The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a press briefing on Tuesday that attacks against civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) may amount to crimes against humanity. The declaration comes after numerous civilian attacks were described in a report by the UN Joint Human Rights Office in [...]

In a 5-4 decision delivered by Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday, the US Supreme Court held that a refusal by the US Railroad Retirement Board to reopen a prior benefits determination is subject to judicial review. In 1992, the petitioner, Manfredo Salinas, began seeking disability benefits under the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 (RRA) for [...]

Last week, a Travis County judge in Texas ordered that Rosa Jimenez be released from prison because false scientific testimony was used to secure her 2005 conviction for murdering a 21-month-old toddler in her care. The saga of Jimenez’ wrongful conviction highlights several major flaws in our criminal justice system. At her trial, Jimenez was accused [...]

A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced political activist Alexei Navalny to three and a half years in prison for violating his probation conditions. In its decision, the court reasoned that Navalny would need to serve two years and eight months of the sentence because he had already served one year of his sentence under house [...]

International Arbitration has become a global practice where different legal systems are considered during the proceedings with lawyers, arbitrators, experts and parties from different school of thoughts and with different understanding of applicable ethical rules. Two legal systems, common law and civil law, are usually the most prevalent systems used in international arbitration. The differences [...]

In a unanimous decision on Wednesday, the US Supreme Court ruled that the heirs of Jewish art dealers cannot bring a lawsuit in US courts against Germany over the alleged forced sale of art and artifacts under the Nazi regime. The case, Federal Republic of Germany v. Philipp, concerned a trove of medieval Christian relics [...]

The Administrative Court of Paris on Wednesday held that the French state is “responsible” for failing to take sufficient measures to halt climate change and for failing to meet its greenhouse gas emission targets. This judgment is a result of an application to the Administrative Court of Paris from four non-governmental organizations (NGOs), namely Oxfam [...]

Canada formally added far-right extremist group the Proud Boys to its list of terrorist entities on Wednesday, according to a news release from Public Safety Canada, making it the first country to do so. The Proud Boys were among 13 new groups placed on Canada’s Criminal Code list of terrorist entities, including al-Qaeda, ISIS and [...]

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced on Monday that Secretary of State Kathy Bookvar will resign from her position at the end of the week due to her department’s failure to advertise a proposed constitutional amendment that sought to extend the statute of limitations for victims of clergy sexual abuse. In 2018, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh [...]

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation Tuesday that repeals a section of the New York penal law that led to arbitrary and discriminatory policing of transgender women and cisgender women of color. Section 240.37 of the New York penal law, sometimes known as the “walking while trans” ban, prohibited loitering “for the purpose of [...]