JURIST Guest Columnist Michael Macchiarola, an adjunct professor at CUNY Law School and Seton Hall University School of Law, says that the Securities and Exchange Commission's recent complaint against Countrywide Financial offers several lessons for those who would repair our ailing financial services industry… The recent SEC complaint alleging that three former Countrywide Financial executives [...]

Five UN officials on Tuesday decried the manner in which Myanmar has conducted the trial of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi . Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Leandro Despouy said that the trial "has been marred by flagrant violations of substantive and procedural rights." Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion [...]

A Sri Lanka government official announced Tuesday that an investigation into human rights abuses that allegedly occurred during the 25-year civil war between the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had ended. A commission of inquiry, established in 2007 to investigate potential abuses, had completed work on fewer than half the cases it [...]

The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed Monday a lower court's order in a divorce case that prohibited the children of a divorced father to be in contact with his gay and lesbian acquaintances. The court disagreed with the qualified visitation rights granted to Eric Mongerson on the grounds that no evidence exists that his homosexual [...]

A bill to provide that certain photographic records relating to the treatment of any individual engaged, captured, or detained after September 11, 2001, by the Armed Forces of the United States in operations outside the United States shall not be subject to disclosure under section 552 of title 5, United States Code, US Senate, approved [...]

In re: HealthSouth Corporation Securities Litigation, US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, June 17, 2009 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. In re HealthSouth Corp

The Edward O. Hawkins and Thomas C. Slater Medical Marijuana Act, Rhode Island General Assembly, re-passed over governor's veto June 16, 2009 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Medical Marijuana Bill

Trafficking in Persons Report 2009, US Department of State, June 16, 2009 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Trafficking of Humans Report 2009

Chinese state media reported Tuesday that Beijing is ready to switch from gunshot executions of condemned prisoners to lethal injections . A spokesperson for the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said that lethal injection is "cleaner, safer, and more convenient." China Daily reports that a facility has been prepared and that judicial police and medical staff [...]

War crimes suspects entering or residing in the UK are often immune from prosecution for their acts, according to a report released Monday by Aegis Trust . The report refers to a "significant number" of alleged war criminals and perpetrators of genocide in the UK that hail from Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Zimbabwe, [...]