The US vetoed Palestine’s application for full membership in the UN on Thursday. The veto came as the UN Security Council considered a resolution put forward by Algeria that would have granted Palestine full UN membership. The resolution received 12 votes in favor, more than the required 9, but the US used its veto to [...]
Search Results for: ethics reform
How Democratic Sharia May Help Curb the Influence of Corrupted Interpretations of Islamic Law
What makes someone qualified to rule? One way to answer this question might be to approach it from the Islamic perspective, that is, by considering the criteria required for someone to become a mujāthid, a person accepted as an authority in Islamic law. The criteria include knowledge of the Shārīe‘ā essential objectives – ‘religion, life, [...]
Explainer: Why is Scotland's New Hate Crime Legislation So Controversial?
This week in Scotland, a hate crime law that ranks among the world’s strictest entered into force. The Hate Crime and Public Order Act 2021 (Hate Crime Act) aims to modernize and consolidate protections while broadening the scope of recognized hate crimes to encompass a wider range of individuals and circumstances. In other words, the [...]
Bob Rae, Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations, does not shy away from tough questions. Though many in a position such as his might shy away from argument, Rae seems to relish the opportunity to engage in some intellectual sparring. It was in this context that I requested an interview as Canada grapples with multiple [...]
Japan prime minister apologizes over governing party’s corruption scandal
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attended a Parliamentary ethics hearing on Thursday, apologizing for his governing party’s corruption scandal and promising not to host any more fundraising parties during his leadership. The scandal involved individuals from three factions within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)—factions led respectively by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, [...]
SCOTUS dispatch: outside the Supreme Court after the Trump v. Anderson oral arguments
Marissa Zupancic is JURIST’s Washington DC Correspondent, a JURIST Senior Editor and a 3L at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. She’s stationed in Washington during her Semester in DC. After sitting in the Supreme Court last Wednesday to hear the oral arguments in Trump v. Anderson, a case brought by Colorado voters seeking [...]
Baroness Helena Kennedy of the Shaws, KC, is one of the UK’s most established lawyers, a bencher at Gray’s Inn and a member of the House of Lords. Kennedy is also a broadcaster, journalist and lecturer. She has not only acted in many of the most prominent cases of the last decade but has promoted civil [...]
The US Supreme Court announced a code of ethics Monday amid ethics scandals and public pressure. The new code claims to respond to the “misunderstanding that the Justices of Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules.” It is made up of five canons and four pages [...]
Today marks the start of a controversial whistleblowing trial against former military lawyer David McBride. A former combat veteran and military lawyer who served with both the British and Australian armies, McBride allegedly leaked documents containing evidence of possible war crimes committed by Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan. The charging documents assert that the leaks [...]
Senate committee reports Justice Clarence Thomas did not pay back $200,000 loan for RV
The Senate Finance Committee reported Wednesday that US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas did not repay a more than $200,000 loan for a vehicle purchase from 1999. Specifically, the committee’s memo stated the loan was $267,230 from Tony Welters, a friend of Thomas. The committee interviewed Welters and received a written note from 1999 by [...]