JURIST Guest Columnist Elena Butti, University of Utrecht Class of 2014, considers whether the European Court of Human Rights made a strategic use of the margin of appreciation doctrine to solve the contradiction between the decisions in the cases Aktas v. France and Lautsi v. Italy… The increasing tendency of people to cross national borders [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist David Moore of the Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law School says that although the Supremacy Clause binds states to follow international law that qualifies as preemptive federal law, not all treaties or principles of customary international law qualify as such…

The UN-backed Action Group on Syria generated an agreement on Saturday designed to aid Syria in ending the violence that has occurred in the country over the last 16 months. The plan outlines six steps the international community must take as well as steps Syria must take for a successful transition, including ending violence, providing [...]

Amnesty International (AI) issued a statement today advocating for governments to more fully support the International Criminal Court (ICC) . The statement, which marked the tenth anniversary of the ICC coming into effect, called on nations to demonstrate their support for the court by “publicly committing to backing up the court politically and financially.” According [...]

The UN Working Group on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises expressed its concern on Friday that Rio+20 , the recent UN Conference on Sustainable Development, failed to expressly state that businesses must respect human rights. The Rio+20 conference, which took place June 20-22, concluded with an outcome document entitled “The Future [...]

Leaders of the US House of Representatives on Friday petitioned the Supreme Court to uphold the constitutionality of Section 3 of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act , which limits the federal benefits of marriage to unions between a man and a woman. It states that for the purposes of any federal laws, “the word [...]

President-elect of Egypt Mohamed Morsi was sworn in Saturday at the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) before the General Assembly of the court. In his speech, Morsi vowed that Egypt would continue on the right path toward democracy: “Today, Egypt has become a modern, constitutional and civilian State.” He also said he would work to ensure [...]

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Saturday announced that it will not prosecute Attorney General Eric Holder after the House of Representatives voted to hold him in contempt of Congress . The House of Representatives found Holder in contempt for failing to fully comply with subpoenas related to “Operation Fast and Furious” where tracked guns [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Saturday demanded that authorities in Kazakhstan publicly disclose their reasons for bringing new criminal charges against a group of labor activists and an oil worker who participated in an extended labor strike in 2011. The National Security Committee of Kazakhstan charged the group with “calling for the forcible overthrow of [...]

A minister for France’s new Socialist government announced on Friday that France will legalize same-sex marriage by the end of next year. Dominique Bertinotti , the junior minister for families, proclaimed that within a year, same-sex couples in France will be granted all the same legal rights as heterosexual couples , including the right to [...]