Category Archives: Law

West wavers on Ukraine proposals to seize Russian assets as reparations

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Exclusive: Ukraine lobbying UN and allies to clear legal path for extracting Russian compensation for war damage

Ukraine is facing a battle to persuade its western allies, including the UK, to back its proposal for any peace settlement with Moscow to include multibillion reparations by Russia, in part using seized Russian state and oligarch assets.

Ukraine is lobbying the UN general assembly to adopt a resolution that will become the basis for the creation of an international compensation mechanism that could lead to the seizure of as much as $300bn (£260bn) of Russian state assets overseas.

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France must rethink case of IS-linked women refused re-entry, rules ECHR

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Families argued detention in Syria exposed the two women and their children to inhumane treatment

The European court of human rights has condemned France over its refusal to repatriate French women who travelled to Syria with their partners to join Islamic State and are currently being held with their children at Kurdish-run prison camps.

The ruling will be studied closely by other countries who still have citizens detained in camps in north-eastern Syria, including the UK.

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Jean-Luc Godard chose to end life through assisted dying, lawyer confirms

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The medical report on death of 91-year-old director said he had chosen to end his life

Jean-Luc Godard, the maverick French-Swiss director who revolutionised post-war cinema in Europe, died by assisted dying, his lawyer has confirmed.

The medical report on the death of the 91-year-old director said he had chosen to end his life. He “had recourse to legal assistance in Switzerland for a voluntary departure” because he was “stricken with ‘multiple incapacitating illnesses’”, Godard’s legal council, Patrick Jeanneret, told AFP.

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Gay rights group was set up ‘to promote transphobic activity’, court told

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Claim comes in appeal by trans rights charity against decision to give LGB Alliance charitable status

The gay rights organisation LGB Alliance was set up to “promote transphobic activity rather than pro-LGB activities”, the head of Consortium, an umbrella group of LGBT organisations told a court on Monday.

In the first full day of hearings in the appeal by the transgender rights charity Mermaids against the Charity Commission’s decision to award charitable status to LGB Alliance, Paul Roberts, the chief executive of Consortium, said that LGB Alliance was created to pursue an anti-trans agenda.

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Revealed: Ginni Thomas’s links to anti-abortion groups who lobbied to overturn Roe

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Analysis of ‘amicus briefs’ shows how closely Clarence Thomas’s wife was entwined with rightwing effort to reverse 1973 ruling

Ginni Thomas, the self-styled “culture warrior” and extreme rightwing activist, has links to more than half of the anti-abortion groups and individuals who lobbied her husband Clarence Thomas and his fellow US supreme court justices ahead of their historic decision to eradicate a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy.

A new analysis of the written legal arguments, or “amicus briefs”, used to lobby the justices as they deliberated over abortion underlines the extent to which Clarence Thomas’s wife was intertwined with this vast pressure campaign.

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Iran condemns two women to death for ‘corruption’ over LGBTQ+ media links

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Outcry over show trial, which follows Zahra Seddiqi Hamedani talking to BBC about abuse of gay people in Iran’s Kurdish region

Two women have been condemned to death in Iran because of their links to the LGBTQ+ community on social media, human rights groups have reported.

Zahra Seddiqi Hamedani, 31, and Elham Choubdar, 24, were found guilty of a number of charges by a court in Urmia, in the Iranian province of West Azerbaijan, on 1 September but the details of their sentences only emerged this week.

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The virtual jury’s out as appetite for true crime podcasts grows

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The Teacher’s Pet helped solve a 40-year-old murder but the popularity of real crime dramas raises questions and legal concerns

For the makers of The Teacher’s Pet, the result could not be better: an Australian man who murdered his wife 40 years ago was convicted after a detailed reinvestigation of the case by the true crime podcast.

It uncovered flaws in the original police investigation and an unwillingness by prosecutors to charge Chris Dawson with the murder of his wife, Lynette.

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‘Where is the evidence?’: critics take aim at NT judge who says antiracism is becoming ‘a religion’

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Opponents say it is ‘surprising’ for Judith Kelly to claim that ‘on the whole, modern Australian society is not racist’, in speech on Indigenous domestic violence

Lawyers and academics have criticised comments by a Northern Territory supreme court judge that antiracism was becoming a “religion” preventing honest discussions about the “epidemic of extreme domestic violence” against Aboriginal women.

In the 26 August speech to a gathering of women lawyers, Justice Judith Kelly said there was a “cultural component” to the violence inflicted on Aboriginal women by Aboriginal men in the territory.

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Lawyer criticises UN report’s failure to call Uyghur oppression ‘genocide’

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Sir Geoffrey Nice QC says outgoing human rights chief’s report on China makes it easier for international community to do nothing

The UN’s failure to mention the word genocide in its report alleging serious human rights violations by China against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province is an “astonishing” lapse, according to a leading British human rights lawyer.

The 45-page report from the outgoing UN human rights commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, landed minutes before her term ended on Wednesday, outlining allegations of torture, including forced medical procedures, as well as sexual violence against Uyghur Muslims.

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Five key points from the UN report on Xinjiang human rights abuses

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Damning report cites human rights violations against Uyghur Muslims in north-west Chinese province

China has committed “serious human rights violations” against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province which may amount to crimes against humanity, the outgoing UN human rights commissioner has said in a long-awaited and damning report.

