In a departure from established law, the Massachusetts State Appellate Court has ruled a prenuptial agreement signed by a woman prior to marrying was invalid. The court held it was unreasonable to expect a woman to raise children and maintain a household without the expectation of future compensation, regardless of the status of the marital [...]

Paul Caron, University of Cincinnati College of Law: "The IRS has announced that donations made for the benefit of the victims of the devastating tsunami last weekend in Southeast Asia may be tax deductible: Contributions to domestic, tax-exempt, charitable organizations that provide assistance to individuals in foreign lands qualify as tax-deductible contributions for federal income [...]

AP is reporting that Ukraine's Supreme Court has rejected all appeals by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych against Sunday's presidential revote, won by opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko. CTV News has more.

Howard et al. v. Child Welfare Agency Review Board, Circuit Court of Pulaski County, Arkansas, Judge Timothy Davis Fox, December 29, 2004 . Read the full text of the ruling here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

As the reported death toll in Indonesia alone exceeded 79,000 Thursday in the aftermath of the tsunami that hit South Asia Sunday, causing more than 120,000 deaths, lawlessness has become a problem in the northern Indonesian region of Aceh, hardest hit by the disaster which originated in an undersea earthquake just 93 kilometers to the [...]

Taiwan's High Court Thursday rejected a second lawsuit filed by the opposition Nationalist Party to nullify the March 20 presidential poll and upheld President Chen Shui-bian's narrow re-election victory. The first lawsuit was dismissed in November after an extensive investigation and a ballot recount, which affirmed the .2 percent margin in favor of Chen. The [...]

The Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal Wednesday denied a request from the parents of Terri Schiavo for a new trial in her long-running right-to-die case. Once the court issues a formal decision within two weeks, Schiavo's husband will be able to order the removal of a feeding tube that has kept his wife alive [...]

Arkansas Circuit Judge Timothy Fox Wednesday declared that a state ban on placing foster children in a household with a gay member was unconstitutional. The Arkansas chapter of the ACLU brought the case, challenging a 1999 regulation that stated that gays cannot become foster parents, and foster children cannot be placed in any home with [...]

Republican Dino Rossi has asked Democrat Christine Gregoire to join him in asking the Washington state legislature to pass a bill allowing a re-vote in the close Washington governor's race, awarded to Gregoire by 128 votes after two state Supreme Court rulings on manual recounts and disputed ballots. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has more.

A survey of US lawyers and legal scholars released Wednesday by Thomson-West legal publishers listed the presidential election, Iraq and gay marriage as the top legal news stories of 2004. The election was picked for its impact on federal judicial appointments, Iraq for the multiplicity of international and national legal issues raised by the situation [...]