Pakistani Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan said Tuesday he was resigning as head of the lawyer's association and then appeared to back away from that statement after a crowd of lawyers and other persons in Lahore beat up former Pakistani Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afgan Niazi . Ahsan, who has led the [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Victor Hansen of New England School of Law says that the case of US civilian contractor Alaa 'Alex' Mohammad Ali, currently the subject of criminal charges initiated by the US military, is an ostensibly unremarkable proceeding that could nonetheless have a significant impact on US military law and bears careful attention as [...]

The National Assembly of Senegal on Tuesday amended the Senegalese Constitution to give Senegalese courts jurisdiction over the trial of former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre , who is accused of crimes against humanity. Habre was accused in 1992 by a Chadian Truth Commission of committing some 40,000 acts of murder and torture of political opponents [...]

Daniel Bellemare , the former Canadian federal prosecutor now heading the United Nations probe into the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri , asked the UN Security Council Tuesday to extend his investigative authority beyond its mandated June 15 expiration, saying the investigation was making progress but that no indictments would be [...]

Joseph Sher v. Lafayette Insurance Company, et al., Supreme Court of Louisiana, April 8, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday launched a new initiative to combat income tax evasion. The National Tax Defier Initiative (TAXDEF) will investigate and prosecute those who actively "defy and deny" US tax laws, while also educating the public about the consequences of tax evasion. Assistant Attorney General Nathan J. Hochman said: This [...]

The anesthetic dosage delivered under Ohio's lethal injection protocol is sufficient to prevent the condemned inmate from suffering during an execution, according to Tuesday testimony from an anesthesiologist during a court hearing on the constitutionality of Ohio's death penalty procedure . The testimony by Dr. Mark Dershwitz contradicts that given Monday by another anesthesiologist , [...]

The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that an insurance company was not required to pay for water damage caused when New Orleans levees breached after Hurricane Katrina . Homeowner Joseph Sher sued Lafayette Insurance Company after the insurer refused to cover damage resulting from a four-foot water rise in his home after the 2005 hurricane; [...]

The War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Tuesday issued a custody order for a former Bosnian Serb special police officer suspected of involvement in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre . Vaso Todorovic is accused of genocide stemming from the detention and murder of 1,000 Muslim men within the UN-protected zone of [...]

Indonesian Internet providers blocked access Tuesday to file-sharing websites including YouTube, Google Video, and MySpace , one week after a government order sought to prevent the transmission of a controversial anti-Islamic film created by far-right Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders . Indonesia's secular government issued an order to block the websites last Wednesday, citing fears of [...]