Category Archives: Law

Palestinian Authority routinely tortures detainees, says rights group

Posted on by

Human Rights Watch calls for donors to cut off funding to security forces and urges international court to investigate

Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip systematically torture critics in detention, a practice that could amount to crimes against humanity, an international rights group has said.

In its report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for donor countries to cut off funding to Palestinian security forces that commit such crimes and urged the international criminal court to investigate.

Continue reading...

Anthony Albanese raises case of jailed Australian engineer Robert Pether with Iraqi PM

Posted on by

Exclusive: Pether, who has been imprisoned for 14 months in Baghdad, has become ‘gravely ill’ according to his family

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has raised the case of jailed engineer Robert Pether with the Iraqi leader, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, as the Australian’s family warns he has become “gravely ill” and is rapidly deteriorating in his Baghdadi jail cell.

Pether has now been imprisoned for more than 14 months following a commercial dispute between his engineering firm and Iraq’s central bank, which had hired Pether’s company to help build its new Baghdad headquarters. Pether’s family say he is innocent and the trial was unfair and compromised.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

US supreme court hobbles government power to limit harmful emissions

Posted on by

Court sides with Republican states as ruling represents landmark moment in rightwing effort to dismantle ‘regulatory state’

The US supreme court has sided with Republican-led states to in effect hobble the federal government’s ability to tackle the climate crisis, in a ruling that will have profound implications for the government’s overall regulatory power.

In a 6-3 decision that will seriously hinder America’s ability to stave off disastrous global heating, the supreme court, which became dominated by rightwing justices under the Trump administration, has opted to support a case brought by West Virginia that demands the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) be limited in how it regulates planet-heating gases from the energy sector.

Continue reading...

Virginia lawsuits indicate pattern of schools ignoring reported sexual assaults

Posted on by

Two lawsuits are back in front of federal judges, drawing scrutiny to schools’ failure to support students who report assaults


A pair of lawsuits that for years has plagued Virginia’s largest school system with allegations that it ignored students’ accusations of sex assaults are back in front of federal judges.

One of the lawsuits includes allegations of horrific abuse suffered by a student at a Fairfax county middle school and was the basis for a 2014 federal investigation.

Continue reading...

Archie Battersbee’s parents win court of appeal fight in life-support case

Posted on by

Family of 12-year-old challenged ruling Archie is brain-stem dead and treatment can be stopped

The parents of Archie Battersbee have won an appeal against ending the 12-year-old’s life support treatment.

A high court judge had ruled that Archie, who sustained brain damage about three months ago, was ”brain-stem dead” after a hospital trust asked it to decide what was in his best interests.

Continue reading...

Louisiana judge blocks abortion ban amid uproar after Roe v Wade ruling

Posted on by

State temporarily blocked from enforcing ban as other US states pass ‘trigger laws’ designed to severely curtail access to abortion

A Louisiana judge on Monday temporarily stopped the state from enforcing Republican-backed laws banning abortion, set to take effect after the US supreme court ended the constitutional right to the procedure last week.

Louisiana is one of 13 states which passed “trigger laws”, to ban or severely restrict abortions once the supreme court overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that recognized a right to the procedure. It did so on Friday, stoking uproar among progressives and protests and counter-protests on the streets of major cities.

Continue reading...

US supreme court rules in favor of high school football coach over on-field prayers – as it happened

Posted on by

Writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch argued that football coach Joseph Kennedy had a right to publicly pray after games because he was not requiring others to participate in the practice.

“Joseph Kennedy lost his job as a high school football coach because he knelt at midfield after games to offer a quiet prayer of thanks,” Gorsuch wrote.

Continue reading...

Biden administration signals fight to stop states banning abortion pill

Posted on by

With Roe v Wade overturned, government could go to court over how mifepristone is approved for use

Joe Biden’s administration has indicated it will seek to prevent states from banning a pill used for medical abortion in light of the supreme court ruling overturning Roe v Wade, signalling a major new legal fight.

The administration could argue in court that the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of mifepristone, one of the pills used for medical abortions, preempts state restrictions, meaning federal authority outweighs any state action.

Continue reading...

Foetus fronts legal challenge over emissions in South Korea

Posted on by

Lawyers representing 20-week-old foetus allege state is breaching rights of future generations

A 20-week-old foetus is fronting a legal challenge in South Korea that argues the state is breaching the rights of future generations by not doing enough to cut national emissions.

Parents and lawyers representing the foetus, as well as 61 babies and children under 11, claim national carbon targets do not go far enough to stop runaway climate change and that this is unconstitutional.

Continue reading...

PRGuy unmasks himself in video with Friendlyjordies after legal threat by Avi Yemini

Posted on by

Jeremy Maluta reveals he is behind pro-Labor Twitter account PRGuy17 but says he has no media experience or connection to Daniel Andrews

The man behind the formerly anonymous pro-Labor Twitter account PRGuy17 has unmasked himself, after far-right figure Avi Yemini attempted to use the courts to reveal whether the account had ties to the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews.

Jeremy Maluta told YouTuber Friendlyjordies in a video released on Friday that he has no PR or social media experience, works in an industry completely unrelated to politics or the media, and has no connections to Andrews.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

January 6 hearings outlined ‘inner workings of political coup in service of Trump’, panel chair says – as it happened

Posted on by

Committee ends fifth hearing, with next sessions expected in July

Gun rights have been in the news for weeks following two shocking mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York — a fact that has not escaped the supreme court.

