Turkey’s Parliament on Wednesday lifted a ban on female lawmakers wearing trousers in the assembly. Republican People’s Party Deputy Safak Pavey brought up the issue last month during a parliamentary debate on women wearing traditional Islamic headscarves in public institutions. Pavey has a prosthethic leg and had been prohibited from wearing trousers based on regulations [...]

Hawaiian Governor Neil Abercrombie on Wednesday signed into law a bill legalizing same-sex marriage . The new law will take effect December 2 and will make Hawaii the fifteenth US state to legalize same-sex marriage. The Hawaii Marriage Equality Act of 2013 seeks to ensure that “same-sex couples are able to take full advantage of [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases Wednesday. In Unite Here Local 355 v. Martin Mulhall the court addressed the issue of whether an employer and union can violate Section 302 of Labor Management Relations Act by entering into a neutrality agreement. An employee had filed the case against the union, and [...]

A French appeals court in Paris approved the extradition of Claude Muhayimana and Innocent Musabyimana on Wednesday, two suspects wanted in connection with the 1994 Rwandan genocide . Muhayimana, a French citizen since 2010, is accused of participating in the massacre of ethnic Tutsis in the town of Kibuye, while Musabyimana’s alleged crimes took place [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published a study on Wednesday finding that 3,278 Americans are currently serving life sentences without parole for nonviolent offenses. The study, entitled “A Living Death: Life without Parole for Nonviolent Offenses,” explains the racial and gender makeup of the inmates, as well as the state of the law that [...]

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday emphasized Egypt’s need to maintain and respect the right to freedom of assembly and peaceful protest as the country’s state of emergency, put in place three months ago, is set to expire. In an official statement released Tuesday evening, the secretary-general stressed that international human rights standards should serve [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday encouraged action on behalf of UN members at the upcoming 2013 Convention for Conventional Weapons (CCW) on November 14-15, chaired by Ambassador Jean-Hughes Simon-Michel of France. The advocacy group supports France’s initiative to add fully autonomous weapons to the CCW’s work program for 2014. A UN-wide decision to adopt [...]

JURIST Guest Columnists Miano Maina, an International Tax Attorney with Deloitte & Touche and Maurice Oduor, Head of the Department of Legal Aid Clinics & Externships at the Moi University School of Law in Kenya argue that law schools in Kenya should leverage on technology to improve the quality of legal education …

Egypt’s deposed president Mohamed Morsi will file a complaint against current authorities alleging that the coup ousting him from his office was a crime. His lawyers told reporters on Wednesday that the former president is planning to file the complaint with the administrative court. Morsi is current awaiting his trial for inciting the murder of [...]

A Spanish court on Wednesday acquitted three individuals charged with sinking the Bahamas-flagged oil tanker Prestige 11 years ago, finding no criminal liability. The three-judge court determined that the ship sank due to poor maintenance and repair rather than the action of the individuals. The named defendants were Captain Apostolos Mangouras, Chief Engineer Nikolaos Argyropoulos [...]