The European Commission (EC) said Thursday that Poland and Estonia cannot issue new carbon dioxide (CO2) allowances, despite a court victory on Wednesday. The announcement was made by EC Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas, who indicated that the larger allowances proposed by the two nations must be approved by the EC prior to implementation. [...]

US Solicitor General Elena Kagan told the Supreme Court in a letter filed Thursday that the US plans to transfer up to eight Uighur Guantanamo Bay detainees to Palau and that six have already agreed to the transfer. According to the letter, the government of Palau is willing to accept 12 of the 13 Uighurs [...]

JURIST Guest Columnists Lawrence Friedman and Victor Hansen of New England School of Law say that while newly-announced White House policies on detentions and state secrets represent ostensible departures from Bush administration positions, they maintain the status quo in fundamental ways… In the past week the Obama administration has made two policy announcements which suggest [...]

The US and Switzerland signed a treaty Wednesday that would increase the amount of information shared between the two nations on would-be tax evaders. The agreement was constructed in accordance with Article 26 of the Model Tax Convention , which states in relevant part: The competent authorities of the Contracting States shall exchange such information [...]

Jeffrey M. Gamso : "Ohio is now uniquely in the position of three badly botched executions in the just over three years. On May 2, 2006, it took some 87 minutes to effect the execution of Joe Clark, who cried out, "It don't work, it don't work" and then was heard moaning and groaning while [...]

Maureen Martin : "Former Vice President Al Gore and White House climate change czar Carol Browner, commenting on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision allowing a federal nuisance case to go ahead against six major utilities for emitting carbon dioxide, said such nuisance cases can be stopped in the courts by federal regulation of [...]

Sharon Bradford Franklin : "On September 23, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the executive branch has adopted a new policy on invocation of the state secrets privilege – a doctrine which protects against disclosure of national security secrets in litigation. The new policy tightens the standards for when executive agencies may assert the [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday that suspected terrorist Najibullah Zazi has been charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. A federal jury in the Eastern District of New York returned the one-count indictment Wednesday, alleging that Zazi conspired to bomb targets in the US. In a memorandum in support of [...]

The UK Home Office has released a top terrorism suspect from a control order that subjected him to virtual house arrest because it did not want to reveal secret evidence, according to media reports Thursday. Home Secretary Alan Johnson sent letters to lawyers for the man, known only as AE, notifying them that the decision [...]

Protesters took to Pittsburgh's streets Thursday in peaceful demonstrations calling attention to a range of global human rights issues on the first day of the Group of 20 (G-20) Summit . A group of Tibetan protesters from across the US held a march to call Chinese President Hu Jintao's attention to recent human rights abuses [...]