[JURIST] The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled [judgment text; press release, PDF] Tuesday that a drug company refusing to meet "ordinary" orders for medicine as a means of thwarting parallel exports abuses its market position. The decision comes in connection with a lawsuit filed by Greek drug wholesalers against pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) [corporate website], stemming from a three-month period in 2000 when GSK refused to provide the entire orders of Greek drug wholesalers for three patented products. In an apparent attempt to prevent the wholesalers from exporting the drugs and selling them at a lower price to European countries where the products command a higher price, GSK sold directly to hospitals and pharmacies in Greece and filled wholesalers' orders to the extent only that the Greek market required. EC Treaty Article 82 [text] prohibits, "in so far as it may affect trade between Member States," any abuse by an undertaking of its dominant position is prohibited as incompatible with the common market. The ECJ held that

Article 82 EC must be interpreted as meaning that an undertaking occupying a dominant position on the relevant market for medicinal products which, in order to put a stop to parallel exports carried out by certain wholesalers from one Member State to other Member States, refuses to meet ordinary orders from those wholesalers, is abusing its dominant position.

[JURIST] UN Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Patricia O’Brien [appointment release] has found that prison overcrowding in countries with UN peacekeeping missions threatens the success of those missions, the UN Press Centre reported [text] Monday. O'Brien made the remarks at a UN Department of Peacekeeping (DPKO) [official website] meeting, and blamed the frequent overcrowding on ineffective judicial systems and long pre-trial detentions. At the same meeting, Assistant-Secretary-General of Rule of Law and Institutions Dmitry Titov [appointment release] said that the shortcomings reduce confidence in the rule of law and inhibit peace efforts. In July, the DPKO applauded [UN News Centre report] the introduction of 200 new prison guards by Haiti [JURIST news archives], which faces severe overcrowding problems.

Prison overcrowding is a problem faced by a number of countries around the world. In June, the government of Bangladesh [JURIST news archive] announced plans to release certain inmates [press briefing; JURIST report] who have served half their prison sentences in order to reduce the country's overcrowded prison populations. Earlier that month, the Third Appellate District of the California Court of Appeal [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] that a plan to ease prison overcrowding by transferring prisoners to out-of-state facilities did not violate the state's constitution [text]. The UK has also instituted a plan to release inmates ahead of schedule, and Iraq has experienced increasing overcrowding problems [JURIST reports].

[JURIST] The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) [official website] has admitted the unlawful abuse of nine Iraqi detainees, solicitors for the detainees announced [press release] Tuesday. As part of the settlement, the detainees are to receive damages [Independent report] of as much as £1 million (US $1.79 million). While acknowledging that the detainees' treatment was unlawful, the MOD did not admit to specific conduct. It also denied that the UK Human Rights Act or the European Convention on Human Rights [text] applied to "Camp Breadbasket," the humanitarian aid distribution center near Basra where the abuse occurred. The Iraqis filed suit in the UK High Court of Justice, alleging that members of the 1st Royal Regiment of Fusiliers [military website] had committed the abuse in 2003 after making the arrests as part of an anti-looting operation. Sapna Malik, who represents the Iraqis, said:

It is good that the MOD has admitted that the treatment received by each of the Claimants was unlawful, although its refusal to accept that Camp Breadbasket falls within the ambit of the Human Rights Act is frustrating. The maltreatment of the men was hideous, humiliating and degrading and the legacy lingers with them to this day. We hope that today’s admission marks the MoD’s willingness to resolve the claims fairly so that the men can try to finally move forward with their lives.

[JURIST] Members of the US Congress spoke out about regulatory changes and investigations following a stock market drop propelled by Lehman Brothers' Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and the sale of Merrill Lynch [AP report] on Monday. Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) reiterated [press release] plans for a new economic stimulus package designed to "create jobs and address some of the most immediate consequences of the Administration’s serious mismanagement of our economy." Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) [official website] said [statement text] Monday that the Banking Committee will continue to probe regulatory oversight and seek legislative solutions "strengthening the housing sector, developing a second stimulus package, and restructuring the regulation of the financial sector.” Ranking Republican member Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) [official website] added [RTTNews report] that the Banking Committee will conduct a "thorough review" of the events leading to the latest crisis. The Banking Committee [official website] postponed a hearing scheduled for Tuesday with Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. [official profile]. Speaking at a White House press briefing [transcript] on Monday, Paulson asserted that institutional cooperation will provide short-term solutions as regulatory changes are made:

[I]n the intermediate and longer term, clearly [...] we're going to need major regulatory changes, and I've spoken a lot about that. And we could use additional authorities to deal with non-bank financial institutions. But again, that's going to take longer for Congress to do. And right now we're working with the tools we have, and what you're finding is that the Fed, the SEC, Treasury, the FDIC -- we're all working together and we're going to do what's necessary to protect this system with the tools we have.

