Advisers to US President-elect Barack Obama said Monday that he plans to issue an executive order during his first week in office closing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, according to a report by the Associated Press. The report comes after Obama said Sunday in a television interview that he planned to close the base, but [...]

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday began a confirmation of charges hearing against former Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba . Bemba, originally arrested by Belgian authorities in May, faces war crimes and crimes against humanity charges for violations allegedly committed in the Central African Republic (CAR) between October 2002 and March [...]

The Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland ruled Monday that more than $8 million deposited by a former associate of late president Ferdinand Marcos must be returned to the Philippines government. This is the last of the money deposited in Swiss bank accounts before the overthrow of Marcos in 1986. The Philippine government claimed that the [...]

The UN Human Rights Council on Monday adopted a resolution condemning the Israeli occupation in Gaza and demanding the immediate withdrawal of military forces. The council also decided to dispatch a fact-finding mission to investigate possible human rights violations. The resolution passed 33-1, with 13 abstentions. Canada was the only dissenting vote. The resolution comes [...]

National Director of Public Prosecutions and Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa, January 12, 2009 . Read the full text of the judgment . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in three cases. In Coeur Alaska, Inc. v. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and Alaska v. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council , the Court heard arguments on whether the US Army Corps of Engineers may issue a permit for discharge of fill material otherwise subject to limitations under Sections [...]

A Spanish court on Monday dismissed the case against Basque Regional Prime Minister Juan José Ibarretxe . He and the two leaders of the Basque socialist party were charged with illegally communicating with the banned Batasuna party, the political wing of the militant ETA in a failed attempt at a ceasefire. The trial, which began [...]

Corruption cases are increasing in Russia and now account for about 1.5 percent of recorded crimes there, First Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Buksman reported in an interview printed Monday in the newspaper Gazeta . Buksman said one-seventh of corruption cases take place in law enforcement or judicial settings, citing charges last year against 995 police [...]

David Chandler : "Nearly two decades after its establishment, in 1993, the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) plans to close by the beginning of 2012 and is slowly winding down. In the process, the ICTY is transferring the task of pursuing prosecutions arising from the 1992-1995 Bosnian war to the [...]

The Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa on Monday reinstated charges against political leader Jacob Zuma , overruling the decision of the Pietermaritzburg High Court. The court found that the lower court judge had overstepped his authority when he dismissed the 16 counts of corruption, fraud, money-laundering, and racketeering against Zuma in September 2008. [...]