[JURIST] The Virginia Court of Appeals [official website] ruled [text, PDF] Tuesday that Virginia state courts had a constitutional obligation to defer to the rulings of Vermont courts in a child custody dispute involving two lesbian partners who had entered into a Vermont civil union. Lisa and Janet Miller-Jenkins lived in Virginia but traveled to Vermont to be joined in a civil union in 2000, and Lisa conceived a child through artificial insemination while the two were still together. The couple subsequently moved to Vermont, but in 2003, they separated with Lisa returning to Virginia and suing for full custody of the child.

A court in Virginia granted full custody [JURIST report] to Lisa in 2004, with the judge declaring that since Virginia law does not legally recognize unions between members of the same sex, Lisa was the child's "sole parent." In August 2005 the Vermont Supreme Court disagreed, saying Vermont had exclusive jurisdiction [JURIST report] over the case since the couple's civil union had taken place under Vermont's laws. Without ruling on whether Virginia recognizes the civil union entered into by the parties in Vermont, the Virginia appeals court said that Virginia could not deny "full faith and credit" to the orders of the Vermont court and remanded the case back to the Virginia trial court in Frederick County, saying it failed to "recognize that the PKPA [Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act text] barred its exercise of jurisdiction" and it had to respect the custody and visitation orders of the Vermont court favoring Janet Miller-Jenkins. AP has more.

[JURIST] In a Tuesday ruling [PDF], Judge James Robertson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] declared that "the Treasury Department’s failure to design and issue paper currency that is readily distinguishable to blind and visually impaired individuals violates section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act." Section 504 [US DOL materials] provides that no disabled person shall be "subjected to discrimination . . . under any program or activity conducted by any Executive agency." In support of its decision, the court noted that over half of all countries that print their currency vary its size to aid the blind, and the others make use of varying texture or other indicators. The court rejected the government's arguments that the change would be cost prohibitive, increase counterfeiting, and disrupt international recognition of US currency. Robertson wrote:

Plaintiffs have demonstrated that they lack meaningful access to US currency. They have put forth several potential accommodations that are reasonable on their face. The government has not sustained its burden of showing that any of them would be unduly burdensome to implement... I will grant plaintiffs’ prayer for a declaratory judgment.

[JURIST] Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) [UN Mission in Liberia news release, PDF] has had to put its operations on hold due to lack of funds, according to its acting chairman. The TRC is charged with investigating and documenting crimes that occurred during Liberia's 14- year civil war [Globalsecurity.org backgrounder]. Despite urgings from the UN to accelerate its operations, the TRC had to recall recently dispatched workers [JURIST reports] when it could not pay their wages. One official estimated that it would need US$2 million to finish the three-month fact-finding mission it has scheduled, and several key financial pledges have not materialized. Main donors include the Liberian government, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) [official website] and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa [official website].

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission formally began its work [JURIST report] in June after being inaugurated [JURIST report] in February. According to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf [BBC profile], the commission is intended to heal the war-torn country and uncover the truth about the civil war. It has nonetheless been criticized by human rights groups [JURIST report] who advocate the establishment of a war crimes court in Liberia that would have prosecutorial powers. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Saddam Hussein sought to bar testimony of an American forensic scientist during proceedings at his genocide trial [JURIST news archive] Tuesday, demanding a neutral witness from a country that was not involved in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The chief judge allowed the expert, Clyde Snow [profile], to testify about a mass grave he encountered in the northern Iraqi town of Koreme. Snow told the court that Iraqi forces killed 27 Kurdish men and boys there in 1988 as part of the Anfal campaigns [HRW backgrounder].

Hussein was sentenced to death [JURIST report] earlier this month for crimes against humanity [charging instrument, PDF] committed in the Iraqi town of Dujail [JURIST news archive; BBC trial timeline]. An appeals panel is expected to rule [JURIST report] on the verdict and sentence by mid-January 2007. Prosecutors hope to complete the Anfal trial before Hussein is executed. AP has more.

[JURIST] Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court [official website] urged the court Tuesday to confirm war crimes charges [indictment, PDF] against Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga [Trial Watch backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. Lubanga, founder of the militant Union of Patriotic Congolese [Global Security backgrounder], could be the first war crimes suspect to be tried by the ICC since it opened in 2002. He is accused of enlisting child soldiers [BBC report] in the Democratic Republic of Congo's violence-plagued Ituri district [HRW backgrounder]. Judges presiding over Lubanga's confirmation of charges hearing [press release; JURIST report], which ended Tuesday, must decide by January 29 whether the case should proceed to trial, be dismissed, or whether prosecutors must present further evidence or amend the charges.

