The Obama administration urged the US Supreme Court on Monday to uphold a policy at the University of Texas (UT) that considers applicants’ race in its admissions criteria. The case involves a white applicant to UT who argues that she was denied admission to the school because of her race, in violation of the Equal [...]

A Ukrainian Court on Tuesday postponed the tax evasion trial of former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko after she declined to participate in the trial via a video link. A lawyer for Tymoshenko said that the court had again requested the video link option despite the fact that she had previously rejected the proposal five [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exceeded its legal authority under the Clean Air Act (CAA) when it disapproved a Texas plan to issue permits under the Act. Texas implemented an environmental plan known as a Flexible Permit Program that sets a total emissions [...]

Seven Guatemalans who alleged that they had been the subject of non-consensual human medical experimentation by the US Public Health Service (PHS) in the 1940s appealed the dismissal of their lawsuit to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Monday. The Guatemalans’ suit was dismissed in June because the court [...]

England and Wales have decided to abolish the centuries-old contempt of court law , which historically has protected judges from slander and libel. David Omerod , a commissioner for the Law Commission which reviews laws in England and Wales, stated that the contempt of court law was obsolete and unnecessary to deal with instances in [...]

California officials have expressed doubt about the state’s ability to comply with a court order to reduce its prison populations by 2013. California prison officials had asked the court to allow them to retain 6,000 more inmates than the original court order had determined, saying the state would comply with the “spirit of the order” [...]

The UN envoy for Somalia on Monday urged the east African nation to end a “culture of impunity” that threatens press freedom in the wake of the killings of two journalists. Augustine Mahiga , the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia, declared that freedom of the press is crucial for Somalia as it struggles [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Robert C. Blitt of the the University of Tennessee College of Law argues that legislation recently introduced in Tunisia proposing to criminalize blasphemy underscores a pattern in predominantly Muslim countries that the US and other countries should contest in an effort to protect international human rights norms…   The US Department of State [...]

Head of the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) on Monday expressed concern about the growing number of civilian casualties in violent clashes between government forces and armed opposition groups. UN Military Adviser, Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye, told reporters he was disappointed with conduct on both sides of the conflict, criticizing the government for using [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a case dealing with a parent’s ability to sue for custody in the US when a court has determined that the child’s normal residence is in another country, and the child has already left the US. In Chafin v. Chafin , US Army sergeant Jeffrey Lee [...]