Legal News

Voters in Switzerland approved Sunday the government’s new COVID-19 measures in a referendum. In September 2020, the Swiss Parliament passed the COVID-19 Act to respond to the global medical crisis and protect the Swiss economy. In March 2021, Parliament altered the Act to include contact tracing, government-supported testing, and “expanded financial support to those affected by [...]

Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced in a press conference Friday that COVID-19 vaccination will become mandatory for everyone beginning February 1, 2022. As the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic hits Western Europe, Austria is the first country to make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory.  Austria is one of the top four countries to have the highest [...]

Law students and lawyers in Afghanistan are filing reports with JURIST on the situation there after the Taliban takeover. Here, a Staff Correspondent for JURIST in Kabul offers his observations on the rising incapacity of local health centers, stalling of international assistance to tackle the COVID-19 crisis and the lack of a transparent discussion on [...]

Attorney General Jeff Landry of Louisiana and eleven other states filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), questioning their authority to issue a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. The mandate requires all healthcare workers to be fully vaccinated by January 4, 2022. The group of [...]

The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Friday upheld its November 6 decision to temporarily stop the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for private businesses. The mandate, known as the Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on Vaccination and Testing was published last Saturday by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The ETS challenge was filed by [...]

The North Dakota House of Representatives Thursday passed a bill that would ban state-level government-ordered COVID vaccine mandates. The bill would not apply to jails, state hospitals, or higher education institutions but to all other state entities. The bill would prohibit those entities from requiring proof of vaccination, proof of the presence of COVID antibodies, [...]

A report published by the New Zealand Law Society (NZLS) Thursday revealed that New Zealand’s access to justice is at risk. In the past 12 months, more than 20,000 people were denied the representation of a legal aid lawyer. The report’s findings were informed by the largest survey ever undertaken on New Zealand’s legal profession. [...]

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania Wednesday voided Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam’s school mask mandate. Petitioners, including parents and school districts in Pennsylvania, and respondent, Beam, each requested relief. The court granted the petitioners’ application and denied the respondent’s. On August 31, 2021, Beam issued an order directing the use of face coverings [...]

The US District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled that Governor Greg Abbott’s executive order banning mask mandates violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on Wednesday. On July 29, 2021, Governor Abbot issued Executive Order GA-38, preventing any “governmental entity, including a county, city, school district and public health authority” from requiring “any [...]

The Singapore Court of Appeal stayed the execution of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, a Malaysian national who was convicted of illegally importing 42.72 grams of diamorphine in 2009, on Tuesday. The stay came in the light of Nagaenthran testing positive for COVID-19 a day before his execution was due in a case that has attracted international attention. [...]