International Courts/Tribunals

Law student prevails against Marvel and DC Comics over use of word ‘superhero’ in book title

A British businessman who is also a law student got some real-world legal experience over the last few years when the title of his self-help book, Business Zero to Superhero, caught the attention of major comic-book publishers. Although competitors in the publishing world, Marvel Comics and DC Comics band together…

May 25, 2016 11:20 AM CDT

Retired lawyer, 95, worked at ‘Tokyo Trials’ as legal secretary after WWII, knew Japanese leaders

Elaine Fischel practiced law for nearly six decades before retiring last year in her mid-90s. But it was her work in Japan as a legal secretary, before she went to law school, that provided some of the most indelible memories in her career. Then a staff secretary for the Los…

Apr 5, 2016 1:50 PM CDT

Mass murderer calls microwaved prison meals ‘worse than waterboarding’

Microwaved meals served to a Norwegian mass murderer are probably tastier than the blended “Nutraloaf” that has sparked a number of lawsuits by U.S. prisoners. And Anders Behring Breivik, although in solitary confinement most of the day, also has a PlayStation, a spin bicycle, a treadmill and a reclining chair,…

Mar 17, 2016 11:20 AM CDT

US student gets 15 years of hard labor in North Korea in case over political banner

An American college student has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea in a case over a political banner. In a televised news conference last month, University of Virginia student Otto Frederick Warmbier, 21, admitted he had tried to steal a banner with a political slogan…

Mar 16, 2016 10:15 AM CDT

South Africa’s top court ends Pistorius murder appeal; sentencing now looms

The top court in South Africa has denied Oscar Pistorius leave to appeal his murder conviction in the 2013 shooting death of his girlfriend, law graduate and model Reeva Steenkamp. A spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority said the Constitutional Court made the ruling Thursday, finding the appeal had “no…

Mar 3, 2016 4:05 PM CST

Judge OKs first ‘assisted death,’ with help of physician, in Canada

For the first time in Canadian history, a judge has OK’d a plan for physicians to provide an “assisted death” to a patient, in this case a retired psychologist suffering from ALS. The unidentified woman made her case last week in a private, in camera hearing before an Alberta Court…

Mar 1, 2016 4:05 PM CST

Senior Facebook exec held for questioning as Brazil seeks WhatsApp info in drug case

Facebook Inc.’s top executive in Latin America was held for questioning on a Brazilian judge’s order on Tuesday, after the company allegedly failed to cooperate by providing WhatsApp information in a secret drug-trafficking case. Diego Dzodan was being questioned in São Paulo in what Facebook described as an “extreme and…

Mar 1, 2016 1:10 PM CST

2 brothers got no time in drug case until they mocked judge in crude Facebook posts after sentencing

Two brothers initially got no jail time in a British drug case, because the judge suspended their two-year sentences when their lawyers said they were remorseful about the crime. But after they mocked the trial judge in Facebook posts within two hours of exiting a Feb. 3 hearing at Burnley…

Feb 26, 2016 10:10 AM CST

China’s latest crackdown on lawyers is unprecedented, human rights monitors say

The attacks published in China's state-sponsored news media pulled no punches. Wang Yu is an "arrogant convict of a woman," screamed an op-ed article in one major newspaper. Wang Yu is a "hypocritical and false lawyer." Wang Yu is a "shrew."

Feb 1, 2016 12:10 AM CST

Letter from international legal community condemns arrests of Chinese lawyers

Prominent lawyers and former judges joined with presidents of international bar associations in condemning in a Monday letter the recent arrests of Chinese lawyers and associates. “You have repeatedly stated that ‘China is a country ruled by law,’ ” says the letter to Chinese president, Xi Jinping, which is published…

Jan 25, 2016 10:38 AM CST

‘One man’s vulgarity is another man’s lyric,’ says judge acquitting man in Twitter case

Apparently recalling a famous U.S. Supreme Court free-speech case, a Canadian judge on Friday found a man not guilty of criminal harassment charges concerning his Twitter posts. “One man’s vulgarity is another man’s lyric,” said Judge Brent Knazan as he announced the acquittal of Gregory Alan Elliott, reports the National…

Jan 22, 2016 2:55 PM CST

Court rejects effort to trademark shape of KitKat candy bar

If the KitKat name wasn’t printed on the four connected “fingers” of a well-known candy bar, would customers know it was a KitKat without seeing the wrapper? The answer to that question in the United Kingdom is no, according to a Wednesday ruling by the High Court of Justice of…

Jan 21, 2016 11:45 AM CST

Did juror’s crush on prosecutor affect verdict? Defense lawyer mulls appeal options

No one else knew that Juror No. 6 had an unrequited crush on the prosecutor, it seems, before a guilty verdict was rendered earlier this year in a Toronto-area drug case. But afterward she made her feelings known in a series of notes to Robert Johnston, who is married, and…

Dec 14, 2015 10:25 AM CST

Northern Ireland’s abortion prohibitions violate human rights, Belfast judge rules

A judge on the Belfast High Court in Northern Ireland ruled Monday that the region’s prohibition of abortions in cases of rape, incest and fetal abnormality violates the human rights of women, Reuters reports. Judge Mark Horner upheld arguments by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission that the prohibition went…

Nov 30, 2015 12:55 PM CST

UK approves its first deferred prosecution agreement in bank’s bribery case

A judge on the High Court of Justice of England and Wales today approved the United Kingdom’s first deferred prosecution agreement, under which the ICBC Standard Bank will avoid criminal charges and instead receive other sanctions, Reuters and Bloomberg Business report. The DPA statute enacted in February 2014 is stricter…

Nov 30, 2015 12:05 PM CST