International Courts/Tribunals

Parties in $27B Environmental Case Fight Video With Video

A 16-year-old class action against Chevron Corp. over some $27 billion of claimed environmental contamination in Ecuador hasn’t been decided yet. But it’s already generating headlines because of the company’s unusual litigation tactics. Now, as a documentary about the claimed damage to Ecuador’s Amazon region is about to debut in…

Sep 9, 2009 7:55 PM CDT

Top Russian Court Orders Broader Probe of Journalist’s 2006 Slaying

In an unexpected move that may enhance the chance of bringing to justice those responsible for the high-profile slaying of a Russian journalist in 2006, the country’s top court has reversed a lower court ruling and ordered the broader investigation of the crime sought by the family of Anna Politkovskaya.…

Sep 3, 2009 4:50 PM CDT

Chevron Video Posted on YouTube Was Doctored, Accused Judge Says

Videotape of an Ecuador judge posted on YouTube and a company website by Chevron Corp. was doctored, the judge, who is accused of discussing an upcoming ruling in an ongoing environmental case, tells the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.). “There was total manipulation in the video,” says Judge Juan Núñez,…

Sep 2, 2009 6:47 PM CDT

Ex-Ontario AG Charged in Fatal Accident; Victim Reportedly Clung to Car

A former attorney general in Ontario, Canada, Michael Bryant, has been charged with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death after a fatal auto accident in Toronto yesterday. The victim, a 33-year-old bicycle courier, clung to the side of a convertible for about 100…

Sep 1, 2009 8:14 PM CDT

Fired Over Office E-Mail, Accountant Wins $17K and Wants More

Accountant Vicki Walker’s e-mail may indeed have contributed to disharmony in the workplace, as her employer claimed. But her block capitals, use of boldface and colored type and alleged “confrontational” attempts to find out about complaints made against her didn’t establish sufficient grounds to warrant her termination, a New Zealand…

Sep 1, 2009 6:59 PM CDT

Chevron Takes Pollution Case Bias Issue to Feds, Ecuador Officials—and YouTube

Accused by an indigenous group of contaminating the environment in the Amazon region decades ago, Chevron Corp. is fighting back with videotape allegedly showing the judge in the ongoing Ecuador case discussing his planned upcoming ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in October or November of this year. In addition…

Aug 31, 2009 11:04 PM CDT

Major Canada Firm Must Produce Pay Info in Hard-Fought Sex Bias Case

One of Canada’s biggest law firms must soon produce a treasure trove of information about its salaries, billing rates and performance reviews, among other confidential information. What is believed to be an unprecedented court order against McCarthy Tétrault requires the disclosure by Sept. 7, in response to a former associate’s…

Aug 25, 2009 5:12 PM CDT

Scotland to Free Lockerbie Bomber on ‘Compassionate Grounds’

Scotland will free convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset Ali Megrahi, who is suffering from terminal prostate cancer. Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill said at a news conference that Megrahi will “be released on compassionate grounds and allowed to return to Libya to die,” the New York Times reports. Megrahi had…

Aug 20, 2009 12:58 PM CDT

Civil Practice Puts Russian Lawyers at Risk of Violence and Criminal Charges

Three highly regarded Russian lawyers thought they were representing Hermitage Capital investment fund in a routine tax case. Now one of the attorneys is jailed and two others are in exile, after uncovering what appears to be a breathtaking fraud involving government officials who allegedly colluded to wrest control of…

Aug 13, 2009 7:08 PM CDT

ABA President Calls Suu Kyi Conviction an ‘Affront to the Just Rule of Law’

ABA President Carolyn B. Lamm is condemning the conviction and sentence of former Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi as a violation of international law. Suu Kyi was convicted of violating the terms of her house arrest on Tuesday and sentenced to 18 months of additional house arrest.…

Aug 13, 2009 11:54 AM CDT

Ex-Pakistan President Criminally Charged Over Detention of Judges

Less than two years ago, the former leader of Pakistan disbanded much of the country’s top court in what many saw as a blatant move to solidify his own political position by preventing a ruling that he was ineligible to serve simultaneously as president and head of the country’s military.…

Aug 11, 2009 8:45 PM CDT

Myanmar Democracy Leader Suu Kyi Convicted for a Swimmer’s Visit

Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi has been convicted of violating the terms of her house arrest. Her sentence is 18 months of additional house arrest. The sentence will keep her at home past the date of national elections in Myanmar, scheduled for 2010, the Los Angeles Times reports.…

Aug 11, 2009 11:31 AM CDT

Supporters of Slain Russian Journalist to Seek Justice Elsewhere

Supporters of slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya plan to ask the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to pursue those responsible for her murder, after a Moscow court refused Friday to halt a controversial retrial of three relatively minor figures and order a new investigation that was also requested…

Aug 7, 2009 11:19 PM CDT

Big Bank Legal Dep’t in Spy Confab, Nixed Law Firm Mole Plan, Detective Tells WSJ

Members of the legal department at Deutsche Bank AG sat in on a 2006 meeting in which a private detective was provided with a list of some 20 individuals and entities on which he was expected to spy, the investigator, Bernd Bühner, told the Wall Street Journal. Among those on…

Aug 3, 2009 7:17 PM CDT

76 Pakistan Judges Suspended After Top Court Voids ‘07 Musharraf Actions

After a Friday ruling by Pakistan’s supreme court that former President Pervez Musharraf acted illegally by imposing emergency rule in November 2007, the country’s current president has suspended 76 judges appointed under that regime from duty on the bench, reports the BBC. The action by President Asif Ali Zardari apparently…

Aug 3, 2009 6:04 PM CDT