Sudan to extend emergency laws News
Sudan to extend emergency laws

[JURIST] Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir (official profile on the Sudan's government website) asked the Sudanese National Assembly Tuesday to extend for a year the state of emergency currently in effect in Sudan. The present emergency declaration is set to terminate December 31. A state of emergency limits the democratic rights of the general population and increases the control that the national government exercises; the Sudanese constitution's provisions on emergency law are here. The largely pro-government parliament is likely to approve the measure, though opposition members are decrying the attempt as nothing more than a move to rule the country through emergency laws rather than face the realities of the democratic process. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Sudan. The Sudan Tribune has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.