German intelligence agents personally witnessed the torture of detainees at a secret US prison in Europe two weeks after the Sept. 11 terror attacks , according to a German intelligence report leaked to Stern magazine. The leaked report asserts the German agents saw US interrogators beat a 70-year-old terror suspect with a rifle butt, requiring [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is currently reviewing proposed rule changes that would place further restrictions on attorney contact with detainees now held at Guantanamo Bay . The rules, submitted in government court filings for use in the case against Haji Bismullah, are intended to prevent defense attorneys from [...]

The Supreme Court of the Philippines on Wednesday ruled that a planned referendum on modifying the country's constitution to abolish the upper house of congress cannot proceed. The referendum would have amended the 1987 constitution to abolish the Philippines Senate in favor of a unicameral parliamentary assembly. Seven of fifteen judges dissented from the court's [...]

Tony Garza, the US Ambassador to Mexico , said Tuesday that Mexico has extradited 50 prisoners to the US this year, a record total, for stateside prosecution of crimes committed in the US. The Supreme Court of Mexico ruled last November that prisoners serving life sentences may be extradited abroad , overturning a 2001 decision [...]

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told reporters in Spain Tuesday that the perception that the US does not support the rule of law is "disappointing." Gonzales acknowledged that the international reputation of the US has been injured by several ongoing news stories, including the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal, allegations of US rendition flights, and secret [...]

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that he opposes a bill, passed during a preliminary reading in the Iran parliament earlier this month, that would require every American visitor in Iran to be fingerprinted upon entry. Ahmadinejad said Monday that Americans are welcome in Iran , and that Iran only opposes US policy, not US [...]

The British Labour Party government's majority in the UK House of Commons Tuesday rejected greater restrictions on extraditions to the United States and other foreign countries which were proposed by the House of Lords as part of the Police and Justice Bill . The bill follows controversy over the so-called Natwest Three , extradited to [...]

A federal court in Florida ruled Tuesday that a 2005 state law prohibiting exit polling within 100 feet of a voting place violates the free speech and freedom of the press guarantees of the First Amendment. US District Judge Paul Huck found in favor of the Associated Press and five television networks which had filed [...]

The New Jersey Supreme Court Tuesday held that mental retardation, like insanity, is a condition to be affirmatively proved by the defense in state death penalty cases. In a 5-2 ruling , the court overturned an August 2005 appeals court decision that had placed the onus of disproving mental disability on prosecutors . Convicted death [...]

A proposal to create a special competition court within the European Union Court of First Instance has been publicly endorsed by the Court's head justice, who called it the best "if not the only effective way of ensuring speedier and perhaps even better handling of competition cases" at a conference in London. Court President Bo [...]