[JURIST] The 2007 Crime in the US (CIUS) report [materials; report summary] released Monday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) [official website] indicates that the level of violent crime in the US dropped by 0.7 percent between 2006 and 2007. The drop follows two years of increasing rates of similar crimes, including a 2006 increase of 1.3 percent and a 2005 increase of 2.3 percent [JURIST reports]. Specifically, between 2006 and 2007, the estimated number of forcible rapes dropped by 2.5 percent, murders and nonnegligent manslaughters by 0.6 percent, aggravated assaults by 0.6 percent, and robberies by 0.5 percent. Additionally, the rate of property crime, which has decreased each year over the past five years, decreased again by about 1.4 percent. The only regional increase [state and regional overview] in overall violent crimes occurred in the South, which showed an increase in volume by 1.6 percent. AP has more.

After the release early this year of the FBI's 2007 Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report [text; JURIST report], US Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced [text; JURIST report] that the Bush administration would request an additional $200 million dollars in federal funding to help state and local authorities combat violent crime. Although the $200 million is a significant increase over the $75 million earmarked for the program in 2007 [DOJ press release], many mayors expressed concern that the money would only be enough to bolster existing programs and would likely not cover the cost of hiring any new police officers in the small cities and rural areas that the report indicated experienced a rise in violent offenses.

[JURIST] Attorneys for former US Army researcher Dr. Steven Hatfill [Washington Post profile] have filed a motion [PDF text] seeking to dismiss an appeal by former USA Today reporter Toni Locy [academic profile; JURIST news archive] challenging her contempt order for refusing to disclose sources for articles about the 2001 anthrax attacks [GWU backgrounder]. The motion, filed Thursday in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit [official website; JURIST news archive], argues that the appeal is moot because Locy "has not suffered and will not suffer any sanction under the order of contempt." District Court Judge Reggie Walton [official profile] indicated in July that he would vacate the contempt order because Hatfill had settled the lawsuit [JURIST report] in which he sought Locy's testimony.

If Locy's appeal is dismissed, the case would be remanded to the district court, where Hatfill would seek attorneys' fees from Locy. Hatfill's attorneys, from the Washington firm of Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP [firm website], wrote:

In this case, it would be the tail wagging the dog if this Court were to issue a decision addressing whether the district court properly held Locy in contempt to reach an ancillary dispute concerning fees that has not been reduced to an order (and which is therefore not yet appealable).

[JURIST] Senegalese publisher El Malick Seck is appealing a court ruling which sentenced him to three years in prison and closed his newspaper for three months as punishment for printing an article accusing Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade [BBC profile] and his son of money laundering, according to a defense lawyer. Seck, publisher of 24 Hours Chrono, was convicted Friday of insulting the head of state, disseminating false reports, committing acts likely to disturb the public order and concealing administrative documents. Tom Rhodes, Africa program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists [advocacy website], said in a press release [text]:

Despite repeated claims by President Abdoulaye Wade to end the use of criminal libel laws, El Malick Seck faces a severe prison sentence. Troubling as well is the censorship that has been imposed on 24 Heures Chrono. Senegal's press freedom credentials are deteriorating. CPJ urges the president to adhere to his pronouncements and ensure cases such as 24 Heures Chrono are a thing of the past.

[JURIST] Officials from the monitoring committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) [official website] released a draft resolution [text; press release] Monday praising Serbia for the reforms it has made since joining the Council of Europe (COE) in 2003 but stressing that the country still has work to do. The committee particularly praised the Serbian government's continued efforts towards European integration, indicated most recently by the September 9 ratification of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) [text, PDF; JURIST report] between the EU and Serbia. The country has also shown increased cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website], but the committee officials cautioned that the Serbian government must use peaceful methods in its dealings with Kosovo, strengthen its democratic government, and institute more aggressive legal and judicial reforms. In the resolution, the committee members recommended that the COE:

[W]orks with the Serbian authorities to develop, where appropriate, new targeted co-operation programmes in the fields of strengthening of democratic institutions, local and regional democracy, reform of the judiciary and of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the fight against corruption, human rights, mass media, and education, making full use in particular of new funding opportunities, including within the framework of the European Union’s Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA).