The US Supreme Court handed down decisions in five cases Monday, including Morse v. Frederick , where the Court held that public schools do not violate the First Amendment rights of students by sanctioning them for speech during a school-sanctioned activity that may be reasonably interpreted to promote the use of illegal substances. A high [...]

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Monday declassified a 693-page file detailing the CIA's illegal activities compiled from a comprehensive internal investigation initiated in May, 1973 by then-CIA director James R. Schlesinger following the Watergate scandal . The probe revealed multiple instances of possible illegal detention, burglary, domestic surveillance of American journalists, lawyers and political [...]

Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Ivan Sydoruk has said that the country should police Internet sites to prevent the spread of extremist material, according to the newspaper Kommersant Friday. Extremism has recently been a major concern for Russian politicians due to deadly attacks on dark-skinned foreigners. Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a controversial law [...]

China's National People's Congress Sunday began considering measures to codify legal ethics, improve criminal suspects' access to defense lawyers and evidence, and allowed experienced lawyers to establish individual private law firms. The reforms, which guarantee lawyers the right to meet defendants in all cases with the exception of those involving state secrets, were proposed by [...]

An Egyptian state security court convicted Muhammad Sayed Saber of spying for Israel's Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (Mossad) Monday and sentenced the former Egyptian Atomic Energy Agency employee to life in prison. Two foreign nationals, Brian Peter of Ireland and Shiro Izo of Japan, were convicted in absentia and also sentenced to life [...]

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor continued his boycott Monday of the judicial proceedings against him during the second day of his trial at the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) . Taylor is demanding that the court either allow him to represent himself or obtain a British Queen's Counsel. Taylor fired his court-appointed lawyer [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor David Crane of Syracuse University College of Law, former Chief Prosecutor for the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone, says that the first guilty verdicts handed down by the court for the leaders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council whose fighters destroyed Freetown in January 1999 can bring hope, some reconciliation for [...]

A former Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge criticized US President George W. Bush's warrantless wiretapping program Saturday in an address to the American Library Association's annual convention in Washington. The program has allowed the executive to order wiretaps without seeking court approval. DC-based US District Judge Royce Lamberth , perhaps best known for his involvement [...]

Ali Hassan al-Majid – Saddam Hussein's cousin known to the Western media as "Chemical Ali" – and two other Hussein regime officials received death sentences Sunday for the slaughter of tens of thousands of Kurds during the Anfal campaign of 1988. The Iraqi High Tribunal sentenced two others to life in prison and acquitted a [...]

Hundreds of supporters of suspended Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry gathered in the eastern Pakistan city of Lahore Saturday, showering Chaudhry with rose petals as he prepared to depart to the city of Multan to address a group of lawyers. Supporters and members of the opposition party also waved banners urging Pakistani President Pervez [...]