President Mohammed Morsi [BBC backgrounder] signed the constitution into law in December after it passed a controversial referendum [JURIST reports] in which the charter was supported by over 63 percent of those who voted in the referendum. However, only 32.9 percent of Egypt's total of 52 million voters actually participated in the referendum, leading many to debate its results. Earlier in December the UN Working Group on discrimination against women [official website] expressed grave concern [JURIST report] over the draft constitution. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] has also expressed concern at the rising death toll during the ongoing political chaos in Egypt, saying that Egypt's draft constitution presents serious problems for human rights [JURIST report].

The ICJ welcomes the steps taken by the UK to criminally investigate and bring to justice an individual suspected of the serious crime of torture. If the government wants to prevent the future prosecution of conflict-era human rights violations in foreign countries, then it must cooperate with the UK proceedings, and take immediate steps to investigate and prosecute similar violations domestically, in line with Nepal's own international obligations and the jurisprudence of Nepal's Supreme Court.

In October the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official website] released a report [text, PDF] urging justice for victims of international law violations [JURIST report] that occurred during Nepal's civil war, a conflict which resulted in approximately 13,000 deaths [JURIST report]. In April Human Rights Watch (HRW) [official website] and the ICJ urged Nepal to reject blanket amnesty [JURIST report] for crimes committed during the countries civil war. In the same month, Kyung-Wha Kang [official profile], the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned [JURIST report] Nepal for its reluctance to prosecute war crimes and for its lack of progress on women's rights. OHCHR and HRW [JURIST reports] have both appealed to the Nepalese government to investigate human rights violations committed during the civil war.

The California Superior Court's decision on Monday joins a growing trend regarding parochial legal proceedings in the US. In August ajudge for the US District Court for the District of Oregon ruled in favor of the Vatican by holding that priests are not employees [JURIST report] of the Holy See, the ecclesiastical, governmental and administrative capital of the Roman Catholic Church. Judge Michael Mosman ruled that the facts of the case do not establish an employer-employee relationship, despite his 2006 ruling allowing the lawsuit [JURIST report] to proceed on a strictly legal theory that a priest was a Vatican employee under Oregon law. The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act [Cornell LII materials] typically grants the Vatican and other foreign states immunity in US courts, but the 1976 act does not shield such states when engaged in commercial or certain harmful activities in the US. In June a 12-member jury in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas handed down a landmark verdict [WSJ report] finding Msgr. William Lynn, secretary for clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004, guilty of child endangerment for allowing a priest to take a new assignment after learning of sexual abuse allegations against him. Msgr. Lynn is the first Roman Catholic Church official to be convicted [NYT report] of covering up sexual abuses by priests in the US.

I'm pleased to announce that the Obama Administration has just agreed to settle the lawsuit by paying all of the service members 100 percent of the separation pay they are owed. Coming on the heels of the repeal of DADT (for which the Administration deserves tremendous credit), this policy change is a wonderful (if overdue) recognition that these soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines deserve no less than all the others who served honorably and defended their country with their lives.

Gay rights remain a controversial issue throughout the US, particularly with respect to same-sex marriage [JURIST backgrounder]. In December Wisconsin's 4th District Court of Appeals ruled [JURIST report] that the state's domestic partnership registry does not infringe on the Wisconsin constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Earlier that week the Montana Supreme Court [official website] affirmed [JURIST report] a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit seeking legal status for same-sex relationships. Montana, like Wisconsin, has a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Earlier that month Washington Governor Christine Gregoire certified the results of Referendum 74 [JURIST report] which legalized same-sex marriage in the state. Washington had previously recognized domestic partnerships [JURIST report]. Also in December the US Supreme Court [official website] agreed to rule [JURIST report] on two cases dealing with same-sex marriage. In Hollingsworth v. Perry [docket] the court will consider the validity of Proposition 8 [JURIST news archive], a California referendum that revoked same-sex marriage rights. In United States v. Windsor [docket] the court will examine the constitutionality of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) [text; JURIST news archive].

Military trials for civilians are fundamentally unfair and it is time for the Egyptian authorities to end them. ... It is particularly worrying that a journalist seems to be facing an unfair trial by military court simply for carrying out his work. The charges against Mohamed Sabry must be dropped immediately.

Egypt's new constitution has been surrounded by controversy and criticized since it was drafted. After it was approved by referendum in December, a coalition of Egyptian rights group called for a redo, alleging widespread irregularities [JURIST report] in voting procedures. Egyptian press and commentators were divided over its approval [BBC report], as some declared the results to be "fake" [BBC report]. Supporters of the document from the Muslim Brotherhood, however, claimed its approval was the valid choice of the people. It was signed into law by President President Mohammed Morsi [BBC backgrounder] weeks after its approval. Before it was approved, the UN Working Group on discrimination against women [official website] expressed grave concern [JURIST report] over its contents, noting that no women were involved in drafting the document and that their rights were "grossly under-represented." In November, AI also voiced concern that the approved constitution contains language that "ignores the rights of women, restricts freedom of expression in the name of protecting religion, and allows for the military trial of civilians."

The lawsuit was originally filed by the ACLU [JURIST report] in 2011. In September of that year the court denied the ACLU's request for an injunction [JURIST report] to halt enforcement of the law while the litigation proceeds. Governor Sam Brownback (R) [official website] signed HB 2075 into law in May 2011, one month after he signed two other pieces of legislation [JURIST report] restricting abortions in the state, specifically the Abortion Reporting Accuracy and Parental Rights Act [HB 2035, PDF], which requires unemancipated minors to obtain notarized parental signatures before an abortion may be performed, and the "fetal pain bill" [HB 2218, PDF], which restricts abortions beyond 22 weeks of pregnancy based on the controversial belief that a fetus can feel pain at that stage of gestation.

In The Standard Fire Insurance Co. v. Knowles [transcript, PDF] the court heard its first case on the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) [PDF], which put a number of class actions under federal jurisdiction. At issue here is whether, under the act, a class can avoid having a suit moved to federal court if it keeps the amount in controversy [28 USC § 1332] under $75,000 for each plaintiff. The Standard Fire Insurance Co. argued that the court must consider the plaintiffs' potential earnings in aggregate, and that Congress intended for the CAFA to avoid these sorts of abuses. "The Congress was very concerned that cases were being kept in the State courts through abuses and manipulations of the amount in controversy. It's very clear in the Senate report, Congress talks about this because, for example, in this case the defendants can never get a class certification hearing in Miller County." The attorney for Greg Knowles and the class he represents argued that "[o]ur position is that the stipulation is binding throughout the 'civil action filed by the putative class representative.' I want to focus on the words 'civil action' because there has been no civil action filed by any absent class members. The only civil action that the district court is being considered for jurisdiction is the civil action that has been filed by the putative class representative. So if the class is later not certified, the stipulation would only bind the putative class representative."