Snippets from The Reduced Law Dictionary by Roderick Ramage
Definitions—where the context admits
Some definition clauses include the words “unless the context otherwise admits” or “where the context admits”, which may be implied: Meux v Jacobs [1875]. The better course is to use defined terms, whenever practicable, in such a way that there are no circumstances where the defined meanings do not apply. The usual means of doing so is by using capital initial letters for the defined terms: this requires a scrupulous avoidance of the all too common secretarial “pepper pot” technique of applying capitals to initial letters more or less at random to important looking words, such as “this Agreement” or “Director”.
Data protection & the police
The Information Tribunal held that certain old convictions should be removed from the Police National Register on the ground that the only purpose for which the data could be retained was for core or operational police purposes. In Chief Constable for Humberside and others v Information Commissioner and another [2009] the CA disagreed. The grounds were a misinterpretation of the Data Protection Act 1998.
