A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Thursday denied the Pennsylvania Republican Party’s effort to allow out-of-county poll watchers to monitor precincts on election day. Judge Gerald Pappert stated that the request was not in the public interest and did not meet the standard for a last-minute intervention [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected a challenge Wednesday to an Arizona election law. The Ninth circuit, in a 2-1 opinion turned down a legal challenge regarding thrown out ballots cast by voters who go to the wrong precinct. A federal judge had initially denied the challenge stating that there is [...]

The EU’s “hotspot approach” to processing refugees is pressuring Italian authorities to use illegal procedures, according to an Amnesty International (AI) report released Thursday. The report was composed after conducting interviews with more than 170 migrants and refugees, and it exposed numerous accounts of unlawful expulsions and abuse that the group claims amount to torture [...]

The justice minister of South Africa on Thursday submitted a bill to parliament seeking withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) . Tshililo Michael Masutha , the Minister of Justice of South Africa, presented the bill due to the government’s claim that it interferes with South Africa’s Diplomatic Immunities and Privileges Act (DIPA) . A [...]

A group of UN human rights experts called on the authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Thursday to revoke what they consider an unjustified ban on protests in Kinshasa, the DRC capital. The statement says the rights to protest are fundamental and that, “he rights to freedom of expression, and freedom of [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Anne Herzberg of NGO Monitor reviews the recent article, “Unsettled: A Global Study of Settlements in Occupied Territory”… Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention is the most cited legal provision invoked by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the UN and quasi-judicial bodies to declare illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The language [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Wednesday threw out a challenge to Ohio’s execution secrecy law. Under HB 663 , the identity of individuals and entities that participate in the lethal injection process is treated as confidential and privileged. The court held that the prisoners who brought the challenge lacked standing [...]

A federal judge on Wednesday denied a legal challenge to the state’s ban on taking personal photos at polling locations, known as “ballot selfies” on election day. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California filed the lawsuit on Monday against California Secretary of State Alex Padilla , arguing that photographing one’s ballot is [...]

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in the case of Venezuela v. Helmerich & Payne International . The court granted certiorari in June to determine whether the pleading standard for alleging that a case falls under the expropriation exception of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) is more stringent than the “insubstantial [...]

The High Court of South Africa on Wednesday ordered the release of a report on corruption allegations against President Jacob Zuma. The country’s former Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, concluded the report into the possibly corrupt relationship between Zuma and an influential family last month, shortly before the expiry of her seven-year term. The report was [...]