An investigating officer in the probe of 24 Iraqi civilian deaths at Haditha in November 2005 has recommended that Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani , commander of 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines , should face a court-martial for dereliction of duty and violation of a lawful order, according to a report obtained Wednesday by the Associated [...]

The French National Assembly Thursday approved an overtime reform measure championed by President Nicolas Sarkozy , which if enacted as law, would make overtime pay tax-free and reduce payroll fees for employers. The measure, which supporters say will encourage growth with additional work, would weaken the absolute 35-hour workweek adopted in 2000 under the socialist [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Benjamin Davis of the University of Toledo College of Law says it is a sad day for America when respected legal scholars writing in the New York Times are advocating a separate US judicial regime – what they call a "national security court" – to govern preventative detentions… After reading an op-ed [...]

South Dakota held its first execution in 60 years Wednesday, putting to death 25-year-old Elijah Page . Page was executed under new lethal injection protocols passed in February to ensure that prison wardens have the legal authority to use a three-drug combination instead of a two-drug mixture. South Dakota's 1984 state lethal injection law specified [...]

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen L. Johnson defended last month's EPA proposal to toughen standards for US air quality during testimony at a Wednesday Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works subcommittee hearing . Johnson testified that the current standard does not adequately protect public health. While many Democrats, including chair of Wednesday's [...]

Amnesty International Wednesday called for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to dismiss a UK request for a reconsideration of the absolute ban on torture and coercion in ECHR case law. The court is currently holding hearings in the case of Saadi v. Italy, where Nassim Saadi, a Tunisian national lawfully residing in Italy [...]

A military investigating officer in the case against Lance Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt , accused in the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians at Haditha in November 2005, has recommended dropping all charges against Sharratt according to Wednesday reports. In his Investigating Officer's Report , released by Sharratt's lawyers Tuesday, Ware described the government's allegations that [...]

A Chilean judge rejected a request by Peru Wednesday seeking the extradition of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori , who has been charged in his former country with corruption and human rights violations. In the 122-point rejection, Judge Orlando Alvarez said flimsy evidence led him to reject the grounds for extradition. Alvarez also said the [...]

The European Court of First Instance Wednesday overturned the European Union's freezing of assets against Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) chairman Jose Maria Sison and the Hamas-affiliated al-Aqsa Foundation , finding that the Council did not give its reasons or provide an opportunity for plaintiffs to challenge the legal basis or evidence used to [...]

Iran has opened an investigation into the judge who ordered the stoning execution of a man convicted of adultery , the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported Wednesday. According to ISNA, an unnamed judicial official said the action was in violation of the 2002 directive of judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi and would be [...]