Soudní novinky 16/4 (Nacističtí důchodci před soudem)

A nyní zase pro změnu něco ze starého kontinentu:

• Tribunál pro Kosovo ("The Netherlands has formally agreed to host an EU-funded tribunal on Kosovo war crimes, with “sensitive” trials of former Kosovo guerrilla chiefs to start “this year.”" (..) "But the Dutch foreign ministry said it expects trials, on “serious crimes allegedly committed in 1999-2000 by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) against ethnic minorities and political opponents” to start “some time this year.”" (..) "But it will operate under Kosovan law and convicted criminals won’t serve sentences in the Netherlands, making it, the Dutch ministry said, “a Kosovan national court which administers justice outside Kosovo.”").
• MEP takes EU to court on tax transparency ("The European Commission is being taken to court for not handing over documents in a case that aims to shed light on wide-spread corporate tax evasion schemes by EU states." (..) "He further noted full disclosure was needed to reveal the "systematic political backup for a tax avoidance cartel that costs taxpayers in the EU hundreds of billions of euros annually".").
• "A 95-year-old former paramedic at the Auschwitz concentration camp is set to face trial in Germany in February on charges of being an accessory to murder in the deaths of more than 3,681 people."
• Owen Bowcott: Whistleblower judge: austerity policies have made courts dangerous - opravdu zajímavý příběh škrtů v soudnictví, ekonomické krize, zvýšeného počtu nezastoupených osob před soudy a rizik z toho plynoucích. ("A district judge who is suing the Ministry of Justice after whistleblowing her complaints about courtroom dangers – death threats, violent claimants and hostage-taking – has spoken out for the first time about her experience of an under-resourced justice system. (..) Gilham requested better courtroom accommodation but was turned down. “I asked for my own room to be reconfigured because the door was behind the [claimants so she could not get out]. I was under a great deal of stress and feeling at risk. (..) Gilham said there was occasionally hostage-taking inside the courts when family cases erupted into angry disputes. Once she had to hide in a locked court room because someone accused of domestic violence was loose in the building. (..) The majority of family cases are dealt with by county court judges. “Workloads are uneven,” Gilham observed. “The higher courts are heavily resourced and people who do that work are protected.")
• Four Syrian refugees must be brought from Calais camp to Britain, judges rule ("British judges have ordered that three Syrian youths and an accompanying adult should immediately be brought to Britain to join their relatives and to escape the “living hell” of a Calais refugee camp. Refugee welfare groups described as groundbreaking the order by two immigration judges that three unaccompanied boys and a dependent adult should, under European rules, be allowed to live with their family in Britain while their asylum claims are studied.")
• NYT: The Death Penalty Endgame ("On Friday, the Supreme Court met to discuss whether to hear a petition from Ms. Walter, who is asking the justices to rule that in all cases, including hers, the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments. Ever since 1976, when the court allowed executions to resume after a four-year moratorium, the abolition movement has avoided bringing a broad constitutional challenge against the practice, believing that it would not succeed. In that time, 1,423 people have been put to death. Yet there is no question that the national trend is moving away from capital punishment. Since the late 1990s, almost every year has seen fewer executions, fewer new death sentences and fewer states involved in the repugnant business of killing their citizens.")
• Liptak - Shear (NYT): Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Obama Immigration Actions ("The court, which has twice rejected challenges to Mr. Obama’s signature legislative victory by upholding his health care law, will now rule on the president’s plan to protect millions of illegal immigrants from deportation and allow them to work indefinitely in the country legally. The justices raised the possibility of a broad decision by taking the unusual step of adding their own question to the case, asking the parties to address whether Mr. Obama had violated his constitutional obligations to enforce the nation’s laws. The answer to that question could significantly alter the scope of presidential power in realms far beyond immigration. (..) Mr. Obama has repeatedly taken unilateral action during his seven years in office, asserting the power of his office to sidestep a recalcitrant Congress on gun control, gay rights, the minimum wage, contraception and climate change. White House officials said Tuesday that the steps taken by Mr. Obama on immigration were “consistent with the actions taken by presidents of both parties” and expressed optimism that the court would agree. But Mr. Obama’s aggressive use of executive power has intensified the criticism by his adversaries that the president is abusing his authority. Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas, who is leading the challenge to his immigration actions, urged the court to make it clear that no president can “unilaterally rewrite congressional laws and circumvent the people’s representatives."") 

