[JURIST] An Oklahoma bill [SB 0139 text] barring the use of public funds to pay for abortions passed into law Thursday after the deadline for the governor's veto expired at midnight Wednesday. The bill bars the use of public money to fund most abortions, but does include exceptions for cases of rape or incest if the victim reports the crime to the police. Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry (D) [official website] had vetoed an earlier bill that did not include those exceptions. Critic Linda Gray Murphy, a lobbyist with the National Association of Social Workers [advocacy website], warned that the law would ban almost all hospitals in the state from performing abortions, since most received some state funding. Reuters has more.

In May 2006, Oklahoma passed a law [PDF text] requiring parental notification at least 48 hours in advance of an abortion for a minor. In August 2006, the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit refused to grant an injunction to halt the law while Nova Health Systems, the parent group of Tulsa's Reproductive Services clinic, challenged the law in court [JURIST report].

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives [official website] passed two measures Thursday that would require stricter regulation of lobbying practices. The Lobbying Transparency Act [HR 2317 summary], which passed 382-37 [roll call], would amend the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 [text] to require more stringent disclosure of bundled contributions given by a lobbyist to a lawmaker. Currently, donors who bundle their contributions may remain anonymous, although individual donors are required to submit reports. The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act [HR 2316 summary], which passed 396-22 [roll call], would require more frequent disclosure reports for contributions by lobbyists, would place greater restrictions on gifts given to members of Congress, and would increase penalties for failure to comply with lobbying measures. AP has more.

In January, the US Senate [official website] overwhelmingly passed the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act [S 1, summary], which similarly required disclosure of those bundling contributions and also placed a two-year freeze on former lawmakers before allowing them to become lobbyists. The House has rejected the two-year hiatus stipulation [AP report], asserting that a one-year freeze is sufficient.

[JURIST] Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko [official website; JURIST news archive] fired Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun [official website, in Ukrainian] Thursday, prompting Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko [official report] to dispatch police to form a protective chain around the General Office of the Public Prosecutor. Piskun himself initially defied the dismissal, but subsequently said that he will leave office once the order is published in the presidential register and approved by the parliament. Piskun also indicated he would appeal the order in court. Yushchenko attempted to dismiss Piskun two years ago [JURIST report], citing the slow investigation into Yushchenko's dioxin poisoning before Ukraine's 2004 presidential elections, although Piskun said he was dismissed for investigating the finances of Yushchenko's wife. In April, Yushchenko reappointed Piskun after a December 2006 court ruling ordered reinstatement.

Ukraine has been mired in a constitutional crisis since Yushchenko issued a degree dissolving parliament [JURIST report] on April 2. Yushchenko's chief rival Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych [BBC profile] and leaders of the Ukrainian parliament filed a legal challenge before the Constitutional Court of Ukraine [official website; JURIST news archive]. Yushchenko subsequently dismissed three Constitutional Court judges for alleged oath and ethnics violations [JURIST report], and appointed replacement judges [JURIST report] without consulting either Yanukovych or the Justice Ministry. On Tuesday, Yushchenko sought a lower court order to block the Constitutional Court from ruling on his April 2 decree following his rejection of the Constitutional Court's authority [JURIST reports]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Judicial corruption is hurting the rule of law around the world, according to an annual report on the problem released Thursday by Transparency International (TI) [advocacy website]. TI's Global Corruption Report 2007 [PDF text; press release] found judicial corruption to be particularly prevalent in the former Soviet republics in eastern and central Europe, and central Asia. In Moscow alone, the report found that 70 percent felt that it was useless to use the judicial system because the "unofficial costs," such as bribes, were too high. TI also found that only eight percent of the people in newly independent states used the judicial system. In contrast, 23 percent of North Americans and 19 percent of people residing in the European Union have used the judicial system.

The study also cited the erosion of judicial independence in a variety of countries, including the United States. The US was criticized for holding judicial election campaigns sponsored by private funding, which the report says will inevitably affect judicial independence. TI recommends governments use independent, transparent, and merit-based judicial appointment bodies to select judges, who should be protected from executive and legislative interference once appointed. RFE/RL has more.

[JURIST] UK Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer [official profile], the first Secretary of State of the new Ministry of Justice (MOJ) [official website], sought to resolve differences between the judiciary and the government over the recent split [JURIST report] of the MOJ from the Home Office [official website] Wednesday, speaking twice with the United Kingdom's most senior judge, Lord Nicholas Phillips of Worth Matravers. Phillips, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, told a British parliamentary committee [prepared statement; JURIST report] Tuesday that top judges were very concerned with the establishment of the MOJ and "felt sidelined [because key] decisions were taken without [the judges'] participation."

