it. PETA, considered by many to be the highest-profile animal rights group in the country, kills an average of about 2,000 dogs and cats...
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‘I’m a believer’: Psychic Sally isn’t in it for the money
[SL: This is my first column for British magazine 'The Skeptic'; I share 'Skeptic in the Courtroom' column-writing duties with Manchester barrister Geoff Whelan, which means my duties aren't too...
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What if ‘net-neutrality’ was a really bad idea? Guest post by Brian Hanley
[SL: Despite long-term engagement with technology, I remain something of a tech sceptic. I'm not the only lawyer who's noticed that modern computer software often impedes the completion of important,...
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Unhelpful dichotomies
I recently finished The Creation of Inequality: How Our Prehistoric Ancestors Set the Stage for Monarchy, Slavery, and Empire by Kent Flannery & Joyce Marcus, a very accessible rendering for the...
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