Japan began its first trial under the new lay judge system at the Tokyo District Court on Monday. Katsuyoshi Fujii is on trial for the murder of his neighbor, a South Korean woman. The proceedings began with the selection of six lay judges and three backups by a lottery system after the pool was narrowed [...]
An Iraqi court on Sunday convicted Ali Hassan al-Majid and former foreign minister and deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz of forcing the Kurdish population to be displaced from the northeast of Iraq during the late 1980s. The Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal sentenced al-Majid, better known in the western media as "Chemical Ali," and Aziz, along [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday reversed a lower court ruling that had dismissed a discrimination lawsuit filed by more than 200 African-American members of the Capitol Police in 2001. The issue involved whether the officers had adequately pursued mediation through the Office of Compliance before taking legal [...]
The Obama administration is considering creating a maximum security prison that would hold both military and civilian detainees as well as a courtroom to accommodate remaining Guantanamo Bay detainees, according to senior administration officials cited by the Associated Press Sunday. The proposed facility would be operated jointly by the Department of Justice, the Department of [...]
Iran began the trial of 100 detained protesters from the post-election turmoil Saturday as former Iranian president Mohammad Ali Khatami decried the proceedings as a "show trial." Khatami said that the proceedings are against the Iranian constitution and laws and challenged the validity of confessions obtained under stressed circumstances. Khatami also criticized the court for [...]
The Constitutional Tribunal of Portugal ruled 3-2 Friday that same-sex marriage is not a right guaranteed by the Portuguese Constitution , denying an appeal by a lesbian couple claiming sexual orientation discrimination. For the tribunal, the issue was not whether the constitution allows a framework for same=sex marriage, but rather whether the constitution requires the [...]
A control order against a suspected terrorist known as AN was overturned Friday by the UK High Court. In overturning the control order, the high court relied on a June decision from a panel of nine Law Lords requiring the government to let detainees and subjects of control orders know generally what charges they face [...]
The Iraqi government announced on Friday the drafting of a law that proposes a framework to safeguard Iraqi journalists. The proposed law would offer greater protection to staff journalists than to freelancers and would criminalize attacks against a journalist on the job. The bill details compensation that journalists would receive for injuries sustained on duty [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled Friday that former Qwest Communications CEO Joseph Nacchio was incorrectly sentenced to six years in prison due to flawed methodology. In sentencing Nacchio, who was convicted of insider trading , the trial court ruled that Nacchio had made approximately $28 million in net profits by [...]
Secretary of State for the Home Department v. O'Connor, et al., UK High Court of Justice, July 31, 2009 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here.
