JURIST Guest Columnist Shubhankar Dam of the Singapore Management University School of Law says that in pressing Pakistan's Supreme Court in the direction of greater activism, Pakistan's lawyers embraced a problematic strategy that unintentionally helped to provoke General Pervez Musharraf's recent declaration of emergency rule with all its dire consequences… "I was too cowardly," Phillip [...]

The government of Sudan Sunday announced it had laid criminal charges against 25 opposition politicians. The announcement came one month after the country's Court of Appeal rejected a request for the release of the members of the opposition Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Umma Party for Reform and Renewal. The charges include illegal possession [...]

The US Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to decide this week if a bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) will grant immunity from prosecution to telecommunications companies that assisted in government eavesdropping between 2001 and 2007. The bill would replace the Protect America Act 2007 (PAA) , legislation passed in August that [...]

US Army Staff Sgt. Michael Hensley was acquitted at court-martial late last week of premeditated murder charges related to the separate deaths of three Iraqi civilians in April and May this year in the vicinity of Iskandariyah , according to a statement issued by the US military Saturday. He was, however, convicted under Article 134 [...]

Two Pakistani bar leaders warned Sunday that the government of President Pervez Musharraf is drafting papers to get Musharraf's declaration of emergency and Provisional Constitution Order validated by the new Supreme Court put in place by Musharraf after proclaiming emergency rule. Former Supreme Court Bar Association president Hamid Khan and Vice Chairperson of the Pakistan [...]

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accused the US military on Sunday of thwarting Iraqi attempts to execute Ali Hassan al-Majid , better known in Western media as "Chemical Ali," and two other former members of Saddam Hussein's former regime. The Iraqi Prime Minister said the US embassy in Iraq had played an "unfortunate role" in [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Paulo Sergio Pinheiro flew into Myanmar on Sunday to investigate the military government's crackdown on protesters going on since September. Pinheiro's trip comes three weeks after the junta in Myanmar agreed to allow the UN rights expert into the country. He has been blocked from visiting Myanmar since 2003. [...]

Is Human Reproductive Cloning Inevitable: Future Options for UN Governance, UN University – Institute of Advanced Studies, November 10, 2007 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Sunday that Pakistan would hold anticipated parliamentary elections before January 9, but set no time limit to the emergency rule he declared a week ago. At a press conference in Islamabad Musharraf claimed the state of emergency was necessary to ensure a fair election and for fighting Taliban and al [...]

United Nations researchers called for a global ban on human cloning in a report issued Saturday. The United Nations University Institute for Advanced Studies did not call for a ban on all types of cloning, recommending that therapeutic cloning for research purpose be allowed to continue, but did strongly recommend the outlawing of reproductive cloning. [...]