In his first interview since being named Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani said Friday that the country's new constitution will be drafted by August 15, meeting the deadline stipulated in the Transitional Administrative Law . There had been speculation that the draft could be delayed up to six months due to the National Assembly's difficulty in [...]

In a letter sent to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Thursday, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, slammed the Defense Department's proposed changes to the guidelines concerning the detention of enemy combatants for violating protections outlined in the Geneva Conventions. The Joint Doctrine for Detainee Operations extends the enemy combatant status normally reserved [...]

While in Rome for the funeral of Pope John Paul II, House Republican leader Tom DeLay has expressed his continued disappointment with federal judges, saying they have "run amok". Speaking by videotape Thursday to attendees at the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration's Confronting the Judical War on Faith conference, DeLay said that "unelected, and all [...]

Leading Friday's international brief, opposition members in Togo clashed with police on the first day of political campaigning for the national elections required by the resignation of Faure Gnassingbe . Protesters blocked off several streets with barricades of burning tires and were dispersed by the police firing tear gas into the crowd. Faure's agreement to [...]

The Justice Department announced late Thursday that US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will not oversee the Enron criminal proceedings . While no reason was given for the decision, Gonzales did legal work for Enron in the early 1990s, and accepted a $6,000 campaign contribution from an Enron political committee. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft also [...]

In Friday's environmental law news, CSX Transportation Inc. and the federal government have refused a proposal by US District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to help settle a dispute with Washington DC officials over the city's plan to ban railroad shipments of hazardous cargo. The ban, passed by the DC Council and signed by Mayor Anthony [...]

The New York Times reported Friday that documents for a transaction at the center of a wide-ranging probe into American International Group Inc. were doctored two months after the deal was made. The deal was reportedly "repapered" by mid-level employees of General Re , a unit of Berkshire Hathaway . Lawyers for Berkshire Hathaway discovered [...]

A new poll shows that sixty-one percent of Japanese voters support amending the country's US-drafted pacifist constitution but there is disagreement about how far Japan should move from its renunciation of war. Article 9 of the Japanese constitution renounces the right to keep a military or threaten military action. This is the second year in [...]

The two main parties in Mexico's Congress joined forces late Thursday to strip Mexico City's mayor Manuel Lopez Obrador of immunity so he can be charged with contempt of court, threatening his bid for the presidency in 2006 . The charges stem from a relatively minor land expropriation dispute and it is unclear if Lopez [...]

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Friday, April 8. The US House opens its session at 10 AM ET today. Watch a live webcast. The US Senate is not in session. The University of South Carolina School of Law is hosting the 2005 Rudolph C. Barnes [...]