The European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Wednesday upheld an EU law forcing foreign airlines using EU airports to pay fees for greenhouse gas emissions . The finding that the carbon emission fees do not violate international law, as several US and Canadian airlines had argued, was expected after ECJ Advocate General Juliane Kokott issued [...]

The US International Trade Commission (USITC) ruled on Monday for Apple on a patent complaint against HTC for infringing its “data tapping” patents. The USITC found that HTC had violated section 337 of the Tarriff Act of 1930 by infringing on some of the claims of patent nos. 5,946,647, 6,343,263, 5,481,721 and 6,275,983 , all [...]

Hungary’s Constitutional Court on Monday struck down certain provisions of the country’s recently passed media law as an unconstitutional restraint on press freedom. Rights groups had urged Hungary to amend the media law. The media law created the National Media and Communications Authority (NMHH) , which controls private television and radio broadcasters, newspapers and online [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Monday condemned the brutal crackdown on protesters by military and security forces in Cairo. Since Friday the brutal suppression of demonstrations has led to 11 deaths and more than 500 injuries. This is the second time since November that Pillay has condemned the use of excessive [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Victor Williams of The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law says that President Obama should ignore pro forma sessions of Congress and exercise his constitutional authority to make recess appointments in order to overcome the obstructionism that has left countless federal positions open…

China’s government Friday announced that prominent civil rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng would be sent to prison for three years for violating his probation. Gao’s sentence is the first sign that he is still alive since having disappeared 20 months ago, presumably at the hands of the authorities. The announcement was made in a brief report [...]

Two international human rights organizations on Monday accused European countries of suppressing evidence of their roles in the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) rendition program of forced transfer and secret detention. Legal action charity Reprieve, in cooperation with the human rights organization Access Info Europe , released their interim findings in a report documenting right [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist Curtis Doebbler of Webster University and the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations, both in Geneva, Switzerland, says the US and other aggressors in the Iraq War have not had to face legal recourse for their numerous violations of international law in the invasion and occupation of Iraq… To initiate [...]

The FBI announced Monday that violent crime in the US has dropped , continuing a trend lasting for the past four-and-a-half years. The 2011 figures for January through June were compiled by the Bureau’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) in a preliminary semiannual report . Violent crimes, which include murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated [...]

Amnesty International (AI) responded Monday to the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il by urging his son and likely successor Kim Jong-un to improve the nation’s human rights record. AI warned that reports indicate the exchange in power could forecast new repressions to “crush any possibility of dissent.” Indeed, there are allegations that the [...]