Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has approved amendments to the country's constitution that allow the government to nationalize white-owned farms and impose travel bans on those deemed anti-government. Critics say the land-law changes will prevent white farmers from being able to challenge any property seizure of their land while the travel bans function as a tool [...]

Over 100 Massachusetts lawmakers plan to vote against a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage in the state and create civil unions, according to an AP poll. The survey conducted between September 6-9 found 104 lawmakers who plan to vote against the proposed amendment, scheduled for a vote Wednesday. Same-sex marriage has been [...]

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty told the Canadian Press Sunday that he will not let his province use Shariah (Islamic law) to settle family disputes involving Muslims, such as divorce and child custody issues. A 2004 Ontario government report discussed the possibility of applying Islamic law to the settlement of family disputes, and the proposal led [...]

As the US Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings on John Roberts' nomination as the next Chief Justice of the United States, JURIST Guest Columnist Bruce Miller, Professor of Law at Western New England College of Law, says the Court's federalism rulings over the last two decades helped to create a legal climate that impaired the [...]

The US Senate Judiciary Committee will begin its confirmation hearings Monday for John Roberts , nominated by President Bush to serve as the 17th Chief Justice of the United States in the wake of the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist . The hearings will mark the first US Supreme Court confirmation hearing in 11 [...]

Lawyers for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein will argue that he has been denied due process of law when his trial begins next month on charges stemming from the killings of 143 Shiite residents of the town of Dujail . London-based lawyer Abdel Haq Alani, part of Hussein's reformed defense team, said Hussein has been [...]

Both Iraqi and UN officials said Sunday that they were unsure when a final draft of the Iraqi constitution would be printed as last-minute negotiations over revisions dragged on. With only 5 weeks remaining before the October 15 referendum on the draft and five million copies of the document still to be distributed, a UN [...]

Guards at a New Orleans jail fled their posts after Hurricane Katrina struck, leaving prisoners behind in appalling conditions, according to Australian tourist interviewed for the Sydney Sunday Telegraph. Ashley Macdonald was arrested for being drunk and disorderly and was thrown in jail just before the hurricane hit New Orleans. He described a chaotic situation [...]

Last-minute talks continued Sunday at the UN as an intergovernmental negotiating group struggled to finalize a text to be submitted to the UN's 2005 World Summit , scheduled to begin Wednesday. The group is working to prepare a platform of agreed UN reforms , but UN diplomats have said that proposed amendments by the US [...]

The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) issued a joint report with 21 other rights groups Saturday on last week's Egyptian presidential elections , concluding that although up to 15 percent of the votes cast may be questionable, there was lass fraud in Egypt's first ever contested elections than in past ballots. Monitors reported widespread [...]