December 2011

In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Dec. 21, Theophilus Maranga says he "risked his life" by jumping on the would-be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian man who attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound flight from Amsterdam with a bomb stashed in his underwear. The lawsuit says Maranga lost a tooth and suffered injuries to his ribs, permanent numbness in his hands and a pain in his neck that hampers his movements.

In today's judgement in Case C-366/10, the Court of the European Union held that the directive including aviation activities in the EU’s emissions trading scheme is valid and application of the emissions trading scheme to aviation infringes neither the principles of customary international law at issue nor the Open Skies Agreement.

Plaintiff Zachary Sanders filed a suit to review final agency action by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). He claimed violations of his constitutional rights under the Fifth and Eighth Amendments (in particular: the right not to incriminate himself and the right not to fined in an excessive way) arising from a USD 9.000 fine OFAC imposed on him for failure to comply with Cuban trade embargo regulations.

On Sep. 8, 2011 the Austrian Adminstrative Court (VwGH) has filed a reference for preliminary ruling of the Court of the European Union with regard to Reg. (EC) 1371/2007 on Rail Passengers' Rights and Obligations. The referring court wants to know whether