A three-member independent commission established by the UN to investigate the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will begin its work on July 1, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced Friday. The commission, anticipated since February, will be led by Chilean Ambassador to the UN Heraldo Munoz , who served as President of [...]

The US House of Representatives Friday approved four separate articles of impeachment against Judge Samuel Kent of the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Kent is the first federal judge to be impeached in 20 years, and only the thirteenth federal judge ever to be impeached. No members of the House voted [...]

Texas financier Allen Stanford appeared Friday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia , after being indicted on fraud and obstruction charges related to a $7 billion fraud scheme. Stanford, through his investment companies Stanford International Bank (SIB), Stanford Group Company (SGC) and Stanford Capital Management (SCM), is accused of violating [...]

Presidency conclusion, Council of the European Union, June 19, 2009 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Presidency Conclusion

The Irish government agreed Friday to hold another referendum on the European Union (EU) reform treaty, also known as the Lisbon Treaty , after EU leaders agreed to certain concessions . At a conference in Brussels, members of the Council of the European Union agreed to legal guarantees that the Lisbon Treaty would not affect [...]

The arrests of protesters in Iran may not conform with the law, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay said Friday, expressing concern over the increasing number of reported arrests . Classifying freedom of expression and assembly as "fundamental human rights," Pillay commended the peaceful and dignified nature of the protests that followed the [...]

Christopher Boucek "On Friday June 12 it was announced that three more Saudi detainees held at Guantanamo Bay had been repatriated back to the kingdom. With their arrival, 120 Saudi nationals have now been sent back to Saudi Arabia. (The bodies of three Saudi detainees who died at Guantanamo have also been returned for burial). [...]

A federal jury in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota found Thursday that a Minnesota woman had violated music copyrights and assessed damages at $80,000 per song for 24 songs, totaling $1.92 million. In a retrial, Jammie Thomas-Rasset was found to have willfully violated copyright law in sharing songs on the file-sharing [...]

The Peruvian Congress voted Thursday to repeal controversial land laws that had led to indigenous protests and violent clashes last week when police attempted to disperse groups blocking access routes. Last week, the congress temporarily suspended legislative decree 1090, the Forest and Wild Fauna Law and legislative decree 1064, establishing the legal framework for agricultural [...]

Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki created a special committee Thursday to investigate alleged abuse and torture in the country's prisons. Comprised of eight members, the committee reportedly includes representatives from human rights and judicial government agencies and security ministries. The panel will report its findings to al-Maliki within two weeks. The decision to create the [...]