[blml] Alert and alarmed (was continued) [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

[richard.hills at immi.gov.au]

Nigel Guthrie:

>... opponents may have come to expect an abysmally weak
>four card suit from a two-level jump-overcall ... I
>confess that I am so out of sympathy with legal trends,
>that I would expect such an agreement to be pre-alerted
>(announced before play started).

Richard Hills:

I agree with Nigel, although I would prefer to use the
terminology "illegal trends".

Merely because one thinks that one's style is general
bridge knowledge does not necessarily mean that one's
thinking is correct.

In the absence of a local Alert regulation, the first
clause of Law 40B prohibits a pair failing to explain
unexpected special partnership understandings to the
opponents.

Unfortunately the presence of a local Alert regulation
over-rides the first clause of Law 40B, due to the
caveat in the second clause of Law 40B:

"... or unless his side discloses the use of such call
or play in accordance with the regulations of the
sponsoring organisation."

Poorly designed Alert regulations, such as those of the
ACBL and the EBU, have loopholes which sea-lawyers can
exploit to gain unfair advantage.  Whether or not those
sea-lawyer actions are legal depends on whether or not
the ACBL or EBU can ever be deemed to have created an
illegal regulation.

My two cents worth is that an Alert regulation which is
fully or partially contrary to the first sentence of
Law 75A - "Special partnership agreements, whether
explicit or implicit, must be fully and freely
available to the opponents" - is an illegal regulation.


Best wishes

Richard James Hills, amicus curiae
Level 6 Aqua Training Suite, DIAC
02 6225 6776

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