Iranian economist and journalist Saeed Laylaz was sentenced to a nine-year jail term on Wednesday for possessing classified information and participating in protests following the contested presidential election in June . Laylaz has been a longstanding critic of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , and was an editor for the reform newspaper Sarmayeh , which was [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection on the constitutional scope of states' authority to modify property boundaries without a judicial hearing. At issue is whether Florida's restoration of storm-eroded beaches by modifying private property boundaries under the Beach and Shore Preservation [...]

The Malaysian high court ruled Tuesday that opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim will stand trial on charges on sodomy early next year. Counsel for Anwar had argued for the case to be thrown out since medical reports showed no conclusive proof of penetration, but Justice Mohamad Zabidin concluded that medical reports could not be used as [...]

The Council of the District of Columbia voted Tuesday in favor of a law that would allow same-sex marriages to be performed in Washington, DC. The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009 passed with a vote of 11-2, despite opposition from the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington , which has pledged to [...]

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) named a new head co-prosecutor Wednesday after the September resignation of Canadian Robert Petit. UK lawyer Andrew Cayley, who will serve alongside a Cambodian prosecutor, has previously been in private practice defending alleged war criminal Charles Taylor in The Hague. He also served as Senior Prosecuting [...]

Lawyers for former Guantanamo Bay detainee Ahmed Ghailani have filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him, according to heavily redacted court documents made public Tuesday. Ghailani's lawyers argued that his right to a speedy trial was violated after he spent nearly five years in custody before being brought before a civilian court. The [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Tuesday condemned Switzerland's ban on building minarets , a type of tower associated with Islamic mosques. The ban, which was approved Sunday with 57.5 percent of the vote and the majority of Swiss cantons, was put forth by conservative political groups and opposed by churches, the [...]

Richard Dieter : "In a rapid sequence of events, the state of Ohio has abandoned its longstanding commitment to the standard method of lethal injection, adopted a new protocol (and even more novel "backup plan") that no other state employs, and has asserted that it is ready to carry out its first execution under these [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in two cases. In Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz v. United States and United States v. Milavetz, Gallop, & Milavetz, the Court heard arguments on the scope of a federal law prohibiting certain bankruptcy professionals from advising consumer debtors to incur more debt in contemplation of filing for [...]

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) began oral arguments on Tuesday regarding Serbia's request for an advisory opinion on Kosovo's declaration of independence in 2008. The advisory proceedings will include arguments from 29 additional countries, including the five member-states of the UN Security Council , debating whether Kosovo's unilaterally proclaimed secession complied with international law. [...]