Leading Monday's corporations and securities law news, embattled Morgan Stanley CEO Philip Purcell , has announced his retirement. Purcell has recently faced criticism from shareholders and former company executives for Morgan Stanley’s financial and legal troubles. His retirement follows a string of high-profile departures from the company. Read the Morgan Stanley press release. Bloomberg has [...]

According to a list obtained by the Associated Press and reported Monday, the Iraqi Special Tribunal will try former dictator Saddam Hussein on 14 charges. The list includes the seven preliminary charges outlined in his 2004 arraignment, and additional charges including the mortar bombardment of Kirkuk, the 1982 massacre in Dujail , and the 1991 [...]

Leading Monday's states brief, the United States Supreme Court today ordered a federal appeals court to reconsider whether the state of Missouri can charge the disabled $2 for portable disabled parking placards. The placards allow disabled persons to park in reserved spaces. A class action lawsuit alleged that the fee violated federal law banning discrimination [...]

Pop star Michael Jackson has been acquitted of all charges against him. He had been charged with 10 counts in connection with events that allegedly took place with a 13-year-old boy two years ago. He was acquitted of four counts of lewd conduct with a child younger than 14; one count of attempted lewd conduct; [...]

Leading Monday's international brief, Sudan's domestic war crimes tribunal is scheduled to hold its first hearings Tuesday in the capital city of Khartoum, according to Sudanese Justice Minister Ali Mohammed Yassin. Yassin said that over 160 individuals indicted on various war crimes and crimes against humanity that allegedly occurred in the Darfur region of Sudan [...]

The trial of reputed Ku Klux Klan member Edgar Ray Killen began on Monday with jury selection in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Killen is charged in connection with the 1964 murder of three civil rights workers. About 400 people received summonses for the jury pool; several dozen were excused by late Monday morning. Opening arguments are expected [...]

Outspoken Serbian human rights activist Natasa Kandic of Belgrade's the Humanitarian Law Center said Monday that war crimes suspect Gen. Ratko Mladic is preparing his surrender to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) . Though the Serbian government denies negotiations for Mladic's surrender are occurring, two popular Serbian newspapers, Nezavisne Novine and [...]

Lawyers for detainees being held at Guantanamo say as many as six of those being held were captured before they turned 18 . One lawyer says his client was not even 15 when captured, and was physically abused. According to the military, only three juveniles have been held at the terror detention facility, and they [...]

The National People's Assembly in Algeria on Monday began debating the country's first draft law to try and combat widespread corruption that has thus far hindered foreign investment in the oil-rich nation. According to a 2003 report from Transparency International , Algeria ranked 88 out of 133 countries with regard to the infiltration of corruption [...]

Despite reforms giving women the right to vote, drive, and run for many government offices, hundreds of Iranian women staged a protest on Sunday demanding a right still denied them – the right to run for president . Activists are campaigning for a constitutional amendment which would give them this right. Currently, the president must [...]