US District Judge Susan Illston of the Northern District of California on Wednesday blocked the enforcement of provisions of Proposition 83 , a measure approved Tuesday by 70 percent of state voters that prohibits registered sex offenders from residing "within 2,000 feet of any public or private school or park where children regularly gather." Illston [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Wednesday applauded the resignation of US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as a "step in the right direction" and urged Congress to launch an investigation into his alleged abuses of power. ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said in a statement: Rumsfeld is responsible for the torture and abuse [...]

Martha Stewart , her company and its insurers are expecting to pay $30 million to settle a class action lawsuit regarding Stewart's 2001 sale of ImClone Systems stocks one day before an FDA announcement resulted in a significant drop in the stock's value, according to the company's quarterly report filed with US Securities and Exchange [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist Giovanni Di Stefano, an Italian lawyer who has represented Saddam Hussein and former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, says that the recent trial of Hussein and seven co-defendants for crimes against humanity in Dujail is problematic not only as regards Saddam, but also in its conviction of Awad Hamad al-Bandar, [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Marjorie Cohn of Thomas Jefferson School of Law, president of the National Lawyers Guild, says that although Donald Rumsfeld is resigning as US Secretary of Defense, steps should be and will be taken to hold him accountable for breaches of international law and even war crimes sanctioned in Iraq and Guantanamo during [...]

Thai Defense Minister Boonrawd Somtas said Thursday that newly installed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont will likely lift martial law before he leaves for an international summit in Vietnam on November 18. Thailand has been under martial law since the Thai military seized power from former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a bloodless coup in September. [...]

China has convicted almost all criminal defendants who have come before the courts over the last nine years, the People's Court Daily reported Thursday. From January 1998 through September 2006, 6.2 million criminal defendants were tried with only 41,038 of them acquitted, representing just 0.66 percent. Chinese judges came together this week for its first [...]

The French parliament may soon consider a draft bill proposing the addition of class action lawsuits to France's legal system after French Minister of Economy, Finance, and Industry Thierry Breton introduced the legislation at a weekly cabinet meeting Wednesday. Currently, an association can collectively represent French consumers, but each claimant must be named individually in [...]

The genocide trial of Saddam Hussein for allegedly killing 100,000 Kurds in the "Anfal" campaigns in the late 1980s was adjourned Wednesday just one day after it had resumed . The trial of Saddam and six co-defendants, including Ali Hassan al-Majid , also known in the Western media as "Chemical Ali", is now scheduled to [...]

An unnamed registered sex offender filed a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday seeking to block California Proposition 83 , a measure approved Tuesday by 70 percent of state voters that would prohibit registered sex offenders from residing "within 2,000 feet of any public or private school or park where children regularly gather." The proposition also [...]