The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court on Friday convicted former Pharmaceutical Registration Department Director Cao Wenzhuan of corruption and dereliction of duty for receiving approximately $316,000 in bribes from two pharmaceutical companies in exchange for certifying substandard drugs at the State Food and Drug Administration . The court sentenced Cao to death on both [...]

American Civil Liberties Union, et al. v. National Security Agency, et al., US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, July 6, 2007 . Read the full text of the decision . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

South Dakota is preparing to hold its first execution in 60 years next week, AP reported Friday. The execution was halted last year by Governor Mike Rounds , but the passage of new lethal injection protocols in February cleared up the legal concerns that led to its suspension. While the former law, written in 1984, [...]

Italy's Superior Council of the Magistracy (CSM) , the country's top self-governing judiciary body, has accused the Italian Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) under the government of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of spying on approximately 200 judges and magistrates that were deemed "politically unreliable" by the government. The CSM accused Nicolo Pollari, head of [...]

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has denied a prosecution motion which sought to move the trial of former Bosnian army commander Rasim Delic out of the international court at The Hague. Prosecutors sought the change after the court limited the scope of the trial and the number of witnesses prosecutors could [...]

Mizanur Rahman was convicted Thursday in a UK court of inciting murder during a February 2006 protest against the publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad . Rahman, who has already been convicted for inciting racial hatred during the rally at the Danish embassy, called for the beheading of individuals who insult Islam and the [...]

US District Judge Cecilia Altonaga upheld torture charges Thursday against the son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, Charles McArthur Emmanuel , rejecting Emmanuel's argument that a federal anti-torture statute exceeds Congressional authority because it criminalizes behavior of foreign government officials outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. Altonaga also rejected Emmanuel's assertion that [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has rejected a lawsuit challenging the government's domestic surveillance program , ruling Friday that the lawsuit should be dismissed because the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the suit. The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of journalists, scholars, attorneys and national nonprofit organizations having "a well-founded [...]

Lawyer Kenneth R. Feinberg was appointed Thursday to head the distribution effort of the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund established to aid victims and families of the April 16 massacre at Virginia Tech that left 33 people dead and 25 wounded in the largest shooting spree in US history . Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said [...]

A US Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) spokesperson has confirmed that up to 10 US Marines are currently under investigation for the alleged killing of at least eight Iraqi detainees during the Multinational National Force-Iraq's November 2004 offensive in Fallujah . The latest allegations surfaced when former Marine Corporal Ryan Weemer admitted the incident during [...]