The UN signed an agreement Tuesday to create an international tribunal to try suspects accused of assassinating former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005. The agreement must now be ratified by the Lebanese parliament . Nabih Berri , the pro-Syrian speaker of parliament, opposes the Hariri tribunal and has refused to convene parliament, [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Kenneth Port of William Mitchell College of Law says that the looming amendment of Japan's so-called "pacifist" constitution to overtly allow greater Japanese military involvement in world affairs may prove to be one of the more tragic consequences of the so-called war on terror… Although few in the West realize it, the [...]

Opening arguments were heard on Wednesday in a defamation action brought by the Paris Mosque and the Union of Islamic Organizations of France against Charlie-Hebdo magazine and director Philippe Val for last year's republication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad originally published in a Danish newspaper in September 2005. The lawsuit alleges that by republishing [...]

Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs called on four of the largest record companies who distribute their music through iTunes to allow Apple to sell music without anti-piracy protection in an letter placed on Apple's website Tuesday. Jobs presented a series of "alternatives" for the future of digital music sold through Apple, and encouraged record companies [...]

Paris Commitments to protect children from unlawful recruitment or use by armed forces or armed groups, February 6, 2007 . Read the full text of the Commitments. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The US Army on Tuesday set a trial date for Lt. Col. Steven Lee Jordan , the only military officer to face charges in connection with abuses of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq . In July 2008, Jordan will face a court-martial for seven violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice [...]

US Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced a bill Tuesday entitled the "Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2007" designed to protect the personal information of American consumers. The legislation resembles a bill Leahy co-sponsored with then-Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) in 2005, which was not enacted in the [...]

Dukes v. Wal-Mart, Inc., US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, February 6, 2006 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Murat Kurnaz , a Turkish citizen born in Germany and formerly held at Guantanamo Bay , plans to request the release of secret military documents pertaining to his detention, according to his lawyer as reported in Wednesday's Der Tagesspiegel . Kurnaz seeks the documents in relation to a lawsuit he filed in December against the [...]

The Ku Klux Klan is experiencing "a surprising and troubling resurgence" largely on the issue of Hispanic immigration, according to a report released Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) . In addition to exploiting fears of non-white immigration, the KKK is also using gay marriage and urban crime to fuel the recent growth of existing [...]