The International Bar Association (IBA) , the leading global organization of legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies, announced Friday that it has canceled a training program for Cambodian lawyers representing defendants in the genocide trial of Khmer Rouge leaders. The program had faced opposition from the Cambodian Bar Association, which saw the program as [...]

Hartmut Nassauer , German head of a European Parliament delegation visiting Indonesia, said Friday that adopting Sharia law would negatively affect Indonesia's relations with other states. Nassaeur emphasized that Islamic law should not affect Indonesia's legal code, stating that the liberty of faith "includes the right to live without faith and consequently have to obey [...]

Two Turkish Christians have gone on trial for their alleged "public denigration of the Turkish identity." Hakan Tastan, 37, and Turan Topal, 46, allegedly made insults against Turkey while attempting to convert other Turks to Christianity. The two defendants are being charged under Article 301 of Turkey's penal code, which makes insulting "Turkishness" a crime. [...]

The government of Rwanda cut diplomatic ties with France Friday in protest at a French judge's recommendation that Rwandan President Paul Kagame face trial in connection with the 1994 downing of a plane carrying then-President Juvenal Habyariman , whose death triggered a genocide that killed over 800,000 people. French anti-terrorism judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere also issued [...]

The Beijing Higher People's Court Friday turned down an appeal by Hong Kong reporter Ching Cheong against his August conviction for passing state secrets. The presiding judge deemed the trial court's ruling "accurate in application of the law and appropriate in meting out punishment," according to a report by state news agency Xinhua. The ruling [...]

Legal services in the UK are set to be revolutionized after the British government Friday published a much-anticipated bill that would remove the right of the legal profession to regulate itself and would allow other businesses – such as banks and even, in theory, supermarkets – to own law practices. The legislation, which would also [...]

Thailand Army Commander-in-Chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin , the leader of the military coup that deposed civilian prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in September, told CNN in an interview broadcast Friday that the martial law imposed on the country in the aftermath of the takeover would be lifted by the end of the year. He made the [...]

Italian Minister of Culture Francesco Rutelli has demanded that the Getty Museum in Los Angeles return all the allegedly-looted Italian antiquities it is said to possess, and not just the 26 pieces of a total of 46 that it has already undertaken to hand back . Negotiations with the Getty over the looted objects broke [...]

Gory v. Kolver, Constitutional Court of South Africa, November 23, 2006 . Read the full text of the ruling. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The South African Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that same-sex partners in a permanent relationship have the same inheritance rights as married heterosexual couples , and that a surviving partner could therefore take by intestacy as a deceased partner's heir. It declared that existing South African succession law was unconstitutional and should be amended to add [...]