A jury found former South Carolina lieutenant governor Earle Morris guilty of 22 counts of securities fraud Thursday. While Morris was chairman of Carolina Investors he told investors to keep their money with the company even though he knew it was going under. Carolina Investors subsequently went through the largest bankruptcy in South Carolina history [...]

US Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters said Thursday during an intellectual property conference at the John Marshall School of Law that Congress would not enact the Inducing Infringement Copyrights Act , also known as the Induce Act, before the Thanksgiving holiday. The Act is Congress’ attempt at confronting peer-to-peer networks filled with pirated music, movies [...]

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have unanimously chosen Senator Arlen Specter to be chairman next year. Specter's chairmanship had been in doubt after the GOP moderate warned Bush against nominations based solely on a judge's conservatism or opposition to abortion rights, suggesting that confirmation of such nominees would be difficult. Specter has now promised [...]

The US Department of Justice has released its final report on the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. The fund, created by Congress to offer families and injured survivors a faster alternative to litigation, attracted 2880 out of a possible 2973 death claims and a further 2680 injury claims. The final report includes a demographic portrait [...]

The traditional British fox hunt is to be banned after the House of Commons Thursday invoked the rarely-used Parliament Act of 1949 to force through the ban over the opposition of the House of Lords. Labour party Ministers had proposed an amendment to delay the ban until summer 2006, but Peers in the House of [...]

The first divorce in Chilean history took place Thursday as the country's new marital code went into effect, replacing the code that had been in force since 1884. Until the passage of law No. 19947, Chile was one of only two democracies in the world not to allow divorce; it is now permitted in the [...]

The World Trade Organization has entered an interim verdict against an EU effort to prevent food manufacturers from using European regional names – such as Champagne and Parma – to market copycat versions of more than 600 wines, cheeses, meats, and other food products that originated in Europe. Unlike trademarks, EU designations indefinitely protect food [...]

Young v. Bryco Arms et al., Illinois Supreme Court, November 18, 2004 . Excerpt: In sum, we hold that plaintiffs' public nuisance claims against both the manufacturer and the dealer defendants must be dismissed. Even granting, arguendo, that plaintiffs can establish that a public right has been infringed upon by defendants' conduct, their allegations of [...]

In Thursday's corporations and securities law news, Enron Corp. has closed the $2 billion sale of its interest in three natural gas pipelines to CCE Holdings LLC, a joint venture of Southern Union Co. and GE Commercial Finance Energy Financial Services. The sale was approved in September by US Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzales. Read the [...]

Russian authorities Thursday arrested a manager at a key subsidiary of Yukos on charges of embezzling $766,000 which was disguised as charitable contributions. Also today, the Prosecutor General's office announced the issuance of an international arrest warrant for Yukos lawyer Nikolai Gololobov on charges of misappropriating billions of rubles worth of shares in 1998. These [...]