On October 27, 2026, 21 state and District of Columbia attorneys general brought a lawsuit in the U.S. District in Oregon seeking to reverse the Trump administration’s elimination of beneficial ownership reporting requirements for more than 99.9% of previously covered persons, thereby reigniting a controversy over anti-money laundering and entity transparency rules.  In 2021, Congress enacted the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) with bipartisan support. It established a Treasury database of business owners that law enforcement can use to trace dirty money, track down stolen assets, and uncover bribes and political payoffs.

            On October 23, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that undocumented immigrants that are detained while their removal proceedings are pending are not entitled to an individualized bond hearing.  The 10–7 decision concerned three men from Mexico and Honduras who had lived in the United States for at least fourteen years, with one petitioner — Ignacio Sosnava Rodriguez — reportedly living in the country for over twenty-two years.  The men were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following traffic stops. They established that they had substantial ties to the United States — including American-born children — and their attorneys argued that prolonged detention without an opportunity to seek release violated the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause, but they ultimately failed to persuade the majority to guarantee their right to an individualized bond hearing.  While the ruling is a victory for the administration, advocates for immigrants and ICE detainees have decried the ruling as an “affront to the U.S. Constitution.”

               The United Nations (UN) Commission of Inquiry released a report on the Occupied Palestinian Territory on October 14, 2026 and examined the killing of Palestinians by security forces since October 23, 2023.  The report affirmed past analysis that the Israeli forces were committing a genocide, along with violating international humanitarian and human rights law.

            On October 30, 2026, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Miami, Florida detained former Mexican television host Inés Gómez Mont.  Media report indicate her detention was due to her stay having exceeded the allowed period of stay in the U.S. under her U.S. visa.  ICE is holding  Gómez Mont at the Broward Transitional Center Immigration facility in Pompano Beach, Florida.

            On October 21, 2026, the Bahamian Parliament continued taking steps to abolish bearer shares to comply with international entity transparency standards by deliberating on  the 2026 Companies (Amendment) Bill.  Addressing the bill in Parliament, Chester Cooper, the deputy prime minister, explained that the bill would align Bahamian company law with the law already in place under the International Business Companies (IBCs) Act and international best practices.

               On July 9, 2025, the Protocol amending the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism was adopted by the Member States of the Council of Europe (CoE) (respectively, ‘2026 Amending Protocol’ and ‘Convention’). It opened for signature in Strasbourg on May 26, 2026.[2] The Convention had been adopted twenty years earlier, on May 16, 2005.[3] The purpose of this note is to examine the 2026 Amending Protocol and to set out some questions concerning its content. Before that, there will be some brief references on the Additional Protocol to the Convention, which was adopted on October 22, 2015 (‘Additional Protocol’).[4]

               On October 26, 2026, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine submitted its latest report to the UN General Assembly at its eighty-first session. The Commission has found out that the Russian authorities have committed war crimes of intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects and the crimes against humanity of other inhumane acts with continuous attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.[2]

                At its 33^rd sitting on September 30, 2026, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has adopted its Resolution 2605 (2025) and Recommendation 2315 (2026) setting the legal, financial and political measures aimed at solving the problem of how to ensure the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) concerning the Russian Federation.

                On October 21, 2026, the U.S. Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) announced that, as part of Operation Economic Outcast and pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13902, it sanctioned Panama- and Greece-based law firm Karnakis and Karnakis, which allegedly has supported illicit Iranian shipping activity for years.  Hence, OFAC alleges the firm indirectly helped Tehran’s ability to generate revenue to fund its military, weapons, and nuclear programs.

                On October 15, 2026, Sweden extradited Russian national Alexander Suvorov, 52, to the Northern District of New York on export-control and sanctions-evasion charges. The case suggests the United States’ ability to obtain custody of a defendant whose alleged conduct ran through a third jurisdiction, here Hong Kong, even though Sweden did not incorporate the treaty provision that shields such offenses from dual-criminality objections.