A senior adviser to the European Court of Justice submitted an advisory opinion Tuesday finding the July 2014 EU economic sanctions against Russia legally valid. In response to a challenge by Russian oil and gas company Rosneft , Melchior Wathelet found all but one sanction to be valid and asked the court to adopt his [...]

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday refused a request to decide on whether the death penalty is unconstitutional. Lamondre Tucker, who murdered his pregnant girlfriend in 2008 asked the court to grant certiorari in Tucker v. Louisiana to rule on the constitutionality of the death penalty. Justice Stephen Breyer dissented from the denial of certiorari, [...]

Te Cambodian parliament voted Monday to allow the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to open an investigation into opposition leader Kem Sohka regarding his alleged involvement with a prostitute. Many have called this move an attempt by the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) , which supports political incumbent Hun Sen, to take Kem Sohka out of the [...]

A legal adviser to the European Court of Justice issued an opinion Tuesday finding that an employer may ban an employee from wearing a headscarf for religious purposes. Written by Advocate General Juliane Kokott , the opinion holds that “If the ban is based on a general company rule which prohibits political, philosophical and religious [...]

The UN Refuge Agency (UNHCR) reported Tuesday that more than 2,500 people have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean and enter into Europe in 2016, marking an increase from the previous year. In the past week alone, it is estimated that 880 people died after their vessels either sank or capsized along the dangerous passage. [...]

The US Supreme Court granted certiorari Tuesday in State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. v. United States ex rel. Rigsby , a case concerning allegations that the insurance company defrauded the government in assessing damage following Hurricane Katrina . The court limited to grant to question 1: “What standard governs the decision whether to dismiss [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in United States Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co., Inc. that the Corps’ determination that a property contains waters protected by the Clean Water Act (CWA) constitutes a “final agency action” reviewable under the Administrative Procedure Act . Respondents are engaged in peat mining in Minnesota and applied [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed confidence on Monday that former first lady Simone Gbagbo’s upcoming trial in Ivory Coast for crimes against humanity could be a “pivotal moment for justice.” HRW also warned that if the trial is to be meaningful to victims, it must be credible, fair and followed by trials of other high-level [...]

A court in Senegal convicted former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré of crimes against humanity committed during his rule from 1982 to 1990 and sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday. He was found guilty of sex slavery, rape and the ordered killings of an estimated 40,000 people. Human Rights Watch lawyer Reed Brody, who initiated the [...]

The US District Court for the Southern District of California ordered Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Friday to release internal documents pertaining to Trump University, the terminated education program that is currently the focus of two class action lawsuits. The suits were brought by two San Diego students who accused Trump University of making [...]