A new report by the World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) on Tuesday revealed that most countries still have legal disparities that prevent women from engaging in economic activity. The report determined that in 90 percent of all surveyed 143 economies, there was at least one legal difference adversely affecting women. Among the countries, [...]

Guantanamo detainee Shaker Aamer filed a complaint on Wednesday against UK security forces MI5 and MI6 with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal . The complaint was filed on behalf of Aamer by the British human rights group, Reprieve . The complaint notes that Aamer has been cleared for release by both the US and the UK [...]

A superior court judge in California ruled Tuesday that a class of plaintiffs cannot recover any money against the tobacco company Philip Morris USA . The plaintiffs in the case argued that Philip Morris violated California’s false advertising laws by using the terms “Lights” and “Lower Tar and Nicotine” on cigarette packages. In denying plaintiffs’ [...]

An appellate court in Sweden reduced the prison sentence of Gottfrid Svartholm Warg , the founder of the file-sharing website The Pirate Bay (TPB) , for hacking into a company that manages data for the Swedish government. Warg was originally sentenced to two years in prison in June for hacking and fraud. However, the Svea [...]

The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDP) Chaloka Beyani urged the transitional government of the Central African Republic (CAR) on Tuesday to do “its utmost to ensure the protection of IDPs and to facilitate the humanitarian response.” The current crisis in the CAR has displaced more than 260,000 people, [...]

A French appeals court ruled Tuesday that an investigation may proceed into allegations that former president Nicolas Sarkozy exploited aging L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt into donating election campaign funds. A panel of judges for the Court of Appeals of Bordeaux denied a motion brought by Sarkozy’s lawyers to dismiss key medical testimony that determined Bettencourt [...]

US International Trade Commission (ITC) Judge Thomas Pender on Monday issued a preliminary ruling holding that HTC infringed on two patents for mobile technology held by Nokia . The patents have to do with receiving and sending signals from mobile telephones and tablets. The full ITC is scheduled to make a final decision on the [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Nathaniel Chiaravalloti, St. John’s University School of Law Class of 2014, is the author of the second article in a 10-part series from the staffers of the Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development. Chiaravalloti discusses the negative consequences of the government exercising eminent domain in New York City …

International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on Tuesday offered to assist in prosecuting those behind the Nairobi Westgate shopping mall attack. Somali Islamist group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday, which resulted in at least 62 deaths and 175 injured persons . Bensouda’s official statement declared that: Such attacks by [...]

The Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay said Monday that they would no longer issue daily updates on detainee hunger strikes. This announcement effectively declared the end of the unprecedentedly broad, six-month long, prisoner protest. There are now 164 prisoners in Guantanamo, and as many as 106 were on strike at the peak of the [...]