JURIST Contributing Editor Marjorie Cohn of Thomas Jefferson School of Law says in rejecting the broadcast of the Proposition 8 same-sex marriage trial, conservative justices of the United States Supreme Court are using procedural excuses to push a critical issue back into the closet … On Wednesday, a conservative majority of the Supreme Court overturned [...]
The Communist Party of China (CPC) will increase its oversight of the families of government officials to control corruption, the state-controlled China Daily reported Wednesday. A communique released Wednesday by the CPC's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection , which is in charge of detecting and preventing corruption in the CPC, ordered other CPC organs to [...]
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced on Thursday the conviction of seven former Soviet officials, including Joseph Stalin , on genocide charges stemming from the 1932-1933 Holodomor famine . The court of appeals in Kiev reviewed evidence for two days before determining the officials' guilt, but chose not to pursue further criminal proceedings because [...]
Jackson v. District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics, Superior Court of the District of Columbia, January 14, 2010 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here. JURIST has more on same-sex marriage.
Jim Hanson : “As reported here: A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s ability to conduct “targeted killings” in the case of radical Muslim cleric and US citizen Anwar al-Awlaqi. I am not the best person to be commenting on the [...]
An Iraqi court on Thursday sentenced 11 men to death for the August 19 bombing of the foreign and finance ministries in Baghdad that left close to 100 dead. The 11 men were found guilty of financing, planning, and participating in the attacks. Wisam Ali Khazim Ibrahim, a member of Suddam Hussein's ousted Ba'ath party, [...]
The UK Parliament Justice Committee released a reinvestment report on Thursday urging the prison populations in England and Wales to be reduced by a third. The committee found that incarceration is a relatively ineffective way of reducing crime except for serious offenders, and the amount of repeat offenders could be more efficiently reduced through rehabilitation [...]
2009 marked the worst year for maritime piracy in six years, according to a report issued Thursday by the International Chamber of Commerce International Maritime Bureau (IMB) . The total reported incidents of piracy reached 406, surpassing 400 for the first time since 2003. It is the third consecutive year that reports have increased rising [...]
The legal advisers for the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen , have advised him to delay an internal effort to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, according to a Thursday Associated Press report . Mullen has reportedly received mixed input on whether lifting the ban is a good [...]
A Dutch court on Wednesday ordered politician Geert Wilders to be tried for his video and printed statements against the Quran and Islam, dismissing a motion to drop or reduce the criminal charges. The trial court denied Wilder's counsel's argument that he could not be prosecuted according to a 2009 Supreme Court ruling, which held [...]
