The US Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled unanimously in Smith v. Spisak that the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit contravened the directives of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) by extending Mills v. Maryland to resolve in a habeas petitioner's favor questions that were not decided or addressed in Mills. [...]
A member of the "Toronto 18" pleaded not guilty in a Canadian court on Monday for his alleged role in a failed 2006 terrorist plot to bomb the Toronto Stock Exchange and government buildings. Shareef Abdelhaleem, the first adult of the group to be tried, allegedly planned to profit from the attacks by investing in [...]
The New Jersey Legislature on Monday approved a bill that would legalize medical marijuana . The legislation would allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients with chronic illnesses such as cancer, AIDS, Lou Gehrig's disease, muscular dystrophy, and multiple sclerosis, which would be distributed through state-monitored dispensaries. Nonetheless, the measure is among the nation's stricter [...]
A US military judge ruled Monday that the trials for two Navy SEALs accused in the alleged assault of an Iraqi prisoner will be held on a US military base in Iraq in order for the alleged victim to be questioned in court. Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe and Petty Officer 1st Class Julio [...]
The Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan proposed on Saturday the creation of a new constitutional court to review matters relating to the Indian Constitution and other federal issues. Balakrishnan also suggested the creation of a television channel that would exclusively cover the Supreme Court of India , similar to the channel that currently covers [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Laurie Blank of Emory Law's International Humanitarian Law Clinic says that while the challenges posed by "new wars" are admittedly vast, we should not let those define us and our values. Rather, she suggests, we should use the law to rise to those challenges…. This is a new kind of war, with [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit heard arguments on Monday in an appeal by multi-national corporations accused of assisting the South African government during the apartheid-era . The corporations, which include IBM, Ford Motor Co., Daimler and General Motors Corp. , are accused of aiding the human rights abuses committed by the [...]
Report of the Investigation into the Causes and Circumstances of and Responsibility for the Attack of 06/04/1994 Against the Falcon 50 Rwandan Presidential Aeroplane, Registration Number 9XR-NN, Mutsinzi Commission of the Government of the Republic of Rwanda, January 11, 2010 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here. JURIST has more on [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in two cases. In Alabama v. North Carolina , the Court heard arguments on an interstate dispute over the disposal of radioactive waste. The dispute centers on an agreement, entered into by eight southern states in 1986, for the disposal of the region's low-level radioactive waste. Under [...]
A Russian law allowing minor offenders to serve their sentences under house arrest rather than in prison entered into force on Sunday. The bill, approved by the Russian State Duma last month and signed by President Dmitri Medvedev , is aimed at reducing the number of inmates in Russia's overcrowded prison system. Individuals charged with [...]
