The Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) [official website], a legal information agency which operates in coordination with Russian courts, reports the Yakovlev initiative was adopted in retaliation [RAPSI report] against the US Magnitsky Act [text]. The new US legislation places financial and visa sanctions on officials connected to the arrest, imprisonment and death of Sergei Magnitsky [BBC report], a lawyer and whistleblower who unearthed a US$230 million tax fraud, and was subsequently arrested by the police officers he accused of carrying out the fraud. Magnitsky died in prison in 2009 [JURIST report]. The Yakovlev initiative comes just months after Russia and the US entered into an agreement [JURIST report] tightening restrictions on international adoptions.

Thursday's news is the latest in the ongoing effort by Libya to try Saif al-Islam and al-Senussi nationally rather than turn them over to the ICC. In October Libyan government lawyers urged [JURIST report] the ICC to allow them to be tried in Libya and promised that the trial would be fair. In August Saif al-Islam stated [JURIST report] that he preferred to be tried by the ICC out of fear that Libya would not try him fairly. In June four ICC staff members who traveled to Libya to speak with Saif al-Islam were detained [JURIST report] by Libyan security forces and were in custody for nearly four weeks before being released.

Concerns about the nature of bin Laden's death and his subsequent burial at sea have arisen since the announcement of his death [JURIST report] in May 2011, while US officials have maintained that their actions were lawful. US State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh defended the killing [JURIST report] saying it was "consistent with the laws of armed conflict and US military doctrine." Days after the killing, human rights experts from the UN called on the US to disclose further details [JURIST report] of the killing, in order "to allow an assessment in terms of international human rights law standards." UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay insisted [JURIST report] on "a full disclosure of the accurate facts" surrounding the killing of Bin Laden after the White House altered the official account of the killing from its original announcement. US Attorney General Eric Holder told the US Senate Judiciary Committee that the killing of Bin Laden was lawful and justified [JURIST report], testifying that the shooting of Bin Laden was "consistent with our values," and that the soldiers who killed him "conducted themselves totally appropriately."

Zimbabwe has been criticized for its failure to ensure compliance with international human rights standards. In November the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OBS) [FIDH backgrounder] released a report finding that human rights defenders in Zimbabwe continue to be harassed [JURIST report]. In March various human rights groups urged South African courts to prosecute Zimbabwe for violations including torture and forced labor [JURIST reports] of civilian workers in illegal mining camps. In June 2009 Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] released a report [press release] stating that Zimbabwe was still experiencing serious human rights violations [JURIST report], such as the arrest and detention of human rights activists, and needed to confront issues that led to such problems.

The separation of church and state has been and remains a controversial issue [JURIST op-ed] in American courts. In October the US District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania [official website] dismissed a suit [JURIST report] challenging a Pennsylvania House Resolution declaring 2012 the "Year of the Bible." In May the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that a lawsuit opposing a Ten Commandments monument displayed on property owned by the City of Fargo, North Dakota, may move forward. Last January the US Supreme Court [official website] declined to review [JURIST report] a case concerning whether a county board of commissioners in North Carolina violated the Establishment Clause by opening its public meetings with prayers. The court's denial of certiorari preserved a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [official website] holding [JURIST report] that that the board of commissioners violated the Establishment Clause by effectively using a public forum to endorse Christianity. Earlier that month a federal judge ordered Florida's Dixie County Courthouse to remove the Ten Commandments monument [JURIST report] displayed on the front steps of the courthouse, concluding that the monument's religious message would be interpreted to be espoused by the government.

The conclusion of the [Hamdan v. United States] panel that Congress did not intend to authorize military commissions to try and punish pre-2006 conduct unless it constituted a clearly-recognized violation of international law cannot be squared with the plain language of the 2006 MCA and Congress's stated purpose in enacting it.

In September 2011 the US Court of Military Commission Review [official website] ruled in a 7-0 vote that Al Bahlul had been properly convicted of being a propagandist and should spend the rest of his life in prison [JURIST reports]. He previously boycotted much of his trial proceedings. Al Bahlul, a 39-year old Yemeni citizen, went on trial [JURIST report] at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] in 2008. He is alleged to have been Osama bin Laden's personal assistant and media secretary and was charged in February 2008 with conspiracy, solicitation to commit murder and attacks on civilians, and providing material support for terrorism. He is accused of researching the financial impact of the 9/11 attacks and also releasing the "martyr wills" of 9/11 hijackers Muhammed Atta and Ziad al Jarrah as propaganda videos. Al Bahlul was the second detainee to go on trial at Guantanamo since the prison there opened in 2002 and is the only convicted criminal currently held at the facility.

Earlier this month US President Barack Obama [official website] signed [JURIST report] into law the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 (NDAA) [text, PDF] which expressly prohibits using funds to transfer individuals detained at Guantanamo Bay and also prohibits using funds to construct facilities in the US intended to house Guantanamo detainees. During his second day in office, Obama issued an executive order [text; JURIST report] directing the prison to be closed. However, in the face of congressional opposition [JURIST report], the Obama administration missed its self-imposed deadline to close the military prison and, following the 2010 mid-term election, Congress effectively halted [JURIST backgrounder] plans to close the facility. The signing of the NDAA will further hinder Obama's ability to close Guantanamo Bay, despite a November report [JURIST report] from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) [official website] that Guantanamo detainees could be safely absorbed by prisons throughout the US. Forum contributor Jonathan Hafetz argues that Obama bears responsibility [JURIST op-ed] for the political missteps that prevented Guantanamo from closing and criticizes him for embracing the "larger detention system that Guantanamo embodies." Conversely, Forum contributor David Frakt agrees that the Obama administration is partially responsible, but believes lCongress is argely to blame [JURIST op-ed] for passing a "series of increasingly stringent spending restrictions which have made it virtually impossible to transfer most detainees out of Guantanamo."

The First Circuit previously upheld the law [JURIST report] in 2009. Also that year the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit [official website] struck down a City of Pittsburgh ordinance that created a layered zone structure to prevent protesters from gathering outside abortion facilities. The ordinance created a "buffer zone," preventing protesters from coming within 15 feet of the entrance of a medical facility, and also a "bubble zone," which prevented protesters from coming closer than eight feet to individuals within a 100 foot radius around a facility. The court held that either of the zones created by the ordinance would be proper by themselves, but in combination they were not sufficiently narrowly tailored

Controversy continues to surround the Guantanamo military trials. Last month a federal judge affirmed the denial of a habeas petition [JURIST report] for a Guantanamo detainee. Earlier that month a US military judge upheld [JURIST report] a request to censor 9/11 conspirators' testimony. In September a judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia rejected [JURIST report] new restrictions on lawyers representing Guantanamo Bay detainees who have had their habeas corpus challenges denied or dismissed. The DOD announced in 2011 that it had sworn charges against the five men [JURIST report] accused in the 9/11 attacks. In April 2011 US Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the four others would be tried by a military commission [JURIST report] after the Obama administration abandoned attempts to have the 9/11 suspects tried in civilian courts.

The issue of same-sex relationships [JURIST backgrounder] remains controversial throughout the US, with states taking various approaches. In December Wisconsin's 4th District Court of Appeals ruled [JURIST report] that the state's domestic partnership registry does not infringe on the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Earlier in December the Montana Supreme Court [official website] affirmed [JURIST report] a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit seeking legal status for same-sex relationships. Like Wisconsin, Montana also has a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Earlier this 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].