The rights of Afghan detainees at Bagram has been a controversial issue as of late. JURIST Guest Columnist Ken Roach recently discussed the issue of prisoners seeking substitute justice [JURIST op-ed] in the courts of other democracies. In September the US handed over Bagram [JURIST report] to Afghanistan but retained control over 600 prisoners. In February 2011 District Judge John Bates of the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] granted a motion to amend [JURIST report] petitions for writs of habeas corpus for four detainees held at Bagram. In May 2010 a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that detainees held at Bagram could not bring habeas corpus challenges in US courts [JURIST report]. In January 2010 the US Department of Defense released a list of names [JURIST report] of 645 prisoners then detained at Bagram in response to a Freedom Of Information Act lawsuit filed [JURIST reports] by the ACLU in September 2009.

Kazakhstan has recently drawn criticism from the international community for its human rights record. Last month Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] claimed that oil workers in the country face mistreatment [JURIST report] and repression at the hands of the government and oil companies. In August HRW urged Kazakhstan to ensure that the trials of Kozlov, another political activist, and an oil worker comport with international legal standards [JURIST report] for fair trials. In July UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] called for an independent probe [JURIST report] into the December unrest between oil workers and an oil company. In June HRW demanded [JURIST report] that the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan publicly disclose the reason for bringing new charges against a group of labor activists and an oil worker who participated in the December unrest. The committee charged them with "calling for the forcible overthrow of the constitutional order." Earlier that month a court in Kazakhstan sentenced [JURIST report] 13 out of 37 defendants to between three and seven years of imprisonment for their participation in unrest that occurred last December. Sixteen of the remaining defendants faced conditional sentences [BBC report] while five defendants were given amnesty and three were acquitted.

Concern over Myanmar's human rights record has been growing recently. Last month, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] urged the government of Myanmar to do more to end sectarian violence [JURIST report] between the Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims. In August, Physicians for Human Rights reported that Myanmar's army is still committing human rights abuses [JURIST report] against ethnic minorities in Karen state. Earlier in August, HRW accused Myanmar security forces of human rights abuses [JURIST report] against a minority religious community. In July, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official website] also expressed concern [JURIST report] about both the continued violence in Myanmar and the country's human rights abuses committed in dealing with it.

Nicaragua originally brought legal action against Colombia in December 2001, claiming that Colombia had no legal control of the islands. Public hearings were finally held between April and May of this year. A portion of Nicaragua's argument was rejected in 2007, when the ICJ upheld a 1928 treaty between Nicaragua and Colombia [JURIST report] establishing that Colombia owned the islands of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina.

The decision by the Minister for Justice came after a 13-month review of the case. Vasiljkovic was first arrested [JURIST report] in Australia in 2006 following an extradition request from the Croatian government. He has been fighting his extradition in the Australian courts ever since, claiming that he would not be able to receive a fair trial in Croatia. Under pressure from the UN, Croatia has been attempting to address [JURIST report] human rights abuses from its war for independence before it joins the EU in July 2013.

Violence in the Ivory Coast [JURIST news archive] has been continuous since the 2010 presidential election. Earlier this month the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] found Gbagbo fit to stand trial, which had been posponed [JURIST reports] since June. Gbagbo is charged with crimes against humanity on four counts including murder, persecution, inhumane acts, rape and other sexual assaults allegedly committed during the 2010 post-election violence. Through June 2012, violence continued [JURIST report] from Gbagbo supporters along the Liberian-Ivorian border, killing at least 50 civilians. In February HRW expressed concern over the thoroughness of the investigation into the post-election violence, while in December 2010 the ICC urged [JURIST reports] those in the Ivory Coast to refrain from further violence, which has yet to seize.

Firms in the same or similar industries often compete to hire or retain talented employees. This is particularly true in technology companies in which particular expertise and highly specialized skills sought by one firm can often be found at another firm. Solicitation of skilled employees at other companies is an effective method of competing for needed employees ... eBay's agreement with Intuit eliminated this competition.

The DOJ has recently been involved in other lawsuits involving alleged violations of the Sherman Act. In early September a judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] approved [JURIST report] a settlement agreement between the DOJ and e-book publishers, including Apple, Hachette, HarperCollins, MacMillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster [corporate websites] for alleged price-fixing violations under the Sherman Act. eBay has also been involved in litigation over trademark infringement in recent years as well. In July 2011 the EU Court of Justice [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that eBay may be liable on the part its users for infringing cosmetic producer L'Oreal's trademarks. In July 2010 Connecticut company XPRT Ventures LLC filed suit [JURIST report] against eBay in the US District Court for the District of Delaware [official website], claiming infringement of six patents for online auctions and payment systems.

Dissidents and human rights advocates have encountered significant legal problems in China. In September Beijing's Second Intermediate People's Court denied an appeal [JURIST report] by dissident artist Ai Weiwei challenging a 15 million yuan (USD $2.4 million) fine for back taxes. The Chinese government levied the fine against Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., the company that promotes Ai's work. In June a Chinese intermediate court dismissed fraud charges [JURIST report] against Ni Yulan, a human rights lawyer with disabilities, resulting in a two-month reduction to her two-year and eight-month sentence while upholding convictions against the lawyer for causing a disturbance. Ni had assisted victims of government land seizures [Guardian report], including those displaced by the Beijing Olympics project, prior to their arrest in August 2011. The fraud charges included allegations that Ni received 5,000 yuan (USD $783) through fabrication of her identity as a lawyer. Ni and her husband, Dong Jiqin, were sentenced [JURIST report] in April by a lower court on charges of fraud and inciting disturbance. The sentence faced criticism by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International [advocacy website], which for their immediate release. Also in June a Chinese court in the southwestern city of Chongqing quashed [JURIST report] the sentence against a Chinese blogger and former forestry employee for lack of evidence.

In October Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] wrote a letter to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett asking him to veto [JURIST report] legislation [SB 850 text] which would maintain the sentence of life without parole as an option for child offenders. According to HRW, the bill would go against the spirit of the recent US Supreme Court ruling in Miller. In June the US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in two combined cases, Miller v. Alabama and Jackson v. Hobbs [SCOTUS backgrounders] that mandatory life sentences for juveniles violate the Eighth Amendment. The decision has been seen by many as an important step toward restoring principles of rehabilitationism [JURIST op-ed] to a system that, over the last 20 years, has come almost entirely unmoored from its ideological foundations. Some observers have argued that the reasoning the court used in this case could easily be extended [JURIST op-ed] in the future to abolish life in prison without the possibility of parole sentences for all juvenile homicide cases.