[JURIST] French President Nicholas Sarkozy told reporters in Brussels Friday at the conclusion of a two-day meeting of European Union leaders that the Lisbon Treaty on EU reform had been "revived" [PDF transcript, in French] after Ireland agreed to hold a revote on ratification [JURIST report]. An initial referendum on the Treaty [official text; JURIST news archive] failed in Ireland in June. Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating European Presidency through the end of December, added:

To do this, we said unanimously that if the Treaty of Lisbon is ratified by all Member States, each state would have a commissioner...

Secondly, political commitments have been given to the Irish on neutrality, on taxation, and on the family. These are recurring themes and important for our Irish friends. And we have put forward a compromise which ensures that everyone will not be obliged to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon all over again. There will be no modification of the Treaty of Lisbon. But at the same time to give legal status to political commitments of the twenty-six member states towards the Irish, we committed to ensuring that when the next enlargement takes place in 2010 or 2011 when Croatia is likely to join us anyway, there will be a new treaty, a treaty of accession, ratified by the twenty-seven Member States, since Europe at that time becomes twenty-eight. We will add to the treaty of accession for Croatia an Irish protocol...

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] granted certiorari [order list, PDF] Friday in two cases. In Polar Tankers v. City of Valdez [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will consider whether a municipal tax that falls exclusively on large vessels in the city’s harbor violates the Tonnage Clause (Art. 1 § 10 cl. 3), Commerce Clause (Art. 1 § 8 cl. 3), or the 14th Amendment Due Process Clause of the US Constitution [text]. The city of Valdez, Alaska, imposes a tax on oil tankers and other large vessels using its port to pick up and deliver crude oil. The Alaska Supreme Court upheld [opinion, PDF] the tax.

In the the consolidated cases of Travelers Indemnity v. Bailey [docket; cert. petition, PDF] and Common Law Settlement Counsel v. Bailey [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will consider whether a bankruptcy court has jurisdiction to approve a third-party injunction provision in a plan of reorganization or related confirmation order. These cases arise from the bankruptcy of asbestos manufacturer Johns-Manville Corp. [corporate website]. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held [opinion, PDF] that a bankruptcy court lacked that jurisdiction.

[JURIST] Colombian President Alvaro Uribe [official profile, in Spanish] has called for Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) [CFR backgrounder] guerrillas to abandon arms and release political hostages, promising those who respond to the call a reward and freedom. Uribe Wednesday likened the offered terms to a "humanitarian exchange" [press release, in Spanish]. He specified that he was not promising amnesty or an official pardon, but he did promise that defecting guerrillas who free a hostage and who may have other serious charges against them will be entitled to a reward and freedom. This promise extends [El Tiempo report, in Spanish] even to guerrilla leadership in an effort to weaken FARC forces, according to Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo [official profile, in Spanish]. Restrepo has the responsibility of devising a legal framework to enable the president's political decision. Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] condemned Uribe's proposal, issuing a statement [press release] that perpetrators of human rights abuses such as hostage-takers "must be investigated and tried."

Uribe issued his promise on the same day that the first guerrilla member to defect and receive both a monetary reward and acceptance in France left Colombia [Guardian report]. France has pledged to give asylum to guerrillas who abandon arms under certain conditions that include clearance from the General Prosecutor of the Nation that they have no serious charges pending against them. The UN Commissioner for Human Rights in November reported [JURIST report] that the hostage situation is a large component of the systematic and widespread human rights violations in Colombia.

[JURIST] Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan [official website] on Friday filed a motion [motion, PDF; brief, PDF; supporting record, PDF] with the Illinois Supreme Court [official website] to have Governor Rod Blagojevich [official website] declared unfit and removed temporarily from office. Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris were arrested [JURIST report] Tuesday by federal agents on charges of corruption [complaint, PDF]. Madigan asked that the court appoint Lieutenant Governor Patrick Quinn [official website] as acting governor. She is concerned [Chicago Tribune report] that, if allowed to remain in office, Blagojevich would still have the power to appoint someone to President-elect Barack Obama's vacant senate seat. Madigan argued in her motion:

As the State's chief executive, Mr. Blagojevich has substantial power and authority to set policy, direct administrative agencies, issue executive orders, provide for disbursement of funds, borrow money on behalf of the State, award contracts, and appoint state officials. Because of the pendency of the federal complaint, the executive decisions that Mr. Blagojevich makes are tainted. Indeed, every day this State is faced with an allegedly corrupt Governor making critical decisions that have no legitimacy. Furthermore, Mr. Blagojevich's continued exercise of gubernatorial authority damages the public's faith and confidence in the Office and in the effectiveness of the state government.

[JURIST] The Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies [official website, in French] on Thursday voted to amend [text, PDF, in French] the country's constitution to eliminate the requirement that its Grand Duke approve legislation before it becomes law. The country's parliament passed the amendment [Tageblatt report, in German] by a vote of 56-0, with one abstention. It reduces the Grand Duke's legislative role under article 34 of Luxembourg's constitution [text, PDF, in French] from both sanctioning and promulgating laws, to merely their promulgation. The amendment came after the country's current monarch, Grand Duke Henri [official website, in French], said he would not approve a bill passed by the parliament earlier this year that legalizes euthanasia [JURIST report]. Supporters of the change say the amendment modernizes the country's constitution in line with other countries which reserve a purely ceremonial role for their monarchs. Henri has said he will approve the amendment. The second reading of the euthanasia bill, a step necessary for it to become law, will take place on December 18.

