The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that the state legislature does have the power to use advisory ballot measures. The decision will allow lawmakers to place a nonbinding question on ballots to ask voters whether they feel there should be a new amendment to the US Constitution to overturn the 2010 US Supreme Court decision [...]
The high court of Bangladesh on Monday upheld the death sentence of Motiur Rahman Nizami for war crimes committed in the country’s war for independence against Pakistan in 1971. Nizami’s conviction was upheld on charges of genocide, murder, torture, and rape. A war crimes tribunal, established in 2010, convicted Nizami of the aforementioned charges in [...]
US President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced executive actions on gun control . The plan would require those in the business of selling firearms, including those selling firearms at gun shows, to be licensed and conduct background checks, thus closing the infamous “gun show loophole” . Those seeking to purchase more dangerous firearms such as [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday filed a lawsuit against Volkswagen for alleged violations of the Clean Air Act. The complaint was filed on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) alleging that approximately 600,000 vehicles contained illegal “defeat devices,” which Volkswagen failed to disclose. “Defeat devices,”according to reports, were able to recognize [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Ryan Matthews of St. John’s University School of Law Class of 2016, is the eighth author in a twelve-part series from the staffers of the Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development. Matthews discusses discriminatory No Promo Homo laws… The US Supreme Court recently decided in favor of same-sex marriage in the [...]
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said Tuesday that the civilian death toll in Yemen has reached nearly 2,800 over nine months of fighting. The UN reported that the number of civilian deaths rose sharply in December despite an agreed upon cease-fire by the warring parties. The conflict is responsible [...]
Three former members of the Bosnian Muslim armed forces were arrested on Monday in Tulza, a town in Bosnia and Herzegovina, for allegedly killing as many as 10 Serb civilians in Srebrenica in July 1992. The victims were killed near a police station after their village was attacked. Some of the civilians were driven away [...]
UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, Makarim Wibisono , resigned from his position Monday, saying that Israel has not granted him access to the Occupied Palestinian Territory after repeated requests. In his resignation letter, Wibisono stated he regrets having to resign, but he does not believe Israel will [...]
The head of the UK’s Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT) , charged with looking into alleged abuses committed during the war in Iraq, said Saturday that UK soldiers may face prosecution for war crimes. Mark Warwick, a former police detective and the head of IHAT, stated that some of the allegations being investigated included murder. [...]
The European Commission (EC) on Sunday expressed its intentions to debate Poland’s new law on control of state-run media after Warsaw seized control of public broadcasters. The debate , scheduled to be held on January 13, is likely the first stage of a potential punitive action to be implemented. The media law, which was rushed [...]
