Here’s the domestic legal news we covered this week: A US District judge declared a mistrial in New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez’s federal corruption trial on Thursday after questioning the 12 jurors. The US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on Thursday denied the City of Chicago’s motion for reconsideration of an earlier [...]

The Russian Federation on Friday vetoed a measure before the UN Security Council (UNSC) that would have extended the mandate of a UN panel investigating the use of chemical weapons in Syria for thirty days. The UNSC had established the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons‑United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism (OPCW) in 2015 with [...]

The US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on Thursday denied the City of Chicago’s motion for reconsideration of an earlier order granting partial injunction of a federal law enforcement grant program. The dispute stems from the City’s receipt of federal funds under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program , which [...]

The Third Committee of the UN General Assembly passed a resolution on Thursday calling on authorities in Myanmar to address a number of human rights concerns related to the treatment of the country’s Rohningya population. The committee, which focuses on social, humanitarian, and social issues, voted 135-10-26 to adopt a wide-ranging text urging the government [...]

Luisa Ortega Díaz, Venezuela’s deposed chief prosecutor, filed a complaint on Thursday with the International Criminal Court (ICC) calling for the arrest and trial of top Venezuela officials for crimes against humanity. These officials include, President Nicolás Maduro , Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, and Interior Secretary Néstor Reverol. Ortega Díaz alleged that “8,290 deaths [...]

A US District judge declared a mistrial in New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez’s federal corruption trial on Thursday after questioning the 12 jurors. Following several hours of deliberation, the jury announced that they were “hopelessly deadlocked” in a note sent before noon that read: “We cannot reach a unanimous decision. Nor are we willing to [...]

On Thursday UNSMIL chief Ghassan Salamé suggested to the United Nations Security Council that a joint tribunal should be considered to try individuals suspected of war crimes in Libya. In the speech to the Security Council the chief expressed views that Libya is in a state of lawlessness with crimes being committed each day. Salamé [...]

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday denied the Department of Homeland Security‘s (DHS) petition seeking to put a hold on a district court’s order requiring the DHS to provide additional justification for ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The district court had ordered the DHS to [...]

Amnesty International (AI) on Friday released a report detailing humanitarian crisis incidents that may amount to war crimes in the Philippines. The report is titled ‘The Battle of Marawi’: Death and destruction in the Philippines and is a look at the five month battle that occurred in Marawi earlier this year. AI found that during [...]

The US House of Representatives approved HR 1 , a bill which will overhaul the US tax code, by a vote of 227-205 on Thursday. The bill proposes a $1.5 trillion dollar tax cut for business and individuals throughout the country. The legislation currently proposes a cut in the corporate tax rate from 35 percent [...]