Haha - our Judiciary Debate is the lead in an article in the March issue of the ABA's Journal entitled [i:20sji86w]Fantasy Life, Real Law [/i:20sji86w]which begins:
[i:20sji86w]Bethan Vale was concerned about his local court system, which had only one judge. As a member of the Confederation of Democratic Simulators, he took an active role in the development of his local government in the community of Neufreistadt. Ideally, Vale believed the community's judicial branch should be modeled to resemble the U.S. Supreme Court. But its lone judge, an English barrister and fellow confederation member named Ashcroft Burhnham, favored an English common-law approach. Burnham also got to personally select the court's new appointees, and the lack of oversight didn't sit well with Vale.
Ultimately Vale prevailed. Neufreistadt rejected Burnham's court scheme - and the idea that participation be limited to lawyers.
Both men meet on a regulat basis to discuss - and often debate - the direction of Neufreistadt's legal system. Yet they have never actually seen each other in person.
That's because Neufreistadt isn't an actual town, and Vale and Burnham aren't real people. While they do exist, they do so within the realm of virtual reality, in an expansive cyberworld called Second Life.[/i:20sji86w]. . .
The article then moves on to talk abut law in Second Life.
Bethan Vale, Justice Soothsayer and Benjamin Noble are quoted in the article.
You can read the entire article at [url:20sji86w]http://www.abanet.org/journal/redesign/03flife.html[/url:20sji86w] This magazine has over 547,000 subscribing attorneys so I'm expecting to see more of them wandering about the CDS soon.
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[i:20sji86w]Edited to add url[/i:20sji86w]