Search Results for: 2017-05-01

This week in Scotland, a hate crime law that ranks among the world’s strictest entered into force. The Hate Crime and Public Order Act 2021 (Hate Crime Act) aims to modernize and consolidate protections while broadening the scope of recognized hate crimes to encompass a wider range of individuals and circumstances. In other words, the [...]

SOS MEDITERRANEE, an international maritime and humanitarian organization, announced on Friday that its affiliated humanitarian ship Ocean Viking rescued 135 people, including a pregnant women and 8 children, from an overcrowded double-decker boat in the Maltese search and rescue region. It stated that the ship was compelled to navigate to a distant port at Ancona, [...]

The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (CFA) refused to grant leave to the government on Friday to appeal the acquittals of seven pro-democracy activists. The lower court overturned the activists’ convictions for organizing an unauthorized assembly but upheld their convictions for participating in an unauthorized assembly. The lower court reasoned that leading and directing [...]

The Associated Press (AP) released an exclusive report Thursday revealing a secret US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spying program that targeted top Venezuelan officials, including Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, despite the program’s potential illegality under international law. According to AP, the program, internally referred to as Operation Money Badger, has been ongoing since at least [...]

The current conflict engulfing Israel and Palestine raises significant issues of international law and policy. This is part one in an anticipated two-part series that will discuss some of the relevant legal questions before the International Criminal Court (ICC; Part I) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ; Part II).  With both courts located in [...]

Tokyo’s High Court found the government of Japan not liable Tuesday for damages related to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and associated mass evacuations, leaving responsibility solely with plant operator the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). The ruling also reduced the damages amounts of a previous court order from $414,400 to $165,000 for 44 of [...]

A US federal judge prohibited the practice of separating migrant children from their families for eight years on Friday following a settlement that will allow migrant children and their families, who were separated at the US-Mexico border, to be reunited. The “Mrs. L” deal, the result of a lawsuit against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement [...]

New Jersey governor Phil Murphy used his public, taxpayer-funded expense account to spend almost $12,000 at events at MetLife Stadium in northern New Jersey, including a Taylor Swift concert, according to records reviewed by POLITICO this week. The expenses started accumulating when Murphy took office in 2018, but have not grown since 2019. POLITICO obtained [...]

The UN Security Council (UNSC) passed a resolution Monday which authorizes UN member states to undertake a stabilization mission to Haiti. Under the coordination and leadership of the Kenyan government, the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission will  cooperate with the Haitian government, for an initial period of one year, to restore peace and security amid surging [...]

US District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed former President Donald Trump’s counter-defamation suit against author E. Jean Carroll on Monday. Carroll has accused Trump of sexual assault, with a jury finding that Trump did sexually assault Carroll and defamed Carroll by accusing her of lying. Trump claimed that Carroll’s statements on CNN after the verdict [...]