The SCSL was created in a joint endeavor by the government of Sierra Leone and the UN to provide a forum to try those responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law and Sierra Leonean law, committed in Sierra Leone. With the recent conviction [JURIST report] of Charles Taylor, the SCSL has largely fulfilled its mission and will take steps to shut down. Steps have already been taken to facilitate this process. In November 2009, the SCSL handed over its detention facility [JURIST report] to the Sierra Leone Prison Service in a monumental step towards the court's resolution. The month before, eight men judged guilty of war crimes by the court were transferred [JURIST report] to Rwanda to serve out their terms. Although the court is winding down, it is still active. In early October, the SCSL sentenced [JURIST report] four men to prison terms ranging from 18 months to 2 years on contempt charges stemming from allegations of witness tampering. The month before, the court found three members of Sierra Leone's former Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) guilty of contempt [JURIST report].

Virginia's new laws mark the second time in two years that the Commonwealth has altered voting regulations. In August Governor Bob McDonnell [official website] announced [JURIST report] that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] had approved Virginia's voter ID law involving voting procedures, finding that the law did not violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965 [text]. Prior to the law, the Commonwealth required ID at the polls, but allowed voters to cast ballots without it if they signed an affidavit swearing their identity. That law eliminated the affidavit option while adding several other acceptable forms of ID, all of which would be removed by the new new legislation. There are now more than 30 US States [NCSL backgrounder] that require voters to present some form of ID at the polls, including 17 states that have passed laws requiring photo ID. The issue remains legally controversial, most notably in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota [JURIST reports].