It is that time of the month again when we provide you with updates on the new, exciting articles published in the Global Legal Monitor (GLM), the Law Library’s online publication on legal developments around the world. We usually do two things: provide a list of articles with the most views, and note a few that have not made it to the list but we feel they should be highlighted. Maybe we should call them the “editor’s picks.”
In April, forty-five articles were published in the GLM. The following is a list of the top five articles in the order of their popularity:
- India: Criminal Law Amendment Bill on Rape Adopted
- Japan/Taiwan: Landmark Fishing Agreement
- Japan: Corporal Punishment in Schools
- Poland: Draft Proposals Completed on Hydrocarbon Tax Law and Amendment to Geology and Mining Law
- Nigeria: Supreme Court Upholds Bini Customary Law System of Primogeniture
In addition, although they did not get as much attention as those listed above, I thought the following three articles covering three timely themes (freedom of speech, health and safety, and veterans) were particularly interesting:
- The first, contributed by Constance Johnson, describes a recent Thailand court ruling in which a man was handed a sentence of over three years in prison for selling videos of an Australian show considered insulting to the country’s Royal Family. The Thailand Criminal Code criminalizes defaming or insulting members of the Royal family, an offense punishable by up to fifteen years in prison.
- The second, contributed by Laney Zhang, discussed the implementation of China‘s first ever Mental Health Law, which was adopted in October 2012. This law establishes procedures and oversight for involuntary institutionalization of mental health patients.
- Finally, the third, contributed by Ruth Levush, explains a recent Israel court of civil appeals decision accepting Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a disability, overturning a Defense Ministry appeals board decision. As a result, the appellant, a former enlisted soldier who suffers from PTSD, will be eligible for medical care and benefits.
More articles on global legal developments are available at the Global Legal Monitor page on the Law Library of Congress website. For a more convenient access, you may sign-up for email alerts or RSS feeds. If you’re in the Twitterverse, you can also find out about some GLM articles through tweets via @LawLibCongress.