Lubanga's defense lawyer maintained his client's innocence during closing statements Tuesday and said that the prosecution had withheld evidence necessary to prepare a full defense. Representatives of Lubanga's alleged witnesses also addressed the court, calling for justice for the child soldiers. Chief ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile] said last week that if the charges against Lubanga are confirmed, the court could hold its first formal trial in 2007 [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Many European countries were aware that the US Central Intelligence Agency operated secret prisons [JURIST news archive] or used their territory for the transfer of terror suspects, according to a report [DOC text] released Tuesday by a European Parliament committee [official website] investigating the CIA's alleged use of European countries for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners. The committee's rapporteur, Italian MEP Claudio Fava [EP profile], said Tuesday that most countries cooperated with the CIA "passively or actively" [AFP report] and that evidence had been gathered showing 16 nations were involved - Austria, Bosnia, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The European Parliament investigation was launched after the existence of secret prisons [JURIST report] was first disclosed last year. President Bush publicly confirmed [JURIST report] the existence of the prisons in September, saying that the facilities were used to house high-value terror suspects [DNI backgrounder, PDF].

Fava also faulted most EU countries, Germany and Spain being the exceptions, for not fully cooperating with the European Parliament investigation. Following a meeting in Poland earlier this month, an MEP accused Polish officials of obstructing the probe [JURIST report], and Fava said Tuesday that almost all EU member states showed "very great reticence" to cooperate. Fava also faulted EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana [official website] for failing to provide full information to the committee. Nevertheless, Fava said there was evidence that 20 terror suspects had been subject to extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] and some 1,200 CIA flights stopped in or flew over European territory, some of which were likely prisoner transfer flights.

The European Parliament committee reached a conclusion similar to previous findings by Europe's human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe [official website]. In June, a COE study [PDF text] submitted by Swiss parliamentarian Dick Marty reported that 14 European countries collaborated with the CIA [JURIST report] by taking an active or passive role in a "global spider's web" of secret prisons and rendition flights. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] heard oral arguments [transcript, PDF] Tuesday in KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc. [Duke Law case backgrounder; merit briefs], 04-1350, a case involving a fight over a patent on adjustable pedal assemblies for engines. At issue is what constitutes a patent claim that is "obvious" under 35 USC 103(a) [text]. In January 2005 the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed [opinion, PDF] the district court's grant of summary judgment for KSR, holding that it erred in deeming the invention obvious. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia seemed to agree that the test for patent obviousness is unclear, with Scalia going so far as to describe it as "gobbledygook." CNET News has more.

Also Tuesday, the Court heard oral arguments [transcript, PDF] in Weyerhaeuser Co. v. Ross-Simmons Hardwood Lumber Co., Inc. [Duke Law case backgrounder; merit briefs], 05-381, concerning Weyerhaeuser's alleged monopolization of the lumber industry as prohibited under Section 2 [text] of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Ross-Simmons sued Weyerhaeuser, complaining that the company purchased more logs than it needed at unnecessarily high prices to drive competitors out of business. Weyerhauser argued that the District Court applied the wrong standard to determine if the company's actions violated antitrust laws. Its lawyer argued that the correct standard, as set forth in Brooke Group v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco, requires a plaintiff to show "(1) 'the prices complained of are below an appropriate measure of its rival's costs,' and (2) 'a dangerous probability' existed that the rival would later 'recoup its investment in below-cost prices' once it stopped such pricing." The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed [PDF text] the district court's decision, holding that the Brooke Group standard does not apply to buy-side monopolies. AP has more.

[JURIST] The National Education Association (NEA) [association website] joined three school districts on Tuesday in appealing the dismissal of a lawsuit [JURIST report] that challenged the funding of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) [PDF text; executive summary; US Dept. Ed. factsheet]. In an appeal filed with the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the NEA and school districts argued that Congress has failed to appropriate enough funding for local school districts to comply with the federal program. The government maintains that the Act was never intended to provide complete financial support for the new policies that President Bush advocated.

