Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr have asked the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to reverse a military Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) determination that their client is an "enemy combatant," arguing that the determination "was inconsistent with the laws of the United States, and inconsistent with the standards and procedures [...]
Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine Tuesday issued a stay of all executions in the state until the US Supreme Court rules in Baze v. Rees (07-5439) , a case challenging the constitutionality of using lethal injection as a method of execution. Kaine's announcement came ahead of the scheduled April 8 execution of Virginia inmate Edward [...]
European Union Advocate General Damaso Ruiz-Jarabo on Monday advised the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has engaged in abusive practices that contravene EU antitrust laws in connection with a lawsuit filed by Greek drug wholesalers against GSK. The lawsuit stems from a three-month period in 2000 when GSK refused to [...]
The US Department of Justice advised the US Department of Defense in 2003 that military interrogators could employ a wide range of interrogation methods when questioning foreign detainees outside the United States without fear of criminal liability or constitutional sanction, according to a 2003 memorandum made public for the first time Tuesday. The 81-page document, [...]
The US Department of Defense (DOD) is circumventing legal limits on its relatively narrow power to issue so-called national security letters (NSLs) by getting the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to use its broader NSL-issuing powers on the DOD's behalf, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said Tuesday. The report follows review of thousands of [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Allen Rostron of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law says that by approaching the District of Columbia v. Heller case in a spirit of conciliation and compromise rather than extremism, the Court can make its ruling on the interpretation of the Second Amendment a victory for everyone… In a few [...]
The National League for Democracy (NLD), the main opposition party in Myanmar , on Wednesday urged citizens to reject the proposed constitution put forth by Myanmar's military government. In a statement to Reuters, an NLD spokesman appealed to citizens to vote against the constitution when they go to the polls next month, following similar calls [...]
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) passed a resolution by a 32-0 vote Tuesday "extending the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression for three years," and adding extra oversight to require reporting when "abuse of the right of freedom of expression constitute [...]
Tadao Maruko v Versorgungsanstalt der deutschen Bühnen, European Court of Justice, April 1, 2008 . Read the full text of the judgment. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Kevin P. Martin : "In Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 (1975), the Supreme Court held that the Sixth Amendment provides a constitutional right to a criminal defendant to decline the assistance of counsel and instead to represent himself. The Court explained that a defendant's decision to invoke this right should be honored even in [...]
