Law Commons^™

The Fabric Of Labor: A Study Of Labor History Through The Upstate New York Textile Industry, 1950 – 1968, Anthony Parillo

History Honors Program

This paper explores three textile mills in upstate New York in the post-WWII years, and specifically the relationships between mill hands, management, and the national Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA). While historians have studied textile mills and labor relations in the twentieth-century South, they have paid little attention to their northern counterparts during that era. This paper, conversely, writes northern mill workers into the larger scholarly conversation about twentieth-century union decline. It shows that union campaigns often failed due largely to the cunning, if not deceptive, maneuvers of management. Drawing on union records, contemporary local newspapers, and census data, …

"They Would Do As They Pleased, As They Had The Power": Gender Violence And The American Settler-Colonial Project, 1830-1890, Noelle Iati

Women's History Theses

This thesis investigates the role of gender violence and sexual terror in westward settler expansion of the United States in the nineteenth century. I posit that gender violence was not simply a symptom of war and colonization, but an integral piece of the American colonization strategy. Using studies of three locations during three different periods, I have found that the local, territorial, state, and federal governments all actively deployed sexual assault and other forms of gendered terror as methods of removing Indigenous peoples to reservations and rancherías, opening their lands to settlement and resource exploitation for the purpose of acquiring …

The Tangled Roots Of The Holocaust: An Analysis Of The Evolution Of Colonial Discourse Through The Prohibition Of Sexual Relations And Marriages Between Races, Bianka Adamatti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Nazi violence did not have its origins only in the brutality of the First World War or radical nationalist ideologies, but also in European colonialism. Hence, the goal of this thesis is to demonstrate that colonial processes were fundamental to the origins of the Holocaust. To prove this, I applied the content analysis to detect colonial discourse (stereotype, ambivalence, and mimicry) in three legislations from different contexts, which prohibited sexual relations and marriages between races. The documents analyzed exemplified the segregationist thinking of each period of colonization. Portuguese laws from the beginning of modernity demonstrate the transition from religious …

The Blue State: Unrwa's Transition From Relief To Development In Providing Education To Palestinian Refugees In Jordan, Alana Mitias

Honors Theses

Often referred to as the “Blue State”–due in part to its association with the United Nations’ trademark blue branding–the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has evolved since its creation in 1949 to become both a symbol of the Palestinian cause and an inimitable public service provider across its five areas of operation, especially in regards to education. In the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan alone, the UNRWA education program educates more than 120,000 students in 169 schools with results comparable with, if not often superior to, Jordanian public schools.

The UNRWA regime …

Welcoming The Game Changer Of Human Society: A Defense Of The Moral Permissibility And Obligations Of Human Genetic Engineering, Yongkang Li

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In 2018, a Chinese scientist, Jiankun He, announced the birth of two HIV-resistant babies through his experiment of human genetic engineering. This incidence has soon shocked the entire scientific community and invoked public outrage towards He’s corrupt moral integrity.

However, this event should also act as a harbinger to the human society that the technique of human genetic engineering is rapidly approaching maturity. In that case, how should we respond?

This thesis focuses on the moral issues surrounding human genetic engineering and advertises an accepting moral attitude to this booming technology. This thesis will first discuss the types of human …

Engendering Trans Inclusion In Interscholastic And Intercollegiate Athletics: A Critical Analysis Of Sex And Gender In Sports, Title Ix Protections Post-Bostock, And Intersectional Methods Of Antidiscrimination Law, Jack Mackey

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Following the legalization of gay marriage by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges and the failure of so-called “bathroom bills” to gain widespread traction across the country, conservative advocacy groups have turned to the arena of locker rooms and school-sponsored sports to pursue legislative and legal action against the inclusion of transgender people in spaces according to their gender identities. This thesis takes up legal challenges presented in Hecox v. Little and Soule v. Connecticut in order to (re)articulate the means by which we understand the language of sex and gender in sports, the protections afforded to trans …

Interrogating Injustice: Carceral Feminism, Brock Turner, And The Dilemmas Of Seeking Accountability For Sexual Violence In Our Prison Nation, Willa Quinn Moffatt

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis uses the 2016 sexual assault case The People vs. Brock Turner to argue that there is no clear path for justice for sexual violence in the current criminal justice system while incarceration remains the primary form of punishment. I draw on court documents and the victim Chanel Miller's 2019 memoir Know My Name to inform my analysis.

I briefly review, as a necessary backdrop, how rape has historically been ignored in the criminal legal system as a serious crime and large-scale social problem and how this history is tied to anti-Black racism in the United States. I am …

Skorupskian Allyship: Human Rights Reconstructed Through Efficacious Enforcement And Social Relativism, Chase Opperman

Philosophy Honors Papers

This project aims to take the subject of Human Rights and attempt to wrestle with its clarity. The concept has been, since its more modern manifestation, as represented by the United Nations’ Uniform Declaration of Human Rights, heavily criticized for its being indeterminate, unclear, ambiguous, or somehow not fully understood. Despite the concept’s incredible moral potential, the extent to which this potential can be realized is determined by the concept’s intelligibility and defensibility—both of which are affected by the concept’s being understood to a sufficient point. Given Human Rights’ moral potential to challenge the forces of evil in the world, …

Sovereign Authority And Rule Of Law: The Effect Of U.S. Use Of Torture On Political Legitimacy, Sydney Bradley

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Governmental sovereignty is created and maintained by mutual respect for the rule of law by the government and citizens. To maintain legitimacy, a government must act within the bounds of the contract that created it. Otherwise, the relationship founded by said contract would be nullified, as would the duties and obligations that flow from that relationship. Torture exemplifies an ultra vires act used by the United States to show the consequences of over-extended authority on political legitimacy and the rule of law. Founded on the philosophies of Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes, and Christine Korsgaard, this research investigates the nature of …

China, Xinjiang, And The Genocide Convention: The Fragility Of International Law, Lucy Kate Herron

Honors Theses

This paper examines China’s actions through the lens of the Genocide Convention to examine the whether the crimes of genocide are being committed against the Uyghur population. It contends that according to the Genocide Convention, China is committing genocide, and particularly through conditions, torture, and rape, against the Uyghur population. However, prosecuting a genocide in court would prove difficult due to China's laws and actions that can be used to defer accusations of genocide and problems with the Genocide Convention in the context of China and the Uyghurs.

