At a hearing in Washington Thursday US District Judge Gladys Kessler questioned the treatment of Mohammed Bawazir, a former hunger striker at Guantanamo Bay eventually force-fed in treatment his lawyers say was torture contrary to the terms of the Detainee Treatment Act (DTA) . Bawazir, from Yemen, claims that he gave up his hunger strike [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist Todd Peppers of Roanoke College, author of the forthcoming book Courtiers of the Marble Palace: The Rise and Influence of Supreme Court Law Clerks (Stanford University Press, 2006) says that although Justice Samuel Alito's recent hiring of former John Ashcroft aide and Time Warner VP Adam G. Ciongoli as a law [...]

Russian civil aviation pilots have drafted an address to President Vladimir Putin expressing concern over a provision in a new anti-terrorism bill allowing for the shooting-down of hijacked planes. The bill was passed last month by the Russian Duma and approved earlier this week by the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament. [...]

Italian Justice Minister Roberto Castelli has accused Milan prosecutors of unlawfully pressuring him to request the extradition from the US of 22 CIA agents allegedly responsible for the 2003 kidnapping and extraordinary rendition of Egyptian cleric Moustafa Hassan Nasr . Castelli made the accusation after receiving a prosecutors' letter urging action on their original extradition [...]

A Moscow court on Thursday granted incarcerated Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky more access to his lawyers, allowing consultation with them during prison working hours. Khodorkovsky, the former owner of a Russian oil giant Yukos , has been jailed for tax fraud and is serving his sentence at a Siberian prison. In January, Khodorkovsky petitioned against [...]

Russia's Prosecutor General has requested that the British government extradite business tycoon Boris Berezovsky on charges of plotting a coup against Russian President Vladimir Putin . In an interview with a Russian radio station in January, Berezovsky labeled Putin's regime as 'anti-constitutional' and having 'lost all legitimacy', advocating the forceful removal of Putin from office. [...]

Balvir Singh Multani and Balvir Singh Multani, in his capacity as tutor to his minor son Gurbaj Singh Multani v. Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys and Attorney General of Quebec, Supreme Court of Canada, March 2, 2006 . Read the full text of the judgment. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Ali Hamza Ahmad Sulayman al Bahlul , a Guantanamo detainee from Yemen charged with conspiring to commit murder, to attack civilians and civilian objects, and terrorism, boycotted his military commission hearing again Thursday, this time on the grounds that the attorney appointed to defend him, US Army Major Tom Fleener , is his enemy and [...]

The Georgia Senate passed a bill Thursday that would allow Georgians to use deadly force when they feel threatened in public areas. Bill 396 extends Georgia's current law by extending the right to use deadly force beyond private property, saying that citizens have no duty to retreat even if it is possible to do so [...]

The US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 12-1 Thursday to send a lobbying oversight bill to the full Senate, but the bill was stripped of a provision establishing an independent office with oversight over congressional ethics issues. The Lobbying Transparency and Accountability Act of 2005 as approved would expand the definition of [...]