EU decries passage of French bill on Armenian ‘genocide’ denial News
EU decries passage of French bill on Armenian ‘genocide’ denial

[JURIST] The European Union (EU) [official website] Friday condemned passage of a French bill [text, in French] making it a crime punishable by imprisonment to deny that the mass killing of Armenians in Turkey [ANI backgrounder] during World War I was genocide. The bill passed France’s lower house [JURIST report] on Thursday but still needs approval by the French Senate and President Jacques Chirac [official profile, in French; BBC profile] to become national law. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso [official profile] said the bill came at a bad time for EU relations with Turkey when the two were engaged in enlargement talks.

French lawmakers attempted to pass the bill [JURIST report] in May 2006, but the legislative session ended before parliament could agree on its terms. When the debate came up again earlier this month, Turkish parliament [official website, in Turkish] threatened retaliation [JURIST report], if French legislation passed the bill, by its passage of a similar bill [JURIST report] labeling as genocide the colonial killings of Algerians [JURIST report] by the French, and making it illegal to deny the French as culpable. France is home to thousands of Armenians and has already recognized the 1915-1919 killings as genocide. Turkish author Orhan Pamuk [JURIST news archive], who won the Nobel Prize for Literature [JURIST report] Thursday, slammed the bill [AFP report] in an interview Friday as going against the French principle of free speech. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Justice Department brings anit-trust action against AT&T

On November 20, 1974, the Department of Justice filed its final anti-trust suit against AT&T. United States v. AT&T was ultimately settled out of court with an agreement that the corporation would break up its monopoly on phone service throughout the country.

Nuremberg war crimes trials began

On November 20, 1945, the war crimes trials of Nazi World War II leaders began in the German city of Nuremberg. Review the Nuremberg Tribunal's Charter and the verdicts and sentences handed down on major war figures.

Winston Churchill born

On November 20, 1874, Sir Winston Churchill was born in Woodstock, England. He would go on to lead the United Kingdom as Prime Minister through World War II. Toward the end of the war, Churchill worked with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt to craft the treaties and accords that have defined the world since WWII. A 2002 poll by the BBC declared Churchill the Greatest Briton of all time.

New Jersey ratifies Bill of Rights

New Jersey ratified the Bill of Rights, a set of 10 fundamental amendments to the US Constitution, on November 20, 1789, becoming the first state to do so. The state also ratified an amendment on federal representation which ultimately failed. Additionally, New Jersey rejected an amendment on congressional salaries, which would eventually become the 27th Amendment more than 200 years later. Read the articles ratified by New Jersey.