How India's Regional Authorities Are Turning to Property Destruction to Silence Protestors
In June 2022, after protests over a politician’s comments on the Prophet Muhammad took a violent turn, the Municipal Corporation in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh demolished the houses of protestors allegedly linked to the movement. This was just one instance in a series of property demolitions ordered by numerous Indian state governments — [...]
Turkey’s New Disinformation Bill: Disturbing Trend Toward Digital Authoritarianism
In 2002, when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in Turkey, defeating Kemalist hegemony, there was a glimmer of hope in the West for the overwhelmingly Muslim country. However, the experience of Turkey over the past 20 years is one descending into an authoritarian regime with clampdowns [...]
A US District Court for the District of Minnesota judge Thursday sentenced Derek Chauvin to 21 years in federal prison for violating George Floyd and a minor’s civil rights. According to the plea agreement, Chauvin willfully deprived George Floyd of his constitutional right “to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer.” Chauvin also [...]
Canadian law students and young lawyers are reporting for JURIST on national and international developments in and affecting Canada. Mélanie Cantin is a JURIST Staff Correspondent in Ottawa, and a 1L at the University of Ottawa. Canada’s LGBTQ+ population numbers upwards of one million people, and the country ranks as the safest in the world [...]
Appeals court upholds 8-year prison sentence for Dakota Access Pipeline protester
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Monday upheld a Dakota Access Pipeline protester’s 8-year prison term in a per curiam decision. The protester, Jessica Reznicek, was charged with and plead guilty to conspiracy to damage an energy facility in 2017. Reznicek used a blowtorch to cut holes in the Dakota Access Pipeline in Iowa. At [...]
The Role of the Environmental War Crime in the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has entered its third month. The suffering of Ukrainian civilians has been awful and the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) is satisfied that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe war crimes have been committed. Media attention has, quite rightly, focused on the plight of those individuals caught up in [...]
Analysis: Did NATO’s Withdrawal From Afghanistan Inspire Vladimir Putin to Invade Ukraine?
In a recent interview on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, former French president, François Hollande established a direct link between NATO’s, and particularly the United States’, withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine. “If Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine, it was not due to a provocation from the Atlantic alliance . [...]
Since February 24, 2022, Ukraine has been defending itself from the acts of aggression by the Russian Federation. The unprovoked invasion by Russia, one of the largest military forces in the world, has resulted in over 1,100 civilian casualties based on the official UN records, with the actual casualties considered to be significantly greater. The [...]
Will Washington Ever Get Around to Regulating Artificial Intelligence?
On November 4, 2021, US Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) announced the introduction of S.3175 – 117th Congress (2021-2022): Advancing American Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2021 to Congress. Although the stated goal of S. 3175 is to ensure private companies have access to accurate data so they can better meet Department of Defense [...]
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 [...]
