Overview

Conference date: 15 July 2002

The CAI was privileged to secure Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, of the US Supreme Court, as the Speaker for the Annual Lecture for the year 2002.

The Annual Lecture is the one event in our calendar which is by invitation only. It is a way of thanking our members for their support, and of showing-off a little to the legal and copyright communities. We look for an excellent speaker, a special venue, and some good wines for the reception afterwards.

On this occasion, the setting was the Erin Room at the State Apartments in Dublin Castle, by courtesy of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law reform. In addition to the Minister, those present included the Chief Justice; several judges of the Supreme and High Courts; Attorney-General Rory Brady; the Presidents respectively of the Law Society and the Dublin Solicitors' Bar Association, and the Dean of Fordham University. The copyright world was represented in force, not just by our members, but by personnel from all of the Irish copyright organisations, and not least by the Controller of Patents and Trade Marks.

As to the Speaker, she needed little introduction, although that task was performed gracefully by the Chief Justice. As the first woman appointee to the US Supreme Court, and on many occasions the "swing-voter" in a conservative court, she is - as one of our judges put it - "probably the most controversial judge anywhere". In copyright circles she has a devoted following because of her role in the Feist case, in which she delivered a crystal-clear exegesis of the rationale of copyright law.

She flattered us with her paper, demonstrating careful research into Irish copyright law in order to compare it with US law, tracing points both of difference and convergence in the two systems, and placing them in their histroical context.

When the applause had subsided, the rain held off long enough for us to spill out onto the terrace overlooking the site of the origina dubh linn for our glasses of wine, where Snadra Day O'Connor continued to fascinate the rest of us mere mortals.

It will be a hard act to follow...

Note: Justice O'Connor's paper will be published shortly in the Irish Jurist