The Laws of Rule

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Law, Politics, Podcasts

 

A Case of Counterfactuals

Iceland’s former prime minister is in court for things he didn’t do. To be precise, he is charged with four counts of not doing what he should have done, under the laws on ministerial responsibility. Herdis Sigurgrimsdottir explains. The case of former Prime Minister...

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Garzón Convicted – Update

Judge Baltasar Garzón was convicted 9 February by Spain's Supreme Court and given an 11-year suspension. Four days later, a second set of charges were dissmissed. But Pia Navazo reports the conviction in effect ends Garzón's judicial career. The Spanish Supreme Court...

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The Garzón Trial’s Final Week

Today is the last of the three days for testimony before the Supreme Court in the case against Judge Baltasar Garzón. LoR Contributor Pia Navazo reports. The trial, one of three cases facing Judge Garzón, alleges the Judge abused his powers and violated Spain's 1977...

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Garzón – ‘Crimes of a Political Nature’

The Spanish Supreme Court this week rejected Judge Baltasar Garzóns request for dismissal of the private prosecution against him. As Pia Navazo reports, Judge Garzón is far from alone in his struggle to defend his attempt to investigate crimes of the Franco era. In a...

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The Garzón Trials – Round Two

Judge Baltasar Garzón, famous for his attempt to prosecute Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, appeared before the Spanish Supreme Court on Tuesday. Garzón is facing charges brought by two right wing associations that he breached Spain’s 1977 Amnesty Law. LoR...

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Sovereignty Rests with the People

The Laws of Rule blog started before the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt...but only just. The Arab Spring has given LoR much to write about. No story has done more to propel questions of law - about constitutions, military trials, the role of the judiciary, victims,...

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Copyfight

Today's internet "strike" by Wikipedia, Mozilla, Craig's List and other sites (the list is long and growing) has raised global attention to the US bills now working their way through Congress, known as Protect-IP. Depending on where you sit, Protect-IP will either...

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A Forum of Neccessity

Later this month, the Quebec Court of Appeal should rule on whether or not a class action suit can proceed against Anvil Mining for alleged involvement in atrocities by the armed forces of the Democratic Repulic of Congo. Hugo Lagacé, an LL.M. student at the...

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IBSA: the voice that dare not speak its name

On the heels of a report to the UN Human Rights Council detailing widespread human rights abuse in Syria, attention will no doubt return to the Security Council in New York. LoR Contributor Graham Usher reports that the so-called emerging powers on the Council have...

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A Nordic Safe Haven No More?

Norway may become the first country in the world to extradite a Genocide suspect to Rwanda after Norway's Supreme Court today rejected the appeal of suspect Charles Bandora. The 58 years old Rwandan man was arrested at Oslo's airport last summer. Bandora is wanted by...

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Remember

My grandfather fought. His father fought, as did his. They all survived their wars. As a boy, standing in silence next to my desk at school, I made an effort to remember them, to thank them for risking their lives so that my generation would not have to. As a...

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Countdown to the Day After

As the UN Security Council meets behind closed doors today to consider the Palestinian application for UN membership, Mouin Rabbani argues Palestinians should use the UN bid to internationalize attempts to resolve the conflict. On Israel-Palestine, President Obama’s...

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They’re in such a state

The legal advisors of foreign ministries around the world months ago advised their political bosses that the Palestinian bid for membership at the United Nations is unproblematic. Legally. Palestine certainly meets the standard criteria for recognition as a state (see...

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Warning Flags of Statehood

LoR contributor Graham Usher reports from the UN in New York that the Palestinian drive to upgrade its status at the UN this month has raised questions about the democratic basis for statehood. Later this month the Palestinian Authority may request to become a member...

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Beyond Words

LoR has been on holiday these past few weeks. Just as we were getting back to the keyboard our home city, Oslo, was attacked by what early indications make out to be a right-wing psychopath. More than 90 people have been murdered in a bomb blast and shooting rampage...

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Egyptian Unions Go to Court

The struggle over trade union legitimacy in Egypt is moving into the Courts. An Egyptian Administrative Court announced over the weekend that it will hear arguments on 14 June in a move to dissolve the Egyptian Trade Union Federation, the state-controlled trade union...

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Going South

Most observers are predicting Canada's newly elected majority Conservative government to move quickly within its first 100 days to pass a package of tough-on-crime legislation. New sentencing laws, a crack-down on young offenders and organized drug crimes, even...

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Democracy Under the Gun

Intervention has achieved its aims in Libya. LoR's Mark Taylor writing in Open Democracy yesterday calls for the launching of a political process in Libya in order to get people back on streets. The struggles in the Arab world aim to establish one simple principle:...

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Libya – In Search of Strategy

The authorization by Security Council of "all necessary measures" to protect civilians in Libya marks the beginning of the end of the Ghaddafi regime. But is it also the beginning of the end for democratic movement sweeping the Arab world? A popular uprising in Libya...

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Assymetrical Legal Warfare

This week a judge in Ecuador handed Chevron an order to pay US$ 9.8 in connection with damages which indigenous peoples allege were caused by decades of oil pollution and environmental neglect. The company denies the allegations and although the decision is a landmark...

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Elf Mabruk Egypt!

Egypt's revolution has established that sovereignty rests with the people. This simple yet momentous step has changed the face of politics in the Arab world. The implications are incalculable (for now) but everything depends on whether the movement can keep up the...

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Tunisia – Can the Clean Up Begin?

"We are listening to eye-witnesses, following all leads that can help us get to the killers whomever they may be, policemen, members of the former ruling party, militias formed by the former regime, or the former president and his entourage", lawyer Taher Yahya told...

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Tunisia’s Combative Lawyers

With their black gowns and white cravats, Tunisia’s lawyers were perhaps unexpected allies of the teenagers who took to the streets in late December. But in the video clips shot on mobile phones that cropped up on Facebook and YouTube they were seen picketing...

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Argentine ex-dictator gets life

Former Argentine dictator Jorge Videla, considered the architect of the 'dirty war' waged by the Argentina's military that resulted in thousands of people being killed or disappeared, was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for the torture and murder of 31 prisoners...

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Corporate Accountability Portal – Case Updates

The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) has released its latest update on cases involving a wide range of business-related human rights abuses before the courts in a number of countries. Cases profiled by BCCHR include: • "Anvil Mining (re Dem. Rep. of...

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US Govt et al v. Wikileaks

Things are heating up for Wikileaks after the most recent release of diplomatic cables. The uproar is far and away the most intense pressure the Wikileaks gang has come under. Weird when you think about it. Not only is Wikileaks comparable in status and function to...

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Those Most Responsible

The Allies put them on trial after WWII. The Israelis did it in the 1960s to one of the architects of the Holocaust, Eichman, after kidnapping him and shipping him to Jerusalem. The people and jurists of Argentina did it in the 1980s to leaders of the regime that...

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