IP Democracy: Judges Don't Always Mesh with the Net

The New York Times Noam Cohen has this amusing little item today about the scorn heaped on a British judge who purportedly told a Reuters reporter that “I don’t really understand what a Web site is.” Judge Peter Openshaw of the High Court, Queen’s Branch Division, in London is presiding over a trial of three men accused of violating antiterrorism laws.

Central to the case is the issue of whether the defendants posted Islamist statements and videos on the Internet, evidence that requires a basic understanding of what a “Web site is.” Although the Judiciary of England and Wales issued a clarification, offering up that catch-all excuse that Judge Openshaw was quoted out of context, Reuters stands by its story.

Although a minor episode, the pillorying of Judge Openshaw highlights one fundamental tension: judges usually get elevated on the basis of experience, tenure or, let’s face it, cronyism, all of which usually equate to age. Mature jurists are least likely to grasp, much less use, the Internet in its full glory.

That’s why I’ve recently been impressed by several court decisions in the U.S. federal court system (U.S. federal judges are usually not whipper-snappers) that displayed a keen understanding of how the Internet works. But for now, as Judge Openshaw proves, there’s clearly a passel of pre-Internet era judges who will continue to be baffled by the seemingly alien world of the Internet.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on June 4, 2007 9:12 AM to IP Democracy