Sudan expected to announce war crimes tribunal in 2-3 months News
Sudan expected to announce war crimes tribunal in 2-3 months

[JURIST] A senior Sudanese official said Saturday that a tribunal to try people accused of war crimes in Darfur [BBC backgrounder] could be announced in 2-3 months. Sudan rejected the UN Security Council's recommendation [JURIST report] earlier this year to refer the trials to the International Criminal Court [official website] in The Hague. The Khartoum government is accused of arming militias and deploying them against refugees in the area, resulting in the deaths of over 180,000 people. Reuters 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.