International Law

Breyer: Nat’l Legal Systems Are Finding Common Ground

Updated: The laws of the United States and other nations are increasingly becoming pieces of a larger fabric as they seek to address issues of common interest, said U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer this afternoon in a speech at the 2007 ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco. “Law…

Aug 12, 2007 3:20 AM CDT

Pakistan Court Acts in Election Case

The Pakistan Supreme Court has issued an order requiring registration of all eligible voters. The court gave the election commission 30 days to complete the task, Reuters reports. A complaint filed by exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had claimed millions of people had been excluded form a draft list…

Aug 10, 2007 1:48 PM CDT

ABA May Criticize Bush’s CIA Exec Order

A human rights lawyer is trumpeting a possible ABA resolution declaring that a July 20, 2007 executive order by President George W. Bush concerning the interrogation of U.S. prisoners is inconsistent with the Geneva Conventions. The proposed resolution, which is scheduled to be debated and voted on by the ABA…

Aug 8, 2007 10:17 PM CDT

Quelle Crime! Teen Held for Potter Book Posted en Français

A 16-year-old has been arrested and briefly jailed for allegedly translating the entire 759-page book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, into French and posting it on the Internet within days of its July 21 release. The teen, a high school student from Aix-en-Provence in southern France, is not named…

Aug 8, 2007 7:27 PM CDT

Top Drug Suspect Held, US Seeks Case

An alleged top leader of Colombia’s biggest drug cartel was captured today in an early-morning raid in Brazil, and the U.S. reportedly is seeking extradition. Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, 44, reportedly underwent at least two plastic surgeries to avoid detection, but was arrested as a result of an undescribed tip…

Aug 7, 2007 10:53 PM CDT

Red Cross: U.S. Tortured Prisoners

American intelligence agents tortured terrorist suspects captured after Sept. 11 in secret foreign prisons for years, suspending the practice only after the U.S. Supreme Court declared it illegal in a ruling last summer, according to a magazine article that appears on newsstands today. In doing so, the Central Intelligence Agency…

Aug 6, 2007 7:58 PM CDT

China Now Regulates Reincarnation

As of Sept. 1, Tibet’s exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, may no longer reincarnate himself—or recognize the reincarnation of others—without permission from China’s communist, atheist government. That is one key provision of new regulations developed by China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs, in an effort to limit the influence of…

Aug 3, 2007 9:29 PM CDT

Chaos in Zimbabwe Over Price Controls

Chaos has resulted in Zimbabwe from draconian price controls imposed a month ago by the government of Robert Mugabe under threat of criminal sanctions. So far, some 6,500 workers including executives of major retailers have been arrested as a result of widespread resistance to the price controls, and executives are…

Aug 2, 2007 9:34 AM CDT

Canada to Review Polygamy Ban?

In a case that could have an effect on United States law enforcement, a prominent Canadian criminal attorney serving as a special prosecutor has recommended that his country reconsider its ban on polygamy. Appointed in a British Columbia case involving a U.S.-based splinter Mormon group that has reportedly openly practiced…

Aug 1, 2007 11:47 PM CDT

Interest Wanes in $100 M Murder Trial

As the trial the man alleged to be Canada’s most prolific serial killer ever nears an end, after six months and at a cost of some $100 million (Canadian) dollars, spent on the case to date, folks are losing interest in it. And this is only the first of two…

Aug 1, 2007 10:22 PM CDT

Pakistan Prez, Top Judge Reconciling?

Four months after he sought to remove Pakistan’s top judge from the bench, the country’s president is now trying to get back on his good side. After a July 20 decision by the Pakistan Supreme Court that Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry had been improperly suspended in March and must…

Aug 1, 2007 6:31 PM CDT

CA Museum Returns Allegedly Stolen Art

Ending a long-standing dispute over the ownership of some of the most prized art works in its collection, the J.P. Getty Museum has agreed to return to the Italian government 40 antiquities illegally excavated and exported from that country. The draft agreement is still being finalized, but will return to…

Aug 1, 2007 5:42 PM CDT

FL Fed’l Suit Over Brazilian Plane Crash

A federal lawsuit filed in Florida is reportedly the first litigation over a July 17 airline crash in Sao Paulo that killed 199 people in the worst aviation disaster in Brazil’s history. The suit was filed on behalf of Ricardo Tazoe, a 35-year-old Peruvian who worked for a Miami bank…

Jul 31, 2007 6:59 PM CDT

Gitmo Inmate: Please Don’t Release Me

An inmate who spends 22 hours daily in a windowless steel isolation cell at the Guantanamo Bay prison is pleading with U.S. authorities not to release him. That’s because Ahmed Belbacha, 38, fears he will be treated even worse if he is returned to his native Algeria, reports the London…

Jul 31, 2007 4:44 PM CDT

Khmer Rouge Interrogator Charged

The Khmer Rouge’s chief inquisitor was charged with crimes against humanity today by a Cambodian-United Nations tribunal. The man widely known as Duch is the first official from the notorious Khmer Rouge regime to be charged, the Guardian reports. He appeared today before the tribunal located on the outskirts of…

Jul 31, 2007 2:36 PM CDT