JURIST Guest Columnist Don Rothwell of Australian National University College of Law, says that a looming May 2009 deadline for states to file data with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf established under the Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC) may force the US to accede to the LOSC in the very [...]

Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. et al., v. David C. Winter, Secretary of the Navy, et al., United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, February 29, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

US Attorney General Michael Mukasey said in a Friday letter to Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) that he will not order a grand jury investigation to determine if misdemeanor contempt of Congress charges should be laid against former White House counsel Harriet Miers and current White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten [...]

Two former prison officials were convicted of crimes against humanity Thursday by the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the systematic abuse of non-Serb detainees at the Fo?a Correctional Facility during the Bosnian war . The court sentenced Mitar Raševi? and Savo Todovic to eight and twelve years respectively. Both [...]

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen L. Johnson Friday signed a notice for submission to the Federal Register explaining the agency's reasons for denying California's request for a waiver that would have allowed it to impose stricter greenhouse gas emissions standards on cars and light trucks. Johnson wrote:It is true that many of the [...]

Opposition members of parliament in Burundi sought protection from the UN Thursday, alleging that they have been targeted for assassination by the Burundi government. The legislators sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon , saying they have received death threats backed by the government and alleging that government authorities have a list of 350 [...]

A federal judge Friday dismissed a lawsuit brought by members of the US military against the US Department of Defense (DOD) that sought to make an anthrax vaccine optional rather than mandatory. The military personnel had challenged a finding by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that the vaccine was safe, but Judge Rosemary Collyer [...]

Serbian police filed criminal charges Friday against 80 people allegedly involved in attacks on the US and other embassies in Belgrade during protests last week over US support of independence for Kosovo . The protesters were charged with hooliganism, theft and resisting arrest, charges which could carry sentences of four to six years in prison. [...]

The Canadian military has resumed the transfer of Afghan detainees to Afghan authorities, Canadian military officials said Friday. The Canadian government ceased transferring Afghan detainees to Afghan custody in November after Canadian monitors in Afghanistan discovered evidence of torture, but a military spokesman said Friday that both the Canadian military and officials in Kandahar believe [...]

The National Congress of Bolivia narrowly approved a national referendum on a new constitution Thursday after members of the Bolivian Constitutional Assembly approved the draft constitution in December. The new constitution, supported by Bolivian President Evo Morales , would give the president more power over natural resources, collapse Bolivia's legislature into one body, and allow [...]