Officials from Germany's ruling coalition announced Monday that they would draft an amendment to the German constitution to allow the military to aid local police forces during emergencies. Under Article 35 of the German Basic Law , the government may deploy the military domestically only if a natural disaster or accident seriously affects more than [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Anthony D'Amato of Northwestern University School of Law says that the newly-promulgated guides for FBI domestic operations taking effect in December are in fact expansive, not delimiting, and seem to permit all kinds of encroachments on our civil liberties… US Attorney General Michael Mukasey has just issued his “Guidelines for Domestic FBI [...]

Lehman Brothers Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld Monday called for a new regulatory scheme for financial firms in testimony before the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform . Fuld answered questions regarding Lehman Brother's role in the current financial crisis and the the high levels of executive compensation at the firm [...]

Trial proceedings began in Paris Monday in the case of 42 people, including the son of former French President Francois Mitterrand, allegedly involved in the so-called Angolagate scandal regarding the supply of illegal arms to the Angolan government between 1993 and 1998 in contravention of an international ban on weapons sales to the country. The [...]

Citigroup Inc., Wachovia Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. announced Monday that they had reached an agreement to freeze litigation activity until at least noon Wednesday. The agreement follows a weekend of legal maneuvering, when a New York State appellate judge reversed a court order extending an exclusivity agreement that bars Wachovia from considering or [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in three cases, including Altria Group v. Good , 07-562, in which the Court will consider whether the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act bars state lawsuits based on allegedly deceptive cigarette advertising. A federal judge originally dismissed a suit brought by three Maine smokers who accused [...]

Senior officers in the Ugandan military could held responsible for the use of child soldiers under a new US law, according to a Monday report in Kampala's Daily Monitor. The Child Soldiers Accountability Act of 2008 , signed into law by US President George W. Bush on Friday, provides for up to 20 years in [...]

International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Monday renewed his call for the arrest of Ugandan rebel leader and war crimes suspect Joseph Kony after new attacks attributed to the rebels. Moreno-Ocampo said Kony's group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) , was responsible for attacks on Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) civilians earlier [...]

Kristen Clarke : "Polling places should be intimidation-free spaces in which all voters are able to freely cast their ballot without interference or obstruction. Both federal law and a number of state laws include provisions that are aimed at ensuring that voters do not face intimidation during elections. The deployment or mere presence of law [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday began its 2008 term , in which it has agreed to hear cases involving pre-emption of state law, the separation of church and state, and broadcast indecency, among other issues. The Court began hearing oral arguments Monday with Altria Group v. Good (07-562) , presenting the question of whether [...]