Falconer, who has been under intense pressure from parliament to make amends with the judiciary, is expected to agree to the demands of the judges to conduct a "fundamental review" of the MOJ's functions and the constitutional problems it poses, as well as ensure the independence of the judiciary by protecting the court's budget from executive control. Phillips has characterized the split of the Ministry of Justice from the Home Office as a political device. Last week, a crisis meeting of top British judges called for constitutional protections for the judiciary [JURIST report] in the face of the new ministry. The Times has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate voted 74-24 [roll call] Wednesday to slash the number of temporary guest workers that could be annually admitted into the United States under the proposed Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 [S 1348 summary; JURIST report]. The amendment [S Amdt 1169 materials] proposed by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) [official website] would reduce the previous maximum limit of 600,000 guest workers to 200,000. The White House had strongly opposed the amendment and US Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Guiterrez had earlier issued a statement [text] on behalf of the Bush administration, urging members of the Senate to reject the amendment because it would "eliminate [the] critical flexibility" that is necessary for maintaining "a legal channel for the workers our economy needs to enter this country in an orderly way." Following the vote, Bingaman characterized the guest worker program as "unproven and untested" [statement text], adding that "we shouldn't be placing American workers in the position of competitions with an unlimited number of guest workers." The guest worker program has received bipartisan criticism for accepting too many workers [JURIST report]. Key senators from both political parties downplayed the impact of the amendment.

The new immigration reform bill has been criticized by lawmakers from both parties, with some Republicans saying it amounts to "amnesty" for up to 12 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States and some Democrats objecting to restrictions on the right of legal immigrants to bring their families to the US. On Monday, the League of United Latin American Citizens [advocacy website] objected [press release] to the plan, saying that it "would exploit temporary workers, separate families and institute draconian enforcement measures." The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] UK Home Secretary John Reid [official profile] said Thursday that control orders [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] employed against persons suspected to be national threats when there is not enough evidence to hold them for trial are "far from the best option" in the fight against terrorism. He made the comment after three terror suspects subject to control orders under the Prevention of Terrorism Act [text] were reported to have fled [AP report]. The suspects are believed to have been planning attacks on British or US troops. Reid said judges and critics of the government were responsible for the lack of tougher rules to prevent disappearances and said he would introduce new anti-terror measures before he steps down from his post in June.

In March, the UK Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights [official website; JURIST news archive] said that control orders violate the European Convention on Human Rights [JURIST report] and should give way to actual criminal prosecutions. Control orders were first issued [JURIST report] by the Tony Blair government in 2005 and, in addition to being politically controversial, have run into repeated problems in the courts [JURIST report]. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] Aitzaz Ahsan, a lawyer on the defense team for suspended Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry [official website; JURIST news archive] complained Wednesday before the Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] that his legal team was under "enormous government pressure" meant to discourage it from arguing its case. Ahsan accused the government of tapping the legal team's telephones, and said that members of the team were receiving anonymous threats. He also referred to the murder of a witness who was a Supreme Court official [JURIST report] and the arrest of another witness. Presiding Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday described the circumstances as "extraordinary," and said he hoped the situation would improve for the legal team.

Also on Wednesday, Pakistan government prosecutors concluded their arguments that the high court lacked jurisdiction [JURIST report] to hear Chaudhry's petition, arguing for the third-straight day that the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) which initially heard the disciplinary case against Chaudhry was a constitutional body and its proceedings could not be challenged in any court of law. Prosecutors also argued that Chaudhry's petition before the Supreme Court, which led to the suspension of the SJC proceedings [JURIST report], could not be heard by the court because it was an individual grievance. Government lawyers are seeking to end the suspension so that the SJC can resume its investigation into the alleged misconduct by Chauhdry as well as the legality of Chaudhry's suspension [JURIST report] on March 9. PTI has more.

[JURIST] The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [official website] voted Wednesday to approve [press release] new interpretive guidelines for Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 [PDF text; SEC materials], relaxing previous guidelines which critics have called inflexible, burdensome, and wasteful. Section 404 requires public companies to continually evaluate the internal controls they have in place to ensure that external auditors provide accurate financial reports to investors. Accounting firms, which have profited from tough control standards, have supported stricter guidelines, while public corporations have argued that they impose too high of a burden on small companies. The relaxed guidelines will apply to businesses with a market value of under $75 million, and will focus on areas more prone to potential fraud.

