A leading member of the Catholic Church expressed concern Thursday that the Church could be prosecuted for some of its traditional religious positions against abortion, same-sex marriage and stem cell research . In an interview with leading Italian Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana , the head of the Pontifical Council for the Family Cardinal Alfonso Lopez [...]

South Korea's Constitutional Court on Thursday struck down as unconstitutional provisions in the controversial Newspaper Law and the Press Arbitration Law that restrict the circulation of three conservative daily newspapers and authorize the government to compel newspaper retractions without a court order. The Wednesday ruling is based on Article 21 of the Korean Constitution , [...]

Franco Frattini , the EU commissioner for justice, freedom and security, has proposed that national governments of EU member states shift regulation of law enforcement cooperation, cross-border policing and basic rights for criminal suspects to the European level. Referencing the "bridging" clause found in Article 42 of the EU Treaty, Frattini said that EU member [...]

The UN's top humanitarian expert told the UN Security Council Wednesday that immediate action must to be taken to prevent civilian deaths in ongoing armed conflicts in several countries. Jan Egeland , UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said that "In Iraq, Sudan, Uganda, Somalia, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, civilians continue to [...]

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, Supreme Court of the United States, June 29, 2006 . Excerpt from the Opinion by Justice Stevens: Petitioner Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni national, is in custody at an American prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In November 2001, during hostilities between the United States and the Taliban (which then governed Afghanistan), Hamdan [...]

Clark v. Arizona, Supreme Court of the United States, June 29, 2006 . Read the Court's majority opinion per Justice Souter, along with a concurrence in part and dissent in part from Justice Breyer, and a dissent from Justice Kennedy, joined by Justices Stevens and Ginsburg. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The Campaign Against Impunity , a group of 300 African and international civil society bodies, has urged the African Union Assembly to call on Senegal to try former Chad President Hissene Habre , Human Rights Watch said Thursday. The AU will meet in Gambia on July 1 to review a confidential report by an AU [...]

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic ordered the 2000 killing of communist-era Serbian President Ivan Stambolic , his former mentor, to consolidate his hold on power in the former Yugoslavia, Serbia's Supreme Court said in a ruling Thursday that rejected the appeal of eight policemen convicted in 2005 in connection with the plot whose sentences were [...]

A federal judge in Los Angeles has given preliminary approval to a settlement in a class-action lawsuit alleging that Yahoo! Inc. overcharged for pay-per-click advertising. As part of the agreement, approved Wednesday by US District Judge Christina Snyder of the Central District of California , Yahoo will offer a claims process overseen by a retired [...]

A group of nine low-income citizens filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Wednesday seeking to enjoin legislation requiring proof of citizenship for Medicaid beneficiaries from taking effect on July 1. Families USA sued US Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt arguing that the citizenship proof requirement [...]