Swiss prosecutor’s office investigated over secrecy breach in Yukos case News
Swiss prosecutor’s office investigated over secrecy breach in Yukos case

[JURIST] The Swiss government announced Monday that a special prosecutor has been appointed to determine whether government officials in the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office leaked secret information that aided Russia's legal campaign against Yukos, its largest oil company. The Swiss government made the appointment in response to complaints from lawyers defending Yukos that claimed Swiss officials disclosed information regarding $4.9 billion of Yukos-related assets in Switzerland that were frozen in reponse to the Russian investigation. SwissInfo has more. Paper Chase has background on the Yukos case and the Russian prosecution of former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

THIS DAY @ LAW

China passes current constitution

On December 4, 1982, the Fifth National People's Congress passed the current Constitution of China.

FDR established Federal Alcohol Control Administration

On December 4, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt established the Federal Alcohol Control Administration (FACA) by executive order under the National Industrial Recovery Act just prior to the formal end of Prohibition. FACA was charged with guiding legitimate wineries and distilleries under a system based on brewers' voluntary codes of fair competition. It effectively vanished from history after just twenty months, when President Roosevelt in August 1935 signed the Federal Alcohol Administration (FAA) Act, lodging alcohol regulation exclusively with the US Treasury Department, where it currently remains under the jurisdiction of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, formerly the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).