January 24 marks the International Day of the Endangered Lawyer—an occasion to reflect on lawyers worldwide who have been subjected to harassment, silencing, pressure, threats, persecution, torture, murder and disappearance. In theory, the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers aim to safeguard members of the profession, but in practice, far too many attorneys [...]

Months have passed since the Taliban reclaimed control of Afghanistan amid the chaotic final chapter of the United States’ 20-year war in the country. Yet many thousands of the Afghan citizens who provided critical assistance to Washington and other foreign governments and international organizations over the past two decades now find themselves targeted for this [...]

As the diplomatic and military consequences of the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan continue to unfold, the true human cost remains immeasurable. Months after the last US forces departed from Kabul, leaving the country under Taliban rule, many face persecution for having upheld the very democratic ideals Washington and its allies spent two decades fostering [...]

On Sunday, a group of young Afghan lawyers gathered in a Kabul hotel to hold a press conference about the importance of an independent legal profession and respect for the rule of law in Afghanistan. As they prepared to go live, their plans were thwarted by two carloads of armed Taliban. This was the latest [...]

As a student preparing to enter her final year of legal studies in Afghanistan, Azad* felt that her future held infinite possibilities. The drive and talent that had propelled her top academic performance, paired with the sense that her country was at the dawn of a new era of good governance, had imbued her with [...]

A decision by Texan authorities to make theirs the latest state to ban Delta-8 THC has highlighted the growing tension surrounding this federally legal, but increasingly scrutinized marijuana-derived compound. Once a little-known hemp byproduct, Delta-8 has proliferated in recent years, riding the coattails of the surging popularity of CBD oil. Proponents of the substance claim [...]

Oxygen shortages, inadequate medical supplies, overwhelmed hospitals—these scenarios may sound all too familiar in a pandemic-weary world. But in Myanmar, they are playing out against a backdrop of the mass arrests, forced disappearances and casualties that have come to define daily life since February, when the military leadership carried out a coup d’état against the [...]

Twenty-year-old law student Theint Sandi Soe had been visiting her mother and four-year-old sister at their family home in Mogok when military police burst in and detained all three of them. Against the backdrop of Myanmar’s ongoing military coup, the arrests themselves did not send shockwaves. It was what happened next—an act of courageous defiance [...]

As he left his family home in the early afternoon of the last day of his life, 24-year-old law student Myo Hein Kyaw had one goal in mind: to distract Myanmar’s increasingly violent military forces from the crowd they had been firing on all afternoon. This strategy of diversion has become commonplace in Myanmar since [...]

In the weeks that have passed since Myanmar’s February 1 coup d’état, as dissenters have been jailed, disappeared and killed, a group of JURIST law student correspondents* has participated in street protests by day and navigated government-ordered internet blackouts by night to report on the crisis. Below we provide an overview of the origins and [...]