Chief Justice Ronald George of the California Supreme Court told the state's Judiciary Council on Friday that the Supreme Court is withdrawing a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at expediting death penalty appeals by allowing the Supreme Court to transfer death penalty appeals to the intermediate appellate courts, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. George had [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Larry Eaker of the American University of Paris says that EU law on the free movement of capital may significantly complicate the efforts of the French government to keep Societe Generale in French hands in the wake of the recent "rogue trader" episode that cost it billions in assets… "Société Générale is [...]

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has ordered the country's 70 Internet service providers to block access to popular video-sharing website YouTube because of "blasphemous content, videos and documents" posted on the site, a government official confirmed Sunday. The order, issued by the director of the PTA on Friday, claimed the ratio of "non-Islamic objectionable video" [...]

The UK Home Office said Saturday that the government has no plans to create a compulsory DNA database for British citizens, citing ethical and information security concerns. The country's more limited existing National DNA Database , which retains DNA information collected from criminal suspects upon arrest, has already been criticized by rights groups for retaining [...]

Protests broke out in two Indonesian cities Saturday over the reprinting of a cartoon depiction of the Muslim prophet Muhammad by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Poste . Protesters in the world's most populous Muslim country burned Danish flags and called for the death of the cartoon artist. The demonstrations in Indonesia follow similar protests earlier this [...]

Serbia's chief prosecutor Slobodan Radovanovic said Saturday that Serbia is actively searching for the rioters that set fire to the US Embassy in Belgrade last week over US support of independence for Kosovo . Serbian police said they have already arrested over 200 rioters and are in the process of collecting evidence and filing charges. [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Victor Hansen of New England School of Law says that new legislation increasing the required rank of Judge Advocates General in the US military to three-star general or admiral will help assure the independence of the legal advice provided by uniformed JAG lawyers and put a more effective check on the executive's [...]

Bosnian Serb lawmakers have backed a resolution calling Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia illegal and threatening to call a referendum on their own possible separation from the amalgamated state of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). The resolution, passed late Thursday by the People's Assembly of Republika Srpska , cautioned that recognition of Kosovo would set an international [...]

British troops may have tortured and executed up to 20 Iraqi civilians after a 2004 clash between insurgents and a British convoy in Majar al Kabir , according to evidence released Friday by the lawyers of five Iraqi men detained after the battle. The evidence includes testimony from several witnesses, death certificates, and video footage [...]

An Iranian official with the country's Supreme National Security Council said Saturday that a potential UN Security Council resolution imposing new sanctions on Iran in connection with its nuclear activities would be "legally and technically baseless," according to the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA). On Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that while [...]