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said last November that Sarbanes-Oxley raised the cost of doing business in America [transcript; Bloomberg report] and cited the decline of stock transactions since 2002 as an example of its impact. A report [PDF text; JURIST report] released in May 2006 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) [official website] found that many small business have gone private [JURIST report] to avoid the costs of compliance. Other officials, such as then New York state attorney general and current Governor Eliot Spitzer (D), have warned against easing the standards [JURIST report], saying that many of the efforts to soften corporate accountability reforms are being pushed by the same corporations that employed questionable accounting and business practices before Sarbanes-Oxley was passed. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) [official website] and State Insurance Superintendent Eric R. Dinallo announced [press release] Wednesday that Silverstein Properties [corporate website], which owns a 99-year lease of the World Trade Center [JURIST news archive] site, has settled all outstanding insurance claims with seven insurance companies at a price of $2 billion dollars. Silverstein agreed to yield its claim that the insurance companies owed $500 million in interest due to delays in payment, while the insurance companies yielded their claim that they would not need to make payments until a reconstruction program for the site was completed in 2012.

Federal suits filed in October 2001 determined that the most Silverstein could collect for losses sustained in the September 11 attacks would be $4.68 billion. Insurance companies have already paid about $2.55 billion, and the settlement resolved the remaining sum. Spitzer's office said that the settlement, which was the biggest obstacle to reconstruction at the World Trade Center site, "will save additional tens of millions in legal costs and allow the Port Authority and Silverstein Properties to focus on rebuilding at Ground Zero." Prior litigation has cost Silverstein and the insurance companies hundreds of millions of dollars. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz ruled Thursday that charges against three US soldiers for homicide and a "crime against the international community" in the 2004 death in Iraq of cameraman Jose Couso [advocacy website, in English; JURIST news archive] should stand, despite the appeal [JURIST report] of Spanish prosecutors on behalf of the soldiers that the death was an "accident of war." A US military investigation of the incident concluded that the soldiers did not act improperly when their tank fired a shell into the Baghdad Hotel, because the tank crew reasonably believed that there was a spotter in the hotel directing hostile fire. Pedraz ruled, however, that the soldiers acted in a disproportionate manner because even if a spotter was in the hotel, "it was not an attack on US forces" and the soldiers were aware that journalists and persons protected by the Fourth Geneva Convention [text] were inside the hotel.

Spain has issued several arrest warrants [JURIST report] for the three soldiers, but the United States has refused to extradite Sgt. Shawn Gibson, Capt. Philip Wolford, and Lt. Col. Philip DeCamp [TrialWatch profiles]. The first warrant was issued [JURIST report] in October 2005 after a Spanish judge said that US officials had failed to cooperate in an investigation into the incident [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] United Nations inspectors met with Sudanese officials Thursday in the first steps of a UN investigation into human rights abuses by the Sudanese government [official website in Arabic] in Darfur [JURIST news archive]. The seven-person team arrived in Sudan [JURIST news archive] Wednesday and began their inspection in the Darfur region with a goal of creating a series of steps that the Sudanese government could pursue to improve the human rights situation in the region.

The investigative team was authorized by a resolution [JURIST report] from the UN Human Rights Council [official website] in March. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) [official website] said Wednesday that a controversial 700-mile fence along the US-Mexican border [JURIST news archive] may violate the 1970 Boundary Treaty [PDF text], which resolved all pending boundary differences between the United States and Mexico. Sally Spener, spokesperson for the IBWC, said that impermeable fences on US territory but between existing rivers and levees could violate the treaty by deflecting or obstructing the natural water flow. The treaty established the Rio Grande and the Colorado River as the international boundary between the two countries, and established provisions to avoid the loss of territory by either party as a result of changes to the river's flow due to causes other than natural lateral movement. Spener said that the IBWC is still waiting for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) [official website] to submit specific proposals detailing the fence's design and location before it can make a final determination. The IBWC is a a bi-national body created by the United States and Mexico in 1889 to administer boundary and water-rights treaties between the two parties.

