US Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) listed what he described as topics of "concern" to be addressed in the upcoming Senate confirmation hearings for former federal judge and US Attorney General nominee Michael B. Mukasey in a Tuesday letter to Mukasey. Leahy encouraged Mukasey to directly answer questions which have been avoided by the [...]
The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas ruled in favor of a class of Pennsylvania Wal-mart workers on Wednesday, awarding the employees an additional $62.3 million under a state law which demands that pay not be withheld for over 30 days. Last year, the class won a $78.47 million verdict against Wal-mart that awarded damages for [...]
Chinese lawyer Li Heping was captured and abused by unknown assailants for representing clients lodging complaints against the government of China , Li told AP Wednesday. Li said he was abducted by a group of men, forced into a car, and beaten with batons for hours in the basement of an unknown building. His attackers [...]
The US Court of Military Commission Review has denied a motion by Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr to reconsider its decision to send Khadr's case back to a military tribunal. The appeals court ruled last month that charges against Khadr should be reinstated, after a military commission judge dropped the charges in June. Col. Peter [...]
Five families whose relatives died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have reached a settlement agreement with American Airlines, Boeing, and a passenger screening company in the families' negligence lawsuit, lawyers said Tuesday. The families decided to bring an individual action against the companies instead of accepting money from the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund [...]
The UN Human Rights Council passed a motion Tuesday criticizing Myanmar for its recent crackdown on peaceful protests in the country. The motion came on the same day that Myanmar arrested at least eight truckloads of people in Rangooon during a middle of the night roundup. The UN rights council motion calls for the immediate [...]
Two American military contractors go on trial Wednesday for their alleged involvement in the torture of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison . The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights brought a racketeering lawsuit in 2004 against two civilian defense contractors, Titan and CACI International , accusing the companies of conspiring to torture, rape and [...]
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has stayed the lethal injection execution of an inmate who was scheduled to be put to death Wednesday, giving state officials 30 days to answer questions about whether lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The US Supreme Court last week stayed the execution of another Texas inmate, days [...]
JURIST Guest Columnists S. James Anaya of the Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona, and Siegfried Wiessner of St. Thomas University School of Law say that the UN General Assembly's recent landslide adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a milestone in the re-empowerment of the world's aboriginal groups, [...]
Legal advisers to the 27 countries belonging to the European Union (EU) agreed Tuesday that the proposed EU Reform Treaty is ready for approval. The new treaty, which will replace the failed EU constitution , will be the topic of discussion at a meeting in Luxembourg on October 15, and could potentially gain full EU [...]
