A Thai court on Thursday convicted Pojamarn Shinawatra , the wife of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra , of tax evasion for transferring $16.3 million worth of stock to her step-brother and secretary, who were also convicted. Pojamarn and step-brother Bannapot Damapong were each sentenced to three years and her secretary was sentenced to [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Wes Rist of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law says that while the International Criminal Court and its founding Rome Statute are far from perfect, the operation of Court since the Statute entered into force in July 2002 provides ample evidence that many fears of American conservatives relating to the Court's [...]

Frank Kendall : "From July 14 to July 18, I attended several pre-trial motions hearings in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for Salim Hamdan , who is now in his second week of trial before a Military Commission there. I feel fortunate to have had this opportunity because these hearings were, in my mind, of at least [...]

Farzana Hassan : "The statistics are alarming. Eight women and one man have been sentenced to death over an adultery conviction in none other than, Ayatollah, mullah-ridden Iran. As if criminalizing adultery in the absence of a similar ruling on rape isn't enough of a mockery of justice. Iranian activists and lawyers are rightly outraged [...]

Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Evans has announced that the country will no longer impose mandatory detention on all those who enter the country seeking asylum. Evans said Tuesday that the country's existing immigration policy imposed detentions too broadly, held immigrants in unacceptable conditions, and that those who were detained often lacked means [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Tuesday ruled that a lower court had erroneously dismissed a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit seeking to prevent Whole Foods Market from buying out competitor Wild Oats Markets. The FTC had been seeking a temporary injunction against the merger while it conducted an investigation [...]

The US House of Representatives late Tuesday approved by voice vote a resolution apologizing to African Americans for slavery and Jim Crow laws . The resolution declares: That the House of Representatives– (1) acknowledges that slavery is incompatible with the basic founding principles recognized in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal; [...]

The Massachusetts House of Representatives Tuesday voted 119-36 for a bill that would repeal a 1913 law barring people from marrying in Massachusetts if their own state would not recognize such a union. The state's Senate passed the bill earlier this month and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has said he will sign it into law [...]

The Constitutional Court of Turkey Wednesday rejected a bid to ban the country's ruling Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) , which was accused of ignoring the secular principles of the country's constitution . Six of the 11 judges on the court favored dissolving the party, but seven would have been required to successfully pass [...]

Germany's Federal Constitutional Court Wednesday ruled that state laws banning smoking in bars are unconstitutional as they now stand. Smoking in public places is regulated on a state-by-state basis in Germany, and most states allow bars to designate a separate room for smokers. The court found that such laws unconstitutionally discriminate against one-room bars, and [...]