The US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan dismissed [JURIST report] the lawsuit in November 2005. The NEA and individual school districts in Texas, Michigan and Vermont filed the lawsuit [JURIST report] in April 2005 in hopes of forcing the federal government to pay more of the costs incurred under the Act. AP has more.

[JURIST] A three-judge panel of the UK Court of Appeal [official website] on Tuesday dismissed an appeal by Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri [BBC profile] to overturn his conviction [JURIST report] on incitement-to-murder charges [BBC summary; BBC trial timeline]. In February, Hamza was convicted of 11 counts for urging his followers to kill Jews and other non-Muslims and using "threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior" to stir up racial hatred. He was sentenced to seven years in prison. His lawyers claimed that the delay in bringing charges, which stemmed from speeches given in the late 1990s, resulted in an unfair trial [JURIST report]. In dismissing the appeal, Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips [BBC profile] said, "There is no reason to believe that the jury were not able to consider and resolve the relevant issues objectively and impartially."

Hamza [JURIST news archive] also faces separate terrorism-related charges [PDF indictment; JURIST report] in the United States for allegedly funding and attempting to establish terrorist training camps. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] A motion recognizing the people of Quebec as a "nation" within Canada passed the Canadian House of Commons [official website] Monday by a vote of 266-16. The motion, introduced [speech transcript] last week by Prime Minister Stephen Harper [official website], represents a compromise on an earlier proposal by the Bloc Quebecois [official party website] that would have defined the territory of Quebec as a nation within Canada. The successful motion states that "the Quebecois form a nation within a united Canada." According to Harper, the motion recognizes the Quebecois nation in a "cultural-sociological" sense rather than a legal one.

The politically-divisive issue, which has confounded Canadian politicians and social observers for decades, sparked the resignation [National Post report] Monday of Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Michael Chong [official website]. Chong claimed that his belief in Canada as an indivisible nation could not be reconciled with the motion. CBC News has more.

[JURIST] Australian state and territory attorneys general demanded action Tuesday in the case of David Hicks [JURIST news archive], an Australian detainee held at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] since 2002. Upset that the US has failed to charge Hicks under revised military commission rules, the AGs sent Australian Attorney General Phillip Ruddock [official profile], their federal counterpart, a photo of Hicks' cell and urged that Hicks be brought to Australia to face trial. Queensland Attorney General Kerry Shine [official profile] said the Australian federal government should demand Hicks' return to Australia. "Either that he is brought to trial in the United States quickly or he is returned to Australia," Shine was quoted as saying by ABC News. "Under just natural justice, ordinary principles, he's entitled to his day in court and he's entitled to it well before now."

Hicks was taken to Guantanamo Bay after he was captured in Afghanistan, where he allegedly had been fighting for the Taliban. He was charged [PDF text; JURIST report] in 2004, but his trial was delayed [JURIST reports] while the US Supreme Court considered, and eventually ruled against, the legality of the military commissions system. New charges are expected to be filed against Hicks and other detainees once new commission procedures are finalized under the recently-passed Military Commissions Act [JURIST news archive]. Earlier this month, Australian federal Attorney General Philip Ruddock told a meeting of Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission that he would seek Hicks' return if new charges were not laid against him [JURIST report]. US President George W. Bush has assured Australian Prime Minister John Howard [JURIST report] that Hicks will be brought to trial, but has refused to give a timetable. ABC News has more.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] Tuesday reduced [judgment summary, press release] the sentence of local Bosnian Serb politician Blagoje Simic [ICTY case backgrounder] from 17 to 15 years, after reversing one of his convictions. Simic was convicted [judgment] on charges of crimes against humanity in 2003, along with Miroslav Tadic and Simo Zaric, for "persecutions based upon unlawful arrest and detention of Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat civilians, cruel and inhumane treatment including beatings, torture, forced labour assignments, and confinement under inhumane conditions, and deportation and forcible transfer." The appeals chamber reversed his conviction for participation in a joint criminal enterprise whose aim was persecution of non-Serbs in the Bosanski Samac municipality in northern Bosnia after concluding that Simic was not informed of this charge until the prosecution had finished presenting its case.

