JURIST EXCLUSIVE – One of the Myanmar law students reporting for JURIST considers the practical circumstances of everyday financial life in Myanmar under the military coup. Formerly straightforward everyday things like going to the bank are becoming increasingly difficult as the country’s economic infrastructure grinds to a halt. She explains: I was literally at the [...]

US President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law Thursday establishing June 19 as a US federal holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the country. The Senate unanimously passed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act Tuesday without amendment. The Act then passed overwhelmingly in the House Wednesday with a [...]

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 3979 into law Wednesday, banning Texas public schools from being able to teach students critical race theory. Critical race theory is a social theory that asserts that racial issues in society are influenced, created, and maintained by societal structures and cultural assumptions. It focuses on the intersections between gender, [...]

Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards signed a new law on Tuesday that eliminates prison time for the possession of modest amounts of marijuana. The new law is the latest move away from Louisiana’s traditionally strict stance on the drug. The bill makes the possession of 14 grams or less a misdemeanor in all cases and [...]

A group of Norwegian climate activists on Tuesday formally requested that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) review Norway’s plans for expanded Arctic oil and gas extraction, arguing that their “rights to life and private and family life are directly affected by climate change.” Environmental groups Greenpeace and Young Friends of the Earth, along with [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Wednesday upheld a lower court’s decision to strike down North Carolina’s statewide abortion restrictions. For the past 140 years, North Carolina has criminalized the “procurement or administration of abortion as a felony.” In 1967, the state enacted an exception to the abortion ban that permitted [...]

The US Senate unanimously passed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act Tuesday to commemorate the end of slavery in the US by establishing Juneteenth as a legal public holiday. Juneteenth was celebrated as “Emancipation Day” in some southern states after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation to declare “all persons held as slaves” in [...]

The US Supreme Court declined Monday to take up an appeal by a group of oil companies challenging a California state court ruling permitting two California cities to sue for damages related to climate change, meaning the case will be heard in state court. The cities of Oakland and San Francisco claimed that fossil fuel [...]

The Tagansky District Court in Moscow on Sunday ordered political activist Pavel Krisevich to be detained for two months following a “suicide performance” in Red Square. Krisevich was charged with the crime of hooliganism after firing blanks into the air and then at his head in an act designed to support Russian political prisoners. The [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday limited new trials for felons convicted for being in possession of a firearm, limiting the retroactive application of its 2019 decision Rehaif v. United States. The issue in Greer v. United States involved 18 USC §922(g), the federal law prohibiting felons from possessing firearms. Under the 2019 decision in Rehaif, the [...]