A study commissioned by the Canadian Justice Department and obtained by Canadian Press has urged the Canadian federal government to legalize polygamy to help protect women and children in those relationships. Section 293 of the Canadian Criminal Code currently bans polygamy, although a few Canadian provinces give limited recognition to foreign polygamous marriages for spousal [...]

US military prosecutors have dropped murder charges against Chief Warrant Officer Jefferson Williams in connection with the 2003 suffocation of Iraqi Major General Abed Hamed Mowhoush. In a plea deal with prosecutors Williams, one of three soldiers originally charged , agreed to testify against fellow accused Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr. in exchange for [...]

Former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz is ailing and may have only weeks to live, lawyer Badia Aref said Thursday, claiming his client is suffering from high blood pressure, cannot walk properly, and is being given 13 pills a day for heart problems, diabetes and other illnesses. Aziz was once the spokesman for the [...]

Singapore's national association of lawyers, the Law Society , is to conduct a review of the nation's death penalty laws and make recommendations to the national government in nine months. Singapore has one of the world's highest per capita execution rates – possibly the highest – as a result of automatic death sentences for drug [...]

Witness statements on the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, US Senate Judiciary Committee, January 12-13, 2006 . Read the full text of the witnesses' prepared testimony. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Iran on Friday threatened to block inspections of its nuclear facilities if the UN Security Council confronts it over its nuclear activities. Iran has been voluntarily allowing short-notice International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections since 2003 but last year adopted a law requiring the government to block intrusive inspections of Iran's facilities if the IAEA [...]

US District Judge Sim Lake ruled Thursday that prosecutors in the trials of Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling cannot use recorded audio tapes of Enron employees discussing strategies to manipulate electricity prices because of their inflammatory nature. Lake, however, said he would allow testimony by Richard Sanders, Enron's in-house counsel, about [...]

US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein on Thursday dismissed the final remaining property damage claim against New York City stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks . Associated Electric & Gas Insurance Services Ltd. and five other insurers for the utility Consolidated Edison Company of New York sought repayment for expenses that arose from the collapse of [...]

Transcript of Day 4 of confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel Alito, Jr., nominated to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, US Senate Judiciary Committee, January 12, 2006. Read the full text transcript as provided to AP by CQ Transcriptions, LLC .

Legal authorities regarding warrantless surveillance of US persons, memo from Jeffrey H. Smith, former General Counsel of the CIA and a former General Counsel of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, to the Members of the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, January 3, 2006 . Read the full text of the memo .