US military judge Col. Ralph Kohlmann Thursday denied a request by military-appointed defense lawyers to postpone the arraignment of the five Guantanamo Bay detainees charged with plotting the Sept. 11 attacks . The lawyers had asked for more time to mount defenses for their clients, but the arraignments are still scheduled for June 5 . [...]

The US will re-check its detention records to verify the accuracy of a report filed last week by US officials with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child concerning the number of minors it has detained in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Department of Defense officials said Thursday. According to the report, approximately [...]

The US military has failed to ensure that over $8 billion dollars in Iraq reconstruction contracts awarded between 2001 and 2006 complied with federal anti-fraud laws, according to a report released Thursday by the Department of Defense Inspector General's Office . The same day, Deputy Inspector General for Auditing Mary Ugone testified before the House [...]

The German Bundesrat , the upper house of the German parliament, voted Friday to approve the EU reform treaty, known formally as the Treaty of Lisbon . All but one of the sixteen states represented in the Bundesrat voted in favor of approval. The treaty was approved by the Bundestag , the lower house of [...]

The Supreme Court of China and the country's Ministry of Justice have released new rules to clarify China's death penalty review procedures, state media reported Friday. Under the new system, three Supreme Court judges must review all death sentences imposed by local courts. The rules also contain provisions meant to ensure that criminal defendants facing [...]

The Permanent Representatives Committee of the Council of the European Union Thursday agreed on a draft proposal for new rules to combat illegal immigration. Under the proposal, illegal aliens caught within the EU could be deported and banned from returning for five years. Authorities in member states would be allowed to detain aliens for up [...]

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Thursday defended the Bush administration's authorization of the use of harsh interrogation tactics, including waterboarding , on suspected terrorist detainees. In her comments at the headquarters of the technology company Google, Rice stated that a special legal atmosphere existed in the US after the Sept. 11 attacks , but [...]

Alliance Defense Fund , a conservative Christian legal advocacy group, petitioned the Supreme Court of California Thursday to stay its May 15 decision overturning a ban on same-sex marriage until the outcome of the November state elections. It is expected that the November ballot will include an amendment to the California state constitution banning same-sex [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Haider Ala Hamoudi of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law says that while Iraq has a long and proud legal tradition, and certainly boasts a large number of legal professionals who take their work very seriously and do it well, there are many rules, impediments and obligations that for many of [...]

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin announced Thursday that her office intends to launch a court challenge to last week's listing of the polar bear on the US endangered species list. The suit will be filed in US District Court in Washington and will argue that science shows that polar bears do not need to be protected. [...]