After a three-judge appellate panel reinstated a property owner's class action alleging that oil and chemical companies contributed to Hurricane Katrina's ferocity, the Fifth Circuit granted the defendants' motion to rehear the case en banc. Then, because it couldn't muster enough judges to hear it, the appellate court dismissed the appeal.

Piracy at sea was one of the reasons that international law came into existence, but today's legal solutions are so flawed that captains sometimes prefer to toss captured pirates back into the ocean. As the U.N. mulls measures for piracy prosecution, the best option so far seems to be--Kenya?