The following are excerpts of the Supreme Court's ruling on Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, January 21, 2010 The editor's explanations appear in brackets.[...] Full story
When the Supreme Court's decision Buckley v. Valeo invalidated in 1976 the first serious post-Watergate attempt to regulate campaign finance, the New York Times did not even mention the case. This week's decision, Citizens United v. FEC, which invalidates a three-decade effort to limit the impact of money on politics, took two-thirds of the paper's front page.[...] Full story
President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo is of historic importance. If followed by actions consistent with its tenets, it may be cited by future historians as a major turning point in United States foreign policy, the moment when the ship of state began to steer away from the unilateralism so evident in recent years back toward renewed American support.[...] Full story
One grows naturally cynical about peace in the Middle East, so it is with guarded trepidation that I read the article of Noam Sheizaf in thebrowser.com, which has grown to be my favorite web readers's digest for Robert Cottrell and his colleagues' choice of English texts across the globe. Not surprisingly, Shazaf's article appeared next to a heart-wrenching article by Tony Judt about his debilitating terminal illness.[...] Full story
Several thousand Israelis took part in what was billed as Israel's "first-ever Human Rights March" in Tel Aviv on December 11. Many of those who attended the gathering were affiliated with the several dozen Israeli NGOs that took part in organizing the event. There were gay rights supporters, protesters against the deportation of immigrants and refugees.[...] Full story
After recounting the dubious, critical conclusions of an Israeli human rights organization, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) Professor Mallat asks, "- can Israel be considered a democracy, in the same way we consider the US, France or India democracies?" His answer is seriously flawed.[...] Full story
Philosophy of law does not seem to offer bread and butter to the lawyer, let alone to the law student. Still, the Lebanese Association for the Philosophy of Law (LAPL) was founded four years ago to draw the Lebanese jurists' attention to a neglected discipline. It has been campaigning for the last year, with the support of the United States Agency for International Development.[...] Full story
