In a filing submitted to the Supreme Court on Thursday, attorneys from the Justice Department told the court that terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui does not need direct access to al-Qaida witnesses to receive a fair trial. Moussaoui's attorneys are appealing a 4th Circuit ruling on the point and are asking the court for full access [...]

President Bush has signed the Class Action Fairness Act limiting class-action lawsuits, saying it will restore "common sense and balance to America's legal system."

The UN General Assembly's legal committee failed to reach a consensus Thursday on a nonbinding declaration that would have urged urge governments to adopt their own laws on human cloning. As a result, the committee is likely to adopt a proposal supported by the United States but opposed by proponents of stem-cell research that would [...]

Leading Friday's corporations and securities law news, the New Hampshire Bureau of Securities Regulation filed a complaint against AEFA, the personal finance advisory unit of American Express Co. , for failing to disclose to investors that its financial advisors were given incentives to push certain mutual funds over better performing funds. The regulators are seeking [...]

In Friday's international brief, multiple allegations of sexual harassment have arisen against UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers . Lubbers, a former Dutch prime minister, allegedly harassed five different female employees under his supervision according to an internal report authored last year by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services and publicly reported Friday [...]

What appears to have been a legal oversight has prompted the office of the Prince of Wales at Clarence House to announce that the official wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles has been moved from Windsor Castle to Windsor's Guildhall , the local town hall. Under Britain's 1994 Marriage Act , venues licensed [...]

Ahmad Chalabi , currently lobbying to be Iraq's Prime Minister in the wake of the recent elections which gave his Shiite party grouping a majority of seats in the new National Assembly, has promised to bring former dictator Saddam Hussein to speedy justice. Chalabi, one of two politicians vying for the top leadership position, stated [...]

The US Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday approved S. 256, the Bankruptcy Abuse and Consumer Prevention Act of 2005 , a measure that would make it tougher for consumers to erase debt in bankruptcy proceedings, but battle lines are being drawn on the Senate floor. Amendments will likely be introduced that further protect certain groups such [...]

Documents from US military investigators obtained by the ACLU under Freedom of Information Act provisions and released Friday suggest that US personnel engaged in widespread abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan, and that US soldiers attempted to cover up evidence of the abuses in the wake of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq last year. [...]

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Friday, Feb. 18. On Capitol Hill, the US Senate convenes at 10 AM ET for the reading of President George Washington's farewell address from 1796. The reading is an annual tradition before the Senate recesses for President’s Day. Watch a [...]