A Nigerian village on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in US federal court against Royal Dutch Shell PLC alleging the oil company polluted a drinking water well with benzene at levels 900 times the limits set by the World Health Organization (WHO) . The lawsuit is based on a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report assessing the [...]
Libyan transitional Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril on Sunday declared the country’s official liberation from the regime of former leader Muammar Gaddafi and set a schedule for establishing a new government. Jibril made the announcement in front of thousands of supporters celebrating in the city of Benghazi, the location of the National Transitional Council (NTC) and [...]
A federal judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona on Friday dismissed a counterclaim filed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) and state Attorney General Tom Horne against the US government in the lawsuit challenging the controversial Arizona immigration law . While the court ruled that Arizona had standing to bring [...]
JURIST Contributing Editor Laurie Blank of Emory University School of Law says that two great works of literature highlight the ancient pedigree of the law of war principles violated in the death of Muammar Gaddafi (if killed after capture) and the treatment of his remains by Libyan rebels…
The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit unanimously ruled to restore the Roadless Rule , ending a 2008 national injunction . The Roadless Rule blocks road-building and commercial timber harvesting on expanses of roadless areas around the country, primarily the National Forests. The National Forest Services (NFS) and the US Department of Agriculture [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Kevin Govern of Ave Maria School of Law says that social media and networking have proven pivotal in the success of the Arab Spring protest movements in a manner that was previously unforeseen by commentators and scholars…
On Friday, Australian Attorney General Robert McClelland announced that he will be petitioning the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense to re-examine the war crime convictions of Australian Lieutenants Harry “Breaker” Morant and Peter Handcock during the Boer War. Morant and Handcock were convicted through a court martial of murdering Boer civilians and sentenced to death [...]
United Nations Special Rapporteur on on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns , on Thursday urged respect for international standards concerning the use of lethal force during arrests and warned that the growing use of targeted killings with unmanned drones is legally problematic. Heyns made a report to the UN the General Assembly saying [...]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday announced plans to develop standards for the disposal of wastewater from the process of hydraulic fracturing . Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process in which water, sand and chemicals are pumped into the ground to create fractures in rocks, which allows trapped gas and oil to come [...]
The Canadian Centre for International Justice (CCIJ) on Thursday filed a complaint in the Surrey Provincial Court on behalf of four men against former US president George W. Bush on torture charges . Bush was in Surrey on Thursday to attend the Surrey Regional Economic Summit . According to the CCIJ, the four men, three [...]
