Ambassadors from eight countries met with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on Saturday to urge Japan to sign an international treaty that will help prevent parental child abductions across borders. Representatives from the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, France, New Zealand, Italy, and Spain encouraged Japan to join the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil [...]
More than 50 countries, including the US, China, and EU member states, submitted plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the UN Framework on Climate Change (UNFCC) prior to a Sunday deadline set by the non-binding Copenhagen Accord . Relative to 2005 levels, the US has pledged to reduce emissions to 17 percent, while China [...]
As many as 100 anti-Kremlin demonstrators were arrested by Moscow authorities Sunday as they protested against the perceived government curtailing of the right to peaceful assembly. The 300-strong group chanted slogans calling for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to step aside. Among those detained were Boris Nemtsov , a former deputy prime minister and the leader [...]
JURIST Contributing Editor Jeffrey Addicott of St. Mary's University School of Law, formerly a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, says President Obama's inability to close the lawful Guantanamo prison is actually good news, but so is the Afghan government's agreement to take over the new Bagram detention facility by the [...]
Spanish National Court judge Baltasar Garzon will begin an inquiry into the suspected torture and ill-treatment of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay , Spanish media reported Saturday. The inquiry follows claims made by several Spanish groups – including the Association for the Dignity of Prisoners of Spain, the Free Association of Lawyers, the United Left [...]
Former US Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee have been cleared of allegations of wrongdoing in relation to their controversial memos asserting the legality of enhanced interrogation techniques , it was reported Friday. The results of the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) investigation of the two former [...]
Hundreds of judges in Italy walked out of their courtrooms Saturday, in protest over judicial reform legislation proposed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi . The legislation, which has been approved by the Italian Senate , aims to shorten the trial and appeals process by putting strict time limits on its duration. The protests were organized [...]
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said during an interview Sunday on CNN's State of the Union that upon being tried and convicted, alleged 9/11 conspirator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would likely be executed. Gibbs stressed that the heinous nature of the crime he is accused of merits such severe punishment. When asked about the increasingly-unclear [...]
The Hawaii House of Representatives on Friday postponed indefinitely a vote on legislation that would have allowed persons in same-sex civil unions the same rights as married heterosexual couples. The postponement was decided by voice vote; only a two-thirds majority in the Hawaii House would allow further action on the bill. In the weeks leading [...]
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday dismissed two Russian proposals for new European security treaties and reaffirmed US commitment to "unified" European security. In prepared remarks delivered at the L’Ecole Militaire in Paris, Clinton said: the Russian Government under President Medvedev has put forth proposals for new security treaties in Europe. Indivisibility of security [...]
