Legal News

The Review Committee on the Functioning of the International Health Regulations (2005) during the COVID-19 Response recommended minor improvements Tuesday to the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR). Both the Review Committee and the Independent Panel were established by the World Health Organization (WHO) in response to World Health Assembly resolution 73.1. The Review Committee is [...]

The High Court of Justice of Catalonia provisionally on Tuesday suspended the decision of the regional government to delay upcoming parliamentary elections due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This move was challenged before the court on the ground that it defies democracy. Until the matter is settled in the final hearing, elections stand to be [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) and UN human rights experts have demanded that Israel provide equal COVID-19 vaccine access to Palestinians living in the Israel-occupied West Bank and Gaza. According to the Israeli Health Ministry, Israel has “vaccinated a larger share of its population against COVID-19 than any other country.” However, experts say Palestinians living in [...]

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspectors of policing, prisons, probations and prosecutions expressed “grave concerns” about the long-term impact of COVID-19 related court backlogs in a report published Tuesday. The joint report highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the criminal justice system in England and Wales and the long-term risks of the pandemic, with significant failings [...]

All federal prisons in the US have been put on lockdown ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 21. The lockdown, announced at midnight on Saturday, was in response to “current events,” according to a statement by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). The decision was a precautionary one and not in response to any [...]

The UK Supreme Court ruled Friday that businesses can receive insurance payouts for losses sustained due to the COVID-19 lockdown. The public health measures mandated by the UK government amidst the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in heavy financial losses to businesses around the country.  Such losses owing to COVID-19 resulted in business owners to make claims on [...]

The Trump administration executed Corey Johnson by lethal injection on Thursday. Johnson was convicted for a series of seven murders committed in 1992 and became the twelfth federal inmate put to death since July. The execution followed two separate appeals by Johnson’s attorneys for a stay of execution. In the first appeal they argued that Johnson [...]

More than 500 Indian lawyers have written a letter to Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde citing their grievances regarding the current system of virtual hearings and seeking his order to resume regular physical hearings in the Supreme Court. The letter has been written by three Supreme Court lawyers, and is signed by [...]

The US Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the execution of two men on federal death row would go forward this week, overturning a stay that would have delayed their executions until mid-March. Corey Johnson and Dustin Higgs, the men scheduled for execution, were both diagnosed with COVID-19 in mid-December. They requested a preliminary injunction [...]

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated a federal requirement that women accessing early abortion drug mifepristone must pick up the drug in person from their health care providers. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) typically requires that mifepristone is only dispensed in clinics, medical offices or hospitals. The FDA also requires that patients [...]