In May 2026, The Gambia’s High Court acquitted three women prosecuted in connection with the death of an infant following female genital mutilation (FGM). The court found that the child had died from injuries sustained during FGM, but in her ruling, Justice Isatou Janneh upheld a “no case to answer” submission by the defense on [...]
Article 14(3)(f) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) guarantees free interpreter assistance to defendants who cannot understand or speak the language used in court. When a state fails to provide it, the obligation remains, but the practical burden falls on the defendant. Having faced criminal charges in Taiwan, a country whose [...]
As a US immigration lawyer who has spent years dealing with visa problems involving Russian citizens, I initially saw the recent report concerning Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alimov as another consular issue. Once I started looking at the rules that apply, however, it became clear that ordinary visa law only takes the analysis so [...]
In this four-part series, data analyst David Stasior argues that AI has made it possible to turn court and disciplinary records into data at scale, allowing the rule of law to be measured rather than just assumed. Here, in Part 1, he makes the case. Part 2 puts it to work on 24 years of [...]
In July, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) released an updated Youth Justice: A Guidebook for Legislators and refreshed its Juvenile Justice Toolkit. The timing matters. State lawmakers continue to confront questions about age of jurisdiction, diversion, transfer to adult court, restorative justice, and data reporting while trying to balance rehabilitation, accountability, and public [...]
The Department of Justice has moved to enter a Minnesota assault case on the side of the defendant. Hennepin County charged Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. with two counts of second-degree assault for allegedly pointing his gun at two motorists. Morgan sought to move the case to federal court, claiming [...]
As a physician, I have spent a career on the far side of a fact pattern I did not choose. This is the moment when something prescribed or administered goes wrong inside a body that trusted it not to. I have seen that more than once. It would be more comfortable to cast myself as [...]
An Iranian court has announced that crude removed from the US-owned Advantage Sweet tanker has been sold for $36 million to $37 million. The proceeds, held by Iran’s judiciary, are intended to satisfy a damages judgment for 771 Iranians with epidermolysis bullosa (EB) over sanctions-related barriers to medical supplies. The vessel was released in 2024. [...]
Allegations of sexual violence in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) keep making international headlines: a UN mission’s finding of reasonable grounds to believe rape occurred during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks; Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times column detailing accounts of sexual abuse, including alleged gang rape, of Palestinian detainees; a Gaza flotilla activist’s [...]
On Tuesday, August 11, after 22 years without an execution in Lebanon, the country’s parliament voted to abolish the death penalty, making it the first Arab country to formally scrap capital punishment. The new law replaces death sentences with life imprisonment with hard labor. And what was the only party on record in that country to [...]
