A judge for the US District Court for the District of Alaska refused Monday to order Exxon Mobil to pay an additional $92 million in damages from the Exxon Valdez oil spill . Under a 1991 settlement agreement, Exxon paid $900 million in civil damages. The US and Alaskan government sought in 2006 to reopen [...]
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The European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued a non-binding advisory opinion Tuesday that the planned European and Community Patent Court (ECPC) is incompatible with EU law. The ruling is a significant setback for EU governments that have been negotiating for a unified EU patent system for over 30 years. The drive to unify the patent [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay pressed Tunisia and Egypt on Tuesday to ensure that women’s rights receive constitutional protection and to include women in the dialogue to shape the future of their countries. Pillay’s statement came in conjunction with International Women’s Day. The High Commissioner expressed concern that constitutional reforms in Egypt [...]
Professor Ilan Pappe : “The Middle East is producing good and hopeful news for the first time in many years. For quite a while, the only potential progress in the region has been a series of attempts to resolve the long-standing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians; but these junctures have failed to produce anything [...]
US President Barack Obama on Monday issued an executive order allowing military commissions for Guantanamo Bay detainees to resume. New charges in the military commission system have been suspended since shortly after Obama took office in 2009. Monday’s order also establishes a procedure for establishing a review process for detainees who have not been charged, [...]
The Supreme Court of India on Monday rejected a petition for mercy killing, but ruled that passive euthanasia was permissible under certain circumstances. The case centered around Aruna Shanbaug, a former nurse who was raped and strangled at work 37 years ago and has been in Mumbai’s King Edward Memorial Hospital in a blind and [...]
A Zimbabwe magistrate court on Monday ordered six of the 45 activists arrested in Harare last month detained on charges of treason, releasing the remaining 39. The six activists not released today will remain detained and face trial on the treason charges against them. If found guilty, they could be executed, pursuant to Zimbabwean law. [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled unanimously in Wall v. Kholi that a defendant’s plea for leniency tolls the statute of limitations for filing a federal petition for habeas corpus under the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) . The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit had reversed the district court’s [...]
The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday upheld a state law that requires voters to present one of six government-issued photo identifications in order to vote. The Democratic Party of Georgia brought the suit against Governor Sonny Perdue, Secretary of State Karen Handel and the State Election board seeking permanent injunctive relief against enforcement of the [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled 8-1 in Milner v. Department of the Navy that the government may not withhold certain information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) . The issue was whether 5 USC § 552(b)(2) (Exemption 2), which allows a government agency to keep secret only documents related solely to the [...]
