Australia Federal Court Justice Michael Lee found that former government adviser Bruce Lehrmann raped a colleague in a Parliament House office on Monday. The judge dismissed a defamation lawsuit Lehrmann brought against the Australian media company Network Ten after it aired an interview with his accuser, Brittany Higgin. Lee found that, under the civil standard [...]
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Uganda made international headlines this week as its Constitutional Court upheld the bulk of a draconian law that would impose the death sentence for “aggravated homosexuality.” But for LGBTQ+ activists within the country, the death penalty isn’t the only specter that looms in the judgment’s aftermath. Over the past 15 years, Ugandan authorities have endeavored [...]
How Democratic Sharia May Help Curb the Influence of Corrupted Interpretations of Islamic Law
What makes someone qualified to rule? One way to answer this question might be to approach it from the Islamic perspective, that is, by considering the criteria required for someone to become a mujāthid, a person accepted as an authority in Islamic law. The criteria include knowledge of the Shārīe‘ā essential objectives – ‘religion, life, [...]
As Georgia Prepares to Execute Willie Pye, a Deceased Lawyer’s Incompetence Looms
It is hard to imagine a man much more marginalized than Willie Pye, who Georgia plans to execute on Mar. 20. Undeniably, the 1993 murder that landed him on death row was heinous. But as his death march nears, it bears considering whether the converging histories of poverty and abuse that defined his youth, paired [...]
Mexican journalist Jamie Barrera found alive following abduction
Mexican journalist Jaime Barrera, known for his roles as the host of a news program on local TV channel Televisa Guadalajara and as a commentator on a political opinion program, was released after being abducted earlier this week, his daughter announced Wednesday. Barrera, 56 years old, was kidnapped on Monday afternoon in the city of [...]
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) indicted former Syrian Vice President Rifaat al-Assad on Tuesday, referring him to the Federal Criminal Court for trial. The OAG accused al-Assad of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity while serving as commander of the defense brigades and commander of operations in the Syrian city of [...]
In the Halls of Brazil's Senate: Unpacking the Legacy of the US Constitution
To date, America’s greatest contribution to the world has been its Constitution. The importance of this document far surpasses such other cultural achievements as the Moon landing, the telephone, GPS, rubber vulcanization, and Henry Ford’s mass production lines. It is more important, even, than Gone With the Wind, and the hamburger — even though this [...]
Alabama death row inmate challenges nitrogen gas executions in federal lawsuit
A death row inmate in Alabama filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of nitrogen gas executions. He argued that the first person in the nation put to death by this method experienced violent convulsions for several minutes in “a human experiment that officials botched miserably.” Bernard E. Harcourt, counsel for death row [...]
Ex-Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, was sentenced to ten years imprisonment on Tuesday. Vice Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, was sentenced to the same punishment alongside Khan. Khan, who is currently serving a three-year sentence for corruption, was trialed under accusations of “use of official secret information and illegal [...]
Explainer: Competing Legislative Agendas Come to a Head in Sri Lanka
The year 2024 is an important one for Sri Lanka. It is a presidential election year, and a resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council to gather evidence of international crimes for use in future prosecutions is due for renewal. After the public ousters of the former-elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2023, Ranil Wickremesinghe [...]