The South African Constitutional Court Tuesday dismissed the final appeal of businessman Schabir Shaik, a former business associate of former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma , who was seeking to have his 2005 conviction for fraud and corruption overturned. The court found no merit in Shaik's allegations that his trial was unfair. The Court [...]

American Historical Association, et al., v. National Archives and Records Administration, US District Court for the District of Columbia, October 1, 2007 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Jack Landman Goldsmith , former head of the US Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel and now a Harvard Law School professor, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday that he "could not find the legal support for" portions of the Bush Administration's controversial domestic surveillance program during his tenure with DOJ. Goldsmith nonetheless [...]

The Director of Administration of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) , the court established to try former Khmer Rouge leaders, agreed late Monday to make public the text of a controversial audit of the ECCC's human resources practices. The audit was authorized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in February [...]

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said Monday that he plans to disband the Ecuadorean congress and rewrite the country's constitution . Correa's statement comes only a day after unofficial results in the Constitutional Assembly elections indicated a landslide victory for his leftist coalition. Correa plans to push for a constitution free of foreign influence and to [...]

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the US District for the District of Columbia ruled Monday that the National Archives cannot rely on an executive order by President George W. Bush that permits former presidents and vice-presidents to delay the release of administration records. Executive Order 13,233 , issued by Bush in November 2001 purportedly to further [...]

Former US Army Reserve Staff Sergeant Ivan "Chip" Frederick was released on parole Monday from a military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was incarcerated for three years after pleading guilty to abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib detention facility in Iraq . Frederick pleaded guilty to five charges of abusing inmates in 2004, [...]

Lawyers representing the opposition Pakistani Peoples Party filed new petitions at the Supreme Court of Pakistan Tuesday challenging President Pervez Musharraf's bid to run for another term in office. The opposition members argue that the Election Commission of Pakistan should not have formally accepted Musharraf's nomination as a presidential candidate because of his dual role [...]

US District Judge Charles R. Breyer of the Northern District of California extended a temporary restraining order Monday blocking the implementation of a new US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regulations intended to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to obtain US employment. The stricter rules, announced in August and originally slated to take [...]

UN special envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari met with opposition leader and democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi and with top Myanmar military leader Senior General Than Shwe during separate meetings Tuesday to discuss the rising political crisis in Myanmar, according to reports from foreign diplomats. Suu Kyi was released from house arrest on Sunday [...]