Wire services are reporting that a federal judge in Florida has sentenced former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff to five years and 10 months in prison on two conspiracy and fraud charges stemming from falsification of documents to procure a loan for the 2000 purchase of SunCruz Casino by Abramoff and his partners. Abramoff and co-defendant [...]

Johannesburg High Court Judge Willem van der Merwe on Wednesday refused to dismiss rape charges against former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma . The defense filed a motion for dismissal citing a lack of evidence proving Zuma's guilt in the rape of a longtime family friend and AIDS activist. The judge denied the motion [...]

The Law Lords , the judicial panel of the UK House of Lords that is Britain's highest court, Wednesday dismissed appeals brought by anti-war protesters who argued that under the Criminal Law Act 1967 they were allowed to break British law in an attempt to stop what they termed a "greater crime of aggression", i.e. [...]

A female Saudi lawyer, Reem al-Habib, received preliminary approval on Wednesday to join the team of lawyers defending Saddam Hussein . Habib, who graduated from Harvard Law School and works in western Saudi Arabia as a corporate lawyer, cites personal reasons for joining Hussein's defense team that do not reflect the views of the Saudi [...]

The Fukuoka district court in Japan on Wednesday dismissed a case brought by 45 Chinese men accusing the Japanese government and two Japanese mining companies of forcing them to work in Japanese coal mines during World War II. The men asserted that they were taken from China against their will and were taken to the [...]

Leading Wednesday's environmental law news, Norman Mineta, secretary of the US Department of Transportation has announced the final rule changes to the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) system, which governs the minimum fuel economy averages for vehicles sold in the US. The final rule applies to light trucks, i.e., pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and [...]

Lawyers for two long-time British residents seized by the US and detained at Guantanamo Bay claim to have documents that indicate British officials prompted their arrests while withholding information that would have aided the two men. Bisher al-Rawi , an Iraqi who had lived in Britain for 20 years, and Jordanian refugee Jamil el-Banna are [...]

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday that UN human rights envoy Yash Ghai should be removed from his position as special envoy after Ghai publicly criticized Cambodia's intolerance to dissent . The comments come one day after Ghai said that Hun Sen's rule has meant little in the way of human rights or political [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Benjamin Davis of the University of Toledo College of Law says that at its 100th annual meeting this week in Washington, DC, the American Society of International Law is being called upon to take a stand on the laws of war and occupation at a critical moment in the history of the [...]

Afghanistan's parliament on Wednesday demanded that government officials block Abdul Rahman , the Afghan man who faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity, from seeking asylum in another country. Parliamentary speaker Yunus Qanooni told reporters that a letter was sent to the Interior Ministry on behalf of the entire parliament demanding Rahman [...]