JURIST Guest Columnist Clark Lombardi of the University of Washington School of Law says that given the ambiguous and open-ended nature of the draft Iraqi constitution, its approval in the October 15 referendum would only mark the start of much more hard work to establish a functional, peaceful and united Iraqi state … Later this [...]

New York Times reporter Judith Miller is set Wednesday to go back for a second round of testimony before a federal grand jury probing the 2003 leak of the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame by White House sources after her husband, US ambassador Joseph Wilson, publicly questioned the Bush Administration's handling of pre-war Iraq [...]

Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the independence of judges and lawyers, August 31, 2005, released October 10, 2005 . Excerpt: At the time of writing (August 2005), the Special Rapporteur is concerned about the judicial proceedings taking place before the Iraqi Special Tribunal. Despite the commitment and personal [...]

Lawyers representing Rep. Tom DeLay Tuesday subpoenaed Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle in order to show that the Texas prosecutor acted improperly with grand jurors in seeking indictments against DeLay on conspiracy and money-laundering charges. DeLay's attorney has submitted a list of 12 questions for Earle to answer, including why a decision by a [...]

In what some Iraqi officials are calling a "breakthrough," Shiite and Kurdish leaders of the Iraqi government have agreed to allow the country's parliament to review possible future amendments to the Iraqi constitution , a demand considered key to winning the support of Iraq's minority Sunni population in the upcoming October 15 referendum . Under [...]

Israel is depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights using security as an excuse, a top United Nations official told reporters Tuesday. Hina Jilani , special representative of Secretary General Kofi Annan , accused Israel of using security imperatives to block lawyers, journalists and human rights activists from observing and preventing potential human rights abuses. [...]

Leading Tuesday's states brief, a coalition including medical professionals from the University of Missouri and Washington University, the American Diabetes Association and the Parkinson's Action Network proposed a Missouri constitutional amendment that would specify that stem cell research, cures and therapies allowed under federal law are also allowed under state law. The proposal is in [...]

The Environmental Protection Agency and the US Justice Department announced on Tuesday that ExxonMobil will spend an estimated $571 million to settle a lawsuit with the federal government and three states over alleged violations of the Clean Air Act . The settlement is intended to cut the annual production of pollutants from ExxonMobil's refineries that [...]

Nepal's King Guyanendra has approved a new ordinance tightening oversight of the country's media. Among other provisions, the newly-enacted bill authorizes imprisonment and increased fines of individuals who publish "banned items," prohibits publication of stories that inspire disrespect or hatred of the king, and outlaws FM radio stations that broadcast news programs. Parliament first introduced [...]

The UK House of Lords debated the proposed Racial and Religious Hatred Bill Tuesday as a coalition of demonstrators protested outside parliament. The bill, proposed last year, is would ban incitement to religious hatred. The demonstrators, which included both religious believers and critics of religion, argued the bill would restrict religious believers' right to evangelize [...]