Peter Herby, head of the Arms Unit of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) , expressed hope Wednesday that text of a treaty to ban the use of cluster bombs could be approved at a conference in Dublin in May and signed by most countries within the year, even if the world's leading [...]

US Attorney General Michael Mukasey is expected to testify before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday in opposition to a unanimous December 2007 decision by the US Sentencing Commission to retroactively reduce penalties for crack cocaine offenders . That decision gives retroactive effect to an earlier amendment to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines intended to narrow the [...]

Spanish National Court Judge Fernando Andreu Wednesday indicted 40 members of the Rwandan military on genocide and terrorism charges stemming from crimes allegedly committed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide that claimed some 800,000 lives. Andreu reportedly began investigating the Rwandan case in 2005 and indicated Wednesday that he could have also indicted Rwandan President Paul [...]

The White House Wednesday defended the use of waterboarding , saying that the technique is legal. In response to questions as to whether waterboarding constituted torture, White House spokesman Tony Fratto reiterated that the US does not practice torture and "that the programs have been reviewed, and the Department of Justice has determined them to [...]

A Russian court Wednesday denied former Yukos executive and lawyer Vasily Aleksanian temporary release from jail to receive medical treatment, even as the trial was suspended to allow him to be treated for health issues. Aleksanian's lawyers had requested that he be admitted to a hospital for treatment for AIDS-related cancer and tuberculosis, but the [...]

US District Judge James Ware of the US District Court for the Northern District of California heard arguments Tuesday on the government's motion to dismiss a lawsuit against Jeppesen Dataplan on state secrets grounds. The Justice Department argued that the lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union over Jeppesen's alleged role in the CIA's [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Shubhankar Dam of the Singapore Management University School of Law says that in pursuit of their goals of judicial restoration and political change Pakistan's lawyers may at this stage be well-advised to reconsider the wisdom of boycotting both the courts and forthcoming elections… "In three words I can sum up everything I’ve [...]

The corruption trial of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed was halted Wednesday when the Dhaka High Court ruled that she could not be tried by a special court established under state of emergency rules because the alleged crimes occurred before the national state of emergency was declared last January. Hasina was formally charged [...]

Opponents of a new anti-immigration measure in Farmers Branch, Texas filed a lawsuit Tuesday arguing that the measure was not properly approved. The ordinance was passed by the Dallas suburb's City Council last month, but the suit alleges that it was approved in violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act because the City Council passed [...]

Michele Granda :"The New York State appeals court decision to recognize the valid legal marriage of Patricia Martinez and Lisa Ann Golden contrasts starkly with a recent decision of Rhode Island's Supreme Court on the same issue. Our Nation has faced marriage across state borders for over 200 years, and state-to-state marriage recognition questions are [...]