The French National Assembly on Thursday defeated a controversial internet piracy bill that would have cut off internet access for those who repeatedly illegally download copyrighted material. Under the bill, which won preliminary parliamentary approval last week, any internet user tagged by an ISP as downloading the material would initially receive a warning, followed by [...]

The Court of Appeal of Fiji ruled Thursday that the country's appointment of a military government following a 2006 coup was unconstitutional and must be replaced immediately by an interim prime minister until democratic elections can be held. Ousted Fijian prime minister Laisenia Qarase brought the challenge against a November High Court decision finding that [...]

The UK Ministry of Justice (MOJ) on Wednesday began the second stage of a consultation on giving certain prisoners the right to vote based on the length of their prison terms, seeking public input on what the maximum allowable term should be. The UK has long banned prisoners from voting in elections, but the European [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday issued rulings in four cases ordering Russia to pay a total of €282,000 to compensate six families who claimed government agents abducted their Chechen relatives between 2001 and 2003. In three of the four cases, Dokayev and Others v. Russia, Dzhabrailova v. Russia, and Malsagova and [...]

A Lebanese judge on Wednesday ordered the transfer of documents related to the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri to a UN tribunal created to investigate and try suspects in the killing. Judge Sakr Sakr's order comes in response to a request issued last month by the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) [...]

South Africa's African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma on Wednesday called on the Judicial Service Commission to conduct a review of the country's Constitutional Court , saying the court has too much power and had abused its authority. Zuma also criticized the country's judiciary and prosecutors for pursuing corruption charges against him, in what [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) on Wednesday denied in part a motion to dismiss lawsuits against some companies accused of assisting South Africa's apartheid-era government can go forward. The lawsuit, brought by a class of thousands of South African plaintiffs against several companies under the [...]

UN and Cambodian officials failed to reach an agreement Wednesday on a system for monitoring corruption issues in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) . UN assistant secretary-general for legal affairs Peter Taksoe-Jensen presented a proposal to Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An , but no agreement has been reached . Taksoe-Jensen [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld Wednesday a lower court decision denying the habeas corpus petition of former Panamanian military leader Manuel Noriega and authorizing his extradition to France. The court held that Noriega was precluded from invoking the Geneva Convention as a source of rights in a habeas proceeding by [...]

US military judge Colonel Patrick Parrish ruled Tuesday that Pentagon officials lacked the authority to dismiss Lieutenant Commander William Kuebler as defense counsel for Canadian Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr . Chief defense counsel Colonel Peter Masciola reassigned Kuebler earlier this month after Kuebler filed a formal complaint alleging that Masciola had a conflict of [...]