The Netherlands [BBC report] legalized euthanasia in 2001 and Belgium [JURIST report] followed suit in 2002. In February 2007, the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland [official website, in German] ruled that people with serious mental illnesses may be permitted to commit physician-assisted suicide [JURIST report] under certain conditions. A proposed bill that would legalize assisted suicide in the United Kingdom was set aside by the House of Lords in May 2007 following opposition by physician groups [JURIST reports]. In January 2006, the US Supreme Court upheld Oregon's Death with Dignity Act [JURIST report]; Oregon is the only US state that allows physician-assisted suicide. Euthanasia remains illegal in Italy, France [JURIST reports] and Spain.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Nigeria [official website] on Friday upheld the results of the country's disputed 2007 presidential election [JURIST report] which was won by President Umaru Yar'Adua [BBC profile]. The court dismissed the appeal [Guardian report] brought by former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar [JURIST news archive] and Muhammadu Buhari [campaign website], Yar'Adua's main challenger in the election, after it was alleged that the election was marred by rampant fraud [JURIST report]. The two men argued that there were violations of electoral laws that were capable of affecting the elections, particularly where the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) [official website] had declared Yar'Adua the winner before each state announced its results. Yar'Adua rebutted that argument, saying the two had not proven that the election was not in compliance with electoral laws. Yar-Adua promised on Friday to speed up election reforms [AFP report] in the wake of the court's ruling.

In April 2007, the INEC declared Yar'Adua the winner of the country's presidential elections, prompting the filings by Buhari and Abubakar. The election tribunal, which was formed [JURIST report] prior to the election in order to handle disputes, ordered the INEC to turn over certified copies of the ballots [JURIST report] and provide information on all officials and staff employed for the elections. In February Nigeria's Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal upheld the results of the election, saying that opposition groups failed to present sufficient evidence to support their fraud allegations [JURIST report]. Buhari and Abubakar appealed this decision to the Supreme Court. Yar'Adua had said that he would resign if the Supreme Court invalidated his victory. In October, the court announced that it would reserve judgment on the appeal [JURIST report] indefinitely.

[JURIST] Taiwanese prosecutors on Friday indicted former President Chen Shui-bian [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] on charges of corruption. His wife Wu Shu-chen, his son and daughter-in-law, three former presidential aides, and eight other associates and family members were also indicted. Chen has been charged with embezzlement, receiving bribes, forgery, and money laundering. Prosecutors plan to seek the maximum punishment [AFP report] allowed. Chen will continue to receive his retirement benefits [Taiwan News report], despite his indictment.

Chen has been detained since his November arrest [JURIST report] on suspicion of embezzling money from the state affairs fund. While in prison, Chen went on a hunger strike and was taken to the hospital [JURIST reports]. Chen, the former leader of the now-opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) [party website, in Mandarin] who resigned the presidency in May 2008, has maintained his innocence and has said that the investigation is a political attack by members of the ruling Kuomintang Party [party website]. Chen spent eight months in prison twenty-one years ago for defaming Nationalist leaders. In September, he was cleared [JURIST report] on more recent defamation charges. Last week, a Taiwanese court sentenced a former intelligence head [JURIST report] Yeh Sheng-mao to 10 years in prison on corruption charges. Yeh was convicted of corruption, concealing a government file, and leaking confidential information to Chen.

[JURIST] US senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ) [official websites] on Thursday released the executive summary [text, PDF; press release] of a Senate Armed Services Committee [official website] report that says senior US officials are to blame for the use of abusive interrogation techniques against detainees held in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. The report cites a February 2002 memorandum [text, PDF; JURIST report] signed by President George W. Bush, stating that the Third Geneva Convention [text] guaranteeing humane treatment to prisoners of war did not apply to al Qaeda or Taliban detainees, and a December 2002 memo [text, PDF] signed by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld [official profile], approving the use "aggressive techniques" against detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, as key factors that lead to the extensive abuses. Dismissing arguments that the abuses were simply the result of poor decisions by lower-level officers, the committee wrote:

The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of “a few bad apples” acting on their own. The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees. Those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies, and compromised our moral authority.

[JURIST] Former NASDAQ [official website] stock market chairman Bernard Madoff was arrested [DOJ press release, PDF] Thursday by federal agents on charges of securities fraud. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [official website] charged [SEC press release] Madoff and his investment firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC [corporate website], on Thursday with engaging in a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme. He has been charged with violating the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 [texts]. Madoff allegedly told two employees of his firm Wednesday that his investment advisory business was a fraud. According to the complaint, Madoff "stated that he was 'finished,' that he had 'absolutely nothing,' that 'it's all just one big lie,' and that it was 'basically, a giant Ponzi scheme.'" Madoff was released on bail later Thursday. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for January 12.

Madoff, 70, founded his investment firm in 1960. He has served as chairman of the board of directors of the NASDAQ stock market and was a member of the board of governors of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD). According to his firm's website, it ranks among the top 1 percent of US securities firms.