The UN Security Council said late Wednesday that it will consider a proposal by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to end recruitment and use of child soldiers in violation of international law, acknowledging a need for a monitoring and reporting mechanism to track such abuses. The current proposal seeks not only to curb the use of child [...]

The Sindh provincial High Court in Pakistan has started formal hearings for an appeal by four Islamic militants convicted of kidnapping and murdering Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl . British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in July 2002. Three co-conspirators were sentenced to life in [...]

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts will hear a challenge to a 1913 state law that Massachusetts has used to block out-of-state gay couples from being married there. The 1913 law prohibits the commonwealth from granting marriage licenses to couples whose marriage would not be legal in their home states. Following the landmark ruling in [...]

Pakistan's Supreme Court announced it will allow six constitutional petitions to challenge President Pervez Musharraf's decision to remain the country's president and army chief of staff. The petitions, filed by Pakistan Lawyers Forum, the Communist Party and the Watan Party, challenge Musharraf's decision to retain the two offices in violation of both the Pakistani constitution [...]

The United Nations has started "a very urgent inquiry" into allegations that three Pakistani policemen raped a woman in Haiti while deployed on the UN mission to stabilize the nation. The probe follows reports of widespread abuse by UN peacekeeping soldiers in Congo. That probe led to the UN's decision to ban peacekeepers from having [...]

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Thursday, Feb. 24. The US Senate and US House are in recess this week. Both will resume their sessions on Feb. 28. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter will hold a press conference at 10:30 AM ET today to discuss [...]

Task Force on No Child Left Behind: Final Report, National Conference of State Legislatures , February 2005 . Excerpt: In March 2004, the Executive Committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures created a Task Force of state legislators and legislative staff and asked them to focus on the latter of the two questions. It [...]

Johnson v. California, Supreme Court of the United States, February 23, 2005 . Excerpt from the majority opinion by Justice O'Connor: The fact that strict scrutiny applies "says nothing about the ultimate validity of any particular law; that determination is the job of the court applying strict scrutiny." Adarand, supra, at 229-230. At this juncture, [...]

In a ruling against AT&T Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) determined that the company must pay fees associated with its pre-paid calling cards. The fees go to local telephone companies to cover costs to connect the call and to federal programs that subsidize rural telephone and Internet service. AT&T tried to avoid the fees [...]

A Mexican judge in the Nuevo Leon Wednesday found a man guilty of drunk driving in the nation's first oral and public trial. In June, Nuevo Leon was the first Mexican state to pass legislation that allows public and oral trials. Under the system currently in place, however, judges usually review files created by the [...]