Executive Order: Interpretation of the Geneva Conventions Common Article 3 as Applied to a Program of Detention and Interrogation Operated by the Central Intelligence Agency , President George W. Bush, July 20, 2007 . Read the full text of the order. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) heard oral arguments on the legal status of detainees at Guantanamo Bay on Friday, pursuant to a petition to renew precautionary measures initially granted in March 2002. Representatives from the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Center for Justice and International Law argued that the continued detention of [...]

Israel released 255 Palestinian prisoners Friday who belong to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Movement and other minor factions. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the prisoners were not directly involved in the killing or wounding of Israelis, and that all released prisoners were required to sign a pledge not to participate in [...]

A senior White House official said Thursday that the administration will not allow the Department of Justice to pursue any contempt of Congress charges brought against White House officials in the congressional probe of the US Attorneys firing scandal . The official said that Congress has no independent authority to force the US Attorney for [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Thursday that the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) must pay retroactive benefits to Vietnam War veterans afflicted by chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) , rejecting the VA's contention that it is not required to re-adjudicate or provide benefits to veterans afflicted with the disease before 2003 [...]

Nuon Chea , former deputy general of the Cambodian Communist Party and the most senior surviving member of the Khmer Rouge regime, indicated Thursday that he expects to appear before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) . In an interview with AP, Nuon Chea, also known as Brother No. 2, denied any [...]

Ali Khan : "In the Constitutional Petition No. 21 of 2007 (Chief Justice Chaudhry v. The President of Pakistan), a unanimous Supreme Court of 13 Justices has declared that the President's Order to suspend the Chief Justice is "ultra vires of the Constitution . . . and passed without lawful authority." Three Justices have held [...]

Constitution petitions ruling, Supreme Court of Pakistan, July 20, 2007 . Read the full text of the court's order . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on Thursday approved the Protecting Children from Indecent Programming Act , which, if enacted, will give the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) broader authority to sanction television and radio broadcasters for a single word or image that the FCC considers indecent. The proposed legislation seeks to undo [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Haider Ala Hamoudi of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law says that the much-discussed ideological divide between Shi'is and Sunnis in Iraq is actually more subtle and complex than is usually depicted… There has been a great deal of focus in the news recently on what the difference is between a [...]