· July, 2008

Stories about Law from July, 2008

Serbia: Demonstrators Attack Journalists in Belgrade

Starting with the night when Radovan Karadzic was arrested, nationalist group members and high-ranking officials of the Serbian Radical Party have been gathering in the streets of central Belgrade. Although there were police units nearby, on July 24 the protesters broke several store windows and brutally attacked journalists and cameramen of the "treacherous media." Below are some of the bloggers' responses and other public reactions, compiled and translated by Sinisa Boljanovic.

Latvia: European Court Goes Against Riga

Who has the right to pass judgment on what a man does in the service of his country during wartime and what should the legal grounds for such a verdict be? These are some of the key issues surrounding a legal process on WWII war crimes against a soviet veteran, Vasily Kononov, that has been dragged through the Latvian legal system since 1998. However, earlier this week, the European Court of Human Rights found that Latvia lacked legal grounds for prosecuting Kononov. Following the verdict, the Russian blogosphere has generally reacted with joy and relief, although there have also been some opposing voices.

Macedonia: More on Discrimination Against Gamers

Filip Stojanovski of Razvigor :-) thinks discrimination against Macedonian gamers is part of a bigger problem: “[…] Regardless if a person considers oneself a gamer or not, I think they should become concerned by the pattern of discrimination labeling group by group as abnormal, wasteful, and dangerous even. And this...

Serbia: New Instructions and Law Regulations on Online Privacy

On July 21, Serbia’s Republican Agency for Telecommunications posted a Document of Instructions for Technical Requirements for Subsystems, Devices, Hardware and Installation of Internet Networks on their official web site. This news didn’t go unnoticed yesterday in Serbian blogosphere and internet community, as many bloggers expressed various opinions as well as disapproval because of the potential abuse of users’ privacy.

Lebanon: Women's Rights

“I remember a friend of mine… who was quite worried during the latest armed confrontations… because her estranged husband won’t give her permission to take the children out of the country, and she cannot take her children out of Lebanon without his written and explicit permission. one story among many,”...

Morocco: Another perspective on Faiza Silmi

Last week, Global Voices covered the story of Faiza Silmi, the Moroccan woman denied French citizenship for her beliefs and actions (which included, among other things, wearing the niqaab or full facial veil). Today, Moroccan blogger ...xoussef [FR] chimes in with another perspective on the issue.

China: Can a cop-killer be a hero?

  25 July 2008

Actually, the majority opinion in the story of Beijing resident Yang Jia who recently rushed into a police building in Shanghai and stabbed and killed six police officers, wounding several others, seems to be on Yang's side. Since then, Yang's mother has mysteriously disappeared, Beijing police have been sent to...

Barbados, Anguilla: Integrity Legislation

  25 July 2008

“One of the major complaints against the new David Thompson administration in Barbados has been that, although it won power mainly by promising to do something about the entrenched corruption in the previous Owen Arthur administration, it had appeared to have forgotten the issue”: Corruption-free Anguilla reports that new integrity...

St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Lawyer Executed

  25 July 2008

As a young lawyer is shot and killed on the way to his office in St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Abeni says: “I am…worried that freedom as we know it is coming to an end. I fear that increasingly we will live behind bars in our homes and be forced...

China: Police Olympics guide to stopping “illegal news coverage”

  24 July 2008

How many times has the BOCOG promised that foreign reporters will be given full reign to interview and report during the Olympics Games? Davesgonechina at Mutant Palm looks at the somewhat different story that Chinese police are—and have been, for at least two years—prepared to tell. This story was linked...

Haiti: Political Persecution

  24 July 2008

HaitiAnalysis.com reports that The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has denounced “the political persecution that Yvon Neptune, a former Prime Minister of Haiti, has endured at the hands of the Haitian government for the past four years.”

Jamaica: Crime Plan

  24 July 2008

As the Prime Minister announces new measures to deal with crime, Jamaica and the World wonders “if they will make any difference at all…”

Indonesia: Divorce cases increasing

  24 July 2008

Indonesia Matters reports that divorce cases are up in Indonesia with more women initiating the divorce. Adultery is still the top reason for divorce but it is interesting to note that “political differences” are also causing family break-ups.