JURIST Guest Columnist Hua Wang, Northwestern University School of Law Class of 2012, writes on the need for policies that combine market incentives with outright prohibitions to achieve enforcement and compliance with international environmental regimes… Climate change threatens catastrophic harm of a global nature, and thus, regional responses are inadequate and only global action can [...]

A Bahrain court on Thursday overturned or reduced the sentences for most of the 20 medical professionals convicted in September of participating in the country’s pro-democracy protests against the ruling regime. The 13 doctors, one dentist, nurses and paramedics who were jailed for providing treatment to injured protesters all worked at the Salmaniya Medical Complex [...]

Israel’s Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss released a report on Wednesday that criticized the way Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handled the May 2010 flotilla incident . In the 153-page report, Lindenstrauss stressed that there were “significant shortcomings” in the decision making process. Despite warnings about the potential of possible violence through Israel’s attempt to enforce the Gaza [...]

US Attorney General Eric Holder swore under oath Tuesday that the Obama administration will not transfer Guantanamo Bay prisoners to the Thomson prison in Illinois, despite earlier plans . At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Holder discussed plans of acquiring the Thomson facility , which would ease overcrowding and be advantageous to the local Illinois [...]

A Tunisian military court on Wednesday sentenced former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in absentia to life in prison in connection with his part in the killing of 22 protesters last year. Earlier on Wednesday Ben Ali was sentenced to 20 years on charges of inciting violence and murder in connection with the death [...]

Ontario lawmakers on Wednesday unanimously approved an amendment to the province’s Human Rights Code that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression. All three parties of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario approved Toby’s Act , making Ontario the first province to acknowledge the rights of transgender people. The passing of the amendment was [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled on Tuesday that Apple must defend against lawsuits filed by the company’s customers under two California consumer protection laws. Judge Lucy Koh dismissed the other defendants in the lawsuit including Google, AdMarvel, Admob, Flurry and Medialets . She also dismissed claims [...]

Ten US senators on Monday filed an amicus brief urging the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to uphold section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) , which denies federal recognition of state-sanctioned same-sex marriages. The brief argues that the federal government had a legitimate interest in creating a uniform federal [...]

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs on Wednesday said that Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip must be lifted to prevent further human rights violations. Israel maintains a fence along its border with the Gaza Strip, restricting the flow of goods and people through heavily-guarded border-crossings. Valerie Amos said that Israel’s strict regulation of the [...]

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) on Wednesday held the first hearing on its jurisdiction and the legality of its creation. The defense lawyer for Mustafa Badreddine , one of the four men wanted by the court for the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri , argued that the UN Security Council unlawfully [...]