Following up on an international story reported earlier on JURIST's Paper Chase, Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko appeared before opposition members of parliament Tuesday and declared himself president in the wake of a disputed election. Yuschenko read the oath of office before a 200,000-strong crowd of supporters gathered outside parliament. Official results of the election [...]

Lawyers for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's former driver and alleged al Qaeda member, have asked the US Supreme Court to hear their challenge to the government's strategy in holding military commissions for detainees at Guantanamo Bay. In a ruling handed down earlier this month, US District Judge James Robertson blocked Hamdan's trial, saying [...]

In Tuesday's corporations and securities law news, American International Group Inc. (AIG) announced it has submitted a settlement offer to the SEC and reached an agreement with the Department of Justice over an investigation into the financial services company's dealings with PNC Financial Services Group and Brightpoint Inc. The SEC is specifically investigating whether AIG [...]

Presenting the legislative agenda for the 2004-2005 session of Parliament, the British government has pledged to introduce "legislation to increase security for all." In the Queen's speech, read Tuesday morning, proposals to create a "British FBI," introduce a national ID card system and extend the taking of DNA samples from prisoners were announced. A draft [...]

The International Conference on Iraq opened Tuesday in Egypt, addressing security concerns, election procedures, and the insurgency problems the fledgling democracy faces. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the world to support the election process in Iraq, as well as speed up the actual production of the $30 billion (USD) that has been promised for [...]

Reacting to a new report concluding that federal enforcement of civil rights laws declined sharply during the Bush administration, a Justice Department spokesman has said that "this administration believes in and has vigorously enforced the criminal civil rights laws." The study, released by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, concluded that federal prosecutors filed charges [...]

Iraq's Interim Defense Minister Hazim Shaalan told Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat Tuesday that Saddam Hussein will go on trial for crimes against humanity before the end of the year. Shaalan also said that the deteriorating security situation in Iraq was impeding the collection of evidence against Saddam and other former Iraqi officials. Saddam will tried [...]

In response to last week's assassination of a top Venezuelan prosecutor, President Hugo Chavez has ordered government ministries to urgently devise and implement a plan to combat terrorism. Former police inspector Ivan Simonovis has been detained in the investigation of the assassination of Danilo Anderson, who was prosecuting a case against 400 political figures and [...]

Lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights and the New York chapter of the National Lawyers Guild have filed a class action suit against New York city officials, saying the officials violated the constitutional rights of protestors by orchestrating massive arrests and detentions during the Republican National Convention. Initially filed on behalf of twenty-three people, [...]

In Tuesday's environmental law news, signatories of the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer meet this week to discuss the progress that has been made in the reduction of ozone depleting substances (ODS). It is expected that at least 17 developed countries will ask for an extension of the final phase [...]