In a report to the UN Security Council Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed "serious concern" with the slow progress in implementing eight benchmarks set by the UN for Kosovo , which Annan attributed to the intimidation of judges, corruption and security issues. Annan wrote: Intimidation threatens the rule of law and the justice institutions [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Valerie Vollmar of Willamette University College of Law says that the recent US Supreme Court ruling upholding Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide law is a major step towards ensuring dignified choices to terminally ill Oregonians… On January 17, 2006, the United States Supreme Court issued a 6-to-3 decision in Gonzales v. Oregon upholding Oregon’s [...]

At his annual news conference Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin defended a new Russian law restricting the activities of domestic and foreign-based non-governmental organizations – including a number of international human rights groups – and subjecting them to stringent financial disclosure requirements. The controversial law, signed January 10 but not made public until a week [...]

State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush, January 31, 2006. Read the full text of the Address. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

President Bush Tuesday evening used the occasion of his 2006 State of the Union address to insist again on the legality of his domestic surveillance program and to celebrate the recent confirmations of two of his nominees to the US Supreme Court. On surveillance, he declared:It is said that prior to the attacks of September [...]

Planned Parenthood Federation of America v. Gonzales et al., US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, January , 2005 . Excerpt: This appeal presents a challenge to the constitutionality of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, Pub. L. No. 108-105, 117 Stat. 1201 (codified at 18 U.S.C. § 1531). We, like every other federal court [...]

An act to amend Section 8314 of, and to add Section 8314.5 to, theGovernment Code, relating to public agencies; passed by the California Senate, January 30, 2006 . Read the full text of the bill . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a stay on the execution of Florida inmate and convicted murderer Arthur Rutherford , who claims that the Florida execution procedure violates Eighth Amendment guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment. The Court will not lift the order until after it decides the case of another Florida death row [...]

The US Second Circuit and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals ruled in two separate decisions Tuesday that the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act is unconstitutional because it does not provide an exception for the health of the mother. The Ninth Circuit struck down the law 3-0 and issued an injunction against its enforcement, while the Second [...]

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a report disclosed Tuesday that a set of documents now possessed by Iran is unequivocally intended for use in manufacturing nuclear weapons. The documents, which allegedly explain how "enriched, natural and depleted uranium" is processed "into hemispherical forms," were given to Iran by black market suppliers and [...]