The French National Assembly on Wednesday approved 282-238 a bill that would relax the country's restrictions on Sunday commercial activities. If passed by the Senate next week, the bill would alter a 1906 law establishing the principle of "Sunday rest" to allow businesses in tourist zones and major cities to open on Sundays. The proposal [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) stated on Wednesday that they do not oppose a motion to suppress the allegedly torture-induced confession of Guantanamo detainee Mohammed Jawad . Jawad's motion sought to suppress all out-of-court statements made to US and Afghan officials on the grounds that they were the product of coercion and because they [...]

Military prosecutors at Guantanamo Bay on Wednesday sought to delay the trials of three suspected terrorists while the US government revises the military commission system used to try them. At the second day of hearings held at the detention facility since US President Barack Obama took office, judges granted a government request to postpone proceedings [...]

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) was criticized by the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC) Wednesday for its role in interrogating Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr . The committee reported that the intelligence agency failed to consider Khadr's age and human rights issues regarding alleged mistreatment by US authorities during interviews. The report states that the [...]

The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday received and reviewed a sealed envelope listing the names of those believed to be responsible for the post-election violence in Kenya in late 2007 and early 2008. ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo also received "six boxes of documents and supporting materials" compiled by the Commission [...]

The Swiss Federal Criminal Court on Tuesday released the frozen assets of former Zaire leader Mobutu Sese Seko . The court ruled that the approximately 7.7 million Swiss francs stored in banks, which were said to have been gained illegally, will be returned to the late Mobutu's heirs. The funds were originally sought by the [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled Wednesday that Maryland alcohol price regulations violate federal antitrust laws. The court upheld their previous ruling from 2001 that state pricing schemes for liquor and wine wholesalers restrain trade and constitute horizontal price fixing under the Sherman Antitrust Act . The regulations required wholesalers to [...]

The head of the UK's judiciary on Wednesday said that judges have been improperly excluded from debate over "major constitutional changes" in recent years. In a speech at a judicial banquet held by the Lord Mayor of London Ian Luder, Lord Chief Justice Lord Igor Judge suggested that judges may have a have a "duty [...]

Russian human rights activist Natalia Estemirova was kidnapped in Grozny Wednesday morning and shot to death, according to news reports. Estemirova, 50, investigated allegations of human rights violations in Chechnya for about 10 years. Estemirova's body, which had been shot multiple times, was found Wednesday afternoon in nearby Ingushetia. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Michael A. Olivas of the University of Houston Law Center says that the nomination and expected confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a Latina, shows how far Latino lawyers and the Latino community in the United States have come, even if anti-immigrant discourse and discrimination show how far they have yet to go… [...]