US Attorney General Eric Holder announced earlier this month that BP had agreed to pay a record $4.5 billion in penalties and to plead guilty [JURIST report] to felony misconduct for its role in the devastation caused by the oil spill. Also this month, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana heard arguments [JURIST report] regarding approval of a class-action settlement agreement between BP and various individuals and businesses affected by the Deepwater Horizon incident. There, attorneys on both sides urged Judge Carl Barbier to approve the settlement agreement, under which BP is expected to pay approximately $7.8 billion. It has been argued that the settlement is a step in the right direction [JURIST op-ed] for compensating those affected by the oil spill. In May Barbier signed a case management order [JURIST report] outlining the structure for the upcoming trial of Gulf oil spill claims, scheduled for January 14, 2013. The judge divided the trial into two phases. In phase one, or the "incident" phase, the court will address issues arising out of the various parties' conduct leading to the incident and appropriation of their negligence. Barbier gave preliminary approval [JURIST report] to the proposed settlement agreement earlier that month.

Feinstein, who is chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, commissioned the report in 2008 and welcomed [AP report] its findings, stating that it "demonstrates that if the political will exists we could finally close Guantanamo without imperiling our national security." Last month, the ACLU called on [JURIST report] President Barack Obama to close the military prison during his second term. During his 2008 campaign for the presidency, Obama pledged to close the prison and during his second day in office he issued an executive order [text; JURIST report] directing the prison to be closed. However, in the face of congressional opposition [JURIST report] the Obama administration missed its self-imposed deadline to close Guantanamo military prison, and, following the 2010 mid-term congressional election, congress effectively halted [JURIST backgrounder] plans to close the facility. According to Forum contributor Jonathan Hafetz, Obama bears responsibility [JURIST op-ed] for the political missteps that prevented Guantanamo from closing and criticizes the president for embracing the "larger detention system that Guantanamo embodies." Conversely, Forum contributor David Frakt agrees that the Obama administration is partially responsible, but believes congress is largely to blame [JURIST op-ed] for passing a "series of increasingly stringent spending restrictions which have made it virtually impossible to transfer most detainees out of Guantanamo."

Animal rights remain a contentious issue around the world, particularly when they clash with religious and cultural tradition. Earlier this month, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) upheld a German injunction preventing the activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) from using Holocaust images in an animal rights poster campaign [JURIST report]. The campaign featured pictures of Holocaust victims alongside images of animals kept in mass stocks. In September, the Constitutional Council of France rejected a challenge to the bullfighting exception [JURIST report] contained in the animal cruelty provisions of the country's criminal code. The provisions provide an explicit exception for bullfights held in a region where an uninterrupted local tradition can be shown.

Since its establishment in 1993, the ICTY has indicted 161 people for violations of humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 2001; of those indicted, the trials of 128 have concluded, with proceedings for 33 currently ongoing. Last Friday, the ICTY overturned the convictions [JURIST report] of two Croat generals for crimes against humanity and war crimes against Serb civilians committed during a 1995 military blitz. Ex-Yugoslav army chief Momcilo Perisic began his appeal [JURIST report] before the ICTY last October in an attempt to overturn his conviction [JURIST report] on crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the wars in Bosnia and Croatia. Earlier that October, the ICTY opened the trial of Goran Hadzic [JURIST report], the last suspect remaining to be tried by the court.

In October the Second Circuit ruled [JURIST report] that Argentina must pay $1.33 billion to bondholders when it repays its debts stemming from an economic collapse in 2001. The Second Circuit affirmed a district court ruling that Argentina breached a promise when it prioritized paying holders of its restructured debt over the bondholders who held its defaulted debt. In August the Second Circuit rejected [JURIST report] Argentina's attempt to prevent bondholders from acquiring bank documents regarding the country's assets outside US territory, declaring that sovereign immunity was not an acceptable defense in this case. In September 2011 the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled [JURIST report] that Argentina had to comply with subpoenas requested by NML Capital Ltd. for the collection of five money judgments totaling about $1.6 billion.

Innocence of Muslims has generated a great deal of political, religious and legal controversy. In September an actress who claims she was duped into appearing in the film filed suit [JURIST report] in the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] requesting that the film be removed from YouTube. Earlier in September UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai [official website] condemned the violence [JURIST report] that erupted after the film's release. Kiai stated that protests and rallies must be peaceful to be protected by international human rights law and urged the Middle East states to prosecute those responsible for the violence. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] urged religious and political leaders [JURIST report] to encourage an end to the violence that followed the release of the film. While Pillay said she "fully understand[s] why people wish to protest strongly against" the film, she "utterly condemn[s]" the violence that has resulted from the protests. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [official website] declared that the US had nothing to do with the anti-Muslim film [Reuters report] despite its apparent production in America, in turn labeling it disgusting and reprehensible.

Iran has also been criticized by other human rights groups recently for its treatment of prisoners and other human rights abuses. Earlier this month Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] detailed abuses against female prisoners [JURIST report] and called on the government to investigate alleged mistreatment. Last month Iran executed 10 men [JURIST report] for drug charges, despite objections from the UN and AI. An AI director said that drug charges do not rise to the level of a crime that would permit use of the death penalty and claimed the Iranian government "know(s) full well" that these actions were not consistent with international human rights standards. Also last month the UN reported that Iran was torturing human rights activists [JURIST report] and threatening their families with rape and death.

This case stems from Armarcion Henderson's sentence of 60 months in prison after conviction for a felony punishable by 33 to 41 months in prison because the trial court wanted him to be eligible for a federal drug rehabilitation program that required a five-year sentence for eligibility. By the time Henderson appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website], the Supreme Court had decided US v. Tapia [opinion], in which it ruled that federal law did not allow courts to lengthen a sentence for the purpose of promoting rehabilitation. The Fifth Circuit, however, applied the time-of-trial rule, and ruled [opinion] that because Tapia had not been decided at the time of his trial there was no plain error made by the trial court. Later, however, around the time that Henderson's petition for writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court was filed, the Fifth Circuit took another case rejecting the time-of-trial doctrine and adopting the time-of-appeal rule.