In his concurrence with the majority opinion, conservative justice Samuel Alito connects the latter shooting with the concealed weapons regulation that the court struck down. “Will a person bent on carrying out a mass shooting be stopped if he knows that it is illegal to carry a handgun outside the home? And how does the dissent account for the fact that one of the mass shootings near the top of its list took place in Buffalo? The New York law at issue in this case obviously did not stop that perpetrator,” wrote Alito, who was also the author of the draft opinion overturning abortion rights that leaked in May.

Continue reading...

US supreme court overturns New York handgun law in bitter blow to gun-control push

Posted on by

Biden says ruling ‘should trouble us all’ as conservative majority strikes down law requiring ‘proper cause’ to carry guns in public

The US supreme court has opened the door for almost all law-abiding Americans to carry concealed and loaded handguns in public, after the conservative majority struck down a New York law that placed strict restrictions on firearms outside the home.

The governor of New York, a Democrat, said the ruling was “not just reckless, it’s reprehensible”. Pointing to recent mass shootings in New York and Texas, a leading progressive group called the ruling “shameful and outrageous”.

Continue reading...

Increasing public sector pay in line with inflation would be ‘reckless’, says No 10 – UK politics live

Posted on by

PM’s spokesperson says workers should not be ‘chasing inflation with wages’ as that would increase inflation

Moderna has announced that it will open a vaccine research and manufacturing centre in the UK. In a visit to mark the announcement, Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said:

We all saw during the pandemic the differences that cutting edge vaccines and treatments can make and we all particularly saw that the mRNA technology has been very transformational. It has literally saved millions of lives over the last couple of years.

And that’s why I’m thrilled to announce this new partnership between the UK government and Moderna, where Moderna will established here in the UK, a global R&D facility with over £1bn for investment in this cutting edge technology, and also a huge manufacturing centre, their largest outside of the US, and so this is a great investment in the UK, and gives huge confidence to our life sciences sector already leading in Europe.

Continue reading...

No 10 to set out sweeping plans to override power of Europe’s human rights court

Posted on by

Proposal to replace Human Rights Act with bill of rights is effort to make government ‘untouchable’, say critics

Downing Street will tomorrow set out sweeping plans to override the power of Europe’s human rights court just days after a judge in Strasbourg blocked the deportation of asylum seekers from Britain to Rwanda.

The abolition of the Human Rights Act (HRA), including reducing the influence of the European court of human rights (ECHR), will be introduced before parliament in what the government described as a restatement of Britain’s sovereignty.

Continue reading...

UK lawyers gather evidence for action against countries over Yazidi genocide

Posted on by

Yazidi Justice Committee has been working privately for more than two years to show states failed to protect minority group

A group of high-level British lawyers have been working privately on compiling evidence to show that one or more countries failed in their international obligations to prevent genocide against the Yazidis in northern Iraq.

The lawyers, who formally announced their collaboration as the Yazidi Justice Committee (YJC) on Tuesday, have been working over the past two and a half years to investigate the genocide committed from early 2013 by Islamic State.

Continue reading...

Stonewall ‘malicious’ in legal fight against Allison Bailey, tribunal hears

Posted on by

Barrister involved in employment tribunal with her chambers and leading LGBTQ+ charity

Stonewall has been “high-handed and malicious” in its ongoing legal fight against a gender critical barrister, her lawyer has told the final day of an employment tribunal.

The barrister Allison Bailey is suing her chambers, Garden Court, and the LGBTQ+ charity. She claims she was offered lower-quality work after she voiced her opposition to the nationwide Stonewall diversity champion scheme when it was announced at her chambers in December 2018. Stonewall’s programme provides advice and assessments for inclusive workplaces.

Continue reading...

Peter Dutton asks high court for permission to appeal against defamation case loss to Shane Bazzi

Posted on by

Liberal leader says refugee advocate’s May win in full federal court was a ‘miscarriage of justice’ and applies for special leave to appeal

Peter Dutton has sought leave to appeal in the high court against his loss in the defamation case he brought against Shane Bazzi, questioning whether there had been a “miscarriage of justice”.

The Liberal party leader has filed an application for special leave to appeal against his loss in the full federal court, arguing that the appeal court erred by finding Bazzi’s tweet “Peter Dutton is a rape apologist” did not convey the defamatory meaning that he “excused rape”.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

US calls on Vietnam to release environmental activist Nguy Thi Khanh

Posted on by

Award-winning founder of green development centre was arrested on tax evasion charges in February

The US government has said it is “deeply concerned” by the sentencing of the Vietnamese environmental advocate and activist Nguy Thi Khanh and called on Vietnam to release her.

Khanh, Vietnam’s first recipient of the prestigious Goldman environmental prize, was reported in February to have been arrested on tax evasion charges. The founder of the Green Innovation and Development Centre was detained in January.

Continue reading...

Allison Bailey case is a microcosm of the wider debate about transgender rights

Posted on by

Barrister’s unlawful discrimination case sees levels of engagement rare for an employment tribunal

With its own dedicated (unofficial) Twitter account and people following proceedings daily live via video, the unlawful discrimination case brought by barrister Allison Bailey against her chambers Garden Court and Stonewall has seen levels of engagement rare for an employment tribunal.

The reason is that the case, due to hear closing arguments on Monday, is a microcosm of the wider debate about transgender rights.

Continue reading...

Thousands of victims of violent and sexual crime stuck in England and Wales court backlog

Posted on by

Sevenfold rise in those waiting at least a year for cases to be heard as lawyers quit over cuts in legal aid

More than 5,800 victims of violent crime and sexual offences are stuck in one of the worst-ever backlogs in the crown courts, enduring delays of at least a year before their cases are heard, the Observer can reveal.

The number of cases facing these delays once a defendant has been charged has increased more than sevenfold in two years, according to an analysis of crown court figures in England and Wales.

Continue reading...