JURIST - Paper Chase: PM legal news brief - Bush reverses Iraq contracts rule for Canada

Leading the legal news this afternoon, the New York Times reports that "President Bush reversed his administration's policy today and said Canada would be allowed to bid on billions of dollars in American-financed Iraqi reconstruction projects, bringing to an end a bitter dispute with a major ally." The Times had more. The dispute between the two countries began in December when a Pentagon determination [PDF] limited eligibility for Iraq reconstruction contracts to countries that had supported the US-led invasion. European ministers quickly suggested that the determination might be against WTO trade rules, although analysts, including Duke law professor Joost Pauwelyn writing in JURIST's Forum series, noted that it might plausibly fall within the security exception to those rules.

In other legal news...

Supreme Court Upholds Police Roadblocks
AP reports: "The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that police may set up roadblocks to collect tips about crimes, rejecting concerns that authorities might use the checkpoints to fish for unrelated suspicious activity."
High court hears disabled rights case
AP reports: "Disabled people should not have to ask police to carry them up the stairs of a public courthouse when there is no other way to get there, a lawyer for a disabled man argued at the Supreme Court on Tuesday."
SEC finds mutual fund brokerage abuses
The Financial Times reports: "The US Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday it had found mutual fund share sale abuses at 13 of 15 Wall Street brokerages targeted in an investigation that began in April last year."
O'Neill Defends Document Disclosure
The Washington Post reports: "Former Treasury secretary Paul H. O'Neill said today that the documents he turned over to an author, which are now the subject of a Treasury Department inquiry, were sent to him on a compact disc by the department's own general counsel after O'Neill left the administration last year."
Prominent Ohio Islamic Leader Indicted
AP reports: "A prominent Islamic clergyman was arrested Tuesday on an indictment alleging he concealed links to groups that committed terrorist attacks against Jews when he applied for U.S. citizenship a decade ago, officials said."

In international legal news...

Group Accuses U.S. of War Crimes in Iraq
AP reports: "A top human rights group Tuesday accused the U.S. military of committing war crimes by demolishing homes of suspected insurgents and arresting the relatives of Iraqi fugitives."
Brussels launches legal action in EU budget row
AFP reports: "The European Commission agreed to take legal action over an EU decision to suspend budget rules underpinning the euro, calling for a fast-track court procedure to rule on the fiercely-divisive case."

That's all for now. Check back after 10 PM ET for the evening legal news brief on JURIST's Paper Chase.