The Parliament of Uganda on Tuesday reintroduced legislation that would criminalize certain homosexual activities. Amnesty International (AI) has criticized the bill as “a grave assault on human rights.” The proposed legislation is a new version of another bill first introduced in October 2009. The original bill contained provisions requiring the death penalty for “repeat offenders.” [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Eric Leonard, the Henkel Family Chair in International Affairs at Shenandoah University, says the ICC should constantly adhere to a policy of prudent advocacy, since interfering in “low-level” situations would cause a multitude of legal, political and financial problems… Recently a group of Maldives lawyers submitted a case to the International Criminal [...]

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday appealed a summons issued by the Supreme Court of Pakistan demanding he appear in a hearing against him for contempt. The contempt charge stems from Gilani’s refusal to purse corruption charges against Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari . Gilani has maintained that he would not pursue charges [...]

The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples James Anaya urged the Panamanian government on Tuesday to open a dialogue with the country’s indigenous peoples in an effort to alleviate tension and reduce violence. The request comes after one indigenous group occupied portions of the Pan-American Highway in protest of mining and drilling [...]

The Vatican sex crimes prosecutor warned bishops on Wednesday that they must follow rules in place for protecting victims of sexual abuse in the church or they risk being sanctioned. Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the church appointed prosecutor in the ongoing clergy sex abuse scandals, issued his warning at a symposium of bishops, the purpose of [...]

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson filed suit Tuesday against the US Department of Justice (DOJ) over its ruling that barred South Carolina from enforcing its voter identification law . The DOJ rejected the law in December on the grounds that it was discriminatory. It has authority to do so under the Voting Rights Act [...]

A judge in Milan ruled Tuesday that former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi will stand trial for publicly releasing a secret wiretap in 2005. The prosecution alleges that Berlusconi published the transcript of a tapped phone conversation in Il Giornale , a national newspaper owned by his brother. The conversation in question took place between [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Chibli Mallat of the University of Utah SJ Quinney College of Law says that countries seeking to promote peace and democracy can invoke Article 9 of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations by declaring Syrian consular staff personae non gratae…

JURIST Guest Columnist Corrie Thearle, University of Pittsburgh School of Law Class of 2012, is a Senior Editor for the Pittsburgh Journal of Environmental and Public Health Law. She discusses the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Jones and its implications for Fourth Amendment search jurisprudence…

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued two rulings on Tuesday upholding the right of the media to report on celebrities and limiting celebrities’ right to privacy. In Axel Springer AG v. Germany , the court examined whether a German actor’s right to privacy was violated when a paper published a newspaper article and [...]