The United Kingdom launched its first non-police law enforcement agency Monday – the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) – modeled after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US. SOCA will have 5,000 employees on staff and its main goals are to tackle organized criminal gangs such as drug traffickers, people-smugglers who exploit illegal [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist John Pace, former Secretary of the UN Commission on Human Rights, says that the creation of a new Human Rights Council to replace the Commission could be a major step forward for human rights protection, but the Commission should not painted as a "discredited" institution and proponents of the new Council [...]

A spiritual advisor for former Liberian President Charles Taylor has said that Nigerian security forces led Taylor to the border of Cameroon to facilitate his escape, but then returned to arrest him at gunpoint. Nigerian officials have denied such allegations. Taylor has been charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity and [...]

US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) said Sunday that he wants the full Senate to vote on an immigration bill by the end of the week, detailing three areas that must be addressed : border control, employer enforcement, and a guest worker program. Frist has criticized provisions in the immigration bill passed by the [...]

Members of the private Minuteman Civil Defense Corps have begun a new month-long campaign in US states bordering Mexico and Canada to raise public awareness of illegal immigration. Minuteman volunteers watch the borders with binoculars and are instructed to contact government Border Control officials to report illegal immigrants. The campaign comes in the midst of [...]

Loi no 2006-396 du 31 mars 2006 pour l'egalité des chances , Journal Officiel de la Republique Francaise, April 2, 2006. CPE excerpt: Article 8 I. − Les employeurs qui entrent dans le champ du premier alinéa de l'article L. 131-2 du code du travail peuvent conclure, pour toute nouvelle embauche d'un jeune âgé de [...]

Loi no 2006-396 du 31 mars 2006 pour l'egalité des chances , Journal Officiel de la Republique Francaise, April 2, 2006. CPE excerpt: Article 8 I. − Les employeurs qui entrent dans le champ du premier alinéa de l'article L. 131-2 du code du travail peuvent conclure, pour toute nouvelle embauche d'un jeune âgé de [...]

A controversial French labor law that has prompted strikes and mass demonstrations by students and workers across France was officially published Sunday in France's Journal officiel gazette after being signed by President Jacques Chirac . The statute establishing the so-called First Employment Contract (CPE) allows employers to fire workers under the age of 26 without [...]

Former Liberian president and accused war criminal Charles Taylor is set to make his first appearance in the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) before Justice Richard Lussick at Freetown on Monday, where he is expected to plead not guilty to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity . Lawyers from the SCSL defense [...]

International Union of Operating Engineers Local #68 Welfare Fund v. Merck & Co., Inc., Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division, March 31, 2006 . Read the full text of the opinion. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.