A proposed Ethiopian law regulating non-governmental organizations, which it terms Civil Society Organizations (CSO), would severely undermine human rights efforts in the country, according to two separate reports issued Tuesday by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) . The groups said that Ethiopia's Charities and Societies Proclamation would bar foreign CSOs from engaging in [...]
The Supreme Court of Rhode Island Tuesday overturned a 2006 jury verdict holding paint manufacturers liable for contamination caused by lead-based paint. The court rejected state arguments that the paint companies had created a public nuisance, finding that they had no control over how the paint was used: But however grave the problem of lead [...]
The Shanghai People's Higher Court will broadcast its hearings online, a Shanghai judge announced Tuesday. China began televising live court cases in 1998, and the internet broadcasts are the newest element of its effort to increase judicial transparency. Speaking at a conference last week, Supreme People's Court (SPC) Chief Justice Wang Shengjun recommended : We [...]
A report from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) has found that while US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is not responsible for the 2006 deaths of two detainees, ICE officials do not always adhere to proper medical protocols. The medical standards chapter of the ICE Detention Operations Manual [...]
Millions of Swedish citizens have filed electronic petitions against the country's newly approved electronic wiretapping law , according to news reports Wednesday. The law was narrowly approved earlier this month and gives the country's National Defence Radio Establishment broad authority to monitor international telephone and electronic communications passing through the country. Upon passage, opponents warned [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Kevin Govern of Ave Maria School of Law, Ann Arbor, MI, says that a viable Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and Strategic Framework Agreement between the US and Iraq governing future US troop presence in the country requires a variety of institutional, legal and political obstacles to be overcome before the UN [...]
US Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) has criticized the Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) warrantless searches and seizures of travelers' laptops and other digital devices at the US border, calling the searches an unacceptable invasion of privacy . The Supreme Court has held that reasonable suspicion is not necessary to conduct routine searches at the border, but [...]
A Chilean judge Monday sentenced General Manuel Contreras to two consecutive life terms in prison for a 1974 car bombing that killed another general and his wife. At the time of the bombing, Contreras was the head of the country's infamous secret police, the National Intelligence Directive (DINA), under former dictator Augusto Pinochet . The [...]
The Italian Court of Cassation Monday overturned the convictions of six Italians, including Verona Mayor Flavio Tosi, for distributing anti-Roma literature in 2001. The court found that the men were motivated by a belief that all Roma are thieves, but held that this motivation did not amount to "racial hatred" under existing Italian anti-discrimination laws. [...]
A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Monday released declassified portions of last month's decision that a US Combatant Status Review Tribunal had improperly designated a Chinese Uighur Muslim detained at Guantanamo Bay as an enemy combatant. In the opinion, Circuit Judge Merrick Garland dismissed government arguments that classified [...]
