Legislation targets unethical, aggressive sales tactics that result in countless ´mystery charges´ for consumers. A Senate probe focused on online marketing firms Affinion, Vertrue and Webloyalty.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Thursday that airline passengers confronted with flight delays of two hours or more may receive compensation equal to that of passengers whose flights are cancelled. The flat-rate compensation ranges between 250 and 600 euros. The case arose under European Parliament and European Council Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004, which sets forth rules for compensation and assistance of airline passengers.
A federal judge on Wednesday ruled [opinion, PDF] that former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Ahmed Ghailani [GlobalSecurity backgrounder; JURIST news archive] does not have a right to be represented by his military defense lawyers in a civilian court. Military lawyers Colonel Jeffrey Colwell and Major Richard Reiter were reassigned by the Department of Defense [official website] despite their willingness to continue representing Ghailani and Judge Lewis Kaplan´s initial ruling [JURIST report] in June allowing them to do so. Ghailani´s court-appointed lawyer argued that the reassignment orders violated his Fifth Amendment right to due process and his Sixth Amendment [texts] right to effective assistance of counsel. Kaplan rejected the due process claim because of its post-indictment nature and held that, despite a right to continued services of appointed counsel in military proceedings, the right did not extend to Ghailani in civil court. Kaplan reasoned that:
The Cuban government of Raul Castro [BBC profile] has continued to repress dissidents and violate fundamental civil liberties of Cubans, maintaining the mechanisms put in place by Fidel Castro [BBC profile], according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] report [text, PDF; press release] released on Wednesday. Specifically, HRW reported that 53 political dissidents imprisoned since 2003 under Fidel Castro remain imprisoned, as well as "scores of of individuals incarcerated for ´dangerousness´ under Raul Castro." The HRW report claims that Raul Castro´s government relies heavily on the Criminal Code offense of "dangerousness" [text], which provides for imprisonment of people suspected of behavior against socialist values.
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] ordered [text, PDF] the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Central District of California (FPD) [official website] on Wednesday to pay a monetary award to a man denied healthcare benefits for his same-sex spouse. Deputy federal public defender Brad Levenson brought the suit requesting the court to direct the FPD to obtain separate coverage for his spouse by contracting with private health insurance carriers or issue a monetary award in accordance with the Back Pay Act [backgrounder, PDF].
The Constitutional Court of Russia [official website, in Russian] on Thursday extended the moratorium [press release, in Russian] on the death penalty [JURIST news archive] until the Russian parliament ratifies an international treaty abolishing capital punishment.
US Attorney General Eric Holder [official profile] appeared Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] to answer questions regarding the decision to try five men accused of conspiring to commit the 9/11 terrorist attacks [JURIST news archive] in federal court. In his opening remarks [transcript; video], Holder refuted the arguments made by his predecessor [Washington Times report] and other lawmakers that the decision to try these men in civilian courts represents a "pre-9/11" mentality. Additionally, he sought to allay concerns voiced by critics that civilian courts are inadequate to handle the cases of suspected terrorists and will provide a public forum to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed [JURIST news archive], the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks:
The British High Court [official website] ruled [judgment text] Wednesday that the government may withhold evidence from seven claimants suing UK intelligence services MI5 and MI6 [official websites] for their roles in alleged torture at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. The court ruled that the agencies can rely on the evidence in their defense without disclosing it to the claimants. The ruling marks a departure [Independent report] from the "public interest immunity" procedure, which weighed the public interest in non-disclosure against the interests of justice. If the evidence was found to be so sensitive that it should not be revealed, the information could not be used by either side. The court indicated that a "closed material" procedure, where a "special advocate" reviews evidence not disclosed by the government and acts on behalf of the claimants, would be appropriate in this case. The ruling was condemned by Amnesty International [advocacy website], and lawyers representing the men have indicated they will appeal the decision.
