Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court on Sunday indefinitely halted its operations amid pressure from protestors aiming to block the judges from meeting to rule on the validity of the country’s new constitution . Supporters of President Mohamed Morsi flooded the court , blocking the judges from entering and forcing them to delay hearing a case scheduled [...]
Two Kenyans facing charges in the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced Sunday that they will be running together in the country’s upcoming presidential race. Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and former cabinet minister William Ruto are two of four Kenyans set to stand trial in the ICC in April for crimes against humanity arising out [...]
The Israeli government on Sunday unanimously rejected the recent UN General Assembly resolution upgrading Palestine’s UN status to non-member observer state. In response to the UN action Israel passed its own domestic resolution that rejects the General Assembly’s decision entirely and claims it has no effect on Israeli citizen’s rights to disputed territory. The Israeli [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia (ACLU) on Friday filed a suit to block the state’s new abortion law from taking effect next month. The challenged law, HB 954 , bans abortions after 20 weeks and contains a narrow exception for medical emergencies. The ACLU argues that, although abortions after 20 weeks are rare, [...]
US Supreme Court on Friday granted certiorari in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. , which deals with the issue of whether human genes are patentable. Myriad Genetics patented two genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2 , which are isolated genes—different from native genes because the process of extracting them changes their molecular structure but [...]
JURIST Contributing Editor Laurie Blank of the Emory University School of Law says that more attention should be focused on the care taken by the Israel Defense Forces in its recent military actions in Gaza to protect civilian lives, in sharp contrast to the indiscriminate attacks performed by Hamas…
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Nevada on Monday denied a challenge brought by eight same-sex couples who contended that the state’s law restricting marriage to heterosexual couples violates the US Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause . In their lawsuit, Sevcik v. Sandoval , the couples argued that Nevada’s marriage law [...]
A UN human rights expert declared on Friday that while Turkey has made progress in cracking down on extrajudicial killings, it still has a long way to go in remedying the problem. At the end of his official visit to Turkey, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Christof Heyns commented that Turkey [...]
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved a bill that would prevent police from searching emails and other electronic content without a warrant. Currently, under the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act , law enforcement agents only need a warrant to access emails less than 6 months old. The new bill is sponsored by committee chairman [...]
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday said that they will consider the legal implications of Palestinian statehood following a UN resolution recognizing Palestine as a non-member state. The UN General Assembly (UNGA) passed the resolution on Thursday, elevating Palestine from “non-member observer entity” to “non-member observer state.” In a statement released to [...]
