A Milan judge Tuesday sentenced 11 men to up to two and a half years in jail for their roles in one of Europe's biggest financial scandals, the 2003 collapse of Parmalat . Based upon a plea bargain, the convicted men, including founder Calisto Tanzi, former chief financial officers Alberto Ferraris and Luciano Del Soldato, [...]

A Muslim Russian national held at Guantanamo from summer 2002 to February 2004 has filed a lawsuit against the US government alleging rights abuses. At a press conference on Tuesday in Moscow Airat Vakhitov – formerly an imam at a mosque in Tatarstan – said the abuses, such as being denied sleep, were mostly psychological [...]

Pakistan's Supreme Court Tuesday overturned the acquittals of 13 men in a gang-rape case and ordered them re-arrested after an appeal by the victim, Mukhtar Mai . The attack was supposedly ordered by village elders in retaliation for an affair her brother had with a higher-caste woman. At first, six men were convicted and sentenced [...]

National Cable and Telecommunications Association v. Brand X Internet Services, et al.; FCC v. Brand X Internet Services, et al., Supreme Court of the United States, June 27, 2005 . Read the full text of the opinion here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Castle Rock v. Gonzales, Supreme Court of the United States, June 27, 2005 . Excerpt from the opinion, by Justice Scalia: We conclude, therefore, that respondent did not, for purposes of the Due Process Clause, have a property interest in police enforcement of the restraining order against her husband. It is accordingly unnecessary to address [...]

Van Orden v. Perry, United States Supreme Court, June 27, 2005 . Excerpt from the opinion, by Chief Justice Rehnquist: The placement of the Ten Commandments monument on the Texas State Capitol grounds is a far more passive use of those texts than was the case in Stone, where the text confronted elementary school students [...]

MGM Studios v. Grokster, United States Supreme Court, June 27, 2005 . Excerpt from the opinion, by Justice Souter: We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting [...]

McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky, Supreme Court of the United States, June 27, 2005 . Excerpt from the opinion, by Justice Souter: We hold that the counties' manifest objective may be dispositive of the constitutional enquiry, and that the development of the presentation should be considered when determining its purpose. Read the full text [...]

World Prison Population List, King's College International Centre for Prison Studies, June 27, 2005. Excerpt: Over 9 million people are held in penal institutions throughout the world, mostly as pre-trial detainees (remand prisoners) or having been convicted and sentenced. Almost half of these are in the United States (2.09m), China (1.55m plus pretrial detainees and [...]

After spending the weekend at Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, US Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) told reporters Monday that while closing the military detention center is not necessary, establishing a precise legal status for prisoners and clarifying the rules governing them is. In a statement posted on his website, Nelson noted [...]