The Parliament of Hungary passed a package of bills on Wednesday that establishes a new system of courts that will be supreme in administrative matters. Drafts of the two bills, T/3353 and T/3354, were submitted by the government on November 6 and passed with 131 in favor and two against and 130 in favor and 3 [...]

The UN Committee against Torture posted a letter online, bearing Tuesday’s date, that calls on Saudi Arabia to release over a dozen imprisoned activists and cites credible claims of improper treatment, sexual assault and torture. The UN group charged with overseeing compliance with the Convention Against Torture claims that seven activists have been held without official [...]

The Hungarian government passed a suite of amendments to the nation’s labor laws that will significantly benefit employers on Wednesday despite vocal protests on the Parliament floor. The new laws increase the number of overtime hours that employers can require employees to work per year from the code’s previously allowed 250 hours to 400 hours. The [...]

President Trump signed the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act of 2018 into law on Tuesday. The bill establishes “US policy to ensure that humanitarian, stabilization, and recovery assistance for nationals and residents of Iraq or Syria, and of communities from those countries, is directed toward ethnic and minority individuals and communities with the greatest [...]

President Trump’s former personal lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution by a federal judge in New York on Wednesday. This comes following a request from federal prosecutors for a “substantial” prison term on December 7. Cohen plead guilty to lying to [...]

The Trump administration announced a new definition of “waters of the United States” at the EPA on Tuesday. The term’s new meaning will primarily limit the federal government’s regulation of waterways under the Clean Water Act to major waterways, their tributaries, and adjacent wetlands. This proposal follows the 2017 Executive Order “On Restoring the Rule [...]

The Court of Justice of the European Union issued a judgment on Monday, saying that the UK can unilaterally revoke its notification of intention to withdraw from the EU. The decision comes in response to a December 2017 petition for judicial review filed by members of the UK parliament, originally in the Court of Sessions, which [...]

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced on Tuesday that the Senate will vote on the FIRST STEP Act, an expansive criminal justice reform bill, within the month. The bill passed the House in May of this year and has awaited a Senate vote ever since. McConnell previously said that the Senate would not vote on [...]

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) announced on Tuesday that it would challenge the constitutionality of legislation that sent striking Canada Post employees back to work. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government introduced Bill C-89 after five weeks of rotating strikes by postal workers. The bill, which the CUPW alleges will lead to thousands [...]

The government of New Zealand passed a law that removes many restrictions on medical cannabis on Tuesday. While it will take up to a year for the new regulations and licensing policies established by the Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill to be rolled out, the law also establishes an exception and statutory defense [...]