The Congress of the Philippines on Thursday approved a bill on its second reading allocating 10 billion pesos (USD $246 million) for the victims of human rights abuses committed by the regime of former president Ferdinand Marcos . Approximately 10,000 people can claim compensation based on abuses that took place between when Marcos instated martial [...]

The Moroccan government plans to change Article 475 of the Moroccan Penal Code , which allows rapists to avoid charges if they marry their victims, Justice Minister Mustapha Ramid announced Tuesday. This practice is encouraged in countries such as Morocco and India, where the loss of a woman’s virginity out of wedlock brings shame upon [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday lifted an order that previously required the New York Police Department (NYPD) to stop using a “stop-and-frisk” practice outside of apartment buildings in the Bronx. Though she previously ruled the practice unconstitutional, Judge Shira Scheindlin ultimately agreed with city [...]

The Honduras National Congress on Tuesday approved constitutional reforms to set up an impeachment process . The amendments follow a 2009 coup that removed former president Manuel Zelaya from office. There would be two steps in the new impeachment process. First, the House Special Committee would submit a report and then congress would debate and [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Tuesday reversed a $2.5 million judgment against Newegg in what could be a significant software patent ruling. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas had ruled that Newegg violated patent numbers 5,715,314, 5,909,492 and 7,272,639 owned by Soverain Software . All three [...]

UK Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday announced his plan for a nationwide referendum on whether the UK should remain part of the European Union (EU) following the country’s next election in 2015. Though Cameron stressed reluctance to leave the EU altogether, he explained that the institution has become too involved in bureaucratic processes rather [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Wednesday struck down an Indiana law that prohibits sex offenders from joining social networking websites, such as Facebook and other websites children are able to join. The law makes it a crime for a registered sex offender to be a member of a “social networking” [...]

The US Supreme Court received briefs in two separate cases on Tuesday defending the constitutionality of laws that define marriage as strictly between one man and one woman. The first case, Hollingsworth v. Perry , examines the validity of Proposition 8 , a California referendum that revoked same-sex marriage rights. In their brief in support [...]

An Indian government commission published its report Wednesday recommending numerous reforms in the way the nation’s legal institutions handle rape cases. The report was created by a panel led by Justice Jagdish Sharan Verma which was established to respond to mass protests in India following the December gang rape and subsequent death of a 23-year-old [...]

A Thai court sentenced magazine editor and political activist Somyot Pruksakasemsuk under Thailand’s lese majeste law to a total of 11 years in prison. Section 112 of the Thai Penal Code is the lese majeste law, which reads: “Whoever, defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent, shall be punished [...]