JURIST Guest Columnist Jeffrey L. Kirchmeier of City University of New York School of Law discusses diminished capacity standards in recent capital punishment cases… The United States Supreme Court in Dunn v. Madison recently considered whether or not a death row prisoner is competent to be executed if due to mental incapacity the prisoner cannot [...]
A Missouri judge on Wednesday upheld the $110 million jury award in a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson and talc supplier Imerys Talc. The suit alleged that four decades of using Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder products resulted in 62 year-old Lois Slemp’s ovarian cancer diagnosis. In May, the St. Louis Circuit Court jury deliberated [...]
The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Georgia on Thursday decriminalized marijuana usage. The suit was brought in opposition to article 273 of the Georgia criminal code, which punished marijuana usage without a doctor’s prescription. The suit referenced article 16 of the Constitution of Georgia, which grants the right to free personality. The article imposes [...]
UK consumer activist group Google You Owe Us initiated representative legal action Thursday against tech giant Google, alleging that Google illegally mined private information from consumers. According to Google You Owe Us, the tech giant unlawfully harvested personal information from nearly 5.4 million Apple iPhone users in England and Wales between June 2011 and February [...]
African and European leaders, gathered in Abidjan for the 5th AU/EU Summit , condemned in a joint statement the inhuman treatment of African migrants and refugees by criminal groups. The statement is seen as an response to the recent documentation of human traffickers in Libya selling migrants as slaves in open air markets. The leaders [...]
Qualcomm filed three lawsuits against Apple Thursday, seeking compensation for alleged patent infringement. According to Qualcomm, Apple uses technologies that Qualcomm first marketed in the 1990s. Qualcomm claims that they have offered to license their patents to Apple, but it has been refused every time. Ultimately, Qualcomm’s suits seek compensation for a variety of these [...]
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) announced that it has initiated an independent expert review on internal operations after the death of Slobodan Praljak, who consumed poison in the courtroom on Wednesday after the court reaffirmed his 20 year prison sentence. The review will be completed along with a Dutch investigation into [...]
People and municipalities in Lebanon have resorted to burning garbage as a result of government mismanagement, causing detrimental health effects, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Friday. Lebanon’s waste crisis erupted in 2015 when authorities closed the main landfill site near Beirut without arranging an alternative. Garbage began piling up in the streets, and people began [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Gary Reynolds of the Valparaiso University Law School discusses the shooting in Sutherland Springs and its potential legacy in the landscape of gun control…A common criticism about the gun debate in America is the lack of change after a tragedy. The knee-jerk reactions to pursue legislative action immediately happen, which then incurs [...]
The US House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill that would allow mining in the Superior National Forest in Minnesota. The Minnesota’s Economic Rights in the Superior National Forest Act (MINER act) is a response to legislation passed under the Obama administration to protect the environment and promote green energy. The bill, which passed [...]
