JURIST Guest Columnist Shaun Hiller, St. John’s University School of Law Class of 2015, is the author of the seventh article in a twelve-part series from the staffers of the Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development. Hiller discusses the invocation of silence and the role that it could play in criminal proceedings… Since you [...]

A Qatar appeals court on Sunday acquitted a US couple who faced charges of parental neglect after their adopted daughter passed away. Matthew and Grace Huang’s daughter was eight years old and was adopted from an orphanage in Ghana. The daughter’s cause of death reported by Qatar’s Council of Health included complication of cachexia and [...]

Tanzania’s parliament voted on Saturday to dismiss senior officials, including the attorney general and the minister of energy, following a report released earlier this week implicating public officials in a scandal involving fraudulent payments of public funds. Officials have also called for the resignation of Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda . The report, released earlier this [...]

A Cairo court on Saturday confirmed a decision dissolving the Islamist Istiqlal Party. The court also rejected an appeal of the decision. The case was brought before the court after former State Security Court judge Amr Abdel Raziq filed a lawsuit demanding the dissolution of the party, accusing the party of terrorism, inciting violence and [...]

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Thursday announced a nationwide anti-crime campaign following the September 26 disappearance of 43 students who were en route to Iguala to protest lack of funds for their school. The plan will allow Congress to dissolve local governments and give state authorities control over municipal police, relaxing the divisions between [...]

An Egyptian court on Saturday dropped charges against former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak by dismissing the case . Judge Mahmoud Kamel al-Rashidi, who read the verdict for the three-panel court, stated that charges should have never been brought. Critics alleged that the postponed verdict is a political one, but Rashidi denies that the verdict had [...]

The UN Committee Against Torture has urged the US to begin prompt, impartial investigations into all cases of police brutality and excessive use of force by police officers, and to limit the use of electrical discharge weapons. The committee expressed concern over the use of force against people of “certain racial and ethnic groups, immigrants [...]

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in a speech before parliament Friday stated that France would recognize a Palestinian state if international efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict fails. The French Parliament will hold a symbolic vote on December 2nd on whether the government should recognize Palestine as a state. In addition, Fabius acknowledged that the [...]

UK Prime Minister David Cameron in a speech Friday raised the possibility of the UK leaving the EU if other member state leaders block plans to restrict access to welfare payments for migrants. Cameron outlined proposed welfare reform which would block European migrants to the UK from receiving welfare payments or state housing until they [...]

The Texas 13th Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday that Texas’s implied consent law , which allows officers to take blood samples of motorists to determine impairment, is unconstitutional. The court was asked to examine the law after David Villarreal was stopped by police as a DWI suspect in 2012 and refused officers’ requests for [...]