JURIST Guest Columnist Dr. Laurent Pech, a native of Aix-en-Provence, France, and Jean Monnet Lecturer in European Union Law at the National University of Ireland, Galway, says that the recent rioting by French immigrant youths has complex roots and represents a political as much as a social failure… Sadly but unavoidably, the French Government earlier [...]

The Iraqi Islamic Party , one of Iraq's largest Sunni parties, on Wednesday demanded an international investigation into allegations that security forces illegally detained and tortured suspected insurgents at secret jails in Baghdad. Omar Heikal said that the majority Shiites were trying to suppress minority Sunnis before the December 15 parliamentary elections and called for [...]

Senate Amendment 2524 to S. 1042 (the 2006 defense appropriations bill), US Senate, November 10, 2005 . Read the full text of the amendment . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

David M. Hicks v. George W. Bush, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, November 14, 2005 . Excerpt: The Court agrees that subjecting Petitioner to proceedings before a tribunal presently under jurisdictional scrutiny by the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court, before it makes an ultimate ruling [...]

Pentagon officials admitted Tuesday that US troops in Iraq used white phosphorus as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants during a 2004 military assault on the insurgent-controlled city of Fallujah, but remained adamant that it was not used against civilians. Reports that US forces fired white phosphorus rounds into the city, causing severe burns, were [...]

Enron and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement Tuesday over allegations that Enron manipulated electricity supplies during the power crisis in California, Oregon, and Washington in 2000-01. Under the settlement , the three states can pursue $875 million in unsecured claims in Enron's bankruptcy proceeding and are also entitled [...]

A US district judge has denied bail for former KPMG executive David Greenberg, a defendant in the largest criminal tax case in US history. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said Greenberg posed a substantial flight risk because he could face up to 25 years in prison and may have access to nearly $20 million. Greenberg is [...]

The Jordanian government said Tuesday that it is drafting tough new antiterrorism legislation that would allow suspected terrorists to be held indefinitely and, in very broad terms, would impose penalties on any individual who "would expose the lives and properties of citizens to danger inside and outside the country." The new anti-terror legislation is being [...]

Iraq’s government announced plans on Tuesday to investigate allegations that Iraqi security forces abused more than 170 prisoners held in central Baghdad, who were found malnourished and showing evidence of torture. Prompted by the repeated pleadings of a missing teenager's parents, US troops discovered the detainees , most of them Sunnis, during a raid of [...]

France's National Assembly , the lower house of parliament, on Tuesday voted to extend emergency powers originally granted for 12 days on November 8 to combat the civil unrest that started in late October. The extension of emergency powers, approved by the French cabinet Monday will go to the Senate for a vote on Wednesday; [...]