In an independence referendum that drew record numbers to the polls, voters in the South Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia voted Sunday 56 to 44 percent to remain a French territory. Sunday’s referendum marked a major milestone in an independence movement that has spanned decades. Political leaders initially agreed in 1988 to hold a vote on independence [...]
World Legal News
Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled against an absolute ban on the recreational use of marijuana Wednesday, finding it unconstitutional. This ruling allows lawmakers to regulate the marijuana industry. In Mexico, the Supreme Court is required to rule five times on the same issue before the ruling becomes a binding precedent—this most recent case was the fifth [...]
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 7-1 on Friday that two Canadian electric companies, Hydro-Quebec and Churchill Falls Corporation, had no obligation to renegotiate a contract from 1969. Churchill Falls Corp. brought the suit, claiming that the contract should be renegotiated due to changes in the electricity market which occurred after the signing. Under the current contract, Hydro-Quebec receives [...]
Former Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori was ordered Wednesday to be held in preventive detention for three years by the Peruvian National Criminal Court until the corruption probe into her party and her campaign is finished. Fujimori had spent a week in police custody earlier in October before being released on appeal. The judge from the [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday that North Korean officials committing sexual violence against women is so common that it has come to be accepted as part of ordinary life. “Sexual violence in North Korea is an open, unaddressed, and widely tolerated secret,” said Kenneth Roth, HRW’s executive director. “North Korean women would probably say [...]
Abraham Edgardo Ortega, the former executive director of financial planning at Petróleo de Venezuela, SA pleaded guilty Wednesday in US federal court to conspiring to commit money laundering. In a hearing in a Florida district court, Ortega admitted to accepting over $17 million worth of bribes as payment for allowing a ring of former Venezuelan officials and [...]
Meaza Ashenafi, a prominent East African women’s rights activist, has been appointed President of Ethiopia’s Federal Supreme Court, becoming the court’s first female head. She has worked as a judge and legal adviser in Ethiopia since 1992. In 2014, Ashenafi was the subject of a documentary film called “Difret,” in which as a lawyer she [...]
The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s office claimed Wednesday that Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was strangled and then dismembered as soon as he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist critical of the royal family who went missing after entering the Saudi consulate on October 2. The Saudis initially denied culpability, but then [...]
The South Korean Supreme Court ruled 9-4 Thursday that males could reject compulsory military service on conscientious or religious reasons, and that they could choose instead to complete “alternative” service. Yonhap, South Korea’s news agency, reported that the ruling stated “punishing (conscientious objectors) for refusing the conscription on grounds of religious faith, in others words, [...]
Austria announced Wednesday that it will not sign the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, following suit with the US and Hungary. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said that Austria fears the compact will lead to “a human right to migration.” The Compact’s human rights purpose states: “we ensure effective respect, protection and fulfillment of the [...]
