A Chilean appeals court has dropped tax evasion charges against the widow and two children of former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet . In a decision Wednesday, the Santiago Court of Appeals upheld charges against Pinochet's youngest son and two of his lawyers and also dropped other charges against Pinochet's relatives for acting as accomplices [...]

The government of France has said that it will recognize a citizen's legal right to housing . In a statement Wednesday, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said a draft law would implement the right in two stages, for the most needy by the end of 2008 and for others with insufficient housing by 2012. [...]

Number 29/c/2006, Iraqi High Tribunal, December 26, 2006, as translated into English and made available January 3, 2007. Read the full text of the judgment translated into English via Grotian Moment, the Saddam Hussein trial blog at Case Western Law School.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted criminal background checks of adverse witnesses ahead of US Senate confirmation hearings for the late William Rehnquist in respect of his nominations as Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court and later Chief Justice at the behest of two Republican administrations in the 1970s and 1980s, according [...]

Two Iraqi Justice Ministry guards are now being questioned in connection with the taping and release of a camera phone video showing the execution of Saddam Hussein , according to Iraqi lawmaker Sami al-Askeri. Iraqi officials said Wednesday that an official who supervised the execution was also arrested in connection to making the video, but [...]

Members of the 110th Congress sworn in Thursday are preparing for votes on numerous pieces of key legislation scheduled by incoming Democratic leaders of the new US House of Representatives for their first 100 legislative hours in office beginning next Tuesday. Most notably, incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and incoming House Majority [...]

The executions of two Saddam Hussein co-defendants, former chief judge of Iraq's Hussein-era Revolutionary Court Awad Hamed al-Bandar and former Iraqi intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al Tikriti , have been postponed. The hangings were originally expected Thursday , but an official in Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office said the delay was the result of [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Lawrence Douglas, Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought at Amherst College, says that the cell phone video of the Saddam Hussein execution has revealed it to be an exercise in revenge, not justice… Given that virtually everything associated with America’s woebegone invasion of Iraq has turned into an unmitigated disaster, was [...]

Detainees Positive Responses, US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), September 2004, released in response to a FOIA request by the American Civil Liberties Union, January 2, 2007 . Read the full text of the report. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission Report, January 2007 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.