Category: International
  • Brendan Nyst, Criminal Law, International, Opinion

Trial of the Century

I was just a kid when OJ was publicly apprehended by the LAPD. I knew little of the man known as ‘The Juice’, and had no understanding of his place in the psyche of 20th century USA. I had no idea he was so revered by the American public, or why, and had no inkling of the bloodshed that had defined LA’s racial divide in the decades preceding the case. I merely saw another celebrity on trial.
  • Chris Nyst, International, Opinion, Politics

The Hero Of Palmyra

The armed militants of Daesh, pillaging and plundering their way across the Middle East, proclaim themselves heroes of Islam. But heroes come in all shapes and sizes.
  • Chris Nyst, Criminal Law, International, Opinion

New Fix For Serial Junkies

If you're hooked, as I am, on the phenomenally popular podcast, Serial, crank up those earphones and get ready for a new round of infuriating twists and turns.
  • Chris Nyst, International, Politics

Taking On The State

Experienced lawyers will tell you, you can’t really call yourself a litigator until you’ve won the unwinnable case, and lost the un-loseable. I’ve had more than my share of hopeless cases, with varying results, but here’s one even I wouldn’t like to take on.
  • Chris Nyst, International, Opinion, Politics

From Little Things

Last week ‘New York’s Finest’ were reaching for their Smartphones, posting happy snaps of panhandlers begging on Broadway and vagrants urinating in the streets. What the…?!
  • Chris Nyst, International, Sport

The Rumble Of Turbulent Times

Well, the final figures are in, and it's official - the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. prize-fight last month was the most lucrative bout in boxing history. It racked up a record 4.4 million pay-per-view buys, which produced more than $US400 million in TV revenue alone. Ticket sales of around $US72 million, international sales of $US35 million, closed-circuit broadcasts of $US13 million, $US12 million worth of sponsorships and another $US1 million in merchandise,  pushed up the overall take to well over $US500 million. Mayweather took home $US210 million and Pacquiao’s a relatively paltry $US142 million.
  • Chris Nyst, International, Opinion

Vive l’humanité

As distressing as last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris proved to be, they were not the first, and certainly not the worst, acts of terrorism the French people have endured in living memory. During the German occupation of France in the early 1940s, Christian soldiers scoured the streets and homes of France arresting, gaoling, and murdering thousands of Jewish citizens. In that terrible time, the French people demonstrated their capacity to endure and overcome racism, terrorism, and inhumanity.
  • Chris Nyst, Human Rights, International, Opinion, Privacy

Carly Nyst Addresses UN Human Rights Council

On Friday last week my dear daughter Carly Nyst, a UK-based Australian lawyer who is currently the Legal Director of the human rights group Privacy International in London, addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on the right to privacy in the digital age. As part of a panel which included Flavia Panasieri , the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Catalino Botero Marino, Carly told the Commission that the right to privacy is a fundamental part of human dignity, which guarantees the protection of other human rights such as the freedom of expression, and should be jealously defended by the United Nations, particularly in the wake of WikiLeaks and the Edward Snowden Affair. The Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms Botero said the Commission recognised that systematic collection of data by governments directly affects the right to privacy and freedom of expression, and appropriate safeguards and controls must be elaborated to prevent those negative effects on human rights.