The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday ruled that Germany violated the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights by allowing a lawsuit to continue for 30 years. Jurgen Grasser filed a lawsuit against the city of Saarbrucken in 1974 after the city refused to grant him a building permit for a shopping center [...]

Britain's High Court Thursday quashed the four-week suspension of London Mayor Ken Livingstone , originally handed down by the Adjudication Panel for England in February. The suspension was ordered after Livingstone made controversial comments to a Jewish journalist. A High Court judge overturned the suspension, but did not make an immediate decision on whether the [...]

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an emergency proclamation Wednesday to relieve prison overcrowding by allowing inmates to be transferred to other states. Citing severe overcrowding as a threat to the health and safety in 29 of the state's 33 prisons, Schwarzenegger said: "Our prisons are now beyond maximum capacity, and we must act immediately and [...]

Another Turkish author went on trial Thursday on charges that he "insulted the Turkish identity" in violation of Article 301 of the country's penal code. Ipek Calislar wrote that the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, once left his palace disguised as a woman to evade an assassination attempt. Calislar faces 4.5 years in [...]

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit sharply questioned federal officials Wednesday during oral arguments in the case of a Pakistani man who says he was detained because of his race, religion or national origin soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and tortured while in custody. Javaid Iqbal, [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Kermit Roosevelt of the University of Pennsylvania Law School says that the question of whether the US government can seize aliens and put them beyond the reach of law goes to the heart of who we are and what we want to become… Today, October 5, law schools, colleges and seminaries around [...]

US District Judge Christopher Boyko ruled Wednesday that an Ohio voting rule requiring naturalized citizens to provide proof of citizenship if challenged by poll workers was unconstitutional. The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio assisted a group of citizens in filing a lawsuit to challenge the law in August. Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell [...]

Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said Thursday that the Australian government plans to appeal a court decision giving Aborigines native title to land in the city of Perth, saying the ruling could prevent non-indigenous people from having access to public parks and beaches in the area. Ruddock said the decision could have implications for several similar [...]

Two US Marines charged with the death of an Iraqi civilian in Hamdania pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of murder and kidnapping. Pfc. John Jodka and Cpl. Marshall Magincalda are the first of eight soldiers from the Camp Pendleton military base to be arraigned in the April death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad . The [...]

California v. Dunn, Superior Court of California, October 4, 2006 . Read the full text of the charges . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.