Search Results for: 2015-11-04

“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” – John F. Kennedy Fukuyama’s “The End of History” paper claimed that the western liberal democracy is the final form of the human-governance evolution. His argument relied on the Democratic Peace Theory, originating from the early 1700s, which states that most democratic [...]

The US Department of State Wednesday publicly designated two former Maltese government officials and their immediate families, barring them from entering the US over alleged significant corruption. The two officials barred from entry are Konrad Mizzi, a former energy and conservation minister, and Keith Schembri, former chief of staff to the prime minister. Their immediate [...]

Picture a swarm of drones entering a village programmed to fly without a human operator with instructions to shoot or immobilize anyone it deems to be holding a weapon. While this might sound like a scene from Lana Wachowski’s latest Matrix film, the technology to build these killer robots is already here. Unless states act [...]

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi announced on Monday via his social media accounts that a state of emergency decree, which has been renewed every three months since 2017, will finally be lifted. Since its original implementation in April 2017, the current state of emergency has granted security forces wide discretionary powers to quash political dissidence and suspend constitutionally [...]

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 [...]

The Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday dismissed a suit for compensation brought by South Korean women forced to work in “comfort stations”—brothels operated by the Japanese military before and during World War II—and families of the deceased victims. The 20 plaintiffs filed the suit in 2016 and sought about USD 2.7 million from the [...]

Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal on Thursday ruled that the country’s human rights commissioner, or ombudsman, may not continue holding their position after the end of their term until a successor is elected. As a result of the ruling, Adam Bodnar, whose term ended in September, will be removed. He had been appointed with the backing of the [...]

On January 23, 2021, Chief Petty Officer Tony DeDolph of the U.S. Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) was sentenced to ten years in prison for the involuntary manslaughter of Staff Sergeant Logan Melgar of the U.S. Army Green Berets. DeDolph, “pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit assault, involuntary manslaughter, hazing, and obstruction of justice,” [...]

JURIST EXCLUSIVE – A coalition of international legal advocates sent a joint letter Saturday to Professor Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, condemning the growing trend of government officials intimidating and endangering the legal representatives of politically controversial clients. They also called for greater protections to be granted to advocates, the [...]

I. Introduction Much of U.S. governance is held together by goodwill, unwritten norms, and the ideals that “that would never happen” and “no one would ever do that.” Every hope of continued reliance on these norms was “shattered” on January 6, 2021, when armed insurrectionists invaded the U.S. Capitol. Under the direction of the President, [...]