The Lasting Colonial Legacy of Sri Lanka's Black July Pogroms
In the summer of 1983, ethnic violence swept the island nation of Sri Lanka. Known as Black July, the outbreak of communal violence between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority communities left thousands dead and hundreds missing. Four decades later, the legacy of the violence lives on, searing Sri Lanka‘s social and political landscape. This [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled Thursday that an 1868 peace treaty between the US government and the Navajo Tribe does not require the government to secure water access for the tribe. In a 5-4 ruling in Arizona v. Navajo Nation, the court found that, while the treaty assures the tribe’s access to water from various [...]
Thousands gather in Florida to protest law targeted at undocumented immigrants
Floridians gathered across the state Thursday to protest a recently enacted law that imposes restrictions on undocumented immigrants. In what protesters dubbed, “a day without immigrants,” thousands walked off the job to voice their opposition to Governor Ron DeSantis’s approval of Senate Bill (SB) 1718. In Immokalee, Florida, dozens of businesses closed in support of the [...]
US Supreme Court to weigh bankruptcy disputes, sovereign immunity on American Indian tribal lands
The US Supreme Court Monday heard oral arguments in Lac du Flambeau Band v. Coughlin, which focuses on the effect of the Bankruptcy Code on the sovereign immunity of Native American tribes. The court will consider the question of whether Congress intended to allow people to sue Native American tribes in bankruptcy disputes and will [...]
This article is the first in a series on attacks on the rule of law. The rule of law is a political philosophy premised on the promise that all citizens, leaders, and institutions are accountable to the same laws, guaranteed through processes, practices, and norms that work together to support the equality of all citizens [...]
Indian law students are reporting for JURIST on law-related developments in and affecting India. This dispatch is from Rishabh Yadav, a postgraduate law student at the University of Delhi. The Central Government of India recently released a draft of the amended Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules) which, [...]
India Supreme Court rules interfaith marriages sanctified by Hindu rites are void
The Supreme Court of India Friday ruled that all interfaith marriages conducted according to Hindu rites under the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 are void. The court heard a criminal appeal petition filed by an Indian-American Christian named Ajay P. Mathew. Mathew was accused of polygamy by his alleged partner, Satya Sri, who lives in India. [...]
US child welfare system has 'disproportionate impact' on Black and Indigenous families: report
A new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Thursday revealed that the US child welfare system uses poverty level as a justification for the removal of children from their parents and charges of neglect. The 146-page report calls for immediate attention to an issue that the two organizations [...]
India Must Reform its Anti-Defection Law to Prevent Further Corrosion of Democracy
“Defectors often cause more difficulty than disinterested disbelievers” – Neal Ash Maxwell, American scholar, educator, and religious leader. Recent events in the Indian state of Maharashtra reaffirm the existence of glaring loopholes in a law aimed at bolstering political stability in India. The recent fall of the democratically elected government led by the state’s former [...]
The US Supreme Court Wednesday ruled that the state of Oklahoma can prosecute non-Native Americans who commit crimes against Native Americans on tribal territory. This decision clarifies the 2020 McGirt v. Oklahoma ruling, which held that part of eastern Oklahoma was still a Creek reservation and that the state could not prosecute crimes committed by [...]
