The European Commission (EC) on Thursday reported that Romania has not made sufficient progress in its anti-corruption campaign since its accession to the European Union (EU) two years ago. The EC's report commended initial efforts, such as the drafting of amendments to the Criminal and Civil Codes, but noted that Romania has regressed in recent [...]
The Kenyan Parliament rejected Thursday two bills that would have established a special national tribunal to deal with cases stemming from the December 2007 post-election violence . The Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2009 and the Special Tribunal for Kenya Bill, 2009 were rejected by a vote of 101-93, with 145 votes needed to pass. [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Thursday called on the new national government of Zimbabwe to reinstate the rule of law and to release all political prisoners who remain in custody illegally. Pillay's statements condemned the gross human rights violations which have allegedly occurred within Zimbabwe, and encouraged the new government to [...]
The backlog of cases pending in the Delhi High Court would take more than 460 years to clear, according to the court's annual report . Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah released the report at a press conference Tuesday. According to the report, the Delhi High Court typically hears a case in less than five minutes [...]
The National Assembly of South Africa voted 232-60 Thursday in support of the decision of President Kgalema Motlanthe to fire the country's chief prosecutor Vusi Pikoli . The vote endorsed the findings of a committee set up to investigate the dismissal. The report determined the firing was legal under § 12 of the National Prosecuting [...]
Two Pennsylvania judges pleaded guilty Thursday to federal corruption charges filed last month claiming they accepted more than $2.6 million in kickbacks for sentencing teenagers to two private juvenile detention facilities in which they had a financial interest. Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas President Judge Mark Ciavarella and former President Judge Michael Conahan were [...]
The credibility of the Khmer Rouge trials in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) are at risk from political corruption and interference, according to a report by the Open Society Justice Initiative released Thursday, just days ahead of the high-profile trial of Khmer Rouge leader Kaing Guek Eav, better known as "Duch," [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Afsheen John Radsan, former CIA assistant general counsel now at William Mitchell College of Law, says that instead of categorically rejecting rendition as a US strategy, new CIA chief Leon Panetta and President Obama will likely conclude on due consideration that it is one of those tactics, somewhere in the gray between [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied Thursday a petition for an en banc rehearing by convicted former Enron Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling . Skilling's petition followed a ruling last month by a three-judge panel from the Fifth Circuit that upheld his previous convictions and ordered him to be resentenced due [...]
Russian human rights group the SOVA Center announced Thursday that the number of Russian hate crimes rose slightly in 2008 over 2007 levels, with 97 people killed and 525 wounded. According to the deputy head of SOVA Galina Kozhevnikova higher conviction rates for hate crimes prevented the numbers of hate crimes from rising any higher. [...]
