Asia

China arm of King & Wood Mallesons explains collapse of European offices

The China management committee of King & Wood Mallesons has used a social media app to post a critique of failures that led to the demise of the European arm of the law firm. The message said a first recapitalization plan failed because of “a lack of core leadership and…

Jan 24, 2017 8:55 AM CST

Chinese human rights lawyer has been tortured in prison, his legal team says

Chinese human rights lawyer Xie Yang signed a false confession in detention in China after his captors beat him, deprived him of sleep and forced him into painful positions, according to interviews published by his lawyers. Xie told his lawyers he suffered a “complete mental breakdown” and signed the statement…

Jan 23, 2017 11:39 AM CST

Law professor is among those killed in attack on American University of Afghanistan

An assistant law professor at American University of Afghanistan was among those killed in an attack late Wednesday that claimed the lives of at least 13 people. The attack on the school in Kabul ended early Thursday, about 10 hours after it began, report the New York Times and Al…

Aug 25, 2016 10:04 AM CDT

ABA expresses concern about assassination of bar president in Pakistan, suicide attack on lawyers

ABA President Linda Klein has sent a letter to the prime minister of Pakistan expressing concern about the assassination of a local bar president and a suicide attack at a hospital that killed at least 70 people, most of them lawyers. Klein urges authorities to commit appropriate resources to the…

Aug 23, 2016 8:56 AM CDT

Chinese lawyer Wang Yu given ABA International Human Rights Award in absentia

ABA leaders and members of China’s community of dissidents-in-exile living in the United States packed a meeting room at the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco on Saturday morning for the presentation of the ABA’s inaugural International Human Rights Award. But one key figure was conspicuously absent from the…

Aug 6, 2016 4:36 PM CDT

Chinese human rights lawyer is sentenced to prison

A Chinese human rights lawyer will go to prison on a charge of subverting state power. The lawyer, Zhou Shifeng, was sentenced to seven years in prison Thursday, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press and the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) report. He was the…

Aug 4, 2016 3:40 PM CDT

Detained Chinese human rights lawyer who is due to receive ABA award issues ‘confession’

A jailed Chinese human rights lawyer who is due to receive the ABA’s first International Human Rights Award in absentia has reportedly been released on bail after delivering a videotaped “confession.” In the video released by Chinese media, Wang Yu said “foreign forces” were using her law firm, Fengrui, to…

Aug 1, 2016 11:35 AM CDT

Detained Chinese lawyer to receive inaugural ABA International Human Rights Award

The ABA has chosen detained Chinese lawyer Wang Yu to receive its first International Human Rights Award. The ABA announced the award on Friday, one year after Wang was detained in China as part of a crackdown on hundreds of Chinese lawyers and human rights advocates, the ABA says in…

Jul 8, 2016 1:15 PM CDT

In second sentencing, judge adds an extra year to Pistorius’ prison term

A judge in South Africa is citing mitigating factors in sentencing track star Oscar Pistorius to six years in prison for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Judge Thokozile Masipa said Pistorius has shown remorse by repeatedly trying to apologize to Steenkamp’s parents, the New York Times, CNN…

Jul 6, 2016 8:58 AM CDT

8 years after landmark international manhunt, ex-teacher gets time for Cambodia child-sex crimes

More than eight years after an international manhunt for a “swirl face” pedophile made headlines due to innovative use of technology and the internet, the criminal justice system is still addressing crimes committed by Christopher Paul Neil. Eventually identified, despite the digital swirling of his own face on child sex-abuse…

Jun 2, 2016 10:40 AM CDT

Solving Mysteries: Lawyers play detective in legal writing

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. begins his dissenting opinion from a denial of cert in Pennsylvania v. Dunlap this way:

May 1, 2016 2:00 AM CDT

China puts foreign groups under police supervision and requires them to find Chinese sponsors

China has passed a new law requiring foreign nongovernmental organizations—known as NGOs—to register with police and to find official Chinese sponsors. The law passed Thursday amid criticism by Western governments and foreign NGOs, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) and Reuters report. It takes effect Jan.…

Apr 29, 2016 2:35 PM CDT

IP litigator says she was startled to find that her art forgery article had been plagiarized online

When intellectual property litigator Leila Amineddoleh read a recent online article about fake and falsely attributed art works, she was startled. The Tehelka Blog article, “The Rise Of Fakes And False Attributions In The Art World,” was substantially the same as her own “Purchasing Art in a Market Full of…

Apr 28, 2016 12:40 PM CDT

Trial judge asks how grenade-like device works: Police officer pulls pin, and it explodes

A trial in an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan was dramatically halted on Monday after the judge asked a police officer how an explosive—that authorities say they took from the defendant—worked. Assuring the court that it had been defused, the officer pulled the pin on the grenade-like device. It went off,…

Apr 12, 2016 4:35 PM CDT

Lack of crime and bankruptcies means lower income for Japanese lawyers

Crime is approaching a record low in Japan, the number of bankruptcies is also plunging and, in general, people in Japan are less litigious than in the U.S., preferring to resolve disputes outside the court system. The volume of civil cases has remained steady for a decade. That is bad…

Apr 4, 2016 3:40 PM CDT