The Indonesian Central Jakarta District Court rejected a lawsuit brought by Acehnese community leaders to protect the valuable Leuser tropical forest from exploitation by mining companies. The court rejected the case because it found that the Aceh province’s bylaw permitting this type of land use caused no material losses to the plaintiffs, even though the [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist David M. Crane of Syracuse University College of Law discusses the need for the International Criminal Court to utilize politics to ensure its future… Several years ago, I gave a speech where I stated that prosecutor who does not consider politics and diplomacy in their prosecutorial decision-making is naive. I still stand [...]
Three justices on the Israeli Supreme Court have been sued for voting in favor of authorizing the construction of Israel’s wall around the West Bank, which the International Court of Justice found illegal in 2004. The lawsuit alleges war crimes and crimes against humanity based on the Nuremberg trials precedent that allows judges to be [...]
The Ontario legislature on Tuesday passed the All Families are Equal Act , recognizing same-sex couples as parents when they utilize assisted reproduction. The prior parentage laws, untouched since 1978, only recognized the birth parent when assisted reproduction is utilized. The new act recognizes both members of a couple, including same-sex couples, as parents when [...]
The US Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in Moore v. Texas , a case challenging Texas’ standard for determining whether a person is intellectually disabled and therefore cannot be subject to capital punishment. In 2002 the Supreme Court held in Atkins v. Virginia that the Eighth Amendment’s proscription on cruel and unusual punishment makes the [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Dr. Leonard Cutler and Shelby Davis of Siena College discuss the failed attempts by President Obama to close the Guantanamo prison As Barack Obama’s presidency comes to a close, the fate of Guantanamo prison remains unclear. Despite achieving measurable success in reducing the number of detainees held there, he has struggled to [...]
The UK’s Investigatory Powers Bill was given royal assent and became law on Tuesday. The bill gives the UK’s intelligence agency a wide variety of tools to monitor the online activity of all UK citizens. The bill will require Internet providers and phone companies in the UK to retain logs of every citizen’s communications and [...]
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on Monday urged the Burundi government to allow UN police officers into the country to monitor potential human rights abuses. CERD says it has deep concerns about the Burundi government’s responses to reports of armed militia intimidating civilians, the use of “hate speech” by government [...]
The Egyptian State council, a part of the Egyptian judicial system tasked with reviewing proposed legislation, approved a bill Monday regulating and restricting non government organizations (NGO) operating in Egypt. The bill would require NGOs to “agree with the state’s plan, development needs and priorities” and ensure that “all data on financing sources, activities, protocols, [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in Bravo-Fernandez v. US that the double jeopardy clause does not bar the government from retrying defendants after a jury has returned inconsistent verdicts and the convictions are later vacated due to legal error unrelated to the inconsistency of the jury. The court relied heavily on the precedent set [...]
