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UN rights commission suspends session for a week in hopes of council deal
The annual six-week meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva was suspended after just four minutes on Monday to give the 191 member governments of the UN General Assembly more time to debate and discuss a replacement body. The 53-me (More) |
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UN rights commission annual session overshadowed by debate over new council
The 53-member UN Commission on Human Rights is set to start its yearly and probably last six-week session in Geneva on Monday, but may not follow its customary agenda due to ongoing controversy over the formation of a new UN Human Rights Council (More) |
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The UN Guantanamo Report: False Premise, Flawed Conclusions
JURIST Contributing Editor Jeffrey Addicott of St. Mary's University School of Law, formerly a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, says the recent report by UN Special Rapporteurs condemning the US detention camp at (More) |
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International brief ~ India high court gives perjury jail sentence in anti-Muslim riots case
Leading Tuesday's international brief, the Supreme Court of India has exercised a rarely used power and sentenced Zahira Sheikh for deliberately retracting her testimony concerning the arson of the Best Bakery in the state of Gujarat during ri (More) |
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'Naje Pou Soti': Legal Obstacles Facing Haiti's Preval
JURIST Special Guest Columnist Brian Concannon Jr., Director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, says that Haitian President-elect Rene Preval faces a daunting if familiar series of legal obstacles involving parliament, the judiciary (More) |
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Gonzales questions relevance of Geneva protections, defends Gitmo policies
US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales insisted Tuesday that US treatment of detainees is consistent with the Geneva Conventions , but questioned the relevance of some Geneva provisions in the context of "this new kind of war, against this new k (More) |
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Gitmo better than Belgian prisons, Europe detentions expert says after visit
An expert for Europe's largest security organization said Monday that prisoners held at the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay are treated better than inmates in Belgian jails, after he returned from a visit to the prison last week. Alain Grig (More) |
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No Habeas at Guantanamo? The Executive Branch and the Dubious Tale of the DTA
JURIST Special Guest Columnist Ian Wallach, habeas counsel for several Guantanamo Bay detainees, says that the US Executive Branch may have engaged in questionable acts and disseminated inaccurate information to encourage Senate passage of provisions (More) |
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No Habeas at Guantanamo? The Executive and the Dubious Tale of the DTA
JURIST Special Guest Columnist Ian Wallach, habeas counsel for several Guantanamo Bay detainees, says that the US Executive Branch may have engaged in questionable acts and disseminated inaccurate information to encourage Senate passage of provisions (More) |
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Annan urges US cooperation on rights council proposal
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that he is "chagrined" about the US opposition to a draft resolution [PDF text; JURIST report] that would create a new UN Human Rights Council to replace the widely criticized Commission on Human (More) |
Congress approves first Patent Act
On April 10, 1790, Congress approved America's first Patent Act. The Patent Act of 1790 allowed inventors to maintain "sole and exclusive right and liberty of making, constructing, using and vending to others" the rights to a patented invention for fourteen years. The Act furthermore created the U.S. Patent Board, the precursor to the modern U.S. Patent Office.
Read the current U.S. Patent Act from the Cornell University Law School, and read A History of the Early Patent Office by Kenneth W. Dobyns.
