The Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice on Monday rejected a challenge by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that the UK’s interrogation guidelines are unlawful. The guidelines provide steps that must be taken by intelligence officers before they interview, interrogate or solicit the detention of terror suspects held by foreign [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Dan Burk of the University of California, Irvine School of Law says the America Invents Act unnecessarily disrupts long settled patent law, creates new opportunities for gamesmanship, foments new litigation and introduces new uncertainty for businesses… After seven years of controversy and debate, on September 16, 2011, President Barack Obama signed the [...]

The International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh (ICTB) has charged Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, leader of Jamaat e Islami (JI) , with war crimes allegedly stemming from the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War against Pakistan. Bangladesh established the tribunal in March 2010 to address charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The tribunal accepted 20 of 31 [...]

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on Friday filed a petition for certiorari asking the US Supreme Court to review the recent Fourth Circuit ruling dismissing Virginia’s challenge of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) . Virginia, among the first to file a challenge to PPACA, challenges the Foruth Circuit’s dismissal for lack of [...]

The US Supreme Court opened its 2011 term Monday with oral arguments in two cases. In Reynolds v. United States , the court heard arguments on the retroactive application of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) , which requires convicted sex offenders to register. The attorney general determined in 2007 that all states [...]

A Bahrain civilian-military court on Monday sentenced numerous protesters to lengthy prison terms, including 14 people who were sentenced to life (or 25 years) in prison for their involvement in the death of a Pakistani man that was “committed with a terrorist aim.” The National Safety Court of Appeal, a court composed of military prosecutors [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday demanded the resignation of the two judges responsible for indictments at the Cambodian tribunal on Khmer Rouge war crimes. HRW alleges that the two investigating judges for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) have “egregiously violated their legal and judicial duties … to conduct proper and [...]

California Governor Jerry Brown on Sunday announced that he has signed into law a bill that will prevent local governments from banning male circumcision. The legislation, AB 768 , “preclude a city, county, or city and county ordinance, regulation, or administrative action from prohibiting or restricting the practice of male circumcision, or the exercise of [...]

The International Criminal Court on Monday granted the request of Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to open an investigation into war crimes committed on the Ivory Coast during post-election violence since last November. The ICC announced , “fter a preliminary examination, the ICC Prosecutor concluded that there is a reasonable basis to believe that crimes within [...]

Andrew Cali-Vasquez, St. John’s University School of Law Class of 2012, is the author of the sixth article in a ten part series from the staffers of the Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development under the direction of Professor Leonard Baynes. Andrew writes on credit default swap position limits under the recent financial reform [...]