The Supreme Court of Belarus will hold a hearing on Thursday regarding a lawsuit filed by the Belarusian Justice Ministry to dissolve the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, according to Human Rights Watch. In the August 27 lawsuit, the country contends the Belarusian Helsinki Committee provided the ministry with inaccurate financial information. The committee is one of the [...]

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a number of bills on Tuesday to ease the state’s housing shortage. These bills, combined with four signed earlier in September, form a 31-bill housing agenda to address housing costs, homelessness, and climate change. Newsom’s administration has already attempted to tackle these issues, even investing $22 billion to create more [...]

India Staff Correspondent Sambhav Sharma, a final year law student at Amity Law School, offers his perspective on recent high-profile criticisms of India’s Public Interest Litigation (PIL) system. He files this for JURIST from New Delhi. India’s Jammu & Kashmir High Court recently dismissed with costs a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition supposedly being filed [...]

The US District Court for the District of Arizona on Tuesday blocked provisions of a restrictive Arizona abortion bill from taking effect. The Arizona legislature enacted SB 1457 in April 2021. The section of the bill at issue recognizes the “rights, privileges and immunities” of unborn children “at every stage of development” and bans abortions [...]

The Kerala High Court ruled Monday that the Kerala Government’s notification banning online rummy played for stakes is unconstitutional. The Kerala Gaming Act, 1960 deals with the prohibition and punishment of gambling in Kerala. While Section 14 exempts “any game of mere skill” from the provisions of the Act, Section 14A empowers the state government [...]

Jared Ramos, accused of killing 5 people at the offices of the Maryland Capital Gazette in 2018 was sentenced Tuesday to 5 life sentences without parole, plus 345 years. The sentencing follows Ramos’ criminal conviction by a jury for the attack earlier this year. Ramos originally pleaded guilty but claimed insanity. This plea was soon [...]

The General Court of the European Union on Wednesday annulled two EU Council decisions regarding agricultural trade agreements with Morocco due to the lack of consent of affected local inhabitants in Morocco. The agreements concerned the disputed Western Sahara region. The first Council decision the court annulled concerned an agreement between the European Union and Morocco [...]

The Legislative Council of Hong Kong passed the Personal Data (Privacy) (Amendment) Bill 2021 on Wednesday. The law deals with “doxxing” which is the public release of information identifying an individual or organization. The Bill was introduced to the Legislative Council in July. The law empowers The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data [...]

The Philippines Senate voted unanimously in favor of a bill at its third reading on Monday, which will raise the age of sexual consent in the country to 16. The age a person can consent to sex in the Philippines under the current law is 12. The Philippines senate voted 22 in favor, 0 against [...]

An independent report published on Tuesday revealed that the World Health Organization (WHO) failed to prevent sexual exploitation during its response to the Ebola epidemic between August 2018 and June 2020. The Independent Commission on Allegations of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse during the Response to the 10th Ebola Outbreak collated data from interviews, field trips [...]