UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Monday welcomed last week’s decision by Nepal’s top refusing to grant amnesty for serious human rights violations committed during Nepal’s civil war. Pillay declared the decision to be a “significant development” for the victims of the war, which lasted from 1996 to 2006 and claimed at [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Victor Williams of The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law argues that the recent legal challenge to President Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board is a political question that should not be determined by the court but instead reversed on justiciability grounds … Marbury v. Madison, Chief [...]
Thousands of UK criminal trial lawyers staged a half-day strike on Monday to protest planned government cuts to legal aid. The fee cuts, which would reduce their pay by as much as 30 percent , are part of an attempt by the government to lessen the country’s deficit. Lawyers refused to attend court before 2:00 [...]
The Islamabad Special Court trying former president Pervez Musharraf on Monday granted Musharraf an exemption from personal appearance due to health issues, but has instructed authorities at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC) to supply the court with his medical report by Tuesday. The demand came after the former president missed another hearing complaining [...]
Amnesty International (AI) on Monday demanded that Louisiana state officials immediately release former Black Panther Albert Woodfox , who has been detained in solitary confinement since 1972 after being charged and convicted of fatally stabbing a prison guard. Authorities first moved Woodfox to isolation in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola and later to “closed-cell [...]
Cambodian police on Monday released five activists arrested earlier in the day for petitioning the French Embassy to release 23 demonstrators held for opposing the government’s labor and political framework. The release was reportedly conditioned upon the demonstrators’ collective agreement that they would not join in recent labor rallies aimed, in part, toward offsetting the [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled on Friday that the executive branch may continue to withhold a Department of Justice (DOJ) memo that established the legal basis for telephone companies to give customers’ calling records to the government without a subpoena or court order. The classified memo was issued [...]
Tunisian members of parliament rejected Islam as the main source of law for the country on Saturday as they voted to establish a new constitution. The Islamist-led party and secular parties overcame intense debate about Islam’s role in the country before beginning to draft the new constitution. The National Constituent Assembly adopted only 12 of [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday filed an appeal to a federal district court ruling that held that the National Security Agency (NSA) program of collecting phone call data is likely unconstitutional . In December Judge Richard Leon granted in part the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, but he stayed his order [...]
The respondents challenging Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage on Friday filed a brief with the US Supreme Court opposing the state’s request to stay the district court’s ruling striking down the ban pending appeal. The respondents argue that the state must meet an “especially high burden,” because it is asking that a circuit justice grant [...]
