[lit-ideas] Re: Anonymity and revelation...
- From: Robert Paul <robert.paul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 20:00:11 -0800
I'm really tired, didn't read this too well. The Man on the Clapham Bus.
Silas Lapham? What does this mean?
TMOTCB is a term of art in English law denoting an ordinary, intelligent
person, who has no special knowledge of the sort an expert witness might
have. Sometimes it is the Man on the Clapham Omnibus.
According to Wikepedia, and I didn't know this,
'[t]he term derives from a quotation of a phrase of Lord Justice Bowen
(who was counsel in the Tichborne Case) in the case of McQuire v.
Western Morning News [1903] 2 KB 100. Clapham is an unremarkable English
neighbourhood in south London, said to consist of ordinary people.
Omnibus means a public transport bus.'
I don't know what the US legal counterpart would be but in ordinary
reporting it would be 'the man on the street,' or 'your average person,'
or possibly 'Joe Sixpack.'
Robert Paul
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