Category Archives: Law

Court dismisses $1.8m bullying case brought by man accusing boss of breaking wind

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Victorian court upholds supreme court ruling that even if David Hingst’s allegations were true, flatulence did not necessarily constitute bullying

An Australian appeals court on Friday dismissed a bullying case brought by an engineer who accused his former supervisor of repeatedly breaking wind toward him.

The Victoria state court of appeal upheld a supreme court judge’s ruling that even if engineer David Hingst’s allegations were true, flatulence did not necessarily constitute bullying.

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The last straw: European parliament votes to ban single-use plastics

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Vote by MEPs paves way for law to come into force by 2021 across EU

The European parliament has voted to ban single-use plastic cutlery, cotton buds, straws and stirrers as part of a sweeping law against plastic waste that despoils beaches and pollutes oceans.

The vote by MEPs paves the way for a ban on single-use plastics to come into force by 2021 in all EU member states. The UK would have to follow the rules if it took part in and extended the Brexit transition period because of delays in finding a new arrangement with the EU.

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Brexit: DUP and ERG say they cannot support May as MPs debate deal – Politics live

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PM puts new plan to Commons as Geoffrey Cox says legal risk over backstop ‘remains unchanged’

Boris Johnson, the Brexiter former foreign secretary, is speaking in the debate now. He says he had hoped that the EU would make the wholly reasonable changes the UK wanted. But the EU refused to do that.

Like Adam and Eve, they sowed a fig leaf that failed to cover the embarrassment of the UK, he says.

This deal has now reached the end of the road. If it is rejected tonight, I hope that it will be put to bed.

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Emma Watson, Keira Knightley among stars urging better protection of women

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Scores of high-profile signatories mark International Women’s Day by signing letter calling for stronger global political support

• Letter: Women worldwide must be heard and respected

Emma Watson, Keira Knightley, and Dame Emma Thompson are among 76 actors, writers, business leaders and campaigners calling on governments to increase support and protection of women fighting for their rights around the world.

The letter, published in the Guardian to mark International Women’s Day on Friday, says women risk “backlash, censorship and violence” whenever they defend their rights or speak out over injustice.

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Foreign Office grants Zaghari-Ratcliffe diplomatic protection

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Jeremy Hunt raises British-Iranian’s case to state dispute, meaning injury to her is now injury to UK

The Foreign Office (FCO) has escalated its conflict with Iran over the imprisonment of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe by granting her diplomatic protection, a step that raises her case from a consular matter to the level of a dispute between the two states.

The move, likely to lead to increased tensions between the two countries, came after the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, judged Tehran was not meeting its human rights obligations to the British-Iranian dual national under international humanitarian law. She has been in a Tehran jail for three years, after being sentenced to five years for spying.

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Facebook criticised after women complain of inaction over abuse

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Amnesty says social media firm must do more to support users who report harassment

Human rights campaigners have called for action after a survey revealed that more than half of the reports that women lodge about harassment on Facebook are met with no action from the social media company.

The Survation poll, commissioned by the feminist campaign group Level Up, found that 29% of the 1,000 women who took part had been harassed on Facebook.

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Study warns of global rise in autocratic leaders ‘hijacking’ laws for own ends

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Poland the worst offender as global justice index identifies decline in checks on government power for second successive year

Autocratic rule is on the rise throughout the world, with a growing number of authoritarian leaders “hijacking” laws to consolidate their own power, a study of global justice has found.

Poland demonstrated the most significant turn towards authoritarianism over the past four years, followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. In all, 64% of 126 countries surveyed made similar moves towards autocratic rule in the past year alone, according to an annual rule of law index published by the World Justice Project.

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Rohingya crisis: UN investigates its ‘dysfunctional’ conduct in Myanmar

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Exclusive: Inquiry follows claims it ignored warning signs before alleged Rohingya genocide

The UN has launched an inquiry into its conduct in Myanmar over the past decade, where it has been accused of ignoring warning signs of escalating violence prior to an alleged genocide of the Rohingya minority.

UN sources have confirmed to the Guardian that the initially hesitant UN secretary general, António Guterres, decided to proceed with the investigation after a “build-up in pressure” within the organisation.

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Sajid Javid’s new knife crime laws ‘will criminalise the young’

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Groups working with children say home secretary’s proposals are ‘deeply counterproductive’

A coalition of human rights groups is pressing the home secretary to scrap his new measures to tackle knife crime, branding them “deeply counterproductive”.

Sajid Javid’s knife crime prevention orders place a range of curbs and curfews on suspects, but groups working with young people including Liberty, the Runnymede Trust and the Children’s Society, say they have “profound human rights concerns”.

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Shamima Begum’s family hope to bring her baby to UK

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Lawyer for family of 19-year-old who joined Isis in Syria is to ask her consent for plan

The family of Shamima Begum are exploring legal and practical options to bring her baby son to the UK without her while she embarks on the potentially lengthy appeal against the removal of her British citizenship, the Guardian has learned.

The lawyer representing the 19-year-old’s family is planning to travel to the refugee camp in Syria where she is living “as soon as possible” to set in motion the legal appeal process, and to ask her consent to bring her newborn son back to Britain while she awaits a resolution of her legally tangled case.

