JURIST Guest Columnist John McAvoy, Widener University School of Law Class of 2013, explains how public policy affected the outcome of Lebron v. Wilkins… The Power of Public Policy The notion of drug testing welfare recipients has recently become a highly publicized and debated issue. Newspapers and blogs across the country have helped fuel this [...]

Amnesty International (AI) criticized the government of Kuwait on Monday for executing three men convicted of murder. The three men, a Saudi national, a Pakistani national and a stateless Bidun man, were convicted on separate murder charges before being hanged outside the Central Prison on Monday. This marks the first execution in Kuwait since 2007 [...]

The Myanmar government must investigate and hold accountable those involved in the deadly violence in the Mandalay Region in March, in which an estimated 40 people were killed and 61 more were wounded, Human Rights Watch said Monday. The attacks were the result of ongoing clashes between Muslims and majority Buddhists in Meiktila. HRW analyzed [...]

The Supreme Court of India on Monday rejected efforts by drug maker Novartis AG to patent an updated version of the company’s leukemia-treating drug Glivec. The court reasoned that subject product “beta crystalline form of Imatinib Mesylate (the ingredient in Glivec), fails in both the tests of invention and patentability” and thus, appellant’s appeal would [...]

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir said Monday that he will release all political detainees and renew a commitment to maintain an open dialogue. The president made these statements after implementing a peace agreement with South Sudan. The rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) had been demanding a prisoner release after nearly two years of fighting government [...]

Lawmakers said Sunday that a bipartisan commission of US senators for immigration reform has reached an agreement after labor and business resolved disagreements over the immigration overhaul. Lawmakers are expected to announce the new immigration reforms when Congress reconvenes next week. There is no final legislative agreement, but lawmakers expect to draft language to include [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Susan H. Bitensky of the Michigan State University College of Law says that the International Labor Organization’s recent report addressing gaps in the current legal regime erected against forced labor is commendable but unsatisfying, arguing that it only superficially touches upon forced labor’s root causes: poverty and profit…

Approximately 250 Yemeni demonstrators gathered Monday in front of the US Embassy in Sanna to demand the release of Yemeni detainees held at Guantanamo Bay . According to media sources, 90 out the 166 remaining Guantanamo detainees are Yemeni , and several have been detained for more than a decade. Protesters reportedly decried conditions at [...]

Kenya’s Supreme Court ruled on Saturday that the results of the country’s presidential election earlier this month are valid, confirming that Uhuru Kenyatta , the son of Kenya’s first president Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, will be the next president. The unanimous verdict by the court stated that the election was “conducted in compliance with the constitution [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit challenging the display of a cross at the World Trade Center (WTC) memorial. The lawsuit , brought by American Atheists (AA) alleged two intersecting beams found in the WTC wreckage should not be displayed at the [...]