A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on Tuesday refused to dismiss a lawsuit against a former Somali military colonel. The defendant, Abdi Aden Magan, who now lives in Ohio, is charged with torture in connection with actions that allegedly occurred during the military dictatorship of Mohammad Siad Barre. [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday in Greene v. Fisher that, for purposes of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), “clearly established federal law” is limited to Supreme Court decisions “as of the time of the relevant state-court adjudication on the merits.” Petitioner Eric Greene was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment [...]

The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) announced Tuesday that more than 5,000 Haitian cholera victims are seeking damages from the UN and the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) for its role in the introduction of the cholera virus into the country. Since the virus was introduced into Haiti in October 2010, [...]

The US Department of Defense on Monday released a guidebook detailing the procedures to be followed in military commissions . Changes to procedures introduced by the regulations include a provision that allows the judge in a military trial to approve the costs of a “learned counsel” in cases involving the possibility of capital punishment. Non-party [...]

The Australian Senate voted 36-32 Tuesday to approve legislation that will impose a price on carbon emissions in an effort to improve the environment and the country’s economy. The new law will put a fixed rate of A$23 per ton on carbon units with limits on how many can be auctioned and given out. The [...]

A senior judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida on Monday gave final approval to a $410 million settlement in the class action suit against Bank of America (BOA) for overdraft fees that affected more than 13 million people. Judge James Lawrence King found this agreement to be fair and [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Monday decided to revisit a case to determine whether a California law declaring Armenian genocide in Turkey conflicts with US foreign policy. At issue is California Civil Procedure Code § 354.4 , which recognizes the World War I-era killings of more than one million Armenians [...]

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday stayed the execution of convicted murderer Henry “Hank” Skinner in order to review changes to a state law that may permit DNA testing in relation to his case. Skinner, who was convicted in 1995 of killing his girlfriend, Twila Jean Busby, and her two adult sons, was [...]

A Georgia law intended to combat assisted suicide actually infringes on First Amendment rights, defense lawyers argued to the Supreme Court of Georgia on Monday. The law makes it a felony for someone who “publicly advertises, offers or holds himself or herself out as offering that he or she will intentionally and actively assist another [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Jonathan Will of Mississippi College School of Law says establishing pre-embryonic personhood may still fail to outlaw abortion and may lead to the imposition of restrictions on other reproductive choices such as certain forms of birth control… On November 8, 2011, citizens of Mississippi will pass judgment on an amendment to the [...]