German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere announced Wednesday that Germany would accept two detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The announcement came after months of negotiations with the Obama administration, which originally asked Germany to take up to 10 detainees from the facility. The German government indicated in April that it was considering accepting [...]
Former Chongqing deputy police chief and high-ranking judicial official Wen Qiang was executed in China on Wednesday after an appeal of his corruption charges was rejected by the Chongqing Intermediate People’s Court in May. Wen was convicted in April of accepting bribes, protecting criminal gangs, rape and being unable to justify his large amount of [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist William A. Birdthistle of the Chicago-Kent School of Law says that the Supreme Court’s modest decision in Jones v. Harris Associates continues the Court’s trend of neglecting to take strong positions on important issues in corporate law… With the announcement of several important business decisions at the close of its latest Term, [...]
An Australian court on Wednesday ordered four companies and the captain of a cargo ship to stand trial over a 2009 oil spill that resulted in more than 53,000 gallons of oil being spilled into the coastal waters surrounding Australia. The captain of the cargo ship was charged with disposal of oil in coastal waters [...]
The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday convicted New Zealand anti-whaling activist Peter Bethune on five criminal charges in connection with boarding a Japanese whaling vessel as part of a protest in the Antarctic. Bethune was convicted of assault, trespass, destruction of property, illegal possession of a weapon and obstruction of business. He had previously made [...]
Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle (R) on Tuesday vetoed a bill that would have allowed same-sex civil unions . The bill, which would have conferred upon homosexual and heterosexual couples rights and benefits equal to those afforded married couples in the state, was approved by the House in April after the vote was initially postponed in [...]
A Paris criminal court on Wednesday sentenced former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to seven years in jail for money laundering. Noriega, whose trial began last week , was convicted of laundering $3 million in drug profits by purchasing property in Paris. A lawyer for Noriega stated that the former dictator would receive credit for the [...]
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday announced a proposed rule that will reduce air pollution transported across state lines and bring delinquent areas into compliance with federal and state air quality requirements. The Transport Rule targets power plants specifically as a cost-effective way to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions—gases that react [...]
The French National Assembly on Tuesday began debate on a bill that would make it illegal to wear the Islamic burqa or other full face veils in public. Under the bill, women who wear the veil can be required by police to show their face, and, if they refuse, they can be forced to attend [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Bruce J. Einhorn of Pepperdine University School of Law says that provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 that would allow for special investigations of lawyers representing Guantanamo Bay detainees should be removed from the bill… For 11 years, I had the great privilege of serving my country [...]
