The US House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the Belarus Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2011 , imposing new sanctions on Belarus in reaction to what the bill’s author calls “the worst political crackdown in Europe in well over a decade.” If signed, the law would label President Alexander Lukashenko a dictator and state [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday urged the Libyan government to find a way, amid security concerns, to grant access to a lawyer to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of deceased former dictator Muammar Gaddafi . Fred Abrahams, a special adviser at HRW, visited with Saif al-Islam in Zintan, Libya, where he is currently being [...]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Wednesday that an asylum seeker may not be transferred to a member state if there is a risk he will be subjected to inhumane treatment. In so ruling, the ECJ rebutted the presumption that member states observe the fundamental rights of asylum seekers. The ruling was the result [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Scott Gaylord of Elon University School of Law says a district court applied an outdated government speech test when it issued an injunction preventing North Carolina from allowing drivers to select “Choose Life” license plates, the proper test should ask if government controls the speech, not if a third party can tell [...]

The Russia Presidential Council on Civil Society and Human Rights under President Dmitry Medvedev called for the prosecutor general to petition to annul the conviction of ex-oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky in a report released Wednesday. The council found fundamental violations in the investigation leading to Khodorkovsky’s second trial on embezzlement charges. In addition, the council [...]

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Wednesday sentenced former Rwandan political party leaders, Matthieu Ngirumpatse and Edouard Karemera, to life in prison for their role in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide . The court was unanimous in condemning Ngirumpatse , who was the chairman of Rwanda’s then-ruling National Revolutionary Movement for Development (NRMD) party. [...]

Lawyers for former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich filed notice Tuesday that they will appeal his conviction and 14-year sentence on corruption charges. Judge James Zagel of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois handed down the sentence earlier this month after Blagojevich made a public apology in court. Blagojevich was scheduled to [...]

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 [...]