Dog blog 4 - genies


Genies in court
Looks like a Saudi family is taking a genie to court. It must be true. It was on the BBC. Seriously.

I think the case would be a civil action if it happened here in the UK. And the standard of proof in our courts for that sort of thing would be on the "balance of probabilities". Which means the person suing the genie would have to prove, amongst other things, that the genie existed.

Inter alia
As an aside, lawyers usually say "amongst other things" to avoid saying "inter alia", which lawyers here used to use, and pretty much means the same thing. But they got told off for saying that because it was Latin, and makes lawyers sound like they think they're superior to Johnathan Average and his Friends. Which, of course, they do.

Would the Saudis win in the UK?
I doubt the evidence would stack up if the case were heard here. But you never know. You might get very credible witnesses and completely coherent evidence from them that survived under cross-examination. Who would represent the genie though?

Doubtful indeed
I would be surprised if one of our courts would find the witnesses' spoken evidence sufficient to tip the balance of probabilities in favour of the genie's existence. I'd have thought the courts would want to see some sort of photographic or other physical evidence of the genie. Especially given the highly unusual nature of the claim the plaintiff/pursuers were making. A court could always decide to chicken out and avoid the issue altogether by throwing the case out on a technicality: on the basis that the law doesn't usually give the living enforceable rights against the supernatural for this sort of thing. Which would, in fairness, be a bit boring. The law could always be changed I suppose.

I'm sure you'll see where I'm going with this.

Maybe out there someone does have that overwhelming, convincing proof. We'll see. I wonder what American trial lawyer Clarence Darrow would have made of the Saudi family's case.....

Here's the BBC's Genie story:

One of Clarence Darrow's cases that's worth Googling is State v Scopes 152 Tenn. 424, 278 S.W. 57 (Tenn. 1926). There's some stuff at:

And here's Hollywood's take on the Scopes trial:


And what Ali G has to say on these sorts of issues:



Watch Sacha Baron Cohen keeping a straight face saying "9" over and over again. "You don't even know what I'm going to say". Brilliant.

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