The Australian Senate on Thursday debated a proposed bill to remove power from the federal executive to overturn laws passed by the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) federal district. The new bill was proposed after Australia Governor-General Michael Jeffrey allowed the federal government to effectively veto the controversial Civil Unions Bill 2006 , which the ACT [...]

Abdullah al-Amiri, the Shiite judge presiding over the second Saddam Hussein trial , said in court Thursday that he did not believe Hussein should be called a dictator, just one day after the prosecution requested that al-Amiri remove himself from the case for reasons of bias. In an exchange with Hussein during the questioning of [...]

Migrants, asylum seekers and refugees face deportation and human rights abuses in Libya, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a new report released Wednesday. The monitoring group found that Libya has repatriated 145,000 foreigners between 2003 and 2005, despite the possibility that they will face persecution or torture in their home countries. Migrants, mostly from [...]

A court in Indonesia Thursday convicted a fourth man of being involved in the October 2005 bombings of three restaurants in Bali which killed 26 civilians and injured over 100 people. The Denpasar district court sentenced Anif Solchanudin to 15 years in prison for his role in helping to plan the attacks. The former cell [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist John Bickers of Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University, says that for all the attention being paid to the procedures proposed for new US military commissions, how those procedures are used – who is to be tried, and when – is a far more vital issue… Since President Bush’s September 6 [...]

Netherlands Minister of Justice Piet Hein Donner Wednesday defended controversial comments he made during an interview suggesting that if a large majority of the Dutch people wanted to be ruled by Islamic law, then that couldn't be legally prevented. The comments drew intense criticism from opposition politicians who have opposed the potential implementation of what [...]

Amnesty International Thursday released a report accusing Hezbollah of violating international law by deliberately and indiscriminately killing Israeli civilians through its firing of rockets into Israel during the 34-day Middle East conflict . The rights group said Hezbollah militants committed war crimes when they failed to distinguish between civilian and military areas when launching thousands [...]

The Role of Judges in a Modern Democracy, UK Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer Magna Carta Lecture, Sydney, Australia, September 13, 2006 . Read the full text of the speech. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Valerie Plame, the undercover operative whose revealed identity precipitated the CIA leak case , and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, have now sued former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage for serving as the primary source responsible for disclosing Plame's CIA affiliation to columnist Robert Novak in the summer of 2003. Armitage confirmed last [...]

The US House Armed Services Committee approved its version of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 Wednesday, a bill that would permit the use of military commissions for terror detainees and enemy combatants. President Bush presented the legislation to Congress last Friday. Meanwhile, Sen. John Warner (R-VA) , chairman of the US Senate Armed Services [...]