President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act of 2006 [JURIST report; PDF text] in October 2006. The legislation authorizes the construction of approximately 700 miles of fencing along the 2,000 mile US-Mexican border. Critics of the fence include locals in border communities, who feel that the the federal government has not addressed their concerns that a border fence would interfere with irrigation, harm wildlife, as well as disrupt Mexican consumers and investors that positively contribute to the local economy. The Vatican and the Mexican government [JURIST reports] have voiced strong criticism of the fence, characterizing it as "inhumane" and an embarrassment that "hurts bilateral relations [and] goes against the spirit of cooperation needed to guarantee security." The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says it is scheduled to complete over half of the authorized fence by the end of 2008. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled [PDF text] Wednesday that a federal judge presiding over the criminal tax fraud prosecution of accounting firm KPMG [corporate website; JURIST news archive] improperly exercised ancillary jurisdiction over a state law contract claim brought against KPMG by 16 former partners and employees of KPMG and vacated the district judge's order "as beyond the district court's power" and dismissed the complaint. The 16 were all defendants in the criminal tax fraud prosecution and had sought to force KPMG to pay for their legal expenses. The dispute arose largely as a result of policies outlined in the Department of Justice's "Thompson Memorandum" [PDF text], which deemed that a "firm's voluntary payment of wrongdoing agents' legal expenses [is] a factor favoring prosecution of the firm." KPMG initially negotiated with the 16 defendants and paid the legal fees of some defendants, but ceased payments after indictments were issued due to pressure from the government. The district court found that there was a violation of the defendant's Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights [JURIST report] to fair trial and effective counsel, and sought to rectify the problem by accepting a contract claim against KPMG by the defendants.

The 16 defendants are accused of setting up tax shelters, costing the US government an estimated $2.5 billion in revenue. KPMG has admitted the tax shelters were illegal and has taken full responsibly for the unlawful conduct [JURIST report]. In August 2005, KPMG agreed to pay the IRS a $456 million fine [JURIST report] to avoid criminal prosecution for the tax shelters, and agreed to be supervised for three years by a former SEC chairman. Dow Jones Newswires has more.

[JURIST] Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu [Nobel profile] and international NGO Oxfam [advocacy website] Thursday called on developing nations to submit proposals for a conventional weapons convention to the United Nations [official website]. Tutu urged developing nations especially to submit proposals for the convention, saying that trade in conventional weapons, especially small arms, "is the modern slave trade" and that developing nations need to add their voices to the UN's open hearing on the issue. Oxfam released a report [PDF text] in 2006 noting that the small arms trade severely threatened business and commerce in a growing number of developing nations and urged the UN to adopt a Conventional Arms Convention.

Over 150 countries voted [press release] last year in favor of a UN resolution [PDF text] to begin work on a conventional arms treaty [JURIST report]. UN member nations have until the end of June to submit proposals [government submissions, via Control Arms]. Oxfam and Tutu have expressed concern that so far there has been little response from developing nations. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Chinese government authorities detained 28 people for either their alleged role in riots in southwestern China [JURIST report] over the weekend or communicating information concerning the riots, according to reports from Xinhua, China's state media agency. Xinhua said that an estimated 300 to 3000 farmers discontented with efforts by local government officials to more strictly enforce China's "One Child Policy" [backgrounder] were involved in the demonstrations, protesting that fines levied as part of the policy were imposed "arbitrarily and brutally." Earlier reports from Hong Kong-based Ming Pao daily said that local officials had been ordered to collect 500 yuan ($65 USD) from families that had violated the "One Child Policy," and that family homes would be demolished and property seized if the fines were not paid within three days.

The riot, which left fires and damaged cars across six towns in Bobai county, occurred in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region [official website, in Chinese], which is inhabited by a large percentage of Zhuang and Miao ethnic minorities. China's "One Child Policy" customarily allows non-Han minorities to have up to two children in urban areas and up to four in rural farming communities. AP reported that residents said that local regulations allowed families to have two children if the first child is female, while families are limited to one child if the first child is male. AP has more.

[JURIST] Suspended Romanian President Trian Basescu [official website, in English; BBC profile] was reinstated Wednesday after the Romanian Constitutional Court [official website] certified results of a weekend referendum where 74 percent of voters rejected Basescu's impeachment [JURIST report]. Basescu was suspended [JURIST report] in April by a 322-108 vote in the Romanian Parliament [official website] after the prime minister made accusations that Basescu was involved in suspicious multi-million-dollar energy deals. The Constitutional Court upheld the suspension [JURIST report] and also later upheld a move by members of the opposition in parliament to make it easier to remove Basescu from office by reducing the number of popular votes [JURIST report] required for impeachment.

Parliament has said that Basescu violated the Romanian constitution [text] by overriding the Cabinet and criticizing the judiciary, but Basescu has asserted that his suspension was a response to his attempts to reduce political corruption and the influence of prosecutors and judges. In a February speech [PDF text, in Romanian], Basescu called for a national referendum [JURIST report] to allow citizens to vote on constitutional amendments aimed at reducing corruption. Romania's January 1 entrance into the European Union [JURIST report] carried a requirement for Romania [JURIST news archive] to address corruption and human rights violations. AP has more.