Stories about Law from March, 2007
Russia: Higher Education Crisis
Lyndon of Scraps of Moscow writes in-depth on the troubles facing Russia's universities.
Belarus: A Roundup
TOL's Belarus Blog covers these subjects: silly pretexts used to arrest opposition activists; the Constitution Day; Belarusian “market socialism“; some of the effects of the recent “gas war” with Russia.
The Balkans: War Criminals Abroad
Neretva River writes about five war criminals living abroad; Bosnia Vault writes about the one who had just been spared extradition by a British judge: “How much time needs to pass before a crime is no longer worthy of being dealt with in a court of law? In other words,...
India: On TATA
International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal provides a rap sheet for a corporate giant TATA. ” Until the onset of liberalisation, Tatas remained the undisputed king of the license-raj, covering its trail of human rights, labour and environmental violations with liberal philanthropic give-aways.”
Egypt: Free Kareem Rallies and What Kareem Wrote
A call has gone out for a second round of worldwide rallies to pressure the Egyptian government to free detained blogger Abdulkareem Nabeel Sulaiman, a 22-year-old former Al Azhar University student, who has been sentenced to four years in prison for articles he wrote on the Internet. On February 22,...
Oman: Copyright Law
“Today, the local newspapers carried an advertisement from the Ministry of Telecommunications prohibiting the use of counterfeit or pirated material including computer programs that are either sold, lent, given, shared, or otherwise,” writes Omani blogger Sleepless in Oman. “Given the seriousness of this issue in the current time and stage...
The Oldest Blogger in the Balkans
In the evening, Radmilo Ristic, a 74-year-old retired high school professor, likes to attend theater plays, gallery openings, literary nights, round-table discussions and other similar events that take place around Kragujevac, the city in Central Serbia. When Ristic comes back home, instead of the traditional paper and pen, his computer...
Pakistan: Lawlessness and the President
chapati mystery on the situation in Pakistan, and how it threatens Musharraf's seat of power. “Two weeks ago, General Musharraf suspended the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, on vague corruption charges. Since then, daily riots and protests have broken out in major cities; the...
The Balkans, U.S.: General Veljko Kadijevic
Neretva River writes – here, here, here, and here – about a Serbian war criminal who has allegedly been advising the United States on Saddam's bunkers and other strategic facilities in Iraq.
Croatia, U.K.: The Spanovic Decision
A UK court's decision “undermines the effort to bring to trial all defendants currently suspected of war crimes committed during the 1991-1995 conflict,” Neretva River reports.
China: criminalizing seditious speech
Joel Martinsen from DANWEI translated the story / interview with Yu Quanyu, the CPPCC member who proposed a law criminalizing seditious speech at this year's congressional sessions, from the most recent issue of Southern People Weekly.
China: Homeowners hold their ground
How does China's landmark, much-blogged about new property law relate to the average citizen? An illustration comes with the decision by two residents of central China's Chongqing Municipality to hold their ground when the land upon which the house they purchased had been sold, then dug up, by a developer...
Poland: Anti-Abortion; Iraq War
The beatroot writes about Poland's anti-abortion politicians (21 comments so far) and the country's involvement in Iraq (70 comments!).
Slovenia: A Roundup
The Glory of Carniola writes about the “diabolical” parking meters recently installed in Maribor; a “memorable” birthday gift (memorable in a diabolical kind of way, I'd say); and yet another Slovenia/Slovakia mix-up.
Bulgaria, Libya: Tripoli Six in the Economist
The Economist's Edward Lucas reposts his piece on the “Tripoli Six”: “Bulgaria has tried hard to make the scandal an international issue, and has also raised money to help the AIDS-infected children. But Libya appears to want to do a deal, involving freedom for the Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi,...
Uganda: Why didn't Ugandan bloggers write about the nation's biggest story?
The Ugandan blogosphere was silent on the country's biggest story over the last few weeks. On March 5th, the Ugandan judges and lawyers went on strike after presidential security agents raided the High Court to re-arrest six treason suspects who had been granted bail. The suspects were accused of representing...
Japan: Tokyo election and nationalism
James from Japan Probe blogs about the Tokyo governor candidates’ stand and debate on nationalism, in particular to the policy of coercing teachers to stand and sing the national anthem ‘Kimigayo’.
South Korea: what not to post in blog
A blogger posted about his pot-smoking experience in the Netherlands on his blog and got busted for doing drugs overseas – Robert Koehler from Marmot's Hole.
China: Book banned prior to printing
Prior to a recent reprinting, ‘A Narrow Escape From Death: My ‘Right-wing’ Life’, a book from retired Xinhua journalist Dai Huang was banned from being published by order of China's General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), in which Dai recounts the years during which he was cast as a...
Bangladesh: Human Rights Commission
Unheard Voices on the Human Rights Commission. “It is never too late to initiate something as essential as a national governing body to protect human rights in a country where we see violations of it far too often. Thought on this proposal?”
Ethiopia: stalker spills acid on a woman
Ewenet Means Truth in Ethiopia writes about the sad story of Kamilat Muhisin, “Everyone who is following Kamilat Muhisin's story is absolutely horrified at what has happened to her. She lies in a hospital in excruciating pain, disabled and horribly disfigured when a man called Demesew spilled sulfuric acid on...