Fatou Bensouda of the Gambia, Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) was officially chosen Monday to succeed Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo when his nine-year term expires next year. Liechtenstein’s UN Ambassador Christian Wenaweser, outgoing president of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute that set up the ICC, announced last [...]

Corruption is leading to unequal distribution of land and resources, resulting in human rights violations, according to a working paper published Monday by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Transparency International (TI) . According to the report, corruption flourishes where land governance is efficient. “Weak land governance tends to be characterised by low [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Haider Ala Hamoudi of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law says that although there are fears that Iraq may slide into chaos due to the impending withdrawal of troops, it is more likely that the country will continue to make slow advances in solidifying its legal and constitutional structure…

JURIST Guest Columnist Dominic Hoerauf, Columbia Law School Class of 2012, is a Staff Editor on the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. He argues that the Obama administration’s decision to withdraw troops from Iraq by December 31 is misguided as the goals embodied in the authorization for the war have not yet been achieved…

The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Monday struck down a Wisconsin law that prohibited people from donating more than $10,000 a year to political action committees (PACs). The case was brought by Wisconsin Right to Life before the 2010 gubernatorial election on grounds that the law violated the First Amendment. The [...]

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday referred the Republic of Malawi to the UN Security Council and the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute for failing to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir when he visited the country for a trade summit in October. The court had previously asked Malawi for an explanation [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Kevin Govern of Ave Maria School of Law says that the pending withdrawal of US forces from Iraq and the challenges to maintaining security in that country and in the region requires a new strategy in dealing with the region to address security concerns amid likely cuts to the US defense budget…

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Monday briefed the UN Security Council on the situation in Syria, reiterating her call for a referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC) . Pillay reported that more than 5,000 civilians have been killed in the ongoing conflict, including more than 300 children. She also said [...]

The Philippine Congress voted Monday to impeach Chief Justice Renato Corona for violating the constitution and the public trust in connection with the trial of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo , who originally appointed Corona to the Supreme Court. The impeachment proceedings required at least 95 signatures to move forward and, in the end, 188 [...]

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered an investigation into allegations of fraud in the recent parliamentary elections. Medvedev posted a message to his Facebook page Sunday following massive protests across Russia on Saturday. Medvedev said: Under the Constitution, Russian citizens enjoy freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. People have a right to express their [...]