JURIST Guest Columnist Audrey Macklin of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, who recently observed the US military commissions at Guantanamo Bay for Human Rights Watch, says that the prosecution's argument in the case against Canadian national Omar Khadr that all acts of war by unlawful combatants are by definition war crimes points toward [...]
Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) Thursday announced that Russian oil companies Rosneft and LUKoil broke competition laws in the Russian market by fixing monopoly-like prices this summer. The FAS found Rosneft and LUKoil fixed high prices for gasoline, diesel fuel, air fuel, and fuel oil. The agency will determine the size of fines within the [...]
In a landmark intellectual property decision Thursday, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled 9-3 that a business concept for hedging risk in the field of commodities trading was too vague for patent protection. The case on an application by Bernard Bilski, the CEO of a company called Weatherwise, could affect the [...]
International Criminal Court (ICC) President Judge Phillippe Kirsch told the UN General Assembly Thursday that the ICC is at a "critical stage" ten years after its creation. Presenting his annual report , Kirsch said that while serious war crimes and crimes against humanity within the jurisdiction of the court continue to be committed worldwide, it [...]
Ivan Hoffman : "There is ample precedent for the structure of Google's settlement with the Authors Guild. It certainly reflects emerging technology and, as indicated below, will need to be reflected in modified agreements. For many decades, going back into the early 20th century, music rights holders collectively established ASCAP and BMI as "performing rights [...]
The Indonesian parliament on Thursday passed a controversial anti-pornography law criminalizing all "obscene" works and "bodily movements" that could violate public morality. Proponents of the law include President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his administration, who claim that the law will protect Islam and cultural art while eradicating pornography. Critics of the measure counter that the [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Wednesday upheld an injunction granted by a federal judge earlier this month ordering Michigan voting officials to reinstate on voter rolls the names of newly-registered voters whose voter registration cards were returned to the post office as undeliverable. The ACLU of Michigan had challenged the [...]
A court in military-ruled Myanmar on Wednesday sentenced nine activists to six months in prison after they complained that their trials were being held in secret, according to a statement by one of their lawyers speaking to Reuters. The presiding judge at the trial in Yangon's Insein Prison ruled that the activists had interrupted a [...]
Croatia's recently appointed Justice Minister Ivan Simonovic on Wednesday proposed a set of legal reforms intended to combat the country's organized crime problem. In an address to the Croatian parliament , Simonovic suggested establishing special courts to try organized crime and corruption suspects in the cities of Zagreb, Split, Rijeka and Osijek. Other proposed measures [...]
The Constitutional Court of South Korea upheld a law criminalizing adultery on Thursday, rejecting complaints that the 55-year-old law is outdated and constitutes an invasion of privacy. The challenge was brought by the lawyers of popular South Korean actress Ok So Ri, who was charged under the law when her husband filed a criminal complaint [...]
