[JURIST] As Texas prepares to carry out its 300th execution since 1982, Amnesty International issued a report Monday highlighting how that state is speeding up the rate of executions while other jurisdictions and countries have slowed or stopped altogether. Read Texas - In a world of its own [text].

[JURIST] Late on Monday NASA issued a corrected procedure for filing damage claims in connection with the loss of the Columbia Space Shuttle. The revision drops references to "claims that require immediate action" and (following an e-mail alert from JURIST) fixes a bad URL for further information on tort claims from the NASA Office of General Counsel.

[JURIST] The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the head of a county public defender’s office, as the administrative head of an organization formed to represent criminal defendants, may be held accountable for a policy that leads to a denial of an individual’s right to effective representation of counsel. Read Miranda v. Clark County, Nevada [opinion, PDF].

[JURIST] The UN General Assembly elected 11 new judges Monday to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [official website]. Read the ICTR press release.

[JURIST] NASA posted a fact sheet Monday with information for persons "who may have suffered damage due to the Space Shuttle Columbia mishap." The NASA General Counsel's Office has additional information on tort claims against NASA (see, however, the limitations on wrongful death recovery by astronauts' families, discussed below [JURIST report]).

[JURIST] President Bush released his proposed 2004 Budget Monday. Read a fact sheet from the White House or review the full set of Budget documents. The Budget includes a performance assessment and program agenda [White House proposal] for the US Department of Justice and detailed breakdowns of proposed expenditures for the DOJ [PDF] and the Judicial Branch [PDF].

[JURIST] The International Court of Justice [official website] at The Hague ruled by a 10-3 margin Monday that Yugoslavia is bound by a 1996 ICJ decision that it has jurisdiction to adjudicate a 1993 genocide claim by Bosnia against Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia had argued that the present state of Yugoslavia did not continue the international legal and political personality of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, was not a Member of the United Nations, was not a State party to the Statute of the Court, and was not a State party to the Genocide Convention under which the case had been brought. Read the ICJ press release on the ruling and review the judgments of the Court [text].

[JURIST] Professor Anthony Infanti and his Federal Income Tax students at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law have created a website reporting on the progress of the tax cut proposed by President Bush in January. Visit Monitoring the 2003 Tax Cut.

[JURIST] The White House Monday posted a fact sheet on Project BioShield [White House fact sheet], President Bush's initiative announced in the State of the Union Address "to develop and make available modern, effective drugs and vaccines to protect against attack by biological and chemical weapons or other dangerous pathogens." Part of the Project involves development of an FDA Emergency Use Authorization which would allow "access to a potentially beneficial treatment in an emergency situation, when it is most likely to save lives, even if it has not yet been proven to be suitable for routine general use or has not completed the formal process for full FDA licensure."

[JURIST] The process of electing 18 judges to the new International Criminal Court starts Monday at the United Nations in New York. Review a summary of a Friday press conference on the upcoming elections and review the nominees and election procedures [UN backgrounder]. Elections on February 4 and 5 are scheduled for webcast.

[JURIST] Professor Jack Balkin, organizer of a conference held Friday at Yale Law School to mark the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, posts this report on proceedings [Balkinization post].

[JURIST] C-SPAN has posted recorded video of Thursday's Senate Judiciary Committee meeting which advanced the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the full Senate by a party-line vote of 10-9. The Senate may consider the nomination as early as Tuesday of this week; People for the American Way [press release] and NOW are already calling for a filibuster to stop it.