The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday upheld a Georgia law that requires voters to present government-issued photo identification in order to vote. The suit was filed by two elderly voters in Georgia, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) , and other civil rights groups that argued [...]

The Venezuelan National Assembly on Wednesday approved a constitutional amendment eliminating presidential term limits. The amendment must now be approved by voters in a referendum likely to be held on February 15. The amendment, which would allow President Hugo Chavez to seek re-election in 2012, was passed by an Assembly made up of a majority [...]

The Kazakhstan Parliament on Thursday approved legislation designed to ensure that there is representation from at least two political parties in the lawmaking body. The election law reform measure is seen as a way to enhance democracy in Kazakhstan before it takes over as chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) [...]

International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Wednesday said that the ICC has no jurisdiction to investigate possible war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza. Moreno-Ocampo's statement came after calls by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) for the UN Security Council to refer Israel to the ICC for an investigation. Moreno-Ocampo said [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Victor Kattan of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, says that Israel's Gaza offensive cannot be legally justified by any right of self-defense and instead constitutes aggression and a forcible deprivation of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination… The images speak for [...]

Iraq has become the 186th nation to join the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) by acceding to the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention , the organization announced Wednesday. A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised Iraq's move , saying that it showed the Iraqi government's "commitment to disarmament and non-proliferation," and adding: [...]

A judge on the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday granted habeas to Guantanamo detainee Mohammed El Gharani and directed his release. El Gharani, a Chadian citizen born in Saudi Arabia, was arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of ties to al Qaeda. Judge Richard Leon ruled that the government had failed [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in two cases. In Puckett v. United States , the Court heard arguments on whether a defendant's claim, not raised at trial, that the prosecution breached a plea agreement is reviewable on appeal according to the plain-error standard under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure . The [...]

A judge in the Penal Chamber of the National Court of Spain in Madrid on Tuesday ordered a trial for the men allegedly responsible for the killings of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter. Judge Eloy Velasco admitted the plea entered in November by the Spanish Association for Human Rights , finding that [...]

The convening authority of military commissions Susan Crawford has said that torture tactics were used in the interrogation of Mohammed al-Qahtani , a suspect held at Guantanamo Bay under allegations of connections to the 9/11 attacks, according to a Wednesday interview in the Washington Post. Crawford made the statement after nearly two years of reviewing [...]