A five-day military court hearing for an unidentified Navy SEAL lieutenant accused of abusing an Iraqi prisoner at Abu Ghraib prison has concluded. Prosecutors said actions by the lieutenant were "unacceptable by any standard," while the officer's lawyer argued nothing he did warranted a court-martial. Navy's top SEAL, Rear Admiral Joe Maguire , will now [...]

A Mississippi judge set bond at $250,000 Wednesday for Edgar Ray Killen , an alleged former KKK member charged with the murders of three civil rights workers in 1964. The judge also ordered a March 28 trial date for 79-year-old Killen, who was arrested last week on state charges, the first against anyone for the [...]

A Congressional committee negotiating an intelligence reform bill last month backed away from greater restrictions on interrogation by the CIA under pressure from the White House, the New York Times reported Thursday. The restrictions were part of an initial bill that won overwhelming Senate support, but four Congressional leaders eliminated the provisions from a final [...]

UNICEF spokesmen said Thursday that they have evidence that Tamil Tiger rebels in northern and eastern Sri Lanka have recruited children in tsunami relief camps as child soldiers to help their ongoing struggle for autonomy against the Sri Lankan government. More than 30,000 Sri Lankans were killed in the tsunami on December 26, leaving thousands [...]

An Iranian court has summoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi for questioning on an undisclosed matter, indicating that she must appear by Sunday or face prison. Ebadi, Iran's first female judge, won the Nobel in 2003 for her defense of women's and children's rights, founding the Iranian Children's Rights Society . She lost her [...]

Leading Thursday's corporations and securities law news, the SEC is considering a combined settlement with several brokerage firms in its probe of the $204 billion auction-rate bond market. The SEC's investigation has uncovered several potential violations related to the sale of the bonds including manipulation of the bond's yields which increase borrowing costs for states, [...]

Mark Thatcher , the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has been fined 3 million rand ($500,000) by a court in South Africa in connection with his role in a plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea . If he fails to pay the fine he faces a five-year prison term, in [...]

US Army Spc. Charles Graner may take the witness stand in his own defense Thursday on the second day of the defense case in his court-martial at Fort Hood TX for abusing Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. A defense witness called Wednesday admitted on cross-examination that Graner, a former prison guard [...]

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Thursday, January 13. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer will discuss the relevance of foreign law for American constitutional adjudication at a forum hosted by American University's Washington College of Law. Watch a live webcast (via C-SPAN) beginning [...]

Jama v. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Supreme Court of the United States, January 12, 2005, . Excerpt : To infer an absolute rule of acceptance where Congress has not clearly set it forth would run counter to our customary policy of deference to the President in matters of foreign affairs. Removal decisions, including the selection [...]