The United Nations Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries released a report on Tuesday claiming that the increase in the use of private military and security companies raises human rights challenges and should be regulated internationally. Citing the recent use of Libyan civilians to repress the peaceful demonstrations of their own population, the group [...]

US prosecutors argued Wednesday that even if suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri is acquitted by a military tribunal, the US government has the authority to detain him in Guantanamo Bay until the end of the hostilities in the US war on terror . Navy Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Reyes, Al-Nashiri’s defense attorney, argued that [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases on Wednesday. In Perry v. New Hampshire , the court considered whether the due process protections against unreliable identification evidence apply to all identifications or only when the suggestive circumstances were orchestrated by the police. The petitioner was convicted based in part on an eyewitness [...]

A federal jury in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday found Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout guilty of four counts of conspiracy connected with the proposed sale of anti-aircraft missiles to drug enforcement informants posing as members of a Colombian terrorist organization known as FARC. The former Soviet [...]

JURIST Senior Editor Sarah Paulsworth, University of Pittsburgh School of Law Class of 2013, is a Boren Fellow and has lived and worked in Azerbaijan. She writes about the impermissible pressure Azerbaijan’s Lawyers’ Collegium exerts on independent lawyers who defend dissidents, human rights activists and journalists… The past several months have seen a drastic increase [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Félix Tréguer, Policy and Legal Analyst at La Quadrature du Net, says that the recent ruling blocking the Copwatch website in France is just another instance of censorship under the Sarkozy government which prevents French citizens from learning of police abuse and engaging in democratic governance…

The Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) on Tuesday urged key national and international players to address residual issues to ensure that the legacy of the Special Court for Sierra Leona (SCSL) will be maintained after its closure in late 2011 with the completion of proceedings against former Liberian president Charles Taylor . The court will [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Mark Kersten, an MPhil/PhD candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science, says that Gaddafi’s death is just one example of worrying trend, in which legal justice is being replaced with targeted killings…

JURIST Guest Columnist Erick Posser, Villanova University School of Law Class of 2013, is a staff writer for the Villanova Sports and Entertainment Law Journal and an Executive Board member of the Villanova Sports and Entertainment Law Society. He writes on the implications of the Eight Circuit’s decision in Brady v. NFL…

The first Croatian Minister of Internal Affairs Josip Boljkovac was arrested Wednesday for war crimes committed from 1945-1946. Boljkovac, 89, was arrested near his home in Karlovac in connection with the deaths of fascist soldiers and sympathizers post World War II. The investigation against Boljkovac involves alleged executions of at least 30,000 Utasha (fascist) troops [...]