Ellen Podgor, Georgia State University College of Law: "As everyone awaits the post-Blakely decisions of Fanfan and Booker, the DOJ has decided to start its campaign to fight back with legislation, just in case the decision is not to their liking.  In today's Wall Street Journal, in an article titled, "Justice Department Backs Bowman's Sentencing [...]

In an attempt to resolve division among UN member states, Italy has put forth a compromise proposal for a global treaty on human cloning. The UN General Assembly's Legal Committee (the Sixth Committee) has been debating two proposals, one from Costa Rica that would ban all human cloning, and one from Belgium that would ban [...]

The UN Security Council officially opened for business Thursday outside of its New York City headquarters for only the fourth time in its history. The Council meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, began with an empassioned plea by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that there was "no time to waste" in settling the ongoing crisis in the Darfur [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he doesn't intend to change the Russian constitution or take more power for the presidency when reforming Russia's government structure. Putin said proposals in his reform package, which includes replacing elected governors with Kremlin nominees and moving to party-list elections to parliament, "are totally unconnected with any attempt [...]

The European Parliament voted 449-149 (with 82 abstentions) Thursday to approve the slate of incoming EU Commissioners as put forth by new Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. Barroso withdrew his original slate of commissioners from consideration by the European Parliament after Rocco Buttiglione, who was nominated for the EU justice portfolio, received harsh criticism for [...]

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Thursday, November 18. On Capitol Hill, the US Senate will convene at 9:30 AM ET. Watch a live webcast (via C-SPAN)…. The US House will convene at 10 AM ET. Watch a live webcast (via C-SPAN)…. The US House Judiciary [...]

In Wednesday's environmental law news, the US has encouraged 13 other countries to join an international agreement to reduce methane emissions by trapping the gas and using it for power generation. The program, Methane to Markets, is an attempt to reduce methane emissions by up to 50 million metric tons annually by 2015. The EPA [...]

Three plaintiffs supported by the Kentucky Fairness Alliance have filed a lawsuit against Kentucky's recently-approved constitutional ban on same-sex marriage on the grounds that it applies both to marriage and civil unions. The suit says that by not allowing voters to vote on the two aspects separately, the proposed ban violated constitutional provisions on how [...]

Cross examination of Disney CEO Michael Eisner began Wednesday in a shareholder suit against Walt Disney Co. over whether the executive board neglected its duty to shareholders in allowing former president Michael Ovitz to leave with a $140 million severance package after only 14 months of work. The case threatens to set a high-profile precedent [...]

Petco Animal Supplies has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the animal supply company's website violated federal law by misrepresenting privacy promises it made to its customers, the FTC announced Wednesday. The Commission said Petco did not take reasonable or appropriate measures to prevent hacker attacks, allowing access to consumer records and credit [...]