The Cost of Revenge: A Cantor's Critique of Israel's Response to Hamas
In the wake of the deadly Hamas terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, many of Israel’s supporters, myself included, have succumbed to the understandable impulse for violent retribution. Israel is a land that I love, both culturally as a Jew — and third-generation Holocaust survivor — and spiritually as an ordained cantor. It follows that [...]
Explainer: Competing Legislative Agendas Come to a Head in Sri Lanka
The year 2024 is an important one for Sri Lanka. It is a presidential election year, and a resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council to gather evidence of international crimes for use in future prosecutions is due for renewal. After the public ousters of the former-elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2023, Ranil Wickremesinghe [...]
Editors’ note: Amid surging violence between Hamas and Israeli forces, JURIST is seeking perspectives from around the world. Neither this nor other commentaries in this series constitute JURIST editorial policy, nor do they necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial team. The 21st century is marked by globalization and Americanization, with transnational law under US [...]
Rule of Law Chronicles: In America, the Kids Are Not Alright
This article is the fourth in a series covering attacks on the rule of law. The rule of law is a political philosophy premised on the promise that all citizens, leaders, and institutions are accountable to the same laws, guaranteed through processes, practices, and norms that work together to support the equality of all citizens [...]
Sweden security service raises terrorist threat level amid Quran burnings
The Director General of the Swedish Security Service raised the nation’s terrorist threat level to its second-highest, according to a Thursday press release from the Security Service. The Security Service said the decision to raise the terrorist threat level was “not linked to any specific event, but is to be considered in a strategic, long-term [...]
Friday, an independent UN human rights expert appealed for Russia to immediately release detained journalist and prominent opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, whose life is at risk due to deteriorating health. In a statement, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation Maria Katzarova said, “I am concerned that Vladimir Kara-Murza’s only crime [...]
Proposed Jordan cybercrime bill prompts free speech concerns from human rights groups
Human Rights Watch (HRW), along with 13 other human rights organizations such as Access Now and the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR), called on the Jordanian government on Monday to withdraw a proposed cybercrime law currently under discussion in Parliament. The organizations held that the bill, which will replace Jordan’s 2015 cybercrimes law, would [...]
Malaysia police investigate abduction of Myanmar refugee activist Thuzar Maung and family
The police chief of Malaysia’s Senagor state police, Hussein Omar Khan, told Reuters on Tuesday that police in the Malaysian state of Senagor are investigating the disappearance of Myanmar refugee and activist Thuzar Mong and her family. Khan’s comments come two days after Human Rights Watch urged the Malaysian government to look into the July [...]
Beyond the Declaration of Independence: Of Wisdom, Virtue, and Principles of Government
The great end of government and laws is human happiness; the rulers ought, therefore, to understand and know on what it consists; and the means of producing it. — Hon. Jesse Root, “On the Principles and End of Government” The summer of 1776 was quite productive in the annals of American intellectual and legal thought. [...]
The Organization of American States’ (OAS) was presented with a crucial opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to democracy last month, as its Permanent Council turned its attention towards Haiti. The nation’s current crisis is one that is directly connected to the actions taken by members of its ruling Tèt Kale party (PHTK), which for the [...]
