The five states that border the Arctic – Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the US – will meet in Greenland Wednesday to discuss plans to divide harvesting rights to resources and minerals on the Arctic seabed. Under the Law of the Sea Treaty , a country has exclusive harvesting rights to a zone extending 200 [...]

Former Peruvian general Rodolfo Robles testified Monday that he believed that former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was responsible for two massacres that took place during his presidency in the early 1990s, but admitted that he did not have any evidence linking Fujimori to the deaths. He said that he had "absolute conviction" that Fujimori authorized [...]

The ruling junta of Myanmar Tuesday extended the house arrest of democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi for another year, a decision that has angered and frustrated many in the international community. Suu Kyi's detention was set to expire at midnight Tuesday, although the military government was widely expected to issue the extension. The extension [...]

Former Argentine general Luciano Benjamin Menendez and seven others went on trial Tuesday for the alleged 1977 kidnapping, torture, and killing of four political dissidents during the country's "Dirty War" . The 80-year old Menendez, who commanded an army corps in the late 1970s, was originally taken into custody in 2005, when a judge ordered [...]

Uganda has established a special court to hear cases of alleged war crimes and human rights abuses related to an ongoing rebellion in the country , a High Court judge said Monday. Uganda's government agreed to create the war crimes court in February during peace negotiations with the guerrilla Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) . There [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Douglas NeJaime of UCLA School of Law says that the California same-sex marriage ruling is not merely about the right to marry the person one loves, but it is also about accommodating the demographic reality of lesbians and gay men who commit to one another, raise children, and form families… The California [...]

Bangladesh has approved the creation of a so-called Truth and Accountability Commission which would allow corrupt officials and businessmen guilty of corruption to avoid jail by confessing and returning money taken, officials said Monday. The commission would operate under the country's new Voluntary Disclosure of Information Ordinance for five months, and those officials who come [...]

Pakistan officials who ignored a Supreme Court order and went along with President Pervez Musharaff's declaration of emergency rule in November 2007 will be punished regardless of their position, ousted Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry told a rally of lawyers and supporters in Faisalabad Sunday. Chaudhry told the group supporting his reinstatement that the [...]

Myanmar's draft constitution has been overwhelmingly approved in a national referendum after two rounds of voting with 92 percent of votes cast favoring the proposed charter and 98 percent of the country's 27 million eligible voters turning out, state television reported Monday. Voting concluded Saturday in the 47 townships hit hardest earlier this month by [...]

Aleksandra (Sasha) Williams, Pitt Law '10, files from Kiev: Until yesterday any American voter disgruntled by the current presidential election process could find comfort in realizing that at least there are several candidates to pick from. For example, compared to Russian presidential elections, where the only plausible candidate was heavily endorsed by former President Vladimir [...]