JURIST Guest Columnist Haider Ala Hamoudi of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law says that despite appearances, the Iraqi parliament's adoption of a budget and other key laws on provincial administration and amnesty emphasizes rather than diminishes the regional and sectarian divisions in the country… The Iraq Parliament has finally agreed on its budget [...]
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The National Parliament of East Timor voted Wednesday to extend the state of emergency imposed this week after attacks against President Jose Ramos Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao , during which Horta was critically wounded and rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was killed. The parliament voted to extend the state of emergency until February 23 [...]
The US Senate on Tuesday voted 68-29 in favor of the FISA Amendments Act , legislation intended to replace the temporary Protect America Act in modernizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The Protect America Act is currently set to expire February 15. The bill passed by the Senate Tuesday would provide immunity for telecommunications companies [...]
The Guatemalan Congress voted to restore the death penalty Tuesday, passing a bill that ends a six-year moratorium on executions imposed by the Constitutional Court in 2002. Under the new law, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom will have to decide whether to grant clemency to the 24 inmates currently on death row or to order their [...]
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. Office of Administration, US District Court for the District of Columbia, February 11, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Daryl Kimball : "Defense Minister Ivanov's address at the Berlin security conference reflects Russia's frustration with the current US-Russian impasse on key strategic weapons issues and the Bush administration's resistance to certain bilateral strategic arms agreements. Ivanov's comments do not really break any new ground. Rather, he simply appears to be reiterating Russia's current positions [...]
US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Tuesday defended the use of harsh physical interrogation techniques, saying in an interview with Law in Action on BBC Radio 4 that they may be justified to deter an immediate threat. Scalia argued that "so-called torture" may not necessarily be prohibited by the US constitution, as he said the [...]
US Senate Democrats announced their continued support Tuesday for a US Sentencing Commission decision to give retroactive effect to sentencing guidelines that would narrow the disparity between sentences for offenses involving powder and crack cocaine, rejecting Department of Justice arguments against the retroactivity because the courts could be overwhelmed with inmates appealing their sentences. The [...]
Shi'ite and Sunni lawmakers walked out of Iraq's parliament Tuesday, prompting speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani to threaten to disband the legislature. The walkout was sparked by divisions between Kurdish and other lawmakers over what percentage of the national income should be reserved for the Kurdish semi-autonomous region. The walkout blocked a vote on the $48 billion [...]
China, Russia and Canada are the main violators of US copyright law, according to report issued Monday by a US-based industry group. The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), a consortium of seven trade associations representing 1,900 US companies producing and distributing copyrighted materials, found that the number of violations had increased over the past year [...]
