Monday, April 16, 2012

Twitter As Medium To Promote Awareness of Canadian Law

Colin Lachance, CEO of the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII), posted today at Slaw. ca about Twitter, Facebook and the Rule of Law.

In the post, he explains how Twitter and Facebook are increasingly being used as tools to not only disseminate but also discuss Canadian legal decisions:
"... sudden changes or dramatic turns in legal understanding brought about by a court judgment will and frequently do attract significant attention in both venues. And it is this attention, whether triggered by a court’s own twitter account or the accounts of court observers that enhance awareness of the changes and facilitate the process for understanding 'new' law (...)"

"(...) one of the most dramatic examples in recent months came out of the Ontario Court of Appeal with the release of Jones v. Tsige and the introduction into the legal canon and popular vernacular of the 'tort of intrusion upon seclusion'. True understanding of the implications of this ruling will take analysis and further judicial consideration by subsequent courts faced with new actions, but a significant amount of discussion was triggered through Twitter alone within hours of the decision hitting the Ontario Courts website."

"The twitter-tracking site Topsy.com shows 81 separate tweets with links to the Ontario Courts presentation of the decision."

"Among those doing the tweeting were leading technology and privacy law academics and practitioners, alongside dozens of twittering lawyers, media and more, all with a collective 'follower' reach of over one hundred thousand individuals ... These tweets spawned, countless blogs which themselves included links back to the cases. All in all, Twitter likely had a significant hand in facilitating public awareness and understanding of an important development in the law."

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posted by Michel-Adrien at 7:31 pm

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