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1 1 1 1 16 66 60 0 (2008) 20 ELM : INDUSTRY SOUNDINGS – POCKLINGTON
and the remainder of Europe should wipe them out. The Prado in the district court in San Antonio, Texas, who
cull is supported by the Royal Society for the Protection activated a device that played the Porky Pig catchphrase,
of Birds and other conservation groups, but opponents ‘That’s all folks!’ before lunchtime each day.
have questioned the cost of exterminating the attractive Those who believe that this never happens in the
ruddy duck whose only crime ‘is to be American, over- English courts should refer to the case of Mr Justice Peter
sexed, and over here’. 11 Smith, the judge who presided over the failed Da Vinci
14
A fund of £1.4M has been set up to by Defra and the Code plagiarism case at London’s High Court. The judge
EU to kill these ducks, which have breeding populations hid his own secret code in his written judgment through
in France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and Ireland. While the use of italicised letters – in the first few pages the
some governments are cooperating with the cull, the words ‘Smithy Code’ were spelled out, and the following
Netherlands has refused to participate in the five-year pages contain further marked out letters. However, unlike
extermination plan, which Defra hopes to complete by 2010. the United States, this did not result disciplinary
This is not the only current example of official proceedings. 15
meddling with nature, and Defra is planning a special rapid
response unit to deal with foreign invaders that are putting
Britain’s native plants and animals at risk, although badgers
appear to have been given a last minute reprieve. 12
On 28 May, Defra launched the first coordinated plan
to reduce the threat to Britain’s native biodiversity from
invasive non-native species, such as floating pennywort
and the North American signal crayfish. According to a
2005 study, there are almost 3000 non-native species
wild in Britain, with 2721 of these in England alone, of
which two thirds are plants.
It is claimed that these can have a serious impact on
native wildlife and economic interests, and that controlling
their spread is the key to conserving native wildlife. Eladio
Fernandez-Galiano, Head of the Biological Diversity Unit,
Council of Europe is quoted as saying: ‘Invasive alien
species are one of the rising threats for biological diversity.
In these times of climate change, more and more species
will arrive and spread in our native ecosystems changing
their character and singularity.’
Given the inevitability of global warming and its
growing impact over a significant period of time, even if
greenhouse gas emissions are stabilised, this strategy does
seem to be a bit like King Canute trying to turn back the
tide.

Laughter in court
It is not only W S Gilbert’s Lord High Executioner who
had an aversion to ‘the judicial humorist’ as shown by David
13
Pannick’s recent column in The Times, which describes a
number of cases in which judges have been reprimanded
for introducing unjustifiable levity into the proceedings.
Readers are directed to the full article which contains many
examples, some of which are reproduced here.
Several of these are from the ‘Land of the Free’, the
most notable being from judges who relieved the tedium
of the proceedings by the use of sound effects: Judge
Sheldon Schapiro who kept a toy lavatory on his desk with
which he used to make a flushing sound when unconvinced
by the submissions he had heard; and Judge Edward C

14 Authors Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh claimed Dan Brown had
plagiarised their own historical book The Holy Blood and the Holy
12 ‘Farmers’ Fury after Hilary Benn Says No to Badger Cull’ Timesonline Grail for The Da Vinci Code.
(4 July 2008). 15 Although Mr Justice Peter Smith was recently subject to disciplinary
13 D Pannick ‘How Laughter in Court Can End in Tears’ The Times (20 proceedings under the Office for Judicial Complaints (OJC), the Da
May 2008) http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/ Vinci case did not feature: see ‘Da Vinci Code Judge Escapes with
columnists/david_pannick/article3958919.ece. Reprimand’ Times Online (18 April 2008).

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