Corruption and repression are increasingly threatening legal rights in former Soviet republics like Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, according to a Monday report released by rights group Freedom House . The group said that Russia especially has seen a significant deterioration of the rule of law, finding that the country's court system is controlled by powerful [...]

The Supreme Court of Israel Monday denied a request to suspend the opening of border crossings between the country and the Palestinian Gaza Strip . The appeal was made by the father of Sgt. Gilad Schalit , an Israeli soldier held prisoner by Hamas after being captured by the group in 2006, and it asked [...]

The Pakistan National Assembly Sunday passed a bill which not only approved the country's 2008-2009 budget, but also expanded the membership of the country's Supreme Court from 16 to 29 justices. Passage of the so-called Finance Bill was sharply criticized by several opposition groups and members of the country's lawyers' movement , who fear that [...]

Special national security courts to try terrorism suspects are "unnecessary" and "dangerous to traditional constitutional protections," according to a report issued Monday by the Constitution Project . The report was endorsed by a panel of national security experts and legal scholars including General Wesley Clark, Yale Law School dean Harold Koh, former FBI director William [...]

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Monday ordered the US government to release or transfer a Chinese Uighur Muslim detained at Guantanamo Bay, ruling that Huzaifa Parhat had been improperly designated as an enemy combatant by a US Combatant Status Review Tribunal . Barring release or transfer, the [...]

A Pakistani court Monday blocked Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) head and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from running for parliament, finding that a prior criminal conviction rendered him ineligible for office. Earlier this month, the Election Commission of Pakistan cleared Sharif and his younger brother to run in the June 26 by-elections after a local [...]

The head executives of oil companies should be tried for crimes against humanity and nature for misleading the public about the impact of oil on global warming , according to a NASA climatologist who testified before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming Monday. James Hansen , the long-time director of NASA's [...]

Tunisia is committing wide-spread human rights abuses under overly-broad anti-terrorism legislation , according to a Monday report by Amnesty International . Amnesty said that while the government claims to comply with international norms on due process and detainee treatment, it rarely investigates allegations of rights violations by state security organs: The fact that gaping discrepancies [...]

The US Supreme Court Monday agreed to hear seven cases , including Ministry of Defense and Support for the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran v. Elahi (07-615) . In that case, the Court will consider whether the brother of dissident Cyrus Elahi, assassinated in Paris in 1990, can collect on a default [...]

Howard Learner : "On the transportation front, the Clean Air Act balances federal and state interests by making clear a binary approach: states are empowered to adopt California's emission standards, if a waiver is approved by the U.S. EPA following reasonable consideration, or default to the federal standards. Federal District Courts in California and Vermont [...]