A judge for the Dane County Circuit Court on Tuesday denied an attempt to have a recount of votes from the presidential election counted by hand. The recount is set to begin Thursday. Green Party candidate Jill Stein had filed the request after protesting the validity of the state’s electronic tabulating machines and claiming they [...]
The Hong Kong Court of Appeal ruled against two elected, pro-independence politicians from taking local office Wednesday. Yau Wai-ching and Sixtus Leung were barred as a result of a political protest launched during their inaugural oaths. The oaths were deemed unfulfilled when the pair pledged their allegiance to the “Hong Kong Nation” as opposed to [...]
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižniek , expressed concern Tuesday over three counter-terrorism measures proposed in the Netherlands, which the Ccommissioner believes have the potential to violate human rights. In a letter by the commissioner to Dutch officials, Muižniek acknowledged the threat presented by potential terrorism. He went on to communicate his [...]
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 [...]
