Robert J. Stein , a former US Defense Department contract official for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of conspiracy, bribery, money laundering, unlawful possession of machine guns, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Stein, along with American businessman Philip Bloom , was charged last year, and [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist Kathleen Duignan, Executive Director of the National Institute of Military Justice, says that the ostensibly-light sentence for Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr., the highest-ranking US soldier to face a court-martial for abusing an Iraqi detainee, may actually have been consistent with the military justice system's goals of encouraging clear guidance [...]

US District Judge Deborah A. Batts on Thursday denied a motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit against former Environmental Protection Agency head Christine Todd Whitman , saying her reassurances about the air quality in New York after the September 11 attacks "shock[] the conscience." The New York Environmental Law and Justice Project brought the [...]

The US Senate late Thursday evening passed a one-month extension of the USA Patriot Act by a 95-1 vote . The extension until March 10 has already been approved by the US House and will now go to President Bush for his signature. Sixteen provisions of the Patriot Act were set to expire at the [...]

Tension over the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad flared into violence in Europe and across the Muslim world Thursday and Friday with members of the Front for Defenders of Islam (FPI) storming the Danish embassy in Jakarta and gunmen surrounding an EU office in Gaza. More trouble is expected in the wake of [...]

A Russian military court has convicted a senior officer in the country's elite missile corps of modern-day slavery and contracting out conscripts under his command for personal gain. Deputy Commander Vladimir Kontonistov has been banned from holding any command for three years and fined 56,000 rubles (approximately $1,987). Prosecutors are appealing the sentence as too [...]

A leaked memo reported in the UK Guardian newspaper Friday shows that Prime Minister Tony Blair had committed to US plans to invade Iraq well before seeking legal advice on the military action and any second UN resolution giving more definitive authorization. The memo is described in more detail in a new edition of a [...]

Mayola William et al. v. Philip Morris Incorporated et al., Oregon Supreme Court, February 2, 2006 . Excerpt: In summary, Philip Morris, with others, engaged in a massive, continuous, near-half-century scheme to defraud the plaintiff and many others, even when Philip Morris always had reason to suspect — and for two or more decades absolutely [...]

UN ambassadors from Panama and South Africa Thursday circulated a draft compromise resolution in the UN General Assembly outlining provisions for a UN Human Rights Council to replace the current 53-member Commission on Human Rights . The draft proposes a 45-member body based in Geneva with 12 members from Africa, 13 from Asia, 5 from [...]

Petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR); Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti,the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School, and TransAfrica Forum, February 2, 2006 . Excerpt: This petition demonstrates that the IGH, the United States, and the Dominican Republic violated the [...]