US President George W. Bush issued an executive order on Thursday that creates a Transition Coordinating Council to head up transition efforts of executive agencies and the incoming administration in the months leading up to the presidential change early next year. The Council, among other things, will: assist the major party candidates and the President-elect [...]

Thailand's Court of Appeal Thursday reduced insurrection charges against nine People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) activists following this week's violent clashes between police and PAD protesters . The court dismissed treason charges against the PAD members as groundless, but maintained the lesser charges of inciting public disturbance and illegal assembly. A spokesman for PAD was [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Thursday adopted a fact-specific test for determining whether a disabled student has been placed in the 'least restrictive environment' as required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) . A three-judge panel explicitly endorsed the two-pronged fact-specific test that the Third Circuit adopted in 1993 [...]

Thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from voter rolls against federal voting law, according to a New York Times report published Thursday. The report examined the actions of election officials in Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada, and North Carolina, and found that the removal of a number of [...]

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on Thursday announced that the first trial of a former Khmer Rouge leader is unlikely to take place until next year. The case of Kaing Guek-Eav , also known as Duch, is expected to be delayed as prosecutors challenge a closing order issued by the investigation [...]

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the administration of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to give its position on providing $250 million this year toward the $8 billion needed to reform the state's prison health care system. US District Judge Thelton Henderson of the Northern District of California said the administration must provide details of when [...]

The British government on Wednesday froze nearly $4 billion in UK financial assets held by the failed Icelandic bank Landsbanki , exercising its powers under the 2001 Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act . One of the largest Icelandic banks, Landsbanki has enjoyed significant business from UK customers, including many local councils , through its British [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Douglas Branson, holder of the the W. Edward Sell Chair in Business Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, offers a 50-year perspective on the structural roots of the current financial crisis in the United States and what factors ultimately helped to bring it about… Harking back to the days [...]

A Russian court on Wednesday extended the jail term of former Russian oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky until February 2009. Khodorkovsky headed the now-bankrupt Yukos Oil Co. and was sent to prison by the Russian government in 2005 to serve an eight-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion . The extension follows the court's rejection of [...]

Leaders of both Philippine rebel groups and government militias could be held responsible for the use of child soldiers under a new US law, according to a Wednesday statement by Human Rights Watch . The Child Soldiers Accountability Act of 2008 , signed into law by US President George W. Bush on Friday, provides for [...]