[JURIST] Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat [official profile; Nation backgrounder] demoted Police Chief Gen. Patcharawat Wongsuwan to an inactive position within the Prime Minister's office, according to media reports Friday. Patcharawat's removal comes a day after the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency [Financial Times report] because of continuing political protests [Bangkok Post materials] at two airports, Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang [official websites], in the capital Bangkok. The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) [advocacy website, in Thai; advocacy statement, in English] initiated the protests at the airports earlier this week as part of an ongoing effort to bring down Somchai's government. No reason was given for Patcharawat's removal, but it is believed that he was not cooperating with the government's efforts to end the protests. The Thai News Agency has more. China Daily has additional coverage.

PAD protests have been ongoing throughout the year, based on its disapproval of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. Somchai is the brother-in-law of Thaksin, who was ousted in military coup in 2006. Somchai took over as prime minister earlier this month after the Constitutional Court of Thailand [official website] ruled that then-prime minister Samak Sundaravej [BBC profile] had violated the constitution [JURIST report] by accepting payment for his appearance on a television cooking program. Critics claim that Somchai is just a proxy for Thaksin, who remains in exile while being tried in absentia for corruption.

[JURIST] The European Commission (EC) [official website] Thursday called on Germany [press release] to modify its Volkswagen anti-takeover law within two months or else face referral of the matter to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website]. The law, created in 1960 in order to privatize Volkswagen AG (VW) [corporate website], was aimed at protecting the automaker from hostile takeovers by giving public authorities automatic representation on the VW board, instituting a 20 percent voting cap, and allowing a 20 percent blocking minority. The law was revised [JURIST report] in May, but the provision allowing the 20 percent blocking minority was left in place. The EC disputes the clause as it allows the German state of Lower Saxony [official website], which holds a 20.1 percent stake in VW, to block major business decisions. Also on Thursday, a German court upheld [AFP report] the 20 percent blocking minority provision against a challenge by Porsche SE [corporate website, in German]. The ruling is seen as setback to Porsche's attempted takeover of Europe's largest automaker. Deutsche Welle has more. Xinhua has additional coverage.

The EC initially challenged the law in 2005. The ECJ ruled [JURIST report] in October 2007 that a previous version of the law was illegal because it limited "the free movement of capital" and discouraged foreign direct investment in Germany. The EC has filed or has threatened to file similar suits against Spain and its energy companies, Italy and highway company Autosrade SpA, and Poland for intervening in Italy's UniCredit SpA business in Poland.

[JURIST] Moscow Military District Court judge Yevgeny Zubov Wednesday refused to recuse himself from the trial of three men accused of involvement in the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya [BBC obituary; JURIST news archive]. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office [official website, in Russian] had requested a new judge [JURIST report] claiming that Zubov had violated procedural rules. Last week Zubov declared the trial would be open to the public in accordance with the wishes of Politkovskaya's family, then closed it [JURIST reports] due to alleged fears by members of the jury. When these were publicly denied, he opened the trial again [JURIST report]. Under court rules, only a judge himself can make a decision to leave a case. AP has more. On Thursday, members of Politkovsakaya's family testified that she had received regular threats against her life. The trial is now in recess [RIA Novosti report] until December 1.

Sergey Khadzhikurbanov and brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov, all from Chechnya, were arrested [JURIST report] in connection with the killing in August 2007. The primary suspect, Rustam Makhmudov, also from Chechnya, has yet to be captured, but Russian authorities have said he is hiding in Western Europe. On Tuesday, defense lawyers announced that court documents would show that Politkovskaya's murder was ordered by an unnamed Russian politician [RIA Novosti report]. Politkovskaya, a reporter for the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta [official website] widely known for her stories about human rights abuses by Russian troops in Chechnya, was murdered [JURIST report] after returning to her Moscow apartment building in October 2006.

[JURIST] The Mexican Senate [official website, in Spanish] on Tuesday approved [official record] a bill [materials, in Spanish] that would amend the General Law of Health [text, in Spanish] to allow terminally ill patients to refuse medical treatment. The bill passed with 84 votes in favor and only one abstention. Under the new law, a patient who has an incurable, irreversible disease and a life expectancy prognosis of less than six months may exercise the right by raising the case in front of a hospital bioethics committee. The patient’s family may alternatively assert the right if the patient is incapacitated. The law’s provisions ensure that the patient will receive palliative treatment that does not delay or speed death, but will ease physical and emotional pain and discomfort. Although the treatments described by the law are known as passive euthanasia, the senators were careful to distance themselves from the term by characterizing [AP report] the law as one respecting patients’ dignity and autonomy. La Jornada has local coverage, in Spanish.

The initiative for the law stems from the Mexican Health Department's 2007 proposal [text, DOC, in Spanish] that measures should be created to respect patients' autonomy about treatment when they are terminally ill. In November 2007, the Mexico City Legislative Assembly (ALDF) [official website, in Spanish] approved a similar measure called the Law of Anticipated Will, which allows patients to determine in advance the treatment they wish to receive if terminally ill or incapacitated. The present initiative was supported [El Observador report, in Spanish ] by the Catholic Church in Mexico from its initial stages in the ALDF, in contrast to a law decriminalizing abortion [JURIST report] that was passed last year.