Australia High Court hears submissions on Cambridge Analytica data breaches
The High Court of Australia Tuesday began hearing submissions that a Facebook app tied to the Cambridge Analytica scandal contravened national privacy laws. The oral submissions will determine whether Facebook is liable for consumer data breaches in contravention of the Privacy Act 1998 (Cth). The Australian Information Commissioner commenced the action against Facebook in the [...]
A Texas jury ordered conspiracy theorist radio host Alex Jones Thursday to pay $4.1 million to the parents of a Sandy Hook School Shooting victim for calling the shooting staged. Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of six-year-old Jesse Heslin who died in the 2012 shooting, sued Jones for defamation. A reporter on Jones’ [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) Tuesday published a call for India to end its controversial sedition law. The sedition law is a statute from the colonial era when India was controlled by the United Kingdom. According to HRW, the law “remains a powerful tool used by the authorities to criminalise dissent and arrest peaceful critics of [...]
Former Canadian Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour Monday released a long-awaited report recommending that all sexual offenses committed by Canadian military personnel should be prosecuted in civilian courts instead of military tribunals. The report also calls on the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) to conduct demographic reviews for alleviating the over-representation of white males in leadership positions, [...]
US federal judge blocks attempt to end COVID-19 'turnback' policy at US-Mexico border
The Biden-Harris administration’s attempt to end the controversial Title 42 was Friday blocked by Judge Robert Summerhays of the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. Title 42 allows border patrol officials to quickly deport migrants at the US-Mexico border, whether or not they are legally seeking asylum, in order to stop the [...]
Explainer: Rule of Law and De Facto Differentiation in the EU
In October 2021, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled that in the event of a conflict between the Constitution of Poland and the treaties of the European Union, the Polish Constitution will reign supreme. The Tribunal concluded that Article 4(3) of the Treaty on European Union, in conjunction with Article 279 of the Treaty on the Functioning of [...]
Law and Strategy after Afghanistan: The United States, Israel and Iran
Abstract: Following US withdrawal from Afghanistan, America’s security focus will turn more expressly to Iran. The core problem with America’s Afghanistan withdrawal was not one of timing or tactics, but of original misconception. In essence, the “Afghanistan Problem” stemmed from an initially underestimated and misunderstood military operation. Looking ahead, Afghanistan’s incoherent conclusion means, inter alia, [...]
Credibility on International Justice Requires Equal Application of the Law
On June 7, at a public hearing, Representative Ilhan Omar asked Secretary of State Tony Blinken where the victims of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity could go to seek justice if domestic prosecutors won’t pursue cases in court. Omar had noted the Biden administration’s opposition to the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s Afghanistan and [...]
US Supreme Court declines to review $16.5M California Superfund case
The US Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition for certiorari to review a ruling from the Ninth Circuit that ordered the Union Pacific Railroad and others to pay part of a $16.5 million cleanup of a California Superfund site. The case revolves around differing interpretations of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act [...]
The United States has a long history of anti-monopoly sentiment. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, fighting big business was a major issue in politics, with leaders across the political spectrum promising to take on large corporations. Fed up with child labor, dangerous working conditions, low wages, political corruption, and ruthless business practices, [...]
