John Flood's Random Academic Thoughts (RATs)

It’s over. Two and a half days of talking. Talking is one of the most exhausting activities known to man. I came to understand that fully when I participated in a three-way discussion on property versus contract and which effectively rules today. I was arguing for contract. This discussion then segued into another discussion on [...]

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The annual jamboree of the Socio-Legal Studies Association is underway at Stirling University in Scotland. I and my colleague, Julian Webb, have organised a stream on the legal profession. When we set this up, we weren’t sure if it would attract any interest. There was a lull then suddenly we had offers. There are four [...]

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For the first time I watched an episode of “House“. Essentially it is about the art and science of medical diagnosis. This is something which appears to inhere in individuals, and despite attempts at computer simulation, tapping into that combination appears almost impossible. The writers really get to the heart of the issue: what kinds [...]

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My Vice-Chancellor, Geoffrey Copland, wrote a plaintive plea for the remuneration of vice-chancellors. It seems he was piqued by an article in the Guardian that said VCs salaries had risen by around 25% in the last three years. And this was said in the midst of a pay dispute between university academics, who haven’t had [...]

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A news report on the radio this morning discussed if originality was possible any more now that the internet made it so easy to discover things. Behind the story was the brute fact that a lot of university students cheat. Mostly they do it by copying from articles posted on the internet and don’t give [...]

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