Two tobacco companies filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in order to enjoin a recent opinion by the agency’s advisory committee due to conflicts of interest. The suit, filed by Lorillard, Inc. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company seeks to [...]
A three-judge panel for the Illinois Court of Appeals for the Fifth District on Thursday unanimously decided to reopen a $10.1 billion class action against Philip Morris involving deceptive marketing practices in light of a favorable 2008 US Supreme Court ruling on the subject matter. The class represented in the lawsuit claims that Philip Morris [...]
The Egyptian military’s judicial committee on Saturday proposed a constitutional amendment that would impose an eight-year term limit on the presidency in an attempt to prevent a repeat of the 30-year reign of former president Hosni Mubarak . The proposed constitutional amendments also make it easier for a candidate to obtain a nomination. The existing [...]
The UN Security Council on Saturday voted unanimously to impose sanctions on Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi , marking the first unanimous referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in UN history. Resolution 1970 also received support from Libya’s delegation itself, which renounced Gaddafi on Friday . Libya’s UN Ambassador Abdurrahman Shalgam, who use to [...]
The Obama administration on Friday asked the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to delay its review of an order striking down the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (DADT) because the policy will soon be ended. In December, President Barack Obama signed legislation that would repeal DADT as soon as the president, [...]
The Spanish National Court on Friday agreed to continue investigating allegations of a Moroccan man who claims that he was tortured while detained at Guantanamo Bay . Article 23.4 of the Ley Organica del Poder Judicial (LOPJ) authorizes Spanish courts to hear certain types of international cases, but requires that the case have a “relevant [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Volker Behr of the University of Augsburg says the European Community has unified many areas of international civil procedure and private international law over a short period of time. Many stakeholders will benefit from the changes and lawmakers worldwide should take note… The Amsterdam Treaty of 1997 vested legislative competence in the [...]
The standing committee of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) on Friday amended the national criminal law to remove 13 offenses from the list of crimes subject to the death penalty . Those removed are non-violent economic crimes and include smuggling cultural relics, precious metals and rare animals; fraudulent activities with financial bills and letters of [...]
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Friday adopted a resolution condemning the recent violence in Libya and ordering an international inquiry into alleged abuses. During a special session, the 47-member council unanimously adopted the resolution, which also calls upon the Libyan government to protect its population and respect the will of its people. According [...]
South Korean prosecutor Jeong Jeom-Shik announced Friday that five Somali pirates captured in January have been charged with six offenses, including attempted murder, maritime robbery and kidnapping. The attempted murder charge carries with it a possible life sentence. The pirates were captured during the Samho Jewelry raid last month, when South Korean commandos killed eight [...]
