The UK will likely not have a written constitution for another 10 to 20 years, UK Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor Jack Straw said in a BBC radio interview Wednesday. Straw confirmed that the Labour Party government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown is in the process of drafting a new "Bill of [...]
The Iraqi Council of Representatives passed an amnesty law as part of a package of legislation approved Wednesday, a day after speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani threatened to disband the legislature when Shi'ite and Sunni lawmakers walked out on budget hearings. In addition to the amnesty law that would release roughly 5,000 prisoners, lawmakers approved a 2008 [...]
Real estate businesses have filed a lawsuit against the New York City Campaign Finance Board claiming that a new law that greatly restricts the amount that city businesses can donate to city campaigns violates the US Constitution. The suit, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday, alleges [...]
Danish newspaper Jyllands-Poste reprinted a cartoon Wednesday drawn by Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard one day after Danish police arrested three people suspected in a plot to murder Westergaard for his characterization of Muhammad. Westergaard was one of 12 cartoonists who published cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad in 2005 that sparked widespread protests across the [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Haider Ala Hamoudi of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law says that despite appearances, the Iraqi parliament's adoption of a budget and other key laws on provincial administration and amnesty emphasizes rather than diminishes the regional and sectarian divisions in the country… The Iraq Parliament has finally agreed on its budget [...]
The National Parliament of East Timor voted Wednesday to extend the state of emergency imposed this week after attacks against President Jose Ramos Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao , during which Horta was critically wounded and rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was killed. The parliament voted to extend the state of emergency until February 23 [...]
The US Senate on Tuesday voted 68-29 in favor of the FISA Amendments Act , legislation intended to replace the temporary Protect America Act in modernizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The Protect America Act is currently set to expire February 15. The bill passed by the Senate Tuesday would provide immunity for telecommunications companies [...]
The Guatemalan Congress voted to restore the death penalty Tuesday, passing a bill that ends a six-year moratorium on executions imposed by the Constitutional Court in 2002. Under the new law, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom will have to decide whether to grant clemency to the 24 inmates currently on death row or to order their [...]
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. Office of Administration, US District Court for the District of Columbia, February 11, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Daryl Kimball : "Defense Minister Ivanov's address at the Berlin security conference reflects Russia's frustration with the current US-Russian impasse on key strategic weapons issues and the Bush administration's resistance to certain bilateral strategic arms agreements. Ivanov's comments do not really break any new ground. Rather, he simply appears to be reiterating Russia's current positions [...]
