Blog

  Even as the FBI warns US citizens that their personal data is increasingly likely to be hacked by criminals, the agency – without any public debate – is quietly ramping up its own abilities to hack anyone in the world. And, as we found out this week, their underhanded tactics are even ensnaring news organizations.   The Seattle Times and Associated Press issued angry statements to the FBI on Tuesday after the American Civil Liberties Union’s Chris Soghoian discovered that the FBI had falsified an AP story and byline, and then possibly attempted to make it look like the fake story was published on the Seattle Times website – all to deliver malware to a suspect in a criminal case. The evidence was buried in documents obtained by EFF (pages 61-62) under the Freedom of Information Act three years…

  [JURIST] A court in Saudi Arabia on Monday sentenced three lawyers to between five and eight years in prison for criticizing the justice system on the social networking website Twitter [website] by accusing authorities of carrying out arbitrary detentions. The Saudi Press Agency [official website] reported [SPA report] that the lawyers were each convicted of different crimes, including using the social media outlet to propagate against the Saudi judiciary, criticize Islamic Sharia law and interfere in the independence of the judiciary. The lawyers are also banned [AFP report] from using social media and traveling. The court also warned other social media users that they could face similar punishment for similar offenses and that they were being monitored.   Saudi Arabia's justice system has drawn international criticism in recent years, especially with regard to its high number of…

  El Legal Management Forum celebrado en Madrid el pasado martes, contó en su cierre con la intervención de un acreditado estudioso de la industria legal: Richard Susskind. Profesor de la Universidad de Oxford, conferenciante internacional y autor de libros esenciales sobre la evolución y el futuro de la profesión jurídica como The future of law (1998); Transforming the law (2003); The end of lawyers (2010) oTomorrow’s lawyers (2013).   El objeto de su presentación fue el futuro de la abogacía, describir como la reciente e intensa crísis económica ha afectado a la profesión, qué alternativas se ofrecen para su viabilidad en un nuevo entorno, las mejores estrategias para afrontarlas y la gran relevancia de las tecnologías en el desarrollo y evolución de la abogacía y todos los ámbitos relacionados con ella.   Según Susskind, la crísis económica iniciada…

  Twenty-five lenders in the European Central Bank’s euro-area bank health check are set to fail the regulator’s Comprehensive Assessment, according to a draft communique of the final results, seen by Bloomberg News.   One-hundred-and-five banks are shown passing the review, according to the draft statement. Of the lenders that failed, about 10 will still face capital shortfalls they need to plug, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. That figure is likely to change as talks continue before the final results are published Oct. 26, said the person.   The two-part review forms one pillar of the ECB’s effort to rekindle confidence in the euro zone after half a decade of financial turmoil. ECB…

  El ministro de Justicia, Rafael Catalá, se ha marcado como uno de los principales objetivos de su mandato hacer un Administración de la Justicia más eficiente, moderna, ágil y eficaz. Asegura que con los recursos actuales “hay capacidad para mejorar el funcionamiento” de la Justicia en España. Así, lo ha anunciado hoy martes, en la clausura de ‘Legal Management Forum 2014′, el primer foro internacional del sector de la abogacía, donde se ha analizado el futuro de sector.   Catalá ha señalado que se siente identificado con la estrategia que se marcan las firmas legales españolas de mejora de la gestión. “Las organizaciones tienen la capacidad de mejorar su funcionamiento con los recursos disponibles”y ha incluido en esta facultad de ser mejor a la Administración de Justicia. En este sentido,…

  As China’s Communist leaders meet to consider how to bring greater flexibility to the country’s tightly-managed legal system, scholars are pressing them to include the words “judicial independence” in formal party documents for the first time.   It’s a hot-button issue in a country that enshrines the ultimate authority of the party and has told judges to prioritize it along with the law. Leaders have avoided the phrase -- which evokes Western ideology -- even as they say they want a fair and independent exercise of judicial power.   President Xi Jinping has put legal reform at the top of his agenda, pledging governance “according to the law on every front,” and the Central Committee meeting starting today in Beijing will focus on the rule of law. Judicial independence should…

  Activision Blizzard Inc. told a judge that former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega can’t rely on a case brought by the rock band No Doubt in his lawsuit over the depiction of him as a man on the run in a video game.   Activision, represented by former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, argued yesterday in court that Noriega’s lawsuit, seeking damages for his portrayal in “Call of Duty: Black Ops II,” is fundamentally different from the complaint filed against the video-game publisher in 2009 by No Doubt, which convinced two courts that its portrayal in “Band Hero” wasn’t protected as free speech.   “Noriega was a major part of or history in the 1980s,” Giuliani said at a hearing in California state court in Los Angeles. “He made himself part of…

  Mass surveillance of the internet by intelligence agencies is “corrosive of online privacy” and threatens to undermine international law, according to a report to the United Nations general assembly.   The critical study by Ben Emmerson QC, the UN’s special rapporteur on counter-terrorism, released on Wednesday is a response to revelations by the whistleblower Edward Snowden about the extent of monitoring carried out by GCHQ in the UK and the National Security Agency (NSA) in the US.   Emmerson’s study poses a direct challenge to the claims of both governments that their bulk surveillance programs, which the barrister finds endanger the privacy of “literally every internet user,” are proportionate to the terrorist threat and robustly constrained by law. To combat the danger, Emmerson endorses the ability of Internet users…

  International bankers meeting in Washington over the weekend shared their fears that central banks won't be able to jumpstart a slowing European economy that could threaten global growth.   A European recession is the top concern or risk for the next 18 months, according to attendees surveyed by the Institute of International Finance at its annual gathering. The International Monetary Fund said last week the euro area will grow at a 1.3 percent rate in 2015, less than half that of the U.S. The IMF cut its outlook for global growth to 3.8 percent.   “No question that the theme over the past couple of weeks in the global markets has been the prospect of slow growth in Europe,”Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) Co-Chief Executive Officer Anshu Jain, 51, said at the IIF event. “We have overused…

El Pleno del Tribunal Constitucional ha rechazado por unanimidad las recusaciones presentadas por el Parlament contra el presidente del tribunal, Francisco Pérez de los Cobos, y el magistrado Pedro José González-Trevijano, sobre el recurso de inconstitucionalidad que afecta a la Ley de Consultas, han informado fuentes del TC.   La presentación de estas recusaciones por el Parlament, que consideraba que ambos "acreditan una falta de imparcialidad y de independencia", fue aprobada el jueves por la cámara y ha sido estudiada este jueves por el Pleno del TC.   Los grupos parlamentarios que impulsaban la iniciativa de recusar a los dos magistrados consideran que ambos no disponen de la parcialidad necesaria para emitir una resolución justa respecto de la Ley de Consultas.   González-Trevijano, designado a propuesta del PP, es el…