Bolivian President Evo Morales signed a land redistribution bill Tuesday that he hopes will allow his government to give 77,000 square miles of unproductive land to the country's poor. The president signed the bill amidst shouts of approval from more than 3,000 Indian supporters who may gain land from the new measure, which is part [...]

A Serbian war crimes suspect will continue boycotting his war crimes trial, despite the urgings of his court-appointed lawyers, who have not had contact with him since Monday. Lawyers for Serbian war crimes suspect Vojislav Seselj told the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) that their client has refused to speak with them [...]

The trial of six German defendants accused of breaching their fiduciary duties during the takeover of telecom giant Mannesmann came to an end Wednesday, with the defendants agreeing to pay substantial financial settlements in exchange for no criminal charges on their records. The defendants, including Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackermann , former Mannesmann executives, [...]

Lawyers for German national Khalid el-Masri argued Wednesday before the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that his civil case against the CIA for his alleged 2003 extraordinary rendition from Macedonia and his subsequent detention in Afghanistan should be reinstated . A federal judge in May dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that it would [...]

A judge in the Saddam Hussein trial ejected a defense lawyer from the courtroom Wednesday and ordered a day-long detention after the lawyer repeatedly addressed a prosecutor as "brother." Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa had previously warned Badih Aref, lawyer for former intelligence director Farhan al-Jubouri , to respect courtroom formalities, and found Aref guilty of [...]

Flood damage caused by Hurricane Katrina may be covered under those insurance policies that do not specifically exclude from coverage damage caused by negligence, according to a federal court opinion handed down Monday. Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. of the US Eastern District of New Orleans rejected a bid by insurers to dismiss plantiffs' actions [...]

An Italian judge held a hearing Wednesday to determine whether Mario Lozano, a US Army Specialist, should stand trial in connection with the death of Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari at an Iraqi checkpoint in March 2005. Italian prosecutors requested an indictment in June after investigators concluded their probe into Calipari's death, finding Lozano responsible [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Douglas Branson of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law says that the latest US corporate scandal involves disclosures of backdated stock options upping the already-disproportionate compensation of CEOs and other senior managers, with criminal charges being laid against five corporate executives so far… A November 17, 2006 Wall Street Journal headline [...]

A US district judge has declared unconstitutional portions of a 2001 presidential executive order that allowed President Bush "unfettered discretion" to designate organizations as terrorist organizations. In a decision released Tuesday, Judge Audrey Collins ruled that Executive Order 13224 , signed twelve days after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, was unconstitutionally vague as it gave [...]

Miller-Jenkins v. Miller-Jenkins, Virginia Court of Appeals, November 28, 2006 . Read the full text of the ruling . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.