A preliminary hearing began Thursday at Camp Pendleton , California, in proceedings against US Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich , commander of the platoon implicated in the killing and suspected cover-up of the death of 24 Iraqi civilians at Haditha in November 2005. Wuterich faces several counts of unpremeditated murder, as well as charges of [...]

The United States should not deport foreign detainees back to their home countries if there is reason to believe they will face torture , American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawyers argued Thursday. Appearing before the US District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, lawyers representing Sameh Khouzam , an Egyptian Christian who fled to [...]

Giovanni Di Stefano : "The case of Al Majid can be summarized by the following phrase that he uttered in my presence to the Iraqi High Tribunal Judge when sentenced to death: 'thank God now I can have you judges out of my hair'. The Anfal Trial was and remains a trial contrary to natural [...]

The US Department of Justice has begun an internal inquiry to determine whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may have perjured himself in testimony before Congress, DOJ Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said Thursday. In a letter dated August 16, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) asked Fine to investigate potentially misleading or dishonest testimony [...]

China's National People's Congress passed a new law Thursday to hold officials legally accountable for providing accurate and timely information on public emergencies. The law also allows the government to revoke the business licenses of media organizations that are found to hurt public safety by publishing false reports of emergencies. The Emergency Response Law uses [...]

A federal judge Wednesday rejected several claims in a legal challenge to Arizona's voter ID law filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) , including a claim that the ID law amounted to an unconstitutional poll tax. Judge Roslyn Silver ruled that the fees associated with procuring the documents required by [...]

Andrew Wood, Pitt Law '08, files from Manila: The Philippines has a number of laws on the books that are geared towards protecting the environment, but effective enforcement of those laws is another story. This fact is evident in the aquarium fishing industry. The Philippines is one of the world's leading exporters of ornamental fish. [...]

The High Court of Australia on Thursday struck down an amendment to Australia's Commonwealth Electoral Act passed in 2006 that took voting rights away from all prisoners regardless of the length of their sentence, finding that the amendments stripped prisoners of a constitutional right in an arbitrary manner. The court found that the 2006 amendment [...]

Vickie Lee Roach v. Electoral Commissioner and Commonwealth of Australia, High Court of Australia, August 30, 2007 . Read the full text of the order . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The Chinese National People's Congress passed anti-monopoly legislation Thursday aimed at protecting China's economic security and easing the Chinese economy away from state-run monopolies. The new law establishes a series of national security checks for when a foreign company acquires or invests in a domestic company and the transaction involves a national security issue. A [...]