JURIST Columnist Paul Johnson, Anniversary Reader at the University of York, in the first of two pieces on laws pertaining to homosexual acts in Dependencies of the UK, argues that male, homosexual-specific criminal offenses in Guernsey should be modernized to parallel the laws of the UK…

The Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Thursday acquitted former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commanders Ramush Haradinaj , Idriz Balaj, and Laji Brahimaj of all charges. Haradinaj was a commander of the KLA in the Dukagjin area of Western Kosovo; Balaj, a commander of a special operations unit [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Wednesday stayed a lower court ruling that would have forced Argentina to pay $1.3 billion to one of its creditors, the investment fund NML Capital Ltd. . The Second Circuit blocked a decision by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [...]

An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced in absentia seven Coptic Christians and an American preacher to death on charges stemming from an anti-Muslim film, Innocence of Muslims , which sparked violent protests in the Middle East earlier this year. The death sentences are primarily symbolic, as all of the defendants live outside of Egypt and [...]

The Third Committee of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday adopted a resolution expressing concern for continuing human rights violations in Iran. The committee specifically mentioned that Iran is using torture, inhumane treatment of prisoners, public executions, executions of minors, hanging as an execution method, targeting of human rights defenders, and discrimination and violence against [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in Henderson v. United States on appellate review for plain error. The question before the court was whether, under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 52(b) , an appellate court reviewing a trial court decision for “plain error,” when a matter of law was unsettled at the time [...]

Two privacy advocacy groups wrote a letter on Monday to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, urging him to withdraw recently announced proposed changes to the site’s governance documents. The letter, signed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) , noted that some of the changes directly affected the company’s [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday ordered cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris, Inc. to issue public corrective statements after decades of concealing the health risks and addictive qualities of cigarette smoking. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit against the company in 1999 alleging violations of the [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Tuesday held that New York can continue to require residents who seek to carry a concealed weapon to obtain a special license. The plaintiffs sought injunctive relief from a New York handgun law requiring licensing officials to have applicants prove “proper cause” to obtain licenses [...]

Nokia announced Wednesday that it filed litigation against Research In Motion (RIM) , the Canadian parent company of BlackBerry, in courts in the US, UK and Canada to block sales of BlackBerry smartphones. The move came after a Swedish arbitrator’s decision that ruled in favor of the Finnish company in a breach of contract case. [...]