US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy on Thursday urged greater attention to reports of genocide in Sudan's Darfur region . In a speech to the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law in Washington, DC, Kennedy said that lawyers have a responsibility to work to prevent genocide and that "It is the duty [...]
Over 780 new allegations of clergy sex abuse were reported to the US Catholic Church in 2005, though a majority of the claims relate to incidents which occurred in past decades, according to a new audit released Thursday by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops . The report is the third annual audit released by [...]
The US Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday approved by a 12-6 vote S. 1768 , an amendment to 28 USC 45 that would permit Supreme Court proceedings to be televised, "unless the Court decides by a vote of the majority of justices, that allowing such coverage in a particular case would constitute a violation of the [...]
Shays v. FEC, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, March 29, 2006 . Read the full text of the ruling. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York has ruled that Bank of America may proceed with a counterclaim for damages of over $1 billion against bankrupt Italian dairy giant Parmalat SpA . In its counterclaim, Bank of America charges Parmalat and its former management with fraud, [...]
Cote-Whitacre v. Department of Public Health, Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, March 30, 2006 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Décision n° 2006-535, Loi pour l'égalité des chances, French Constitutional Council, March 30, 2006 . Read the full text of the ruling . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Manfred Nowak , the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture , told reporters Thursday that he is currently investigating allegations raised by the Falun Gong spiritual group , banned by the Chinese government, that thousands of its followers were being held in a Chinese "concentration camp" to be killed for organ-harvesting purposes. The Falun Gong allegations [...]
US District Judge Emmit G. Sullivan has ruled that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has not provided adequate reasons for failing to more strictly regulate so-called 527 groups , nonprofits named for the tax code section under which they are organized. The groups are currently not subject to the same soft-money contribution restrictions as traditional [...]
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has said that Chile would continue to prosecute human rights abuse cases against those involved in the 1975 Operation Colombo massacre. Bachelet's comments came during the 21st anniversary of the massacre, one of the most infamous assassination incidents in Chile's history. Recently, right-wing politicians have expressed criticism of the prosecutions, saying [...]