Speaking Of Codes

A judge indulging in a flight of magistrative caprice and cryptological fancy? How fun!

Doesn't it seem, suddenly, that we are living in a day and age of dungeons and dragons? In that light, it seems quite normal that Justice Peter Smith should encode a cryptic message in his 71-page ruling of the "Da Vinci Code" copyright case. The judge named his coded message the "Smithy Code".

Wearing long flowing robes and heavy wigs while issuing ponderous judgements of weighty cases must get boring after the first few years. So one can easily see the mischievious boy peeking out of Justice Smith's personality when he makes up his own code and encrypts it in the ruling to, as the Justice says, "have a bit of fun".

After hearing the "Da Vinci" case, Justice Smith left for vacation in Florida where a reporter contacted him by telephone and asked questions about the newly discovered code encrypted in the ruling.

Meanwhile, back in London, Justice Smith's legal partner, Daniel Tench, who is with the law firm Olswang, noticed an irregularity in the ruling. Something mysterious about the typeface caught his attention. Tench noticed that some letters in the first 13½ pages appear in boldface italics while the rest of these letters are printed in regular roman letters.

Justice Smith, however, isn't divulging the secret to unraveling his code. It is reported that he said, "I can't discuss the judgement until after I retire".

Puzzling as that may be, as an American, I find the complexity of obtaining a copy of the 71-page ruling a baffling problem in and of itself. I'd like to have a go at solving the Smithy riddle but it'll be a tough nut to crack without the paperwork.
Speaking Of Codes © 2006 Chaeli Lee Sullivan