QUOTE(Sarcasticidealist @ Wed 2nd December 2009, 12:23pm)
I understand the defamation issue, but can anybody clarify the issues surrounding Godwin's question "was David Gerard punished fairly for a *substantive* violation of administrative standards"? To what degree of fairness is somebody legally entitled for administrative privileges on a private website? I would have thought not a lot, but I'm not really a very good law student.
How many times have we been told that "Wikipedia does not do due process"? Are we now to believe that David Gerard is an exception to that aphorism?
It's pretty clear that this is Godwin leveraging personal influence for a friend, in the masquerade of providing legal counsel. I suspect he is actually treading on ethically treacherous grounds by pretending to provide legal advice to a party which is adverse to a party to whom he may have a duty to represent.