President of the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) Judge David Baragwanath on Monday issued a statement defending his program following a visit to Lebanon. Tribunal Vice President Judge Ralph Riachi accompanied Baragwanath on the visit, where they saw a spirit of compliance that made them optimistic about their chances for success: I was particularly [...]
An appeals court in Vietnam reduced the sentence of pro-democracy blogger and professor Pham Minh Hoang , alias Phan Kien Quoc, by more than half on Tuesday. Hoang was sentenced in August to three years in prison after writing anti-government articles on his blog under his pen name. The appeals court reduced Hoang’s sentence from [...]
An estimated 7,000 detainees are still being held without due process by Libyan revolutionaries, according to a UN report made public Monday. The report to the UN Security Council, by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon , says that most of the prisoners are being held in facilities maintained by independent brigades not under the control of [...]
Malaysia’s lower house of Parliament approved a new law on Tuesday that would ban street protests and impose tougher restrictions on demonstrators in the nation. The Peaceful Assembly Bill contains an outright ban on street protests while simultaneously restricting the population that may exercise the right to peaceful protest. Under the Act, non-citizens and individuals [...]
A Bahrain civilian court on Monday postponed its ruling on the appeals of two protesters sentenced to death for the murder of police officers during anti-government protests. Also Monday, a Bahrain military tribunal resumed the retrial of 20 medical staff members convicted in September of participating in the country’s pro-democracy protests against the ruling regime. [...]
The Kenyan High Court ruled Monday that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir must be arrested if he ever returns to Kenya. The ruling was in response to al-Bashir’s second visit , where Kenya joined the ranks of the other African countries that have refused to enforce the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant. The judge explained [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Ann Schunicht, Saint Louis University School of Law Class of 2012, is a member of the Health Law Moot Court Competition Team. She compares the recently abandoned CLASS Act to France’s long-term health care system, arguing that the act’s failure was a missed opportunity to explore the impact of this long-term home [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in two cases. In First American Financial Corp v. Edwards , the court heard arguments on whether a plaintiff has standing to sue, on behalf of a nationwide class, claiming a real estate company violated the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 without claiming that the [...]
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria reported Monday that the Syrian Arab Republic has committed numerous human rights violations including torture, sexual violence, use of excessive force and violations of the right to peaceful assembly. The investigation on which the report is based on was initiated by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) [...]
A private investigative report issued on Monday detailed the denial of medical treatment to and severe physical abuse of former Russian lawyer and purported whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky , who died in a Moscow prison in November 2009. In addition to details of Magnitsky’s treatment and death, the report alleges corruption by Russian officials in the [...]
