The trial of five Turkish journalists accused of insulting Turkey's judiciary and trying to influence the courts through their articles has been adjourned to April 11. The court ordered the postponement Tuesday after a fight erupted between the two nationalist lawyers that supported the trial of the journalists. The five are charged under the controversial [...]

Beth Sabilia, the mayor of New London, Connecticut, has proposed a compromise for a group of four homeowners involved in the eminent domain case that went before the US Supreme Court last year. In Kelo v. New London , the Court held last June by a 5-4 margin that the local authority in New London, [...]

A Polish woman who claims she was rendered blind when she was refused an abortion has brought her case before the European Court of Human Rights . Alicja Tysiac, 35-year old mother of three, has filed a claim against Poland stating that the country's strict 1993 abortion law has violated her rights under Articles 8 [...]

Election Reform: What's Changed, What Hasn't and Why 2005-2006, electionline.org, February 7, 2006 . Excerpt: The issue of election reform has matured rapidly in the past five years. Two years ago, few people had even heard of voter-verified paper audit trails; now, states are deciding whether to use them in recounts. In many states, the [...]

US senators voted 98-1 late Tuesday in favor of allowing debate to proceed on a controversial asbestos bill that would supplant asbestos-related litigation with claims against a $140 billion compensation fund. Asbestos-injured workers and their families would be eligible to receive anywhere from $25,000 to $1.1 million in compensation, with attorney fees capped at 5% [...]

Three people were killed Tuesday in election-related violence in Haiti as citizens waited for hours at voting stations to participate in the first national poll since former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced from office in 2004 and involuntarily taken out of the country by a US plane. Some critics alleged that the government intentionally delayed [...]

Steve Vladeck : "Is torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment (CIDT) within the scope of government employment? At least somewhat surprisingly, according to this decision by Judge Urbina in the D.C. district court issued yesterday, the answer to that question is "yes." At issue in the suit, Rasul v. Rumsfeld, are [...]

A report released Tuesday by the non-partisan electionline.org monitoring group says that over half of US states have failed to meet the January 1, 2006 deadline set by the 2002 Help America Vote Act for implementing its requirements, which include updating voting machines and voter databases and possibly establishing free voter ID systems. The Act, [...]

US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged in testimony before the US Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that corruption is a serious problem in Iraq, saying that "it's critically important that be attacked and that the new leadership in that country be measured against their commitment to attack corruption." Previously, the Bush administration has shrugged [...]

Leading Tuesday's environmental law news, the European Commission (EC) has announced that it will not be appealing the 2005 European Court of First Instance ruling that held the UK could revise its 2005-07 carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions trading plan without first getting EU approval. The EU emissions trading scheme provides nations with a way to [...]