Northern Ireland airport considers rendition flight ban News
Northern Ireland airport considers rendition flight ban

[JURIST] Northern Ireland's publicly-owned City of Derry Airport [airport website] and Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website, UK office] are discussing the implementation of an official policy barring the United States and its allies from using the airport for controversial rendition [JURIST news archive] flights, AI announced [press release] Wednesday. If passed by the Derry City Council [official website], the policy would be a first for Europe. AI originally believed the airport was being used as a stopover point for secret CIA flights transporting terror suspects, but retracted its suspicions after seeing the airport's flight records.

Amnesty's draft anti-rendition policy includes provisions requiring planes implicated in rendition flights to provide detailed information about passengers listed as prisoners or detainees before being granted permission to land or enter airspace. Last month the European Parliament [official website] officially condemned member states [JURIST report] who have assisted the CIA in rendition and detention in secret prisons. The Belfast Telegraph has more. BBC News has additional coverage.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Jurist James Kent born

On July 31, 1763, James Kent, first professor of law at Columbia College, Chancellor of New York, and author of a four-volume set of Commentaries on American Law, was born near Brewster, NY. Learn more about James Kent.

Weimer Republic Constitution signed

On July 31, 1919, the Constitution of the German Reich was signed in Weimar, Germany as the country's post-empire foundational law. The document set up a full democracy in Germany with a President, Parliament, and independent judiciary. It also made Germany the first nation to give women the right to vote. The so-called Weimar Republic lasted until the rise of Adolf Hitler in 1933. Learn more about the Weimar Republic.