Africa rights court judge nomination process slammed for lack of transparency News
Africa rights court judge nomination process slammed for lack of transparency

[JURIST] The Coalition for an Effective African Court on Human and People's Rights [advocacy website], an NGO based in South Africa, on Saturday criticized the process of nominating judges [press release, DOC] to the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights during the ongoing African Union [official website] summit in Khartoum, Sudan. The coalition said that the nomination process lacked transparency and that several of the judicial candidates did not have adequate experience in human rights [JURIST news archive]. The coalition argues that the AU commission should be responsible for nominating judges to the court, rather than the member states. The protocol [text] for establishing the court came into effect last January and African leaders are expected to appoint judges to the court [Reuters report] Monday. PANA 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.