Leading Monday's international brief, Japan has raised concerns that a navigation ban on commercial ships in part of the East China Sea may actually violate Japan's sovereignty and international law under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea . China's navigation ban covers part of Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone , a demarcation that [...]

A controversial Russian law imposing restrictions on domestic and foreign nongovernmental organizations operating in the country took effect Monday. The new law, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in January, implements strict registration requirements, imposes financial oversight on NGO operations, and provides for dissolution if an organization's activities "threaten Russia's independence or sovereignty" or if [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the appeal of two Chinese Uighur detainees who continue to be held at Guantanamo Bay despite a determination that they are not enemy combatants. In December, US District Court Judge James Robertson ruled that the Uighurs' detention was unlawful, but that the courts had no relief [...]

Israeli police arrested seven Hamas members of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Jerusalem on Sunday, including top MP Mohammed Abu Teir. Jerusalem police claimed that the men were violating a decree banning a political rally in the city. The men were briefly interrogated and released without charges. Teir, who was the number two candidate on [...]

Members of the Serbia-Montenegro parliament have passed a law to authorize the freezing of assets of fugitives accused of war crimes in an effort to comply with requirements of the European Union and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) . Serbia has promised the ICTY that it will turn over fugitive Ratko Mladic [...]

In a report read in court as the Saddam Hussein trial resumed in Baghdad Monday, handwriting experts testified that some of the signatures on documents connected with the execution of 148 Shiite villagers belonged to Hussein. The documents include an execution order allegedly signed by Hussein and Barzan Ibrahim , Hussein's brother-in-law and former director [...]

Nepal security forces on Monday fired on a group of pro-democracy protesters in Nijgadh, killing at least one person and wounding five, marking the fifth incident where police have fired upon protesters since widespread demonstrations against the rule of King Gyanendra began over a week ago. Gyanendra seized power in a bloodless coup last year [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist Kathleen Duignan, Executive Director of the National Institute of Military Justice, says that the prosecution and conviction of low-ranking soldiers like US Army dog handler Sergeant Michael J. Smith for abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib should not be allowed to hide or distract from the legal accountability of officers higher-up the [...]

Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced Sunday that she would commute all death sentences to life imprisonment. With the decision affecting 1,200 convicts currently on death row, Arroyo said, "I wish to announce that we are changing our policy on those who have been imposed the death penalty. We are reducing their penalty to life imprisonment." [...]

Over 100 Muslim Brotherhood members were detained by Egyptian police Sunday, continuing the ruling government's persecution of party members. According to a source from the Interior Ministry, these latest arrests were in response to planned demonstrations by members of the Muslim Brotherhood to protest Egypt's emergency laws. Emergency laws , first instituted in 1981, were [...]