The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that parties can contractually allocate the burden of attorneys' fees when litigation involves issues of federal bankruptcy law. In Travelers Casualty v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. , Travelers sought to recover attorneys' fees according to its indemnification agreements with PG&E, but the lower courts did not allow recovery [...]
A former CIA director is recommending in a report to a group of international civic leaders that the United States enact an EU-style cap-and-trade program and other measures to control greenhouse gas emissions . The background paper by John Deutch , who led the CIA in the mid-'90s and now teaches in the chemistry department [...]
The hanging of Saddam-era Iraqi vice-president Taha Ramadan before dawn Baghdad time Tuesday drew a disavowal from the United States and condemnation from Russia as the international community reacted to an execution that UN officials and rights groups had lobbied intensively against. Bloomberg News quoted a US Embassy spokesman in Baghdad as saying that the [...]
The US Senate Monday considered the possibility of taking away the authority of US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to unilaterally appoint replacement US Attorneys as comments from the White House regarding his future seemed less than confident and the administration reportedly began considering possible replacements. Nearly 3,000 email messages released Monday by the US Department [...]
JURIST Special Guest Columnist Faisal Kutty, a Toronto lawyer and vice-chair and counsel to the Canadian Council on American Islamic Relations, says that Canada does not need a US-style "no-fly list" with all its limitations and potential abuses, but rather better investigative and intelligence efforts to counter real threats to public safety… As the Canadian [...]
The Egyptian Parliament Monday passed a set of 34 amendments to the country's constitution , despite criticism from opposition leaders that the reforms are a step backward for democracy. The amendments were endorsed by 315 of 454 seats in parliament and members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood , the largest opposition group in Egypt, took [...]
Hundreds of email documents released by the US Department of Justice late Monday show that, contrary to its earlier claims, the White House was deeply involved in discussions to fire eight US Attorneys last year, according to ABC News. There are no emails directly from US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales , who reportedly does not [...]
Chiquita Brands International, Inc. pleaded guilty Monday to one count of engaging in transactions with a specially-designated global terrorist organization after admitting to deals with Colombian terrorists. The Cincinnati-based company is charged with having paid approximately $1.7 million to Colombian terrorist group United Self-Defense Forces (AUC) between 1997 and 2004 to protect its banana harvesting [...]
Allen St. Pierre : " is troubling on a few different levels. One, from a lay person's point of view, it appears that the court has ruled that the supremacy of the federal government's law making abilities trumps individual's freedoms, liberties and abilities to engage in medical self-preservation. Second, the United States Supreme Court, along [...]
US Air Force Maj. Gen. Robertus Remkes , Director of Strategy, Policy and Assessments at US European Command , has expressed concern about negative military repercussions if the US House of Representatives passes resolution HR 106, identifying the World War I-era killings by Turkish soldiers of over one million Armenians as genocide. Turkey , which [...]
