Canadian Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin told the Canadian Bar Association Saturday that access to the country's legal system needs to be more affordable. She said "the price of justice should not be so dear" and called access to justice a "basic right." In March, a Toronto Star investigation revealed that a three-day civil trial in [...]

US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer told the American Bar Association annual meeting Saturday that he was unhappy with the outcomes of several key Supreme Court cases last term, but said that he still has a strong belief in the rule of law . In his speech, Breyer said: "I'm not going to be in [...]

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Saturday praised Justice Department officials working in Baghdad for their "commitment to the rule of law" and their work to protect "the rights and liberties of Iraqi citizens." On his third trip to Iraq as US Attorney General, Gonzales said : I am pleased to see first-hand … the [...]

A few weeks before passing the Protect America Act 2007 , members of Congress were briefed by intelligence officials that intercepts of foreign-based communications had declined to 25 percent of previous levels due to oversight by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) , the New York Times reported Saturday. Just days before the passage of [...]

The American Bar Association (ABA) is considering a resolution urging President George W. Bush to reconsider his July 20 executive order on interrogations, which two ABA committees say allows the Central Intelligence Agency to be exempted from Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. The proposed resolution also urges the US Congress to enact legislation [...]

The Cuban government on Friday paroled dissident Francisco Chaviano Gonzalez , after the former president of the Cuban National Council for Civil Rights served 13 years in prison. Chaviano was sentenced to 15 years in prison in May 1994 for allegedly "revealing state security secrets" and "falsifying public documents" by documenting cases of refugees who [...]

The US Supreme Court on Friday denied the request of Guantanamo Bay detainee Ahmed Belbacha to stay his transfer to Algeria . Belbacha has been cleared for release from Guantanamo Bay , but he has says that he will be tortured and perhaps killed if returned to Algeria. Belbacha filed the emergency application for a [...]

Lawyers representing exiled business tycoon Boris Berezovsky filed an appeal Friday against the latest arrest warrant issued by a Moscow district court on allegations that Berezovsky embezzled $13 million in credit funds from a bank he formerly owned. The court has also ordered the seizure of Berezovsky's Mediterranean real estate in France, which was allegedly [...]

Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor reiterated allegations Friday that Libyan authorities subjected the six medics to torture during their eight years in Libyan custody on suspicion of deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the HIV virus . The six medics have consistently maintained their innocence, and in testimony before a Bulgarian investigation [...]

The Bush administration Friday announced new reforms that are designed to "address border security and immigration challenges." In a statement Friday, Bush said that the new meausres "represent steps my Administration can take within the boundaries of existing law to better secure our borders, improve worksite enforcement, streamline existing temporary worker programs, and help new [...]