Příští soudní novinky bohužel až koncem února, do té doby se na internet moc nedostanu. 

Against Trump

Konzervativci ostře proti Trumpovi.

Syrské zápisky

Jonathan Littell: Syrian Notebooks: Inside the Homs Uprising. Verso, 2015.
Jonathan Littell patří mezi současné světové autory, s jejichž díly se mohla seznámit i tuzemská veřejnost. Jeho rozsáhlá sonda do duše přesvědčeného nacisty a důstojníka SS Maximiliena Aueho s názvem Laskavé bohyně mu vynesla Velkou cenu Francouzské akademie a také prestižní Goncourtovu cenu. V nedávno vydaném souboru reportáží z občanskou válkou sužované Sýrie se Littell převtěluje do role novináře a přináší čtenáři syrové příběhy z rozstříleného Homsu.
Littell již dříve pracoval pro humanitární organizace a navštívil Bosnu, Čečensko, Afghánistán či Demokratickou republiku Kongo, tudíž hrůzné výjevy pro něj nejsou ničím novým. Zocelený pozorovatel nepřipraveného čtenáře nijak nešetří a podává informace zcela nezaobaleně. Bohužel, k občanským válkám někdy patří výjevy jako uřezané hlavy či umučená těla, a to bez ohledu na pohlaví či věk, o nichž Littell rovněž přináší svědectví. Známý kolorit umocňují příběhy do té doby přátelských dlouhodobých sousedů, kteří se zničehonic navzájem stávají přímým či nepřímým ohrožením na životě.
Nová Littellova kniha je psána (ostatně jak název Syrian Notebooks: Inside the Homs Uprising napovídá) jako deník, a to deník bez přílišného „postmixu“, zřejmě aby se zachovala autentičnost bezprostředních poznámek. Literárně to tudíž není úplné pokochání, jazykové a stylistické exhibice nečekejte, na druhé straně budete vtaženi do děje a budete mít pocit, jako by kulky režimních odstřelovačů létaly nad hlavou vám, a nikoliv autorovi.
V současnosti je bohužel již reportáž trochu neaktuální, neboť Littell pobýval v Sýrii v lednu a únoru 2012, nicméně o podstatě režimu a boji opozice proti němu se stále dozvíte hodně, k čemuž dopomáhá i aktuálnější předmluva z října 2014. Zájemci si mohou knihu půjčit v knihovně FSS MU.

“We fight for our religion, for our women, for our land, and lastly to save our skin. As for them, they’re only fighting to save their skin.”

AirMule - autonomní zásobovací dron

Dle článku v iDNES.

Soudní novinky 16/1-3 (V Libanonu tají ledy)

Premiéra v novém roce! A pěkně ostrá:

• Time: Supreme Court Hears Case That Could Deal Blow to Unions ("A Supreme Court case argued Monday could significantly weaken government unions across the country. If the justices rule in favor of the plaintiffs in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, every state in the country will essentially become a “right-to-work” state, where employees who choose not to belong to a public union won’t have to give it fees of any kind." Scalia tradičně: “Why do you think the union would not survive without these fees charged?” Scalia asked a lawyer for the defendants, (..). The so-called “free rider problem,” which holds that individual workers have little incentive to join a union and pay dues if they know they’ll be covered by the contract the union negotiates regardless, was only briefly discussed during arguments. (..) In 2014, for instance, the court ruled in a 5-4 decision, in which Scalia joined the majority, that private sector home health care workers in Illinois could not be forced to pay any dues for collective bargaining if they were not union members. (..) But the plaintiffs say concerns about free riders shouldn’t trump their right to free speech. They take issue with some of the things that the California Teachers Association charged them for as part of their collective bargaining, including most of the cost of a LGBT conference.")
• Adam Liptak: Supreme Court Strikes Down Part of Florida Death Penalty ("The Supreme Court struck down an aspect of Florida’s capital punishment system on Tuesday, saying it did not give jurors a sufficient role in deciding whether defendants should be put to death. (..) A 2004 Supreme Court decision indicated that, at least in federal court, rulings like the one issued Tuesday would not apply retroactively to inmates whose convictions are final. (..) After the Florida Supreme Court ordered Mr. Hurst resentenced, a second jury recommended a death sentence by a 7-to-5 vote in 2012. The judge then independently considered the evidence concerning punishment and concluded that Mr. Hurst should be executed. That procedure was unconstitutional, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for seven justices in the new decision. “The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death,” she wrote. “A jury’s mere recommendation is not enough.”")
• Vandenberg - Grono: Modern-day slaves are suing the traffickers ("The dirty secret of today's human trafficking is that almost no one is held accountable. Modern-day slavery, particularly in the transnational supply chains of major international corporations, is too often a risk-free proposition.(..) The reporting highlighted the widespread violence, forced labor, and human trafficking that taint the supply chain delivering seafood to European and American supermarket shelves. Burmese fisherman enslaved on Thai fishing boats reported long hours with no pay, brutal whippings with toxic sting ray tails, and shackling to boats for those men thought to be flight risks. These powerful reports provoked outrage -- but they did not spark criminal prosecutions. Governments have spectacularly failed to prosecute those engaged in modern-day slavery, despite their rhetorical commitment to fight these abuses, particularly in the supply chains of corporations. But rhetoric is not accountability. Words will not end -- or even deter -- these abuses. Litigation will. Changing the cost-benefit calculations of corporations will drive action. (..) In the United States, federal law permits trafficking victims to recover damages from traffickers and those who "knowingly benefit" financially from the crimes. Victims have filed more than 150 cases since 2003, recovering millions of dollars in damages.")
• Překvapení z Blízkého východu: "A court in Lebanon has ruled that a transgender man can legally change his gender to male in the nation's civil registry, marking a landmark step in transgender rights in the Middle Eastern nation, (..) He suffered from a gender identity disorder and the "operation was a medical necessity to relieve him from his suffering that had been present throughout his life," the court said (..). A person's right "to receive the necessary treatment for any physical and psychological illness is a fundamental and natural one," the ruling said."Here what is important in the decision is that it was stated as a matter of fundamental rights. It was not stated as a matter of humanitarian policy or for clemency purposes," (..) The appeals court issued the ruling in September but its decision was only recently publicized, local media and activists said."
• Pěkné povídání o soudních trablech jedné z nejmocnějších žen světa (Christine Lagarde, hlava IMF). 

Robot vs. robot

Blíží se doba, kdy mezi sebou budou bojovat autonomní roboti. V současnosti je ale spíš aktuální otázka, jak si letadla nebo zranitelná infrastruktura poradí s malými drony, kterých se už prodávají statisíce. Zatím teda několik možností:

• ruční radiová zbraň, která ruší navigaci dronu
• větší radiové zbraně (zde a zde)
• těžká kinetická zbraň
• dron vs. dron s lapací sítí

Předpokládám, že za pár let budou např. tímto systémem vybaveny elektrárny atd., a to s tím, že systém bude už sám za jistých podmínek rozhodovat o tom, jestli v kritické chvíli letící dron sestřelí nebo ne. Krok poněkud nebezpečným směrem.

Soudní novinky 15-50-53 (Afirmativní akce opět a zase)

Asi nešlo očekávat, že se mi podaří něco rozumného publikovat koncem semestru a roku...

• Justices Favor Lesbian Adoptive Mother in Visitation Case ("The Supreme Court has acted in a lesbian couple’s adoption dispute, siding with an adoptive mother after the Alabama Supreme Court refused to recognize her adoptions of three children.")
• The Economist: Affirmative action in court. The justices appear split on racial preferences in university admissions.
• Judge Leaves Northern Ireland’s Abortion Laws to Lawmakers ("Judge Mark Horner said that ordering changes to allow terminations in the case of a fatal fetal abnormality, rape or incest would be “a step too far.”) Odkaz na rozsudek skrze: Northern Ireland: abortion law ruled incompatible with human rights.
• A court in Bangladesh's capital accepted murder charges Monday against 41 people including the owner of the Rana Plaza building that collapsed in 2013, highlighting grim conditions in the country's garment industry.
• Dutch appeals court says Shell may be held liable for oil spills in Nigeria ("Nigerian farmers affected by oil pollution get green light to pursue case against Anglo–Dutch multinational as judges order release of key documents").
• Poland: Law Altering Top Court Goes Into Effect Despite Criticism ("The new law which affects how Poland’s highest court makes rulings, is a move that critics say will paralyze the court and erode checks and balances on government powers.")