JURIST Guest Columnist Daniel Joyner of the University of Alabama School of Law says that, reflective of the central tension between nonproliferation and peaceful use, Iran has not clearly violated any legal obligations incumbent upon it in the timing of its disclosure of the existence of an intended uranium enrichment facility at Qom…. Since Iran’s [...]

The US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs voted 23-22 Tuesday to adopt a resolution that recognizes the Ottoman Empire's treatment of Armenians between 1915 and 1923 as genocide . In his opening remarks , committee chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) , noted that every country must face uncomfortable issues its past, and continued, "t [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday heard an unlawful prosecution case brought by bankrupt oil company Yukos against the Russian government for allegedly illegally prosecuting the company for tax violations. Representatives of Yukos said they brought the case in the ECHR because they believed that would not recieve a fair hearing in [...]

Imam Ahmad Afzali pleaded guilty Thursday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York to charges of lying to FBI agents in connection with a plot to detonate explosives in the New York City subway system. Afzali faces up to six months in prison and must leave the country within 90 [...]

A German court in Dusseldorf on Thursday convicted four Islamists of conspiracy to murder and belonging to a foreign terrorist group for plotting to destroy US facilities within Germany. The four men, members of the radical Islamic Jihad Union , were apprehended in September 2007 while developing a plan to use three car bombs and [...]

The Supreme Court of Oklahoma ruled Tuesday that a state law imposing broad restrictions on abortion violates the state constitution. The law required women seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound within an hour of the procedure and contained sections on requirements for abortion clinic signs, the administration of an early-term abortion pill, and rules [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Thursday criticized the state of human rights in Sri Lanka, Iran, and several other countries, while presenting her annual report to the 13th Session of the Human Rights Council . Pillay described mistreatment of the government's critics as a threat to peace in Sri Lanka, and [...]

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday proposed tighter restrictions on the use of politically motivated arrest warrants for foreign leaders accused of war crimes. Brown said that he would seek to make tougher "the evidential basis on which arrest warrants can be allowed" and to restrict the right to prosecute universal jurisdiction crimes to [...]

A bill was introduced Wednesday to the US Senate that would allow gay soldiers to serve openly in the US military. Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) introduced the Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2010 , which would repeal the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy . In a statement released Thursday, Senator Roland Burris (D-IL) hailed [...]

The Canadian government of Conservative Party Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged Wednesday to strengthen copyright laws . Announcing government policy in the Speech from the Throne opening the third session of the Canada's fortieth Parliament, Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean said that tightening intellectual property regulations was necessary to move the Canadian economy forward: To [...]