French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday announced plans to end the country's use of magistrate-led investigations in criminal cases. Sarkozy made the announcement at the annual opening of the Court of Cassation , and said the changes would better administer justice to the accused, because judges would no longer face the potential conflict of acting [...]
US Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Wednesday ruled that aliens may no longer challenge deportation hearings based on ineffective assistance of counsel. Mukasey's opinion, which is binding on immigration courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals, holds that immigrants have no constitutional right to a new deportation hearing if their lawyers make mistakes. This ruling [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay Friday called for an independent investigation of possible war crimes and human rights violations in the ongoing conflict between Israel and combatants in the Gaza Strip. Pillay made the comments at a special session of the UN Human Rights Council , and reiterated her calls for Israel to [...]
A committee of the Illinois House of Representatives on Thursday voted unanimously to recommend the impeachment of Governor Rod Blagojevich . The committee was appointed last month to gather evidence and testimony regarding the charges against Blagojevich. US federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald asked the committee to limit its impeachment inquiry and avoid looking into the [...]
Bangladeshi Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shafique Ahmed on Thursday declared his government's desire to restore Bangladesh's 1972 constitution . The move signals an intent to return to the four principles of nationalism, democracy, secularism, and socialism that Bangladesh endorsed after its independence from Pakistan in 1971. Ahmed told the Daily Star that the [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist and German human rights lawyer Stefan Kirchner, a member of the American Society of International Law and the Faculty of Law at Georg-August-University in Gottingen, says that new litigation between Germany and Italy in the International Court of Justice over Italian courts' awarding of compensation to relatives of civilians killed by German [...]
A Chinese court on Wednesday sentenced democracy advocate Wang Rongqing to six years in jail on charges of subverting state power. The 65-year-old activist, who has pressed for democracy since the 1970s, was tried in Hangzhou City Intermediate People’s Court, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, on charges relating to his organization of the China [...]
Former US Army Pfc. Kimberly Rivera who fled the US for Canada after serving in Iraq announced Wednesday that the Canadian government had ordered her deportation. She, along with her husband and children, had sought asylum on humanitarian grounds to avoid a second tour in Iraq. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney defended the practice of deporting [...]
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Wednesday directed the attorney general and information minister to review a controversial media bill that gives power to a communication commission to regulate broadcasting with threats of fines or incarceration. The Communications Amendment Bill of 2008 , which was signed into law by Kibaki on Friday, allows the minister of [...]
Turkish police on Wednesday arrested approximately 40 people, including three retired generals, in an investigation of an alleged plot to overthrow the government of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) . Police searched the home of the country's former top prosecutor, Sabih Kanadoglu. Police also arrested the former head of the police anti-terror unit, [...]
