[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] on Friday ruled [opinion, PDF] that federal prisoners are not entitled to a base level of compensation for work performed while incarcerated. Serra v. Lappin grew out of a challenge brought by attorney J. Tony Serra, who was imprisoned for failure to pay federal taxes. Serra and two fellow plaintiffs claimed that their rights were violated according to the Fifth Amendment [text] to the US Constitution and various sources of international law. Judge Richard R. Clifton delivered the opinion of the Court:

We conclude that prisoners have no enforceable right to be paid for their work under the Constitution or international law, and we affirm the district court's dismissal of the action...The Constitution does not provide prisoners any substantive entitlement to compensation for their labor...Although the Constitution includes, in the Thirteenth Amendment,a general prohibition against involuntary servitude, it expressly excepts from that general prohibition forced labor "as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."

[JURIST] Thailand's Election Commission [official website] on Monday called for the dissolution of the ruling party for failing to report donations and alleged misuse of those donations. The Commission's decision [AP report] comes amid some of the deadliest political clashes Thailand has experienced in nearly two decades, as Thai protesters, or red shirts [BBC backgrounder], call for new elections and the resignation of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva [official website, in Thai; BBC profile]. Thailand's chief of the army, General Anupong Paojinda, has given his support [Bangkok News report] to the opposition's call for new elections in a hope that dissolution will provide an end to the current standoff between the Abhisit government and the opposition. The Commission's decision requires the approval of the Constitutional Court to become final, and a date for the hearing is yet to be set.

A Thai court on Friday issued arrest warrants for at least 17 high-profile protesters in an attempt to put down violent protests [JURIST report]. Among the accused are top leaders [TNA report] of the red shirt opposition. Warrants were also issued Thursday for seven members of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship for their role in allegedly breaking into Parliament [Bangkok Post report] during protests Wednesday. After the break-in, Abhisit declared a state of emergency [JURIST report] in Bangkok and several nearby provinces. Abhisit said he hopes that the arrest of the high-profile leaders will cause other protesters to disperse [BBC report].

[JURIST] The Vatican [official website] on Monday released Church procedures [text] for handling alleged cases of sexual abuse by priests, instructing, "Civil law concerning reporting of crimes to the appropriate authorities should always be followed." The "Guide to Understanding Basic CDF Procedures concerning Sexual Abuse Allegations" summarizes the procedures governing investigations by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) [official profile] into allegations of sex abuse by clergy members. The CDF guidelines provide for interim measures meant to ensure the safety of others during civil authorities' investigations or legal proceedings:

During the preliminary stage and until the case is concluded, the bishop may impose precautionary measures to safeguard the community, including the victims. Indeed, the local bishop always retains power to protect children by restricting the activities of any priest in his diocese. This is part of his ordinary authority, which he is encouraged to exercise to whatever extent is necessary to assure that children do not come to harm, and this power can be exercised at the bishop's discretion before, during and after any canonical proceeding.

[JURIST] Seven Icelandic government officials acted with gross negligence in their management of the country's financial system prior to a 2008 bank collapse, according to a report [materials, in Icelandic] released Monday by a parliamentary panel. The Special Investigation Committee (SIC), convened in 2008 by the Icelandic Parliament [official website] to investigate the collapse of the country's three largest banks, determined that then-Prime Minister Geir Haarde and former central bank head David Oddsson [official profiles, in Icelandic] knew that banks were assuming overseas debt but took no action to prevent or mitigate the effects of the accumulation. The SIC also found that former Minister of Finance Arni Mathiessen, then-banking minister Bjorgvin Sigurdsson, former Financial Services Authority [official website] director Jonas Jonsson and central bank officials Eirikur Gundason and Ingimundur Fridriksson failed to take appropriate action when presented with information about the poor state of the country's financial sector. When Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir [corporate websites] were taken over by the Icelandic government in 2008, they were holding debt equal to more than 900 percent [AFP report] of Iceland's gross domestic product, causing the country's economy to collapse and the government to rely on loans [IMF materials] from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) [official website] to meet its obligations. A parliamentary panel will decide whether to take legal action [Reuters report] against the officials.

Iceland was hit hard [BBC backgrounder] by the financial crisis [JURIST news archive] that emanated from securities related to the US mortgage market. The country began considering [JURIST report] whether to seek EU accession [criteria materials] last year, with Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir [official profile] arguing that adopting the Euro would help stabilize the country's economy. In 2008, the United Kingdom used anti-terrorism laws to freeze $4 billion [JURIST report] in assets held by Landsbanki after its takeover by the Icelandic government.

