A classic legislative tug-of-war between the UK House of Lords and House of Commons continued Monday as peers once again sent the controversial Identity Cards Bill back to MPs after a majority of 36 voted to keep the cards voluntary through 2011, overriding a Commons-endorsed government plan to require ID registration for all British citizens [...]

United States v. Quattrone, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, March 20, 2006 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

French labor and student groups Monday called a day of strikes for March 28 after the French goverment refused to withdraw its recently passed First Employment Contract (CPE) , which allows French employers to hire workers under the age of 26 for a conditional two-year period during which they can be fired without cause. A [...]

The court-appointed advocates for the late Slobodan Milosevic have asked the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to release secret medical files that may provide further information on Milosevic's death. British barristers Steven Kay and Gillian Higgins say they are acting at the behest of Milosevic's son Marko. Milosevic died at The Hague earlier [...]

International Election Observation Mission: Presidential Election, Republic of Belarus, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, March 21, 2006 . Excerpt: It is clear that this election did not meet OSCE commitments and international electoral standards. The arbitrary abuse of state power, obviously designed to protect the incumbent President, went far beyond acceptable practice. The [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday heard oral arguments on whether unsworn non-testimonial statements made by crime victims to 911 operators or to police officers at crime scenes are inadmissible at trials of criminal defendants. In the cases of Davis v. Washington and Hammon v. Indiana , the Court focused on whether the rights of [...]

A Somali advocacy group claimed Monday that the US Navy was illegally present in Somali waters when its ships launched an unprovoked attack on a small vessel over the weekend, taking twelve occupants into custody. The Navy said the vessel was being investigated for suspected piracy when it unexpectedly fired shots at the USS Cape [...]

A federal appeals court has overturned the conviction of Frank Quattrone , one of the dot-com era's most prominent investment bankers, on charges of obstruction of justice and witness tampering on the grounds that the jury instructions were erroneous, court officials said Monday. Quattrone, who made as much as $120 million in a single year [...]

A District Court in Belgrade said Monday it would close an outstanding case against late Yugoslav ex-president Slobodan Milosevic for "organizing the murder" of former Serbian president Ivan Stambolic, according to private news agency BETA . A court spokesman said the case, which opened in 2004 , will be closed as soon as a death [...]

The US Supreme Court declined certiorari in several high-profile appeals Monday but did not agree to consider any new cases. In Tucker v. United States, the Court refused to consider the appeal of former Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker , who wanted to withdraw his 1998 guilty plea to tax conspiracy in connection with the [...]