A court in Bahrain on Thursday sentenced Zainab Al-Khawaja, the daughter of jailed pro-democracy activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja to one month in prison for trying to organize an anti-government protest, according to Bahraini opposition groups. The court also fined her $530 on Monday on a separate charge of insulting a government employee. Zainab Al-Khawaja refused to [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Wednesday in Blueford v. Arkansas that the double jeopardy clause does not prevent the re-prosecution of a greater offense if a jury deadlocks on a lesser-included offense. In this case, a mistrial was declared after a jury reached a unanimous decision to acquit on capital murder and first-degree murder [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday in Freeman v. Quicken Loans Inc. that to prove a violation of Section 8(b) of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) , a plaintiff must demonstrate that a fee was split between two or more persons, even though there appears to be no ostensible explanation for the [...]

Amnesty International (AI) on Wednesday published its annual report entitled State of the World’s Human Rights , which details the human rights landscape across the world in 2011. Much of the report focuses on the pro-democracy protests and civil unrest that swept the Middle East and Northern Africa in the last year. The report indicates [...]

The Supreme Court of Nepal on Thursday ordered the government to complete the final draft of the nation’s new constitution by Sunday. The current administration had requested a three-month extension of the deadline, but the court denied the plea. The Constituent Assembly of Nepal (CA) , the group tasked with creating the document, was elected [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Daniel Joyner of the University of Alabama School of Law says that the International Atomic Energy Agency and the West are over-estimating the positive results of their sanctions program against Iran and its nuclear program …

Police in Papua New Guinea on Thursday stormed the country’s supreme court and arrested the chief justice on charges of sedition. Chief Justice Salamo Injia was arrested after the court ruled for the second time that former prime minister Michael Somare should be reinstated. There has been a struggle for power since last August when [...]

A Tunisian military prosecutor called Wednesday for the death penalty in the trial of former Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali . Currently exiled to Saudi Arabia, Ben Ali is being tried in absentia in a military court for ordering the shooting deaths of dozens of civilian protesters during last year’s Tunisian revolution. It is [...]

The European General Court , the EU’s second highest court on Thursday rejected a challenge by MasterCard over its cross-border credit card fees. The court upheld a decision by the European Commission that the fees violate EU antitrust rules. The commission welcomed the ruling, but MasterCard expressed disappointment : MasterCard balances the interests of both [...]

Both the Syrian government and anti-government groups are killing opponents, torturing children as young as 10 years old and committing other human rights abuses, a UN-appointed group of human rights experts reported Thursday. The report, issued by the three-member Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, declared that Syrian security forces are predominantly responsible for [...]