Mark Warren : "Along with charting the boundaries of the President's foreign relations powers, the Medellin decision confirms the steady drift of the Roberts Court towards a major revision of the canons of treaty construction. The Court now claims that its many prior decisions upholding individual treaty rights stand for no more than the "unremarkable [...]
Belarusian district courts Wednesday sentenced at least 55 demonstrators for participating in a banned "Freedom Day" rally in Minsk to protest against Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko . "Freedom Day" first began as a celebration of Belarus' 1918 declaration of independence but has in recent years become a protest against Lukashenko's authoritarian policies. Some protesters, including [...]
The Bush administration has filed an appeal of a ruling by a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit invalidating new less-stringent mercury emissions rules issued by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) . In February, the panel ruled that the "cap-and-trade" policy, to be implemented in 2010 by the EPA [...]
Indonesian prosecutors Wednesday recommended that two alleged leaders of the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) be given life sentences if found guilty on terrorism charges. Prosecutors also asked the court to officially outlaw the group. Zarkasih and Abu Dujana went on trial in December, charged with training and equipping JI members as well [...]
A court in Egypt Wednesday sentenced the former editor of weekly newspaper al-Dustour to six months in prison after convicting him on charges of spreading "rumors" about the health of Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak in an August newspaper report. Ibrahim Eissa originally faced a maximum sentence of three years in jail when his trial began [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in Indiana v. Edwards , 07-208, a case in which the Court is considering whether states may adopt a higher standard for measuring competency to represent oneself at trial than for measuring competency to stand trial. Specifically, the Court is weighing whether the Indiana Supreme Court correctly [...]
A former army general and warlord in the Democratic Republic of Congo denied allegations of war crimes in an interview published Wednesday in Dutch newspaper Trouw . Laurent Nkunda , the Tutsi leader of the National Congress for the Defence of the People, is accused of masterminding an anti-government insurgency in the province of Nord-Kivu, [...]
Lawyers for Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr argued before the Supreme Court of Canada Wednesday that the Canadian government should be compelled to turn over confidential documents that they say led to Khadr's charges and are therefore necessary for a fair trial. Khadr is seeking documents that Canada allegedly provided to US authorities, along with videotapes [...]
Thailand's ruling political party announced plans Wednesday to amend the nation's newly adopted constitution . The People Power Party (PPP), which which won 233 out of 480 parliament seats in the first election since the current interim military-backed government took power in a September 2006 bloodless coup , intends to make sweeping changes, including stripping [...]
China is denying human rights, including basic religious freedom, to Tibetans, according to an annual report released Tuesday by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office . The report found: Violations of human rights continue in Tibet. We regularly raise our concerns, including individual cases…We continue to make clear our view that the best way to [...]
