A French court began proceedings in absentia Wednesday against 14 former Chilean officials over the disappearance of four French citizens during the regime of Augusto Pinochet . The defendants are primarily high-ranking military officers, including former defense minister Herman Brady-Roche and Juan Manuel Contreras Sepulveda, Pinochet’s chief of secret police. The men are subject to [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting on whether an Arizona statute imposing sanctions on employers that hire illegal immigrants is preempted by federal law. According to 8 USC § 1324(a)(h)(2) , federal law preempts any “tate or local law imposing civil or criminal sanctions upon those who [...]

The appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Wednesday vacated the conviction of Veselin Sljivancanin for his role in killing 194 Croatian prisoners of war near Vukovar in 1991, reducing his sentence from 17 years to 10. Sljivancanin was convicted in 2007 of aiding and abetting the torture of [...]

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Tuesday that it had reached a $137 million settlement agreement with Bank of America (BOA) over fraud charges for using anti-competitive bidding processes with 20 state municipalities. BOA has agreed to pay $36 million, including interest, to the parties harmed by the scheme, as well as $101 [...]

The US Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to convict federal judge Thomas Porteous on four articles of impeachment and remove him from the bench. Porteous was accused of accepting bribes from lawyers while a judge in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana , making false statements in his bankruptcy declaration and lying [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled unanimously Monday that a federal law allowing for the indefinite detention of mentally ill sex offenders is constitutional. On remand from the Supreme Court, the Fourth Circuit found that the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act , which allows a district court to order [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in Janus Capital Group v. First Derivative Traders , a securities fraud case. The question before the court is whether a service provider can be held primarily liable in a private securities fraud suit for aiding and participating in another company’s misstatements. Section 10(b) of the Securities [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Tuesday that Scotland has violated the media’s right to report on trials and challenge court orders. The ECHR found the UK and Scotland in violations of articles 10 and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights , which provide for the right to free expression and [...]

A local regulation that broadened the scope of police search and seizure powers in certain areas of Toronto during June’s Group of 20 (G-20) summit “was of dubious legality and no utility” and resulted in a mass violation of civil rights, according to a report released Tuesday by the Ombudsman of Ontario , Andre Marin. [...]

Zambia’s Supreme Court on Monday acquitted Regina Chiluba, the wife of former Zambian president Frederick Chiluba , of charges that she accepted stolen property during the years of her husband’s administration. The court overruled a previous decision from March that sentenced her to three-and-a-half years in prison on charges of receiving stolen funds. All three [...]