Google will no longer use the "Gmail" name for its UK e-mail service in part of a long-running trademark dispute with small UK financial research company Independent II Research (IIIR). IIIR claims that it launched its "G-MailTM" web based email back in May 2002, nearly two years prior to Google's launch of "GmailTM" and last [...]

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that the use of foreign law in US Supreme Court opinions is "anti-democratic" and "unworkable." In a speech given at George Mason University Law School, Gonzales argued that "Foreign judges and legislators are not accountable to the American people. If our courts rely on a foreign judge's opinion [...]

An argumentative Saddam Hussein pleaded not guilty Wednesday as he and seven co-defendants from the defunct Baath Party went on trial before the Iraqi Special Tribunal , also known as the Iraqi High Criminal Court. The eight face charges of murder, torture, forced expulsions and illegal imprisonment for the 1982 massacre of nearly 150 Shiites [...]

Common Cause/Georgia v. Billups, US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, October 18, 2005 . Read the full text of the ruling here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The final results from the referendum on the draft Iraqi constitution will be postponed until Friday at the earliest due to transportation delays and audits being performed because of voting inconsistencies in some provinces, according to officials from the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) . The audits were announced Monday in response to an [...]

Members of the Independent Inquiry Committee created to investigate the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme discussed their findings and recommendations with the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee in testimony on Tuesday. The committee, formed in April 2004, investigated the program for more than a year before presenting its final report in early September. Committee chairman Paul [...]

A Chilean judge Tuesday asked that former president Augusto Pinochet be stripped of his immunity from prosecution on embezzlement charges. In his last action before joining the Chilean Supreme Court, Judge Sergio Munoz, who extensively investigated Pinochet for tax evasion and embezzlement, petitioned the Santiago Court of Appeals to force Pinochet to face charges related [...]

Khalil Dulaimi, defense lawyer for Saddam Hussein , announced Tuesday that he plans to ask the Iraqi Special Tribunal for an immediate three-month adjournment in the first trial against Hussein so the defense has an opportunity to fully prepare its case. Dulaimi said he was optimistic the court would grant his request. In the proceeding, [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers Leandro Despouy Tuesday expressed doubts about the fairness of Uzbekistan's ongoing trial of 15 alleged rebels accused of precipitating the violent May uprising in the town of Andijan that allegedly led to hundreds of casualties when government troops opened fire on protestors. Despouy has requested [...]

New York Times reporter Judith Miller , recently released from an 85-day prison term for contempt after refusing to testify about her sources to a grand jury investigating the Valerie Plame leak, announced Tuesday that she would press for federal shield legislation. Speaking at a conference of the Society of Professional Journalists , Miller defended [...]