JURIST Guest Columnist Anthony D'Amato of Northwestern University School of Law says that while the legal status of the current Middle East conflict embroiling Israel and Lebanon is not easily characterized by traditional definitions of international armed conflict, it falls at least partially under a doctrine originating closer to home… In the eyes of the [...]

Making the first US appearance before the UN Human Rights Committee in more than a decade, American officials on Monday defended their position that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights does not govern many aspects of the war on terror. In a media roundtable in conjunction with a committee hearing in Geneva, Mark [...]

Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has signed the controversial anti-terrorism bill which the country's parliament passed on June 29, but says he will allow the country's constitutional court to delete several clauses without specifying which would be stricken. The law has been criticized by media and human rights groups which claim legislators approved the measure [...]

The US House of Representatives Monday approved a bill by voice vote that would make a 2000 treaty between the US and Russia effective to protect the future of the world's polar bears (Ursus maritimus) . The bill establishes quotas for allowable polar bear hunting in the two countries and prohibits the possession, sale or [...]

Democratic Party officials in Missouri filed a class-action lawsuit Monday seeking a permanent injunction against the enforcement of a new state law that requires voters to show photo identification at the polls . The law, signed by Gov. Matt Blunt last month, allows voters who can't produce ID to cast provisional ballots that will be [...]

Michael J. Kelly : "Serbia has moved against a group of nationalist co-conspirators who have been hiding wanted war criminal Radko Mladic for about a decade. The Serb government, largely unresponsive to repeated requests to turn over such perpetrators to international tribunals, has responded in this case only because the European Union (E.U.) has taken [...]

The Supreme Court of Chile has upheld a lower court's ruling stripping former dictator Augusto Pinochet of immunity, allowing a homicide case against him to proceed. The court's public relations office announced Monday that the justices had voted to uphold the appellate court's decision , although they have not yet written an opinion. Pinochet may [...]

ICTY chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte and EU diplomats have criticized a new Serbian plan to arrest war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic as too vague, although they acknowledged "positive elements." The six-point document , which Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica discussed with EU diplomats Monday in Brussels, emphasizes improved coordination between Serb authorities and the [...]

British Home Secretary John Reid announced Monday that he is banning four groups under the UK Terrorism Act 2006 . The UK-based Al-Ghurabaa and the Saved Sect , as well as the foreign groups Baluchistan Liberation Army and Teyrebaz Azadiye Kurdistan, are the first groups to be named under a controversial Terrorist Act provision that [...]

The government of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is planning to introduce a new law that will clear victims' names and "correct" trial records in an effort to bring justice to victims of former Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco . Some 55,000 people were killed during Franco's 36-year regime. Officials plan to reveal [...]