The Department of Justice in Ireland published a Civil Partnership Bill on Sunday, extending certain rights to same-sex couples. The bill legally recognizes cohabiting but unmarried couples while stopping short of granting such couples full marital rights. The bill provides for numerous rights such as conveyance of a home. The Minister for Justice, Equality and [...]
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was detained and escorted from the presidential home by members of the Honduran military and transported to the airport in the early hours of Sunday morning, the scheduled day for a nationwide referendum on constitutional reform. Military leaders said they were following a judicial order to remove Zelaya for breaking the [...]
The US House of Representatives on Friday passed a climate bill that focuses on clean energy. In his weekly address Friday evening, US President Barack Obama praised the bill's passage in the House and encouraged the Senate to follow suit. Obama spoke of the energy bill in terms of economic leadership and job creation, and [...]
US President Barack Obama is considering issuing an executive order for the indefinite detention of some Guantanamo Bay detainees in order to facilitate the closure of the facility, two administration officials told the Associated Press Friday. According to the report, the move is being considered in response to Congress's reluctance to provide funding for the [...]
Marc Mauer : "Attorney General Eric Holder's call this week for Congress to finally eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine "this year" was the most high-profile indication of the Administration's support for fundamental change in this shameful 23-year-old policy, and an indication that a change in these policies may finally be [...]
The Canadian Supreme Court ruled 6-1 Friday that children under the age of 16 have the right to make decisions over their own medical treatment if they can demonstrate their decision-making ability, but upheld the constitutionality of statutory schemes that balance the best interests of the child with the right to individual autonomy. The case [...]
The Labor Tribunal of Papeete in French Polynesia on Friday considered for the first time a demand brought directly against the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) by or on behalf of eight former South Pacific test site workers. Of the eight cases, the court dismissed three nuclear compensation cases for lack of proof and procedural [...]
Robert Applebaum : "The US Supreme Court has recently granted certiorari to United Student Funds, Inc. v. Espinosa, agreeing to consider whether student loans may be discharged in bankruptcy under the limited circumstances wherein the creditor fails to object to a discharge plan which includes student debt. Before anyone gets too excited about this, no [...]
Former Croatian Serb wartime leader Milan Martic was transferred to Estonia Friday to serve a 35-year prison sentence for crimes against humanity and violations of the laws of war in Croatia. Martic was convicted and sentenced in 2007 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for crimes against Croats and others between [...]
Amnesty International (AI) on Friday called for a public trial for a Thai political activist accused of insulting the royal family. Judge Prommat Toosang on Wednesday ordered that the trial of Darunee Charnchoengsilpakul be closed for national security reasons. AI's Asia-Pacific director Sam Zarifi noted that although the closure of trials is legitimate under the [...]