[JURIST] US President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) [official website] withdrew her candidacy on Friday. Dawn Johnsen [professional profile], nominated [JURIST report] as the OLC's Assistant Attorney General in January 2009, has faced over a year of objection from Republicans for her criticisms of the interrogation methods [JURIST news archive] approved by the OLC during the Bush administration and her support of abortion rights. In March, the US Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] for the second time recommended her to the Senate for confirmation [materials] on a strict party-line vote. However, it is unlikely [AP report] that Johnsen would have been able to obtain the votes necessary for confirmation and overcome a possible filibuster. The White House refrained from appointing [NYT report] Johnsen during the Senate recess last month, which would have avoided the confirmation process. White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said that the Senate should put politics aside and bring impartial legal advice back to the OLC.

Johnsen, who previously served as acting head of the OLC under former president Bill Clinton, argued to restore the OLC’s reputation and political independence. Under the Bush administration, OLC lawyers John Yoo [academic profile; JURIST news archive] and Jay Bybee [academic profile] produced confidential memos [JURIST news archive] authorizing the use of controversial CIA interrogation techniques that critics have called torture. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [official profile] said at a February hearing that he was prepared to subpoena [JURIST report] the DOJ if it did not turn over missing e-mail records dealing with the so-called "torture memos." In February, the DOJ overruled the findings of a report [JURIST reports] concluding that Yoo and Bybee committed professional misconduct. Instead, the DOJ said that they were only guilty of "poor judgment" in writing the memos. Former US attorney general John Ashcroft has defended the advice the DOJ gave the Bush administration on the use of certain interrogation techniques, saying that all guidelines issued by his office were legal.

[JURIST] A Moscow City Court [official website] judge known for presiding over cases involving neo-Nazi groups was killed Monday morning while leaving his apartment. The murder [BBC report] of Judge Eduard Chuvashov is suspected to be a contract killing [Al Jazeera report] in light of the death threats he faced after presiding over the trials of members of neo-Nazi gangs [BBC report]. Last week, Chuvashov sentenced [NYT report] members of the Ryno Gang, a group known for attacking non-Russian immigrants, to 10-20 years in prison for the racially motivated killings of Central Asian immigrants between 2006 and 2007. In February, Chuvashov sentenced members of another ultra-nationalist organization, calling themselves the White Wolves, for committing similar crimes. On Monday, Chuvashov was set to begin the trial [CNN report] of a former police officer accused of plotting to bomb national monuments in Moscow.

In August 2008, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) [official website] called on Russia to take action against growing instances of ethnic violence and neo-Nazi activity [JURIST report] within its borders. CERD said that Chechens, Roma, and other ethnic and religious minorities are the most common victims, and noted allegations that Russian police frequently refuse to intervene to stop such attacks. A January 2008 report [JURIST report] issued by the SOVA Center [advocacy website] rights group found that hate crimes [JURIST news archive] in Russia rose 13 percent in 2007, but also found that police have done little to stop attacks. In June 2007, Human Rights First [advocacy website] reported that hate crimes are on the rise throughout all of Europe [JURIST report], after conducting a study examining recent hate crimes in France, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. That study found that Russia has a "proliferation of violent hate crimes directed against ethnic, religious and national minorities."

[JURIST] US Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) [official website] on Sunday said that Senate approval of the so-called New START treaty [text, PDF; BBC backgrounder] will not happen this year. Speaking on a morning talk show, Alexander stated [transcript], "there's not a chance the treaty will be approved this year. It took a year and a half to approve the START I treaty." The new START treaty replaces the expired Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I treaty) [materials], with Russia and the United States each pledging to reduce their countries' nuclear warheads by about 30 percent. Under the terms of the treaty and its protocol, both countries would only be allowed to deploy 1,550 strategic warheads, a decrease from the 2,200 currently permitted. Reaction to the new treaty has been mixed. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon [official website] called [press release] it a "significant achievement," while Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) [official website] expressed reservations. Appearing with Alexander on Fox News, Lieberman indicated he did not believe that START would have Senate support unless the Obama administration committed to modernize the existing nuclear arsenal, stating:

I don't believe that there will be 67 votes to ratify the START treaty unless the administration does two things — first, commit to modernize our nuclear stockpile so as we have less nuclear weapons we know they're capable, if, God forbid, we need them; and secondly, to make absolutely clear that some of the statements by Russian president Medvedev at the signing in Prague that seem to suggest that if we continue to build the ballistic missile defense in Europe that they may pull out of this treaty — they're just unacceptable to us. We need that defense to protect our allies and ourselves from Iran.

[JURIST] Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] on Monday released a report [text, PDF] criticizing some European nations' practice of seeking "no-torture" assurances from other countries in order to remove foreigners. According to the report, the assurances are used to return people to countries with records of human rights abuses. AI described these deals as unreliable and unenforceable, and called for an end to their use. The report was particularly critical of the UK, which for 18 years has used the method to deport people who were considered national security threats. AI described the UK as:

[T]he most influential and aggressive promoter of...the use of diplomatic assurances to forcibly return people it considers threats to national security...The promotion of [this] policy...has occurred at a number of levels: as a matter of domestic policy[,]...at the European Court of Human Rights[,]...and [at] a number of intergovernmental forums[,]...[despite criticism] by the UN Human Rights Committee and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.