Digital Commons Network^™

Privacy-As-Property: A New Fundamental Approach To The Right To Privacy And The Impact This Will Have On The Law And Corporations, Sevion Dacosta

CMC Senior Theses

The most popular conception of the right to privacy stems from Warren and Brandeis’s description of privacy as “the right to be left alone.” This theory ultimately points to a more fundamental approach to the right to privacy rooted in property rights. This fundamental approach - which I call privacy-as-property - is what I establish in this paper. I argue that the Lockean concept of property that “every man has a property in his own person” provides the foundation for the right to privacy. Privacy-as-property begins with the fundamental right to control oneself. Because of this intrinsic right, your property …

The Effects Of National Security On Supreme Court Case Decisions Involving Civil Liberties, Callie Gerzanics

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research project will analyze the effects that national security laws and tensions have on civil liberties and Supreme Court case decisions. National security has been a primary objective for the United States of America for as long as wars have been fought and enemies have been made. National security continues to be a concern for the U.S. government, especially with the prominence of technology that has made the U.S. more vulnerable to breaches in security, such as cybernetic attacks. The motivations behind this project stem from a concern of how national security can influence Supreme Court decisions, police arrests, …

Public Financing Of Elections In The States, Nicholas Meixsell

Honors Theses

In the US, there is a history of the courts striking down campaign finance reform measures as unconstitutional. As such, there are few avenues remaining for someone who is interested in 'clean government' reforms. One such avenue is publicly financed elections, where the state actually provides funding for campaigns. These systems can be quite varied in the restrictions and contingencies they attach to the money, and for examples one has to look no further than the states There are many states that have some form of public financing for elections, and by looking at the different states' systems we are …

Just Care: A Relational Approach To Autonomy And Decision Making Of Parents Committed To Religious Or Indigenous Traditional Practices, Tu-Quynh Trinh

LLM Theses

Hamilton Health Sciences Corp. v. D.H. and B. (R.) v. Children’s Aid Society of Metropolitan Toronto tell important stories about people and relationships—and about parenthood; autonomy; religious believers and cultural communities; and the role of the state in family, culture, and religion. Their narratives were influenced by liberalism and emphasize a degree of individualism that is incongruous given the subject matter of parent child relationships and their place within communities and the law. This thesis explores the application of relational theory and the integrated principles of justice and care to these issues. Ultimately, the stories these judicial opinions tell help …

Lest Law Forget: Locke's Toleration And Religious Freedom, Stephen Holt

LLM Theses

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees every person in Canada freedom of conscience and religion. I contend that the concept of religious freedom was born out of a history of religious suffering and originally took the form of John Locke’s toleration of religious differences. In Big M, the first Supreme Court of Canada case that interpreted s. 2(a), Chief Justice Dickson recognized the historical context of religious freedom but also tied it to human autonomy, equality, and dignity. An examination of the cases since Big M suggests that when courts think in terms of tolerance, they accord greater …

Harmless Constitutional Error: How A Minor Doctrine Meant To Improve Judicial Efficiency Is Eroding America's Founding Ideals, Ross C. Reggio

CMC Senior Theses

The United States Constitution had been in existence for almost two hundred years before the Supreme Court decided that some violations of constitutional rights may be too insignificant to warrant remedial action. Known as "harmless error," this statutory doctrine allows a court to affirm a conviction when a mere technicality or minor defect did not affect the defendant's substantial rights. The doctrine aims to promote judicial efficiency and judgment finality. The Court first applied harmless error to constitutional violations by shifting the statutory test away from the error's effect on substantial rights to its impact on the jury's verdict. Over …

Deference To Deference: Examining The Relationship Between The Courts And The Political Branches Through Judicial Deference And The Chevron Doctrine, Christopher Yao

Honors Theses

Judicial review of agency rulemaking sits atop a nexus between all three branches of American government, the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. Chevron v. NRDC (1984), a landmark case in administrative law, and its resulting doctrine of strong judicial deference to agencies in their interpretations of statute, are paradoxical in their creation. Although Chevron was decided at the height of Reagan-era deregulation, it greatly enhanced the power of administrative agencies, allowing them to reinterpret the meaning of their statutory directives as needed to justify changes to regulations with less scrutiny from the courts. It is only in recent years …

Conscience Collisions: The Search For Public Policy Solutions To The Problem Of Doctrine In Medicine, Christina M. Claxton

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Evolution Of A Nation After A Dictatorship: How Law, Politics And Society Of The 1973 Dictatorship In Uruguay And Of The Subsequent Return Of Democracy In 1985, Potentially Helped Evolve The Nation Of Today., Jonathan A. Fein Proaño

Master's Theses

In 1973, Uruguay’s president authored a coup d’état with the military and changed the history and fabric of Uruguay. Once democracy returned to Uruguay in 1985, it was a chance to see if an evolution of the law, politics and society would occur. This thesis aims to analyze and understand the patterns of change and de-evolution or evolution that happened during the dictatorship and then over the last 30 years. I break down the process of changes that happened legally and politically, how the dictatorship and its leaders used law to destroy rule of law, and how society changed.

This …

Justice Ginsburg's Call To Action: The Court, Congress, And The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Of 2009, Youlan Xiu

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Reforming Affirmative Action For The Future: A Constitutional And Consequentialist Approach, Quinn Chasan

CMC Senior Theses

In my analysis of affirmative action policy, I began the search without having formed any opinion whatsoever. The topic was interesting to me, and after reading a mass of news editorials and their op-eds, I decided to take up the argument for myself. Other than the fact that I am a student, I have no stake in affirmative action policy. This paper relies primarily on the foremost half-dozen or so notable mismatch theory scholars, a close reading of an innumerable number of Supreme Court opinions, affirmative action related studies from higher education academics and policy institutes, and how historical executive …