President Bush urged Congress in his weekly radio address Saturday to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in time to replace the temporary Protect America Act , set to expire February 1. That Act currently allows the US government to eavesdrop inside of the US without court approval as long as one end of [...]
The Pakistani government offered to reinstate all superior court judges sacked under emergency rule except for ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry but the deposed judges rejected the proposal, according to a report in the Pakistani Nation daily Saturday. The Nation said Peshawar High Court Bar Association President Abdul Latif Afridi revealed the failed compromise [...]
US military judge Col. Peter Brownback has issued a blanket order protecting the identities of prosecution witnesses in the military commission trial of Omar Khadr , the New York Times reported Saturday. The order, originally rendered on October 15, was contained within previously unavailable commission documents that were only recently released by the Pentagon. The [...]
Three United Nations human rights experts joined together Friday to voice their distress over the effect planned constitutional reforms in Venezuela may have on civil liberties and the rule of law in the country. Ambeyi Ligabo, Special Rapporteur on Freedom of opinion and expression; Hina Jilani, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders; [...]
Seven countries on Friday committed to new efforts to protect journalists and their crews in armed conflicts following the conclusion of a meeting in Switzerland of the 194 signatories of the Geneva Conventions. The 30th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement focused in part on the role of international humanitarian law [...]
US District Judge James Cacheris of the Eastern District of Virginia Friday dismissed a lawsuit challenging measures adopted by the Prince William County Board of Supervisors that required local police to check the immigration status of anyone suspected of breaking the law and removed access to many public services for illegal immigrants. The lawsuit , [...]
Canadian Council for Refugees et al. v. The Queen, Federal Court of Canada, November 29, 2007 . Read the full text of the judgment . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
US v. Thomas Kriesel Jr., United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Senator Patrick Leahy : "The protest by Pakistan's lawyers was an iconic moment about the importance of the rule of law, and the whole world was watching. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee I see every day the importance of an independent judiciary in our own country and in our system of government. We [...]
US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) Friday praised Pakistan's lawyers for standing up for the rule of law and emphasized the county's need for an independent judiciary as a guard against overreaching executive power. In a statement to JURIST, Leahy said: The protest by Pakistan's lawyers was an iconic moment about the importance [...]