Simic, who served as mayor of the Bosnian town of Samac and was a doctor by profession, voluntarily surrendered [BBC report] to the ICTY [JURIST news archive] in 2001. Miroslav Tadic was sentenced to eight years imprisonment for deportation and forcible transfer of Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat civilians while Simo Zaric was sentenced to six years imprisonment for "persecutions based upon cruel and inhumane treatment including beatings, torture, and confinement under inhumane conditions." Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Thai cabinet Tuesday approved a measure to lift martial law in 41 of the country's 76 provinces, including Bangkok, despite a recommendation by coup leader and Army Commander-in-Chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin [BBC profile] Monday to retain martial law in the capital city. Thailand [JURIST news archive] has been under a state of martial law since the Thai military seized power from civilian prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra [JURIST news archive] in a bloodless coup [JURIST report] in September. The country's military leaders Monday proposed [JURIST report] the initial list of territories which would be released from martial law, indicating that border provinces would not be included.

Sonthi opposes lifting martial law in Bangkok and said Monday that he will hold Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont [official website; BBC profile] responsible for any problems that occur there. King Bhumibol Adulyadej [Wikipedia profile] must still approve the cabinet's decision and the king's assent is expected to come in the next several days. AFP has more.

[JURIST] A group of United Nations human rights experts on Tuesday urged the Iraqi government to refrain from carrying out the death sentence [JURIST report] imposed on Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] earlier this month for crimes against humanity [charging instrument, PDF] committed in the Iraqi town of Dujail [JURIST news archive; BBC trial timeline]. In a statement [text] from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention [official website], the rights experts said the trial against Hussein was flawed due to:

[T]he lack of independence and impartiality of the tribunal, which heard the case, the lack of respect for his right to have adequate time and facilities to prepare his defense, the restrictions on his right to access to defense lawyers and on the possibility to obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on his behalf.

[JURIST] Two Russian prosecutors were convicted Monday of accepting a $10,000 bribe from a construction company in the country's latest example of corruption in the court and police systems. Sergei Kocherov and Ruslan Fedosenko of the district prosecutor's office in Moscow were sentenced to four years in a maximum security prison, while lawyers for the two said they plan to appeal. The convictions come a week after Russian President Vladimir Putin [official website] called for greater efforts in fighting corruption [speech text], which has increased substantially since he took office in 2000.

Transparency International [advocacy website], an anti-corruption advocacy group, has reported that incidents of corrupt activity may be up to seven times more prevalent than they were in 2001. Bribes totaling $240 billion are taken by corrupt officials in Russia [JURIST news archive] on a yearly basis, according to a report by a senior Russian prosecutor earlier this month. AP has more.

[JURIST] A North Carolina state court judge Monday ruled that a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the families of four US contractors killed in Iraq against Blackwater Security Consulting [corporate website] could move forward after being stayed for nearly two years. The company has argued that the case should be litigated in federal court, but the US District Court hearing the dispute remanded the case to state court. That decision was upheld [opinion, PDF] by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and Blackwater's lawyers are preparing to ask the US Supreme Court to consider the case. In October, Chief Justice John Roberts refused to issue a stay [docket] pending appeal. Lawyers for Blackwater have argued that cases against the contractor should be dismissed because the security firm is an extension of the military. An undersecretary of the US Army denied any legitimate ties between Blackwater and the military in her testimony in a congressional hearing two months ago

The lawsuit, filed in January 2005, alleges that Blackwater did not provide the four men with the proper weaponry or personnel to defend themselves when they encountered a group of insurgents who attacked their supply convoy in March 2004. The videotaped ambush showed the four men being burned and tortured. AP has more. The News & Observer has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The Lebanese cabinet on Monday sent a draft measure [JURIST report] concerning the creation of a UN-supported international tribunal [JURIST news archive] to try suspects accused of assassinating former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri to Lebanese President Emile Lahoud [official website] for his approval. Lahoud is not expected to back the accord, having labeled the cabinet's weekend vote on the measure "null and void" and having rejected a preliminary cabinet approval [JURIST reports] of the tribunal as "unconstitutional" after all the cabinet's Shiite lawmakers resigned before the vote. The proposal was nevertheless forwarded to the UN Security Council, which approved the proposal [JURIST report] last week after the assassination of anti-Syrian Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel.

In addition to Lahoud's backing, the Lebanese Parliament must also approve the measure before Lebanon can be deemed to have formally accepted it. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is also head of Shiite party Amal, has expressed agreement with Lahoud's view that the current cabinet make-up is unconstitutional. AP has more.