The US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach that a houseboat permanently docked to land is not a vessel for purposes of 1 USC § 3 and thus is not under federal maritime jurisdiction . The majority opinion was delivered by Justice Stephen Breyer. Echoing the oral arguments before the [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases on Tuesday. The first, Levin v. United States concerned whether the Gonzales Act properly immunizes government medical personnel against battery suits. The Gonzales Act allows that certain medical malpractice suits may only be brought against the US under the Federal Torts Claims Act (FTCA) , [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Jordan Paust of the University of Houston Law Center says that, if Iran proceeds with building nuclear arms, Israel may be legally justified in launching a military attack as a means of self-defense…

A Saudi Arabian court on Tuesday convicted prominent Egyptian human rights lawyer Ahmed el-Gezawi of smuggling drugs. Despite requests from Saudi prosecutors for the death penalty, el-Gezawi was given a sentence of five years imprisonment and 300 lashes. El-Gezawi’s arrest in April 2012 sparked protests outside the Saudi Embassy in Cairo by those who believe [...]

Investing in Eritrea’s mines without assurance of fair labor practices could lead to allegations of complicity in human rights violations, Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned Tuesday. The 29-page report, titled “Hear No Evil: Forced Labor and Corporate Responsibility in Eritrea’s Mining Sector,” documents the failure of Vancouver-based company Nevsun Resources to prevent forced labor practices [...]

The Bucharest Appeals Court on Tuesday ruled that a former Romanian defense ministry official can be extradited to the US on charges of trying to illegally export military equipment to Iran. Intelligence officials from Romania and the US coordinated their investigations in the case. According to Iran Watch , a nuclear weapon watchdog group, Aurel [...]

More than 50 countries asked the UN Security Council on Monday to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) . In this joint letter, Switzerland, along with 56 other states from all continents, noted the Syrian authorities’ failure to investigate and prosecute war crimes allegedly committed since March 2011 as the [...]

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and 15 others over allegations of accepting bribes and approving power generation projects during his tenure as Minister for Water and Power. The court order states that Ashraf and the others should be arrested and produced before the court [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Tuesday in four landmark cases concerning the balance between religious freedom and equity laws protecting individuals from discrimination. In one case, the ECHR ruled in favor of a British Airways employee who had been instructed not to wear a crucifix at work. However, in two other cases [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in two cases . In Alleyne v. United States , the court heard arguments on whether to overturn Harris v. United States . Harris was a 5-4 splintered opinion that allowed a judge to be the fact-finder when increasing mandatory minimum sentences, as opposed to requiring the [...]