Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld , as well as more than 100 military officers and personnel, have been sued for the wrongful deaths of two former detainees who committed suicide while at Guantanamo Bay . Family members of the deceased filed the complaint last Wednesday in the US District Court for the District of [...]

The US Court of Military Commission Review (USCMCR) on Tuesday heard arguments on whether to reinstate the allegedly torture-induced confession of Guantanamo detainee Mohammed Jawad , which was thrown out by a military commission last October. Military judge Stephen Henley ruled that Jawad's confession to Afghan police commanders and high-ranking government officials on December 17, [...]

The European Union Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel on Tuesday said that Israel is not respecting international human rights law in the Gaza Strip. In an interview with the Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique, Michel said that the evidence, which experts agree upon and denounce, shows that Israel is not respecting international human rights laws. [...]

The court-martial for US Marine Corp Sgt. Jermaine Nelson has been scheduled for February 16, according to a Monday report in the San Diego Union-Tribune. The trial was scheduled to begin earlier this month, but a delay was granted following a ruling in which the court approved the appointment of an expert witness for the [...]

The US Supreme Court decided two cases Tuesday. The Court ruled in Chambers v. United States that failure to report to prison does not constitute a "violent felony" for purposes of sentence enhancement under the Armed Career Criminals Act (ACCA) . Petitioner Deondery Chambers pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. [...]

Chambers v. United States, US Supreme Court, January 13, 2009 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Human rights groups are concerned about US President-elect Barack Obama's intentions to keep the Guantanamo Bay detention center open for at least 100 days after taking office, according to a Monday report in the Miami Herald. On Sunday, Obama told ABC news in an interview that he would close the base but that doing so [...]

European Commission (EC) President Jose Manuel Barroso on Monday said that the commission needs to see more results from Romania's effort to fight corruption and reform the judiciary, during a press conference with Romanian President Traian Basescu and Prime Minister Emil Boc . Romania is currently subject to increased scrutiny from the commission as a [...]

The US military announced on Monday that the Guantanamo Bay hunger strike has increased to 42 detainees. The number was believed to be 30 last Thursday. The military attributes the increase to the recent seven year anniversary of the facility's opening. Another possible contributing factor is the upcoming inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama , who [...]

Gerald L. Baliles : "The lineage of the pardon power and executive clemency generally runs to ancient Rome. British practice in the colonial period and before, itself drawing on antiquity, was the immediate precedent for the presidential pardon power found in the Constitution. The power is broad, based on British royal prerogative: "The President…shall have [...]