US District Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the Southern District of New York on Thursday ordered the Defense Department to release uncensored transcripts, including detainee names, of 317 Combatant Status Review Tribunal hearings held at Guantanamo Bay . In January, Rakoff ordered the Pentagon to reveal the detainees' names , rejecting the Defense Department's argument [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist David Crane of Syracuse University College of Law, former Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, says that the Iraqi Special Tribunal currently trying Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity may be losing its one opportunity to show Iraqis that the rule of law is more powerful than the rule [...]

As questioning of potential jurors winds down, defense lawyers for al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui have expressed concern about the possibility of a jury stacked with individuals connected to Sept. 11 victims. Moussaoui pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy charges in connection with the September 11 attacks, and a jury will now decide whether he [...]

A military jury acquitted US Army Sgt. Alan J. Driver Thursday on charges of prisoner abuse at Bagram Control Point in Afghanistan . Driver was the last of 11 soldiers from 377 Military Police Company to be charged in connection with allegations of prisoner abuse at the Afghan facility. The jury deliberated for only fifteen [...]

Response of Microsoft Corporation to the Statement of Objections by the European Commission Dated 21 December 2005, February 15, 2006; released February 23, 2006 . Read the response and associated documents from Microsoft. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Draft resolution by the President of the UN General Assembly: Human Rights Council . Read the full text of the draft resolution . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Lawyers defending former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein , on trial before the Iraqi High Criminal Court, have filed a formal motion seeking the disqualification of chief judge Rauf Abdel-Rahman . Abdel-Rahman began presiding over the trial last month after his predecessor resigned amid criticism that he had been too lenient during proceedings. Ramsey Clark, a [...]

Microsoft Thursday made a symbolic response to a new antitrust complaint filed with the European Commission by IBM, Oracle, Sun Microsystems and six other companies by taking the unusual step of posting online its full 78-page defense against a Commission complaint that it had not complied with a 2004 EC antitrust ruling mandating the production [...]

UN General Assembly President Jan Eliasson on Thursday unveiled a draft proposal for a new United Nations human rights body that would replace the highly criticized Commission on Human Rights . The blueprint describes a 47-member Human Rights Council whose membership would be open to all UN member states. States would be elected to the [...]

UK Human Rights: A Broken Promise, Amnesty International, February 23, 2006 . Read the full text of the report. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.