Open Society Foundations Welcome Charles Taylor Verdict
April 26, 2012
The guilty verdict in the trial of Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, at the Special Court for Sierra Leone reinforces the rule of law, both in West Africa and around the world.

Brighton Conference on ECHR Reform Leaves Work Ahead
Press Release
April 20 2012
The Open Society Justice Initiative is urging the member states of the Council of Europe to renew their efforts to address the serious challenges facing the European Court of Human Rights, following this week’s conference in Brighton, England on the future of the court

French Police Ethnic Profiling Faces First Court Challenge
April 11, 2012
Fifteen young men have today launched a historic legal challenge to the systematic use by French police of discriminatory identity checks that disproportionately focus on people of African or Arab ethnicity.

Global Human Rights Litigation Report
February 2012
A survey of Justice Initiative litigation dealing with discrimination, freedom of information, citizenship, freedom of expression, national criminal justice, deaths in custody and torture, international criminal justice, corruption and counter-terrorist policies.

Legal Tools: Early Access to Justice in Europe
April 2012
The first in a new series of "template briefs" from the Open Society Justice Initiative provides lawyers with arguments and research to support litigation in domestic courts.

It is Time for a Global Agreement on the Rule of Law
James A. Goldston
April 19, 2012
 BLOG  
This September the "rule of law at the national and international levels" will be on the agenda at the UN General Assembly. There are sharp international differences over what that title means. But there are also important opportunities to agree common ground.

The Right to Nationality and the Secession of South Sudan
April 2012
A legal analisys of the crisis of statlessness created by the separation of the two Sudans, now unfolding against the background of open conflict between the two countries.

Improving Pretrial Justice: The Roles of Lawyers and Paralegals
April 2012
This report looks at the positive impact that early intervention by lawyers and paralegals can have on pretrial justice and provides a guide to the ways in which lawyer and paralegal schemes can be set up.

Case Watch: the ECHR deploys the “significant disadvantage” criterion in a criminal case
Katalin Dobias
April 23, 2012
 BLOG  
The European Court of Human Rights has for the first time declined to hear a criminal case on the grounds that the applicant had not suffered "a significant disadvantage", using a criterion developed to help reduce its excessive caseload.