Red Tape and Unintended Consequences

I’ve written endlessly about the negative effect of high tax rates on productive behavior, as well as some quirky examples of how taxes lead to some unintended consequences. Today, let’s consider how government regulations distort behavior. We’ll start with a video from Reason about government policies that backfire. In this case, note the second example. […]

Red Tape and Unintended Consequences

The Criminalization of Conscience

What Happens When You Have an Unjust Law A Halfling writes –  This article focusses on the way that terrorism legislation and the designation of entities as terrorist organisations can have a chilling effect upon other civil liberties. I should make it clear that because the article concentrates on the group Palestine Action does not […]

The Criminalization of Conscience

BBC report on ‘pro-Palestine activists’ omits link to proscribed group

A report published on the BBC News website’s ‘England’ and ‘Bradford’ pages on September 6th purports to inform readers about a legal case. Titled “Pro-Palestine activists sentenced over protest”, that uncredited article tells BBC audiences that: [emphasis added] “A group of pro-Palestine activists who staged a seven-hour protest on the roof of an aerospace and […]

BBC report on ‘pro-Palestine activists’ omits link to proscribed group

A Positive Account of Rights with David Friedman

Financial Times uncritically promotes mocked ‘scholarly’ genocide resolution

The ‘appeal to authority’ fallacy is committed when arguments are presented as true simply because an individual or group deemed to have authority supports it, rather than being backed by evidence or sound reasoning. This fallacy, our research over the years has demonstrated, is employed continually by British media outlets to defame Israel, saving their […]

Financial Times uncritically promotes mocked ‘scholarly’ genocide resolution

Supreme Court Matters: Constitutional Guardians or Constitutional Threat?

Roger Partridge writes –  When a constitutional law professor warns of “dangerous foes” threatening New Zealand’s legal system, you might expect concern about genuinely destabilising forces – political interference with judicial independence, or threats to the rule of law itself. You would be wrong. Professor Dean Knight of Victoria University recently addressed the Institute of Public […]

Supreme Court Matters: Constitutional Guardians or Constitutional Threat?

Cal State University Professor Indicted for Assault on Federal Officers

A federal grand jury has indicted Cal State University Channel Islands professor Jonathan Anthony Caravello for throwing a tear gas canister at federal agents during a raid at a Glass House Farms marijuana facility in Camarillo, CA. In addition to a large number of arrestees, the authorities found at least 14 child workers. Caravello has […]

Cal State University Professor Indicted for Assault on Federal Officers

The Judicial Calvinball of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson

Below is my column in The Hill on the chilling jurisprudence of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Jackson’s description of opinions as an opportunity for commentary on contemporary issues is a radical departure from long-standing traditions on the Court. While justices have occasionally strayed into extraneous issues, Jackson appears to view her position as giving her a […]

The Judicial Calvinball of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson

Prebble on Covid unaccountability

Richard Prebble writes: A Royal Commission is our nation’s highest form of inquiry, reserved for the most important issues.  To ensure confidence in its findings, commissioners have the power to summon witnesses and take their evidence in public under oath. In my research, apart from health reasons, the only person to have ever refused to […]

Prebble on Covid unaccountability

No, the President Cannot Strip Rosie O’Donnell of Her Citizenship

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he may strip comedian Rosie O’Donnell of her U.S. citizenship. He has made the threat previously, despite having no authority to do so. In the United States, political critics cannot be stripped of their citizenship, and pursuing such a course would be a fundamental denial of constitutional protections not only […]

No, the President Cannot Strip Rosie O’Donnell of Her Citizenship

A gross failure of editorial judgment

Karl du Fresne writes –  There’s a story in the New Zealand Herald this morning about the death of former King Cobras gang leader Ulaiasi “Rocky” Pulete. Carrying the byline of Herald crime reporter Jared Savage, it’s written in the reverential tones normally reserved for an esteemed community leader, business person or sporting figure. Pulete is described as “a […]

A gross failure of editorial judgment

The by-election without much choice

It’s hard to get too much enthusiasm for the Tamaki Makaurau by-election. The Maori roll and seats have become more politicised than ever before, as they are no longer an exercise in ensuring a core level of Maori representation in Parliament, but rather an expression of Maori nationalism.  It used to be that the Maori…

The by-election without much choice

Inside India’s endless trials

The FT’s Krishn Kaushik covers the courts in India: …in one recent example a Delhi court concluded a property dispute after 66 years. Both the original litigants were dead. Still, the lawyer for one of the warring parties cautioned that the conclusion was in fact not the end, as the ruling would be appealed. Three […]

Inside India’s endless trials

Guardian joins NGO campaign to libel Israel

Imagine the reaction if Western media outlets participated in a campaign for Hamas to release the hostages in Gaza, which included suggested talking points, that was launched and coordinated in part by a pro-Israeli organisation in the UK: Let’s call it CAMERA-UK. The outrage expressed in posts decrying the media’s subservience to the “pro-Israel lobby” […]

Guardian joins NGO campaign to libel Israel

Kiwis don’t need a Constitutional Court to crimp our elected law-makers – we already have judges who do that

Bob Edlin writes –  Thailand’s Constitutional Court reminds us of how judges can be politically powerful.  It has removed Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office, ruling that she “lacks the qualifications and possesses prohibited characteristics” under the Thai constitution. As the ABC reported, her dismissal flings the country into political instability.  It also highlights the […]

Kiwis don’t need a Constitutional Court to crimp our elected law-makers – we already have judges who do that

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