Restrictive collective bargaining laws have been advanced in several states within the last couple years. In February Indiana union members sued to block implementation of the state's new right-to-work legislation [JURIST report]. In a public referendum in November, Ohio voters rejected [JURIST report] a bill passed in March 2011 [JURIST report] which would have impacted Ohio's 400,000 public workers by limiting their ability to strike and collectively bargain for health insurance and pensions. Ten Wisconsin unions filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] in federal court in June 2011 challenging the state's new collective bargaining law. According to the plaintiffs, the Wisconsin bill discriminates among groups of public employees and eliminates basic union rights, like bargaining, organizing and associating. In July 2011, a judge for the US District Court for the District of Idaho [official website] issued a preliminary injunction [JURIST report] blocking the enforcement of an Idaho anti-union law [SB 1007] that bans a union program that subsidizes employment for its members. The law, called the Fairness in Contracting Act, prohibits union programs used by construction workers unions that pool portions of union wages on a voluntary basis to subsidize union labor to enable union members to be hired at the collectively bargained salary.

Markets characterized by network externalities tend to tip towards a single, dominant firm, resulting in monopoly. And once a monopolist establishes itself in such a market, such as Microsoft in the computer operating systems market and Apple in the digital music market, the result is inflated prices and retarded innovation.

The DOJ brought the suit in April, and the court denied a motion to dismiss [JURIST reports] by the defendants in May. The DOJ alleged that price fixing conspiracy allegedly employed by Apple and the publishers costs consumers USD $100 million [Bloomberg report] in the preceding two years. Commentators had been very mixed in response to the proposed settlement agreement. Some commentators have suggested that the DOJ's lawsuit is merely "superficial" [JURIST op-ed] and that the effect of the agency agreements may actually have been a net-positive to consumers if Amazon was selling e-books as loss leaders in order to drive the sale of Kindles. Other commentators, however, state that commentators against the settlement agreement and the defendants' arguments are based on a premise that competition is wrong [JURIST op-ed].

Guatemala has made progress in recent years toward maintaining the rule of law and erasing impunity for violators. Last week the Embassy of the US Guatemala praised the decision of the Guatemala Constitutional Court [official websites] allowing former president Alfonso Portillo [CIDOB profile, in Spanish] to be extradited to the US, where he would stand trial in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] on charges of laundering US$1.5 million [JURIST report] in Taiwanese foreign donations. In November then-president Alvaro Colom announced that he would allow Portillo to be extradited to the US [JURIST report] to stand trial. Colom has also faced recent legal trouble of his own. In August the Guatemalan Constitutional Court ruled that former first lady Sandra Torres was ineligible to run for the office of president [JURIST report] because of her relationship to Colom, her ex-husband. Torres and Colom divorced last year [BBC report] after Torres announced her plans to represent the ruling National Unity for Hope party in upcoming elections. The Guatemalan Constitution [text, PDF] bans relatives of the president from running for the office.

In June Kosovo's parliament approved a penal code with new laws that require journalists to reveal their sources [JURIST report] and make defamation a crime. In May Moshe Harel was arrested in connection with the organ trafficking operation [JURIST report] in Kosovo during the 1998-1999 Kosovo War. This organ trafficking scandal has been receiving more attention after a report implicated [JURIST report] Prime Minister Hashim Thaci in the scheme. Since then, an EU prosecutor began investigating organ trafficking in Albania [JURIST report] in October 2011. In August of that year a US prosecutor began investigating Thaci's role in the scandal [JURIST report]. In February 2011 UN Special Representative to Kosovo Lamberto Zannier requested [JURIST report] that the UN Security Council open an independent investigation into alleged incidents of organ trafficking. That January the COE also demanded that Albania and Kosovo investigate the claims [JURIST report].

Unlike the Protective Order, which repeatedly states that the Government may not unreasonably withhold approval of matters within its discretion, the MOU places no such reasonableness requirement on the Commander of JTF-GTMO. ... The MOU also states that both the "operational needs and logistical constraints" at Guantanamo as well as the "requirements for ongoing military commissions, periodic review boards, and habeas litigation" will be prioritized over counsel-access. This provision is particularly troubling as it places a detainee's access to counsel, and thus their constitutional right to access the courts, in a subordinate position to whatever the military commander of Guantanamo sees as a logistical constraint.

Earlier in August the DOJ filed a brief with the court asserting that the government should decide [JURIST report] when a Guantanamo prisoner is granted continued regular access to legal counsel absent a detainee's ongoing habeas or other legal challenge. The challenge to the new restrictions was brought by six Guantanamo detainees, two of whose habeas petitions were denied and four dismissed with the possibility of reconsideration. At the time of the hearing lawyers for only six of the 170 detainees at Guantanamo had signed the MOU. In the 10 years since the first detainees were brought to Guantanamo Bay, only a handful have been tried or convicted, and in the past few months there have been several calls by the UN and various foreign governments for some long-held Guantanamo detainees to be returned to their home countries, including Egypt, Canada and Kuwait [JURIST reports].

While Myanmar continues to take steps forward in its reformation efforts, it has recently faced struggles with regards to sectarian violence within the country. Earlier this week Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) released a report concluding that Myanmar's army is still committing human rights abuses [JURIST report] against ethnic minorities in Karen state. Last week the country sentenced two UN staff members [JURIST report] to prison for their involvement in sectarian violence. This was one week after Sein announced creation of a 27-member commission [JURIST report] to investigate causes of the violence. Earlier this month, however, HRW accused Myanmar forces of committing multiple human rights violations [JURIST report] following an outbreak of sectarian violence. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also expressed concern [JURIST report] last month about both the continued violence in Myanmar and the country's human rights abuses committed in dealing with it.

Chile has been urged to investigate and prosecute individuals responsible for the killing and disappearances of individuals during Pinochet's reign. Last month a panel of UN human rights experts urged Chile to make sure that people who have been convicted of enforced disappearances [JURIST report] serve their sentences. In July Chile arrested and charged [JURIST report] two retired air force colonels for their roles in the 1974 death of an air force brigadier general who was also the father of Chile's first female president. In December 2010 a French court convicted [JURIST report] 13 former Chilean officials over the disappearance of four French citizens during Pinochet's regime. The defendants, primarily high-ranking military officers, were tried in absentia, and one defendant was acquitted.

Political clashes and sectarian violence have been prevalent in Myanmar in recent months. Last month a report released by Physicians for Human Rights claimed that Myanmar's army was still committing human rights abuses [JURIST report] against ethnic minorities in Karen state. In August Thein Sein announced [JURIST report] the creation of a 27-member commission tasked with investigating the cause of the sectarian violence between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists. In June Suu Kyi urged [JURIST report] the international community to support Myanmar in its attempt to build a stronger democracy and uphold the rule of law.