WhatsApp is a free to download cross-platform messaging application which was founded in 2009. In 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion, which brought WhatsApp under scrutiny for its privacy practices. Facebook faced international backlash for the Cambridge Analytica scandal during the Brexit and 2016 United States Elections. Moreover, in 2018, news reports exposed Facebook’s [...]
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday convicted Dominic Ongwen, a former brigade commander of the African rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), of 61 war crimes and crimes against humanity committed from July 2002 to December 2005. Ongwen was accused of 70 counts of these crimes. In a 1,077-page judgment, Trial Chamber IX of the [...]
The UK government presented a bill Thursday that, if passed, will give the Prime Minister the power to give ministers six months’ maternity leave. The Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Bill, introduced to the House of Commons, would enable cabinet ministers to receive full pay during their leave and includes the same provisions for certain [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday dropped an affirmative action lawsuit it had filed against Yale University, accusing the school of discriminating against Asian American and White students in its undergraduate admissions process. In 2016 the DOJ received a complaint from a coalition of Asian-American organizations asserting that Yale discriminates against Asians in [...]
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 [...]
