The Court of Appeal of the UK held that, although a man cannot be found guilty of raping his wife because of the implied consent to sexual intercourse arising from marriage, he can be found guilty of indecent assault for forcing his wife to perform an act of fellatio. It ...

In May 1988, the High Court of Justice of Israel ordered the city of Tel Aviv to appoint four women to the election council electing rabbis. On 19 May 1988, Israel's highest court ordered the appointment of the first woman to a religious council that administers synagogues and baths. See ...

The plaintiffs were family planning (FP) organizations that challenged the lawfulness of the defendant's insertion into FP grants awarded by the US government of a standard clause precluding any assistance to foreign nongovernmental organizations that perform or promote abortions, even with separate funds. The Court held that the Foreign Assistance ...

The Constitutional Court of Slovenia held that Article 65 of the Law on Marriage and Family Relations of Slovenia is not unconstitutional. Law 65 provides that a spouse may request a divorce on the grounds that "the marriage is not possible to continue due to whatever reason." The Court rejected ...

The plaintiff challenged Article 168 of the Peruvian Civil Code, which provides that, when a woman is married, only the husband is entitled to represent matrimonial property before a court. On the basis of this Article, the plaintiff had lost a suit over back rent due from tenants of buildings ...

The plaintiff sought reimbursement from the US Government for the cost of Medicaid abortions, which the plaintiff was forced to pay under a court order. It argued that Medicaid regulations made federal financial participation available in cases of court ordered payments. The Court rejected this argument. It ruled that the ...

In United States v. Lyons (1984), the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court altered its definition of legal insanity to conform with recent recommendations of the American Bar Association and the American Psychiatric Association. This paper briefly reviews the social and legal context of the Court's ruling. The author then discusses the ...

The Federal Court of Switzerland ruled that women excluded from voting by cantonal law have the right to challenge the law as a violation of the Constitutional right to equal treatment. It also held, however, that before they can challenge the constitutionality of the law in Federal Court, they must ...

The Supreme Court of Ireland upheld the decision of a lower court allowing the plaintiff to eject the defendant from her house. The parties had been married in South Africa under Moslem law and subsequently moved to Ireland where they lived in the plaintiff's house. The lower court ruled that, ...

On 20 January 1988, the President of the Philippines prohibited Filipino maids from going abroad to work. Later in 1988, the ban was lifted for some countries after the institution of safeguards in agreements with those countries. Among these countries is Saudi Arabia. See Philippine Labor, Vol. 14, No. 10, ...

The Italian Constitutional Court held that a law prohibiting employers from discriminating on the basis of sex could be invoked against an employer when a third party causes the employer to dismiss a female employee because of her sex, even though this discriminatory motive on the part of the third ...

The Court held that Article 18 of the Preliminary Dispositions of the Italian Civil Code, which provides that if no common national law exists, personal relations between a husband and wife are governed by the national law of the husband, is unconstitutional. It ruled that this Article violated constitutional provisions ...

Overturning a lower court decision, the Supreme Court of India ruled that harassment of a wife where such harassment has as its goal coercing her or any person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any property or valuable security such as for dowry would constitute cruelty sufficient ...

The Court held that Articles 9 and 12 of Law No. 194 of 22 May 1978, which set forth provisions under which a judge is to authorize an abortion for a minor in the absence of parental or other consent, do not violate articles of the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of ...

The plaintiffs, two patients, two physicians, a clinic providing abortion services, members of its staff, and an escort service, sought to bring a class action against an anti-abortion society and its members under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which prohibits private conspiracies to deprive persons or classes of ...

The plaintiff/relator, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, applied for costs against the defendants for its part in a case in which the defendants were ordered to cease counseling women that they could go to England to obtain an abortion. In the earlier case the Court had not ...

A brief review of Tarasoff vs. Regents of University of California (1976) 17 Cal.3d 425 is presented, followed by several important issues that have emerged from that decision. Tarasoff's most recent progeny, Hedlund vs. Superior Court (1983) 34 Cal.3d 695, then is reviewed in light of Tarasoff and current tort ...

The Supreme Court may soon be asked to decide an important issue of First Amendment law arising from the government's efforts to restrict the dissemination of "militarily critical" technological knowledge. To resolve the issue, the Court will first determine whether technological knowledge qualifies for a full measure of protection under ...

The profits of illicit drug trafficking have attracted world-wide attention. In 1980, a decision of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom ruled that the English criminal courts had no power to forfeit such profits even though earned by convicted defendants. This lacuna in the law aroused considerable criticism ...

The Antiquities Act of 1906, which has provided the legal basis for protecting the U.S.'s prehistoric and historic heritage, is no longer adequate. Artifact hunters and collectors have descended on national forests and U.S. parks in ever-increasing numbers. The drafters of the 1906 act could not have anticipated the lucrative ...

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