The Detroit City Council on Friday approved a deal to lease the city’s water and sewage department to a new regional authority as part of the city’s continuing effort to exit bankruptcy. After a 7-2 vote, the council approved creation of the Great Lakes Water Authority , which will allow the city to take steps [...]
Argentina’s congress on Thursday passed a new law that would allow the government to intervene in setting prices and profits in order to ease high inflation rates. Economy Minister Axel Kicillof said the measure would defend consumers against monopoly power. However, local business leaders say the law will likely aggravate shortages and inflation by discouraging [...]
A Missouri appeals court on Thursday rejected a challenge to a ballot proposal requiring teachers to be evaluated based on student performance . A panel of judges for the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District turned down claims that the measure improperly amends the state constitution. The measure would require that schools evaluate [...]
Amnesty International (AI) condemned Nigeria’s police and military in a report released Thursday for the systematic and routine use of torture on detainees . Although Nigeria’s Constitution prohibits torture, the country currently has no legislation criminalizing the use of torture in violation of the constitution. According to AI’s report, both the military and the police [...]
Voters in Scotland on Thursday voted against independence from the UK in the country’s first national referendum on the matter. The Scottish Parliament unanimously approved a bill last November to hold a Scottish independence referendum . Eighty-four percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the referendum, with approximately 45 percent voting in favor of Scottish [...]
JURIST guest columnist Leslie Haskell, of Human Rights Watch, discusses how some European countries have taken affirmative steps to prosecute those within their borders—as well as those who may eventually come within them—for major international crimes by enacting universal jurisdiction laws and creating specialized war crimes units to investigate and prosecute these crimes, arguing that [...]
The Bangladesh Parliament on Thursday unanimously approved an amendment to the nation’s constitution granting the parliament authority to impeach Supreme Court justices. The amendment, backed by the ruling Awami League , faced heavy criticism from judges who viewed the change as an attempt by the ruling party to exert more control over the judiciary. Under [...]
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) suspended its delegation to Azerbaijan Thursday citing the government’s prevention of access to a number of locations where individuals are being detained. Azerbaijan is a party to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or [...]
Oklahoma on Wednesday requested that the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma dismiss a lawsuit filed after the botched execution of Clayton Lockett. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), The Guardian and The Oklahoma Observer filed the lawsuit in August in reaction to the state’s decision to draw a curtain midway through [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Ron Fein, of Free Speech for People, discusses the Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby decision … The Supreme Court’s majority opinion in Hobby Lobby made a serious mistake about the nature of corporate religious claims. But so did the dissent. As Hobby Lobby’s case worked its way through the courts, both sides [...]
