General Interest

Lawyers are now required by law to write contracts and documents in plain language understandable by the persons who are expected to be reading them. So you should no longer be seeing terms like “pro non scripto” (as if never written), “supra” (above), “mutatis muntandis” (substantially the same) and especially “domicilium citandi et executandi” (place for serving legal notices). I remember on University rag day when I nearly had my trousers pulled off (it was called “de-bagging”). I fought like the very devil and eventually the opposing mob backed off!. Now I know how the attorneys must be feeling. They have lost…

So you’re getting married. Congratulations! You’ve (correctly) been advised to enter into an anti-nuptial contract, probably under the accrual system. Remember anti-nuptial means before the nuptials not after, so you must get this done before the wedding. In the contract, you are each required to disclosed the amount of wealth that you are starting off with. What if you don’t want all and sundry to see that figure? Then I suggest that the one with the lower figure discloses their assets as zero and the one with the higher figure discloses their assets as the difference between the two. So…

Ever wonder why the moon always faces us? Why doesn’t it spin like just about every other thing up there? My physics teacher at school told us that the moon did spin but at exactly the same rate as it went around the earth and that was why it always faced us. I didn’t believe him. I got it figured eventually. Let’s assume that the moon is perfectly spherical and of uniform matter throughout. Its centre of gravity would be dead centre and it would still be spinning (even if none of that was perfect) because there would be nothing to…