The US Senate Judiciary Committee began confirmation hearings Monday for Supreme Court Associate Justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor , with Democratic and Republican senators offered contrasting interpretations of Sotomayor's judicial record and philosophy. In his opening remarks , committee chairman Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) cast Sotomayor as having extensive judicial experience and a moderate legal philosophy: [...]

Ugandan officials announced Monday that they plan to arrest Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir on war crimes charges if he enters the country, pursuant to an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant . The announcement followed a meeting between Ugandan minister for international affairs Henry Oryem Okello and ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo. The decision reflects [...]

Accused Nigerian rebel leader Henry Okah was released on Monday after the government dropped treason and gun trafficking charges against him. The government alleges that Okah is the leader of the rebel group Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) , which has been conducting armed attacks against oil production facilities in the delta. [...]

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor began his defense Monday against war crimes charges that include 11 counts of crimes against humanity, violations of the Geneva Conventions, and other violations of international humanitarian law. Taylor's trial continues in the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) after the court denied his motion for acquittal in May. Prosecutors [...]

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled Monday that Nicaragua has interfered with Costa Rica's right of free navigation on the San Juan river, which separates the two Central American nations. Costa Rica filed a complaint in the ICJ in 2005, arguing that although Nicaragua has sovereignty over the river, that country was impeding free [...]

German prosecutors on Monday filed charges against alleged Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk for being an accessory to murder during World War II. Demjanjuk faces 27,900 accessory counts stemming from his alleged involvement as a guard at the Sobibor concentration camp where more than 260,000 people were executed in gas chambers. The official charges follow [...]

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has urged adherence to Iraqi antiquities law in a report on damage to the ancient city of Babylon before and since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A committee composed of Iraqi and international archaeologists said in a report issued Thursday that adherence to the [...]

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday announced changes to immigration enforcement policies for state and local agencies. Created by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, the changes affect agreements made between DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and state and local law enforcement agencies, allowing those agencies to perform immigration enforcement tasks [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Amos Guiora of the University of Utah College of Law says that if the US had followed Israel's lead in taking an aggressive approach to judicial review of executive action, such controversial Bush Administration policies as torture, military commissions, and indefinite detention would have been subjected to the strict scrutiny they so [...]

Former vice-president Dick Cheney directly ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to withhold from Congress information on a counterterrorism program kept secret for eight years until it was terminated by current CIA director Leon Panetta , according to a Saturday New York Times report . The secret counterterrorism program was initiated in the months following [...]