Crimea’s parliament voted Tuesday to secede from the Ukraine and declare itself an independent state in the event of a yes vote in a referendum scheduled for Sunday. Ukraine’s parliament, calling the Crimean referendum unconstitutional and violative of international law, warned Crimea to cancel the referendum by Wednesday or face dissolution. Crimea, a region within [...]
A Croatian court on Tuesday convicted former prime minister Ivo Sanader of corruption and sentenced him to nine years in prison. The court also convicted the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) for siphoning funds from state-run companies. Sanader has been ordered to return nearly USD $2.8 million, and the HDZ has been ordered to return over [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday filed a response to public comments in defense of the December antitrust settlement that allowed the merger of American Airlines and US Airways Group Inc, forming American Airlines Group, Inc. The 51-page report, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia , argues that [...]
A group of Uganda rights activists on Tuesday petitioned the country’s Constitutional Court to overturn a recent law criminalizing the promotion and recognition of homosexual relations. President Yoweri Museveni signed the bill into law last month, which imposes life sentences for those convicted of “aggravated homosexuality.” The petitioners , led by the Civil Society Coalition [...]
The West Virginia House of Representatives on Saturday approved a bill to prohibit abortions later than 20 weeks after conception. The House passed the bill by a vote of 85-15 with two delegates not participating. The bill passed the West Virginia Senate a few days earlier, and the legislation now awaits approval from Governor Earl [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Curtis Doebbler of the Geneva School of Diplomacy & International Relations argues that while many US lawyers and diplomats have condemned Russia’s involvement in Ukraine as a violation of international law, recent practices of states using force against other states suggests that it may be the United States that is in violation [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Walter Weber criticizes the US Supreme Court for what he sees as departures from established rules of law…
The UN Security Council has established an International Commission of Inquiry on the Central African Republic (CAR), tasked with examining reports of human rights violations, compiling information, and helping identify perpetrators. Bernard Acho Muna, the chairperson of the three-person inquiry and a former prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , has said that [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled 8-1 Monday in Marvin M. Brandt Revocable Trust v. United States that a right of way granted under the General Railroad Right-of-Way Act of 1875 is an easement which can be terminated by the railroad’s abandonment, leaving the underlying land unburdened. The majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts [...]
Amnesty International (AI) on Monday accused Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s forces of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on Palestinian and Syrian civilians in Yarmouk, on the outskirts of Damascus. The report, entitled “Squeezing the Life Out of Yarmouk: War Crimes Against Besieged Civilians,” discusses the deaths of nearly 200 people since the tightening [...]
