The Ecuadorian Congress will debate Tuesday whether to begin impeachment proceedings against embattled President Lucio Gutierrez . Gutierrez has come under fire for dissolving the Ecuador Supreme Court last December and stacking the court with his supporters and then again attempting to dismiss the Supreme Court last week . Over the weekend, Ecuador's congress voted [...]

Pushing for Serbian membership in the European Union by 2010, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus said Monday that Serbia has issued arrest warrants for suspects indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and will extradite suspects it captures to the UN tribunal in The Hague. EU officials have urged closer co-operation [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Kristen Stilt of the University of Washington School of Law says that official US emphasis on the urgency of the forthcoming Iraqi constitutional process overlooks the fundamental question of whether such a process, undertaken now, will in fact be good for Iraq… On January 30, 2005, Iraqi voters elected a 275-member National [...]

The Moscow Arbitration Court has frozen the main assets of Russian oil company Yukos as part of an $11 billion lawsuit against Yukos brought by Rosneft , the state oil company that now owns former Yukos subsidiary Yuganskneftegaz. Rosneft is seeking to recover $6 billion for losses that Yukos caused Yugansk by buying oil at [...]

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Tuesday, April 18. The US Supreme Court hears oral arguments in two cases beginning at 10 AM ET today. In the first, Bradshaw v. Stumpf , 04-637, the Court consider whether an explanation by defense counsel of the elements of [...]

Emil Alperin et al. v. Vatican Bank, United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit, April 19, 2005 . Excerpt: A group of twenty-four individuals and four organizations (the "Holocaust Survivors") claim that the Vatican Bank, known by its official title Istituto per le Opere di Religione, the Order of Friars Minor and the [...]

Citing allegedly unfair rulings by a US District Court judge Barbara Jones, former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers , convicted in March of orchestrating an $11 billion accounting fraud that led to the telecommunications giant's downfall, is seeking a new trial. Attorneys for Ebbers claim that the judge wrongfully refused to grant immunity to three potential [...]

How Good are US Elections? Public hearing by the Carter-Baker Commission for Federal Election Reform, April 18, 2005. Read prepared testimony of witnesses. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Following heated confirmation hearings last week, a showdown vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set for Tuesday over John Bolton , President Bush's nominee for the UN ambassador. Bolton has been characterized by his critics as hot-tempered and abusive of subordinates, and has been accused of concealing information from superiors in the State [...]

The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that claims against the Vatican Bank made by Eastern European survivors of the Holocaust should be heard in federal court. While Supreme Court decisions restrict the roles federal courts may assume in international matters, the Ninth Circuit ruling upheld the suit in light of the need [...]