Brooklyn Law School: The Lingerie Shoot...

Brooklyn Law School rented out their library to a fashion label, Diesel, for a photo shoot. The law school was under the now quite obviously mistaken understanding that the fashion shoot that was going to take place was for Diesel Jeans. The photo shoot was for Diesel, but for their intimates collection and not their jeans line. In fact there is not a pair of jeans in sight in this shoot.

Now, it is not like the idea of sexual activity and law library tables has never been thought of in the past. But, perhaps it is the first time that Brooklyn Law School has seen some of those fantasies played out in photos. I wonder if law library usage has increased or decreased after the photo shoot?

In any event, the Dean of the Law School is making the right sounds. For example, sending around an email suggesting that he is mortified by the happenings and that the law school had been duped by the fashion label. It seems that the fashion label may have breached its agreement with the law school because the law school is adamant that it only gave its permission for the shoot if the images were going to be in good taste. According to the law school, these images are not in good taste.

I will let you be the judge of good taste on this one. It is really a case of to each their own with respect to taste. Good looking and highly intelligent people are always a turn on (so I am told). So, what better way to sell that idea than a steamy lingerie shoot in a law library. I cannot recall that there was a steamy lingerie shoot in my law library while I was at school there. Although, there was always the odd whisper of some late-night briefing sessions taking place (if you are wondering University of Western Sydney).

Yet, when one thinks about it, this is a clever shoot. Who would have thought that legal briefs would have had such a literal meaning.

I am wondering why the photos and the location have got some people so incensed? It is a lingerie shoot, there was a contract in place, and as far as I can tell, nothing was damaged in the process. I think that even Brooklyn Law School would have a hard time trying to prove that this shoot in any way damaged its reputation or status.

I wonder if the University of Indonesia or Pelita Harapan University would allow such a shoot in their law libraries? University of Indonesia might be a more likely candidate because, if I am not mistaken, a former student did end up as a playboy model for the Indonesian version of Playboy Magazine (Joanna Alexandra).

The photos...

Luna Maya -- Law Student and Porn Star...

It is hard not to feel for Luna Maya. She seems to be a really nice young woman caught up in something that she never would have imagined for herself in a lifetime of entertainment. It is funny how those things happen when one is least expecting them to. She is most definitely a reluctant porn star and appears genuinely remorseful for placing herself in such a situation.  

It might be argued that if you play with fire, then it is only a matter of time before you get burned. This may be true, but it is also unfair to watch a person be victimised and vilified for at its very worst a misjudgment in allowing herself to be filmed in a compromising position. 

The reality remains that no one would have ever seen this video or been any of the wiser about its existence but for the commission of a crime. That crime, I put to you, ladies and gentlemen of the court of public opinion, is not the making of the mobile camera video, but rather the theft of that film and its subsequent publication on the internet. Luna Maya is innocent.

It is hard to work out whether this is just an unfortunate coincidence or a case of a very sad irony, but Luna Maya is also a law student. She is in her fifth semester at the Langlang Buana University in Bandung. The law faculty has been quick to note that she has been an above average student and successful in her studies to date. But, without missing a beat, the Dean of the Faculty has also said that there would be no problem expelling her if she was found guilty of a crime. 

Although, it would be of no surprise if she was expelled for other reasons that were unrelated to her most recent porn acting credits, such as failure to attend sufficient numbers of classes or some other administrative reason. Then again, guilty or not, perhaps the university and faculty expel her for bringing the name of the university into disrepute by linking it forever with pornography.

In a perfect world, she cannot be expelled as she has simply not committed any crime. Nevertheless, it would be  understatement in the extreme to say that stranger things have happened in Indonesia. 

I hope that the storm in a tea cup that this is will soon blow over and all those involved can get back to some semblance of normalcy in their respective lives. Their lives are never going to be the same as this will always be there, out there, in cyber space. But, it has been milked by the gossip shows for all it is worth, it is now time to move onto something of much greater importance to the future of Indonesia.

How about education? Specifically, how about making university education affordable to anyone who wants to have a crack at it?

The Indonesian National Rounds of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Competition 2008

Well, another year and another National Round of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot competition has passed, at least for Indonesia. This year's Winner (University of Indonesia) and Runner Up (Parahyangan Catholic University) will be heading to Washington D.C. for the International Rounds of the Competition in the early part of April 2008. Good luck to both teams!

The point of this blog entry is to make a few comments about the competition, particularly the quality of the participants and judges, as well as the future.

The quality of the participants improves each year and the standard of the competition as a consequence gets considerably higher and more competitive. For example to progress to the semi-finals in the early years teams could advance with a record of 3 wins against 1 loss in the 4 preliminary rounds. However, as this year's competition shows securing one of the 4 semi-final slots with a 4 wins against 0 losses record is no guarantee of progressing. There were 7 teams in this year's competition with a record of 4 and 0 in the preliminary rounds. This meant there were quite a lot of disappointed teams not progressing to the semi-finals or final.

The rapid improvement in the quality of the participants is important, particularly when one considers there is a need for highly qualified and competent international law advocates in Indonesia. The future looks much brighter with the knowledge that there are students coming through the ranks that will be able to fill that void and fill it well.

However, another interesting point is that the quality of the judges volunteering their weekends to judge the competition is also improving every year. This is critical in not only the development of the competition but also in the development of the quality of the written and oral submissions or pleadings of the competitors. The questioning in this year's competition required competitors to not only have a basic understanding of international law, but challenged them to prove that they possessed a detailed knowledge of not only the facts of the case but had an exceptional command of the prevailing law and its application.

The future of the National Rounds requires more teams to become involved and this will require not only a good deal of marketing from the competition convenors (who are all volunteers) but the vision of the law faculties or schools themselves in seeing and understanding the value of competition for their students. Simply, moot court competitions are an excellent way to develop real-world legal practice skills.

This year's competition saw 20 law schools competing and 7 or so observers (law schools that come to watch and learn what the competition is about without participating in the actual competition proper). This is a small number, albeit an improvement on the numbers of years past. However, when one considers that there are some 227 law schools / faculties throughout Indonesia, then 20 does not seem like a significant number.

Indonesia is a vast archipelagic nation and the tyranny of distance between the outer-lying provinces and Jakarta where the competition is held is dramatic even in this era of low-cost airlines (of which Indonesia has many -- some of questionable safety)...Hence the future for the Indonesian National Round will also need some vision from the convenors of the competition. Perhaps an East and West Region where the champions of each region progress to the international rounds. In this way teams that want to participate but cannot because of travel costs or distance might be able to travel to a regional centre much closer to them in order to participate.

Anyway, there is a need for serious thought and vision in the development of the National Rounds and the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Competition in Indonesia going forward.

The signs look good and hopefully the reality will be even better.

Good luck!