[JURIST] As Senate debate continued Wednesday on the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, the office of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch released a copy of a Tuesday floor statement in which the Senator deplored Democratic use of a filibuster and other "weapons of mass obstruction" [Hatch press release] to block a vote.

[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union Wednesday welcomed Congressional agreement [ACLU press release] on a funding curb for the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness cybersecurity and surveillance system pending review of privacy and civil liberties concerns.

[JURIST] Congratulations to HLS 2L Daniel B. Kirshner. Read Wednesday's press release from Harvard Law School [official website].

[JURIST] Professor Michael Byers [faculty profile] of Duke Law School [official website] writes about the evolving rules of war as applied by the United States [LRB article] in the London Review of Books.

[JURIST] The Democrats have started a filibuster in the Senate to block a vote on the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Learn more about filibusters and cloture (the procedure for stopping debate) [Senate backgrounder] from the US Senate. Late US Attorney General Elliot Richardson wrote The Case Against the Senate Filibuster [essay text]. FindLaw legal analyst and human rights attorney Joanne Mariner has written In Defense of the Filibuster [Writ article].

[JURIST] The International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors Wednesday held North Korea in "non-compliance" with its nuclear safeguards obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and other accords, and referred the matter to the UN Security Council. Read the IAEA Board Resolution, a statement by IAEA Chairman Dr. Mohammed ElBaradei, and additional materials on the IAEA and North Korea [IAEA backgrounder]. Get more background on North Korea's withdrawal from the NPT [ASIL Insights article] from Washington & Lee law professor Frederic Kirgis, writing for the American Society of International Law.

[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union issued a highly-critical response Wednesday to the Justice Department's draft follow-up legislation to the USA Patriot Act, disclosed last week by the Center for Public Integrity. Read the ACLU press release.

[JURIST] Watch streaming video of former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson [Princeton press release] speaking on From Rhetoric to Reality: Human Rights and Globalization at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs [official website] on February 6.

[JURIST] Professor David P. Fidler [faculty profile] of Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington [official website] comments on the legal aspects of WMD [ASIL Insights article] for the American Society of International Law.

[JURIST] The American Bar Association has issued this press release on the meeting concluded Tuesday. The Association of Trial Lawyers of America has slammed the ABA's position [ATLA press release] on restricting recovery for asbestos damages. Several Senators have meanwhile praised the ABA's stance on class action legislation [Senator Orrin Hatch press release].

[JURIST] Watch streaming video of Beyond the UNCITRAL Digest, a conference on the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law [official website] and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods [text] held at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law [official website] on February 7.

[JURIST] The Duke Law and Technology Review has just posted this iBrief [article text].

[JURIST] The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to take up proposed human cloning legislation in a meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 10:15 ET. National Right to Life offers a legal backgrounder on the cloning-ban bill to be considered (which it approves) and various competing versions, including one recently introduced in the Senate by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (which it opposes). JURIST will carry live audio of the Committee meeting.

[JURIST] The full Senate resumes debate Wednesday on the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the US DC Court of Appeals. Review part one and part two [debate transcripts] of Tuesday's debate in the Congressional Record.