US President Barack Obama Friday nominated former Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyer James Cole for the position of Deputy Attorney General, the second highest position at the DOJ. Cole previously spent 13 years at the DOJ, including four years as head of the department's Public Integrity Section , responsible for prosecuting government officials. During the [...]
US President Barack Obama signed an executive order on Friday establishing an independent commission to investigate offshore drilling and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico . The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling will be charged with identifying the causes of the BP oil spill and [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has expressed concern about the treatment of anti-government protesters detained during Thailand's latest round of political violence . The group is chiding the Thai government for enacting an emergency decree giving Thai security forces broad power to arrest individuals without formal charges and hold them in secret detention. The decree, which [...]
The US House Armed Services Committee has approved a bill prohibiting the Obama administration from modifying or building a facility in the US to hold detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay . The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 provides the Department of Defense (DOD) with $567 billion, but requires that any plan [...]
JURIST Guest Columnists Michael Kearney, a lecturer in international law at the University of York (UK), and Victor Kattan, Teaching Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, argue for the recognition of Palestine as a State competent to accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court pursuant to Article 12 [...]
The Spanish National Court on Friday convicted three members of the Basque separatist group ETA on charges relating to a 2006 bombing in Madrid. Mattin Sarasola, Igor Portu, and Mikel San Sebastian were found guilty of murder, attempted murder, and taking part in a terrorist attack and were each sentenced to 1,040 years in prison. [...]
The interim government of Kyrgyzstan on Thursday approved a draft constitution that will shift power from the president to the prime minister. The draft constitution defines Kyrgyzstan as a secular state and limits the president to one six-year term in office. It also increases the number of seats in parliament from 90 to 120. The [...]
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Friday promised an independent investigation into recent clashes between anti-government protesters know as red shirts and security officials that left more than 80 dead. Abhisit discussed plans for reconciliation aimed at helping the country heal after a nearly two month-long conflict in Bangkok . He indicated that due process [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Friday in Al Maqaleh v. Gates that detainees held at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan cannot bring habeas corpus challenges in US courts. The circuit court reversed the district court's ruling, which allowed habeas corpus challenges by three Bagram detainees pursuant to [...]
A German court on Thursday denied a motion to dismiss charges against alleged Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk . In a series of motions, Demjanjuk's lawyer asserted that the charges should be dismissed due to lack of credible evidence. The court rejected the argument, saying they found the evidence against Demjanjuk to be strong. The [...]
