US President-elect Barack Obama will appoint Harvard Law School professor Cass Sunstein as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs , according to reports Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post . Sunstein will be responsible for governmental regulations and will deal with issues including changes to the financial services industry, [...]
A Spanish court on Thursday began the trial of three Basque leaders accused of meeting illegally with members of the Batasuna party to negotiate a ceasefire with the illegal Basque separatist group ETA . Basque President Juan Jose Ibarretxe and two senior members of the Basque branch of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's party [...]
The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) on Thursday announced that it will open an investigation into the UK business operations of US financier Bernard Madoff to determine whether any criminal offenses have been committed in the UK. The focus will be on victims in the UK, and the SFO has asked that anyone involved with [...]
The US Army on Wednesday announced that Sgt. John Hatley will be court-martialed for his alleged role in the killings of four Iraqi citizens in April 2007. Hatley, along with soldiers Sgt. Michael Leahy, Jr. and Sgt. 1st Class John Mayo, was charged in September with premeditated murder, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. Hatley is [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Tuesday ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had overstepped its interpretive authority by classifying certain pesticides as exempt from a permitting process allowing for their discharge into water. Eleven environmental and industry interest groups brought suit against the EPA, appealing the final rule that the [...]
The Chinese government on Wednesday warned that pressing war crimes charges against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in the International Criminal Court (ICC) would have "disastrous" consequences on the implementation of a peace process in Darfur . Citing fears that an indictment would limit Bashir's legitimacy in negotiations and that Sudan may evict UN peacekeepers [...]
Taiwan's High Court on Thursday rejected the appeal of former president Chen Shui-bian protesting the court's previous decision to detain him while he awaits trial on corruption charges . Chen's detention was ordered last month after the High Court overruled a decision by a Taiwanese district court to release Chen on his own recognizance. The [...]
Marc D. Stern : "Amnesty International reads the law of war as if it was a law banning war. In evaluating Amnesty's criticisms of Israel's actions in Gaza, one needs to take into account the manifold ways it distorts a body of law which actually permits, while regulating, war. Amnesty perversely reads that body of [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday rejected a First Amendment challenge to a City of Los Angeles ban on billboards. Metro Lights, an outdoor advertising company, argued that the ban on billboard advertising was unconstitutional because the city allowed advertising on bus shelters and other public facilities, a benefit conferred [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday granted the government's motion to hold in abeyance the habeas corpus petitions of two Guantanamo Bay detainees, but only if and when the charges against the pair are referred to military commissions. The detainees, Fouad Mahmoud Al Rabiah and Fayiz Mohammed [...]
