Leading Friday's environmental law news, representatives from countries surrounding the Barents Sea have held a meeting in Norway to discuss global warming and the Kyoto Protocol . The Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) consists of representatives from Russia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland and the European Commission. The BEAC adopted a number of resolutions on environmental [...]

Peru announced Thursday that it is removing its ambassador from Japan to protest Tokyo's refusal to extradite former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori . Fujimori was detained earlier this week in Chile on an international arrest warrant and Japanese diplomats visited with Fujimori , promising to defend Fujimori's rights. Chilean officials have so far been receptive [...]

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani met with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican on Thursday, assuring him that new Iraqi constitution will respect the rights of Christians. The Vatican was concerned that even though the constitution guaranteed religious freedom for all, it also named Islam as a "fundamental source" of legislation. According to Talabani, "the Iraqi [...]

The Crown Prosecution Service released a report on Friday that shows prosecutions for hate crimes during April 2004 to March 2005 up 29 percent over the previous year . A record 4,660 people were prosecuted, and another 1,128 cases were dropped, many because witnesses failed to testify. The figures do not include incidents related to [...]

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has denied complaints that controversial new anti-terrorism proposals were "authoritarian" and would limit freedom of the press. Part of the plan includes allowing a 7-year prison sentence for sedition, defined as threatening the "peace, order and good government of the commonwealth". The Australian Press Council called for this provision to [...]

Televangelist Pat Robertson told residents of Dover, Pennsylvania that they had "voted God out of your city" in local elections earlier this week by ousting eight school board members who had supported teaching intelligent design in science classes. On Thursday's broadcast of The 700 Club he said: I'd like to say to the good citizens [...]

French immigrant communities and rights groups are criticizing the French government's decision to impose emergency laws in efforts to restore order after two weeks of rioting. The 1955 state of emergency law was initially created to cope with a rebellion in Algeria, then a French colony, and the Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Among [...]

US Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito said Thursday that during his 15 years as a federal court judge, he never knowingly ruled on a case in which he had an obligation to recuse himself. Alito was responding to challenges made by US Senate Democrats Wednesday that Alito heard a 2002 case involving mutual fund company [...]

The Italian prosecutor's office in Milan has asked for 22 CIA operatives to be extradited to Italy to face charges for the alleged kidnapping of Egyptian cleric Abu Omar in 2003, according to an Italian prosecutor Friday. Omar was purportedly kidnapped on a Milan street before being taken to Egypt where he was reportedly tortured. [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Devika Hovell of the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law in Sydney, Australia, says that the trial of Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks by US military commission highlights his transformation from an alleged perpetrator of war crimes into a possible victim of one… The trial of David Hicks, the so-called [...]