US President Barack Obama signed an executive order Tuesday creating a Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to be headed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) as lead agency. The task force, which continues the work of and replaces the federal government´s Corporate Fraud Task Force (CFTC), is charged with building on "efforts already underway to combat mortgage, securities and corporate fraud by increasing coordination and fully utilizing the resources and expertise of the government´s law enforcement and regulatory apparatus."
The China Beijing No 1 Intermediary Court ruled on Monday that US software giant Microsoft [corporate website] had infringed upon the patent rights of local Chinese company Zhongyi Electronic [corporate website]. Zhongyi Electronic provided Chinese fonts for Microsoft to use in its Windows 1995 program, and claims that Microsoft had no right to continue using those fonts in later programs such as Windows 1998, 2000, 2003, and XP. Windows must now cease the sale [Financial Times report] of all those programs in China. Microsoft, which says that its intellectual property agreements with Zhongyi Electronic extended beyond the Windows 1995 deal, will appeal the ruling [Reuters report]. China has been long been criticized by the US government [JURIST report] for a "lax" intellectual property enforcement system.
Democratic leaders in the Senate on Wednesday unveiled their proposal for overhauling the health care system, outlining legislation that they said would cover most of the uninsured while reducing the federal budget deficit.
We conclude that the district court committed neither procedural error in calculating the applicable Guidelines ranges, nor substantive error in varying from those ranges pursuant to its consideration of the factors set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). We nonetheless remand their cases to the district court to allow it to reconsider their sentences should it choose to do so in light of the resentencing of Stewart...[We] direct the court to revoke Stewart´s and Yousry´s bail pending appeal and to order them to surrender to the United States Marshal to begin serving their sentences forthwith.
US State Department [official website] spokesman Ian Kelley confirmed [transcript] Monday that the US will send an observer to the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website; JURIST news archive] for the first time this year. The announcement was made earlier in the day by US Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues Stephen Rapp [official profile], who said the country was still concerned [AP report] about the court exercising jurisdiction over US soldiers and officials. Kelley said sending an observer to the ICC would allow the US to start a dialogue with the court:
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Monday issued an apology to poor and underprivileged British children who were sent to Australia and other former British colonies over the last century with the supposed intention of giving them a better life, but were instead subjected to childhood of abuse and hard labor.
A Russian lawyer who represented Hermitage Capital and helped the London-based hedge fund in its allegations of theft and fraud against Kremlin officials has died in prison.
How much good will can an apology — and half a billion dollars — buy? A lot, Goldman Sachs is hoping.
Prosecutors from the five major international tribunals on Monday called on member states [press release] "to seriously consider the adoption of a convention on the Suppression and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity." The statement came at the end of a three-day convention and reitereated the need to fight against impunity for perpetrators of serious international crimes. Representatives from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY), the Special Court of Sierra Leone (SCSL), the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) [official websites] attended the colloquium, which was held in Rwanda and hosted by the ICTR.
Republican leaders on Sunday expressed strong opposition to the Obama administration´s plan to pursue federal charges against five men accused of conspiring to commit the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) told CBS´s Face the Nation that he would:
An Italian court on Monday reopened the tax fraud trial of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi [official profile, in Italian; BBC profile], but immediately adjourned it until January as a result of official business. Berlusconi was unable to attend the hearing as a result of a global food summit in Rome. Counsel for Berlusconi said that he will be unavailable for trial hearings [BBC report] until January 18 because of his responsibilities as prime minister. The charges stem from purchase of broadcasting company Mediaset [corporate website, in Italian]. Berlusconi is also scheduled to go on trial [JURIST report] on corruption charges later this month.
US President Barack Obama acknowledged [press release] Sunday that it is unlikely that the December UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) [official website] in Copenhagen, Denmark, will produce a legally binding agreement addressing global climate change. Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economic Affairs Michael Froman said that it is impractical to expect that a final, legally binding agreement could be negotiated in time for the summit in three weeks.
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