Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley on Thursday signed into law a bill to repeal the death penalty. The legislation, which makes Maryland the eighteenth US state to repeal the death penalty, was approved by the state legislature in March. Prior to the bill, Maryland’s capital punishment laws were among the most restrictive in the country. Senate [...]
UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar Tomas Ojea Quintana on Thursday welcomed recommendations by the Myanmar government’s Rakhine Investigation Commission, but also voiced a strong need for the government to address impunity and ensure investigations into credible allegations of systematic human rights violations against Muslims in Rakhine state. The Rakhine Investigation [...]
The conditions of Greece’s bailout plan, put in place by its international lenders, have severely undercut the ability of Greek citizens to obtain a standard of living in line with international human rights standards, according to a report released Thursday by UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights , Cephas Lumina . According [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Kevin Govern of the Ave Maria School of Law reveals the history behind recent changes to law and policy which will affect the involvement of military forces with civilian domestic law enforcement…
The son of Libya’s deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi made a second court appearance in Zintan, Libya, Thursday, but the court postponed further proceedings until mid-September in order to allow for adequate trial preparation. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is accused of crimes against the state for transferring information related to Libya’s national security to an International Criminal [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday appealed an April decision ordering the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make emergency contraceptives including Plan B available without a prescription to women of all ages. In 2005 organizations and individuals concerned with women’s health filed suit in the US District Court for the Eastern [...]
The UK Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the government has been failing to meet EU air quality standards and reached out to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for guidance. This is the first time that the court has addressed the problem with air pollution in the UK, which is the worst in the EU, [...]
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny on Wednesday introduced the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013 , which would establish new rules determining when abortions may be performed to save the life of the mother. The proposed law would not significantly change the country’s strict laws on abortion, but rather would provide doctors with clarity [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Monday upheld a law prohibiting federally licensed gun dealers from selling handguns to anyone under the age of 21. The National Rifle Association (NRA) brought the case against the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Attorney General Eric Holder in 2010, claiming [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Clare da Silva of Amnesty International argues that the new Arms Trade Treaty shows remarkable progress in the international regulation of arms transactions… On April 2, 2013, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of a global treaty that applies international legal standards to govern transfers of conventional weapons across [...]
