UK Law Lords weigh Iraq war inquiry bid News
UK Law Lords weigh Iraq war inquiry bid

[JURIST] A nine-member judicial committee of the UK House of Lords heard testimony Monday in the case of two mothers of soldiers killed in Iraq who are seeking to force the British government to hold a public inquiry into the UK's decision to go to war in Iraq [JURIST report]. Beverley Clarke and Rose Gentle argue that the government's refusal to hold an inquiry violates Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights [PDF text] requiring that a proper, adequate investigation be conducted when lives are lost.

The mothers are appealing a December 2005 lower court ruling [text; JURIST report] that they could not challenge the government's refusal to hold a public inquiry. In December 2006, the Court of Appeal upheld the lower court judgment [judgment text; JURIST report], ruling that the decision to establish an inquiry was one for the executive, not the courts. BBC News has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Georgia became first US state to ban lynching

On December 20, 1893, Georgia became the first state in the Union to pass a law against lynching, making the act punishable by four years in prison. The statute was not particularly effective—read the text of the 1899 pamphlet Lynch Law in Georgia by anti-lynching activist Ida Wells-Barnett.