JURIST Contributing Editor David Crane of Syracuse University College of Law says that the conviction and sentencing of former Liberian president Charles Taylor by the Special Court for Sierra Leone should not keep justice from being sought against him for crimes committed against his own people…

The UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) released a report on Friday finding that Canada was complicit in rights violations against three Canadians who were held prisoner in Syria, and against Omar Khadr, who is currently detained at Guantanamo Bay . All four of the detainees are Arab-Canadians who were detained post-9/11. The committee condemned Canada [...]

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announced on Sunday that his government had nothing to do with last week’s Houla massacre and that “not even monsters” would carry out the attacks. Al-Assad made his remarks, his first since the massacre that killed more than 100 civilian men, women and children occurred last week, during a televised speech [...]

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan on Friday filed notice with the Cook County Circuit Court stating that her office will present arguments in support of two lawsuits filed in opposition of the state’s same-sex marriage ban. Last week 25 gay and lesbian couples filed two lawsuits against Illinois Governor Pat Quinn challenging the constitutionality of [...]

Amnesty International (AI) on Sunday demanded that China immediately release protesters who have been imprisoned since the self-immolation of two Tibetan men in Lhasa late last month. According to Tibetan activists, China has arrested and detained as many as 600 Tibetan residents and held them at numerous detention centers outside of Lhasa. While AI “cannot [...]

JURIST Columnist Volha Samasiuk is an LL.M. Candidate from the University of Arkansas School of Law, and she was formerly a legal consultant for the Belarus Food Safety Improvement Project. She discusses professional stratification in the Belarus legal system and the difficulties created by the division between advocates and commercial lawyers…

The New York Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled that a custodial parent can be convicted of kidnapping where the parent’s actions are “so obviously and unjustifiably dangerous or harmful to the child as to be inconsistent with the idea of lawful custody.” The court made this ruling to affirm the conviction of a father [...]

The New Mexico Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the same-sex partner of a parent who has adopted a child has a right to seek custody of that child after the partnership has dissolved. The court granted standing to a woman seeking partial custody of a child she had supported for years while in a [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday sent a letter to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner , demanding that the state stop purging its voting rolls, a process that is not approved under the Voting Rights Act (VRA) or the National Voter Registration Act . Under the National Voter Registration Act, Florida’s voter [...]

An Egyptian court on Saturday found former Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak , guilty of complicity to kill protesters during the Arab Spring protests and sentenced him to life in prison. The court also found former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli guilty of the same charge and sentenced him to a term of life imprisonment. Mubarak’s sons, [...]