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US fossil fuel firm sues insurer for refusing to cover climate lawsuit

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Aloha Petroleum’s case against AIG could set precedent as to whether firms are protected against climate damage claims

A fossil fuel firm is suing its insurer for refusing to cover a climate lawsuit in a case that could affect the wider industry’s ability to defend itself from litigation.

Aloha Petroleum, a subsidiary of the US-based Sunoco, filed a claim against AIG’s National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh earlier this month, arguing it had failed to protect Aloha from the mounting costs of defending climate-related claims by local governments in Hawaii.

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Dominic Raab made Parole Board’s ‘difficult job next to impossible’

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Justice secretary criticised by senior officials after board is ‘last to hear’ about important policy changes

Dominic Raab was accused by a senior Parole Board official of making a “difficult job next to impossible” after making big policy changes without notice, newly uncovered documents show.

Members of the Parole Board also said the justice secretary would have to increase the number of prison places by 800 every year if he was to force through major changes.

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Oil firm Rockhopper wins £210m payout after being banned from drilling

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Italian government ordered to compensate UK firm after exploration forbidden within 12 miles of coast

A corporate tribunal has ordered the Italian government to pay more than £210m to the UK oil company Rockhopper as compensation for an offshore oil drilling ban.

Rockhopper’s case was launched after the Italian government banned oil exploration and production within a 12 mile-limit off Italy’s coast in 2015, scotching the company’s planned Ombrina Mare oilfield.

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Kenyan tea pickers on Scottish-run farm to pursue health issues in UK court

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Prolonged bending to gather tea for James Finlay Kenya is argued to accelerate ageing of pickers’ backs by up to 20 years

More than a 1,000 Kenyan tea pickers who say that harsh and exploitative working conditions on a Scottish-run tea farm have caused them crippling health complaints can now pursue their class action in an Edinburgh court.

Lawyers acting for the tea pickers have won an order from the court of session, Scotland’s highest civil court, telling James Finlay Kenya Ltd (JFK) to abandon attempts to block the suit through the Kenyan courts.

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British Sikh activist ‘tortured in India after tip-off from UK intelligence’

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Lawyers for Jagtar Singh Johal say he was given electric shocks after unlawful arrest in Punjab in 2017

A British Sikh campaigner is facing a possible death sentence after the UK intelligence services passed on information about him to the Indian authorities, according to a high court complaint.

Lawyers for Jagtar Singh Johal from Dumbarton, Scotland, say he was tortured, including being given electric shocks, after his unlawful arrest in the Punjab in 2017 where he had travelled for his wedding.

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Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai to plead not guilty in national security case

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Democracy activist and Apple Daily founder will stand trial without jury and could face up to life in prison

The founder of Apple Daily, Jimmy Lai, will stand trial without a jury in Hong Kong, after he told a court he would plead not guilty to national security charges.

On Monday, prosecutors told a case management hearing that Lai would challenge the accusations but six fellow executives and manager from the now-defunct Apple Daily or its parent company, Next Digital, intended to plead guilty.

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US supreme court backs Black voters challenging Georgia election rules

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Ruling comes as plaintiffs say current Georgia public service commission election system discriminates against Black voters

Black voters challenging Georgia’s method of electing members to the state’s public service commission scored a preliminary US supreme court order in their favor late Friday.

The decision came after conflicting rulings from lower courts earlier this month, offering up a rare example of the supreme court’s 6-3 conservative majority’s siding with voters over state officials.

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Afghan female judge fleeing Taliban appeals after Home Office refuses UK entry

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Lawyers say the woman, who is in hiding in Pakistan with her son, will be killed if sent back to Afghanistan

A female former senior judge from Afghanistan who is in hiding from the Taliban with her son has filed an appeal to the Home Office after her application to enter the UK was denied.

Lawyers for the woman – who is named as “Y” – said on Saturday they had submitted an appeal on behalf of their client and her son at the Immigration Tribunal, saying she had been left in a “gravely vulnerable position” by the withdrawal of British and other western troops.

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British judge rules dissident can sue Saudi Arabia for Pegasus hacking

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Ghanem Almasarir’s victory opens way for other hacking victims in UK to bring cases against foreign governments

A British judge has ruled that a case against the kingdom of Saudi Arabia brought by a dissident satirist who was targeted with spyware can proceed, a decision that has been hailed as precedent-setting and one that could allow other hacking victims in Britain to sue foreign governments who order such attacks.

The case against Saudi Arabia was brought by Ghanem Almasarir, a prominent satirist granted asylum in the UK, who is a frequent critic of the Saudi royal family.

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Detained Hong Kong activists to plead guilty under China-style law

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Former student leader among 29 pro-democracy activists entering same plea on subversion charges after more than a year in jail

Joshua Wong and a group of 28 Hong Kong pro-democracy activists charged under a controversial national security law have entered guilty pleas, in the largest joint prosecution in the territory in recent years.

A total of 47 defendants, aged 23 to 64, were charged with conspiracy to commit subversion under the sweeping national security law. They were detained in 2021 over their involvement in an unofficial primary election in 2020 that authorities said was a plot to paralyse Hong Kong’s government. At the time, the primary showed strong support for candidates willing to challenge the Beijing-backed local government.

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