JURIST Guest Columnist David Scheffer, former US Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues (1997-2001), now at Northwestern University School of Law, says that a US troop surge in Iraq could provoke the very atrocities its supporters claim it would prevent, and that a better strategy for saving the lives of Iraqis and Americans alike [...]

The US Marine Corps said Monday that it will launch an investigation into the leak of a Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) report on the killing of Iraqi civilians in Haditha after the Washington Post earlier this month printed photos of the slain Iraqis . Lt. Gen. James Mattis , the top general at Camp [...]

A former US contractor working for the US Department of Defense in Iraq received a nine-year prison sentence Monday and was told he must forfeit the $3.6 million he received for awarding contracts to construction companies owned by an American businessman and through money laundering. Robert Stein, Jr. , who worked as the comptroller and [...]

The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga, decision on the confirmation of charges, transcript of oral ruling by the Pre-Trial Chamber, International Criminal Court, January 29, 2007. Read the full text of the hearing transcript and ruling . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here

Fewer Guantanamo Bay prisoners will be charged with war crimes this week than originally expected, chief prosecutor USAF Col. Moe Davis told Reuters Monday. Revised charges were expected to be filed against up to 20 suspected members of al Qaeda and the Taliban by February, but new procedural rules implemented earlier this month will delay [...]

Ali Hassan al-Majid , the cousin of Saddam Hussein also known to the Western media as "Chemical Ali," insisted before the Iraqi High Tribunal Monday that he should not be forced to stand trial because he has the same kind of immunity from Iraqi legal process afforded to US troops. Al-Majid's lawyers challenged the Tribunal's [...]

The European Commission (EC) said Monday that it will seek to keep restrictions on the US government's use of EU airline passenger information in the new agreement being negotiated between the European Union (EU) and the United States. An interim agreement signed in October 2006 and expiring in July 2007 gives the US access to [...]

Italian Justice Minister Clemente Mastella has said that he will refuse to vote for a proposed law that would give same-sex couples many of the rights that heterosexual couples enjoy. In comments over the weekend, Mastella called the proposal immoral and said that Prime Minister Romano Prodi's current governing coalition must not be made "hostages" [...]

The German EU presidency said Monday that it would support EU anti-racism legislation that would impose maximum one to three-year terms of imprisonment for "ublic incitement to hatred and violence for reasons of racism or xenophobia," but would not push for any law that would explicitly ban swastikas or criminalize Holocaust denial across the European [...]

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair announced Monday that rules under the Equality Act protecting same-sex couples' rights to adopt children without discrimination will apply without exception, denying special exemptions for faith-based adoption agencies opposed to same-sex unions and/or homosexuality. In a statement , Blair said: here is no place in our society for discrimination. That [...]