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Shamima Begum will not be allowed here, says Bangladesh

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Country at odds with UK over decision to strip 19-year-old of British citizenship

Shamima Begum is not a Bangladeshi citizen and there is “no question” of her being allowed into Bangladesh, the country’s ministry of foreign affairs has insisted, setting up a clash with the UK after Sajid Javid’s move to strip the teenager of her UK citizenship.

“The government of Bangladesh is deeply concerned that [Begum] has been erroneously identified as a holder of dual citizenship,” Shahriar Alam, the state minister of foreign affairs, said in a statement issued to the Guardian, adding that his government had learned of Britain’s intention to cancel her citizenship rights from media reports.

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Shamima Begum ‘a bit shocked’ that UK has revoked citizenship

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Teenager who travelled from London to Syria to join Isis says decision is ‘kind of heart-breaking’

Shamima Begum, the teenager who travelled from east London to Syria to join Islamic State in 2015, has described Home Office plans to strip her of citizenship as “kind of heart-breaking”.

Related: Shamima Begum: will the plan to revoke her citizenship succeed?

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Trump might have a solid case for emergency declaration, analysts say

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Though Trump himself suggested there is no real emergency, courts are unlikely to second-guess a presidents’ broad leeway

Many legal analysts who watched Donald Trump declare a national emergency over immigration on Friday thought the president had weak legal grounds for doing so. In particular, many thought Trump hurt his own case by admitting, right there in the White House Rose Garden: “I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster.”

“This quote should be the first sentence of the first paragraph of every complaint filed this afternoon,” tweeted George Conway, a top Washington lawyer and the husband of Trump aide Kellyanne Conway.

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Huawei founder: US cannot crush technology firm

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Ren Zhengfei hits back at criminal indictments he calls politically motivated

The US cannot crush Huawei, the company’s founder has insisted, as he hit back against criminal indictments levelled at the firm and allegations that it poses a security threat.

Washington has warned allies off using Huawei products in recent weeks. But Ren Zhengfei, whose daughter Meng Wanzhou – a fellow senior Huawei executive – is among those charged by US prosecutors, told the BBC on Monday that the firm would survive the pressure.

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David Gauke expresses ‘grave concerns’ about no-deal Brexit

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Justice secretary says leaving EU without deal would have ‘very adverse effect’

The justice secretary has said he has grave concerns about the prospect of leaving the European Union without a deal, saying it would have a “very adverse effect” on the UK’s economy, security and union with Northern Ireland.

David Gauke said the government was planning for the contingency of no deal, but suggested he would support extending article 50 if a deal between the UK and EU was not reached, since a no-deal Brexit was not in the national interest. He added that he expected the government to act responsibly if the current deadlock prevailed.

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UK’s Saudi weapons sales unlawful, Lords committee finds

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Report finds UK arms ‘highly likely to be cause of significant civilian casualties in Yemen’

The UK is on “the wrong side of the law” by sanctioning arms exports to Saudi Arabia for the war in Yemen and should suspend some of the export licences, an all-party Lords committee has said.

The report by the international relations select committee says ministers are not making independent checks to see if arms supplied by the UK are being used in breach of the law, but is instead relying on inadequate investigations by the Saudis, its allies in the war.

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‘Free the nipple’ female campaigners lose challenge to US topless conviction

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New Hampshire court upholds conviction of three women arrested in 2016 after removing their tops at a beach

New Hampshire’s highest court has upheld the conviction of three women who were arrested for going topless on a beach, finding their constitutional rights were not violated.

In a 3-2 ruling, the court decided that an indecent exposure law in the New Hampshire city of Laconia does not discriminate on the basis of gender or violate the women’s right to free speech.

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MPs and peers call for end to indefinite detention

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Joint committee on human rights says people should be held for no longer than 28 days

Indefinite detention in immigration centres is traumatic and the practice should be stopped, with people ideally held for no longer than 28 days, a parliamentary committee has recommended.

In a highly critical report, the joint committee on human rights (JCHR), made up of MPs and peers, described the UK’s immigration system as “slow, unfair and expensive to run”, and said detention should be authorised only by decision-makers independent of the Home Office.

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Yang Hengjun: lawyers denied access to Australian held in China

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Authorities say Chinese-born writer refused to see legal team but secretive process means claim can not be verified

Two lawyers hired by the wife of an Australian detained in Beijing for suspected espionage have said they were denied access to him by Chinese authorities, who said the detainee had not agreed to their appointment.

Yang Hengjun, a 53-year-old Chinese-born writer, was detained in the southern city of Guangzhou while waiting for a transfer to Shanghai in January. He had flown in from New York.

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Belgium agrees to take in former Ivory Coast president

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International criminal court freed Laurent Gbagbo on Friday after his shock acquittal

Belgium has agreed to take in the former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo following his acquittal at the international criminal court in The Hague, a foreign ministry spokesman has said.

Karl Lagatie confirmed the agreement on Saturday, and added that he did not know if the ex-president was already in Belgium.

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