My prediction is at the end of the day Michael Mann’s libel suit will do every bit as much for him as Oscar Wilde’s suit did for him.
What exactly constitutes discovery in these cases?
The heart of this case is not the child molestation comparison, it’s the claim that Mann’s work is fraudulent.
In the final analysis, that determination will come down to the definition assigned “fraudulent,” and to arguments about validity of various methods of statistical analysis of Mann’s data.
One up side is that Mann will probably be forced, for the first time, to actually release his raw data.
The last time Steyn tangled on a vaguely similar issue, he not only won, but Canada repealed the law under which he had been charged and dismantled the entire court system he was tried in.