JURIST Guest Columnist Sedef Asli Topal of The University of Szeged, Hungary discusses the affairs of the European Union … The European Union surely cannot be simply identified as an international organization. It holds both particular confederative and federal characteristics within its institutional structure. Generally, it is described as an ‘unprecedented supranational organization’ which is [...]

Spanish Attorney General José Manuel Maza on Monday charged the former president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont , and other top Catalan officials with rebellion, sedition, embezzlement and malfeasance related to the region’s declaration of independence last week. Maza filed two separate complaints against the main Catalan political leaders, who declared independence on October 27. The [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday heard oral arguments in two criminal procedure cases. In Ayestas v. Davis the petitioner, Carlos Manuel Ayestas, a Texas death-row inmate, filed a habeas petition for ineffective assistance of counsel. The case challenges 18 USC § 3599(f), which provides that “federal courts in capital cases involving indigent defendants (including [...]

Argentina’s top prosecutor Alejandra Gils Carbo resigned on Monday amid accusations that she hindered investigations into the corruption scandal surrounding officials from former-president Cristina Fernandez’s administration. Current President Mauricio Macri accused Carbo of misusing her power by failing to bring corruption charges against officials from Fernandez’s administration. Macri began campaigning for reforms that would permit [...]

French President Emmanuel Macron formally signed a law Monday to replace a two-year-old state of emergency established in the wake of violent Paris attacks that killed 130 people in November 2015. The new law gives police and other law enforcement officials authority to conduct searches, and more. It will take effect Tuesday, just as the [...]

Saudi Princess Reema Bandar bint Al-Saud, vice president for women’s affairs of the General Sports Authority , tweeted Sunday that the country will begin to allow women to attend sporting events in 2018. Sport stadiums in Saudi Arabia to open their doors to welcome women in 2018 #history @gsaksa https://t.co/zGtHnf8ztW — Reema Bandar Al-Saud (@rbalsaud) [...]

Oman’s Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs , Yousuf Bin Alawi, on Monday signed Ministerial Decision No. 330/2017 into law, establishing the Omani Committee for International Humanitarian Law. The committee was established to spearhead Oman’s initiatives in humanitarian and international law. The committee, which has an initial term of three years, will be headed by the [...]

UPDATE 2:32PM ET: Manafort and Gates have pleaded not guilty. Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Monday revealed charges against two former Trump campaign officials, and a plea agreement with a third, marking the first criminal charges to come from a probe into possible Russian influence in US political affairs. The three individuals charged were Paul [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Susan Farooqi of St. John’s University School of Law discusses the regression in womens’ rights in Afghanistan in recent decades… When we think of women in Afghanistan, we often assume that they are oppressed, and recall images of women in burqas and stories of women being brutalized. Although there is a lot [...]

JURIST Guest Columnists Christina Pesavento and Ashley Baker, of the Committee for Justice: Thanks to a sex trafficking bill, the Internet’s days as the bullhorn of democracy may be limited… In Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union (1997), Justice John Paul Stevens extolled the virtues of the Internet as a medium for speech. In this [...]