National Sex Offender Registration Policies And The Unintended Consequences, Sydney J. Selman

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

More Than Sectarianism: How Have State And Non-State Institutions Used Violence To Form The Current Iraqi State And What Is The Effect?, Caitlyn Perkins

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the role of violence in Iraq in establishing the current Iraqi state. My chapters provide historical and theoretical context to the subject before getting into the analysis. The goal of this thesis is to show that violence in Iraq is not only caused by sectarian differences, but has been used and influenced by leaders, outside governments, and non-state institutions for personal gain and political goals at the cost of the Iraqi people.

Racial Racial Discrimination Within The United States Criminal Justice System, Courtney Speigal

Honors Projects

For my senior honors project, I chose the topic of discrimination within our criminal justice system. I will be attending law school next year, and this topic has inspired me to become a lawyer. 2020 has been a year with a lot of protesting against social injustice, and change in our democracy. The Black Lives Matter Movement came to light once again, because of a number of questionable cases involving African American citizens. Considering all of this, I decided to research further the discrimination in our country, in a number of areas. I also will be looking at how we …

The Evolution Of Title Ix And Transgender Rights- A Comparative Study Of Title Ix Debates With Recommendations For Integrating Transgender Rights Into Title Ix Legislation, Jaymie Bianca

Senior Theses and Projects

This project views Title IX through a lens pertaining to transgender rights. It examines the historic adaptation and expansion of Title IX, and how it historically has not expanded to include transgender individuals. The project pays particular attention to the difference between the definitions of sex and gender, the bathroom and athletic debates in relation to transgender rights, and includes recommendations in order to properly include transgender individuals in Title IX legislation.

Courageous Endurance: The Lived Experiences Of Trans Folx And The Criminal Legal System, April Carrillo

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

The field of criminology and criminal justice have widely ignored the experience of being a trans person and interacting with the criminal legal system, despite the reality that trans folx experience discrimination and harm at the hands of criminal legal practitioners. This dissertation explores these experiences, as well as how trans folx navigate a myriad of other issues to include their identity and institutional discrimination. Trans folx are not guaranteed many protections or rights in the United States which leaves them at an especially vulnerable position when entering the criminal legal system. Essentially, trans folx are forced to navigate a …

Anti-Anarchist Legislation And The Road To The 1919 Red Hysteria, Evan Crumb

College Honors Program

In my thesis, I connect anti-anarchist legislation from the early 1900s with the excesses of the 1919 Red Scare. I tie the actions of anarchist leaders Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman to legislative responses, which were then weaponized after the hysteria of the Russian Revolution culminating in the deportations of 249 Russian “radicals” on the Soviet Ark. I find that the Supreme Court’s legal interpretation of the 1903 Immigration Act’s anti-anarchist provision in Turner v. Williams (1904), and the 1902 Criminal Anarchy Act in Gitlow v. New York (1925) were rational—understandable—within their legal and social context.

My legal history bridges …

How Indigenous-Language Court Interpreters And Clients Navigate The U.S. Court System Under Strict Court-Interpreting Guidelines, Ashten Lehwalder

University Honors Theses

In Oregon, requests for court interpreters of languages indigenous to Latin America have increased within the last few years. However, the number of available indigenous-language court interpreters in the U.S. remains low. During the 2019 U.S.--Mexico Border Crisis, many refugees seeking asylum were from Mayan communities; indigenous-language court interpreters struggled to meet the demand. Even though court interpreting is a civil right in the U.S., many individuals have been afforded inadequate language services, or have gone without interpreters altogether. This study seeks to understand the experience of indigenous-language court interpreters, who must operate according to a code of ethics, through …

Legal Purgatory: Why Some Animals Are Neither Persons Nor Property, Sharisse Kanet

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

All animals with non-borderline sentience are deserving of certain legal considerations independent of their use and relationship to human beings. That is, all sentient beings should have some rights. Given the current organization of the U.S. legal system, which divides all entities into property or persons, it is not surprising that animals are relegated to property status. I put forth a proposal to fix this whose central suggestion is that we create a third legal designation, legal patient, into which all non-person sentient animals (those which do not properly belong on either current category) would fit. These animals would receive …

When Shari'a Becomes A Science Of Law, Heba Sewilam

Theses and Dissertations

The Sharīʿa codification, privatization and reconciliation present three reform movements to scientize Sharīʿa in the manner of liberal positivism. The scientism of Sharīʿa makes Islamic law predictable, rational and objective. Its final goal is to protect Sharīʿa from the political encroachments of the ruling elites and facilitate Sharīʿa implementation in a post-colonial era. The three reform movements are, however, incapable of harmonizing Sharīʿa with the liberal norms of a scientized law. Sharīʿa codification makes the law predictable but neglects Sharīʿa’s undemocratic methods of decision-making. Sharīʿa-compliant legislation is still the monopoly of the Muslim jurists and the ruling caliph. Sharīʿa privatization …

The Basha's Tools? Imagining Alternative Justice Futures In Egypt, Farah Ghazal

Theses and Dissertations

The dominant approach to addressing violence against women in Egypt today is carceral, or relying on the punitive instruments of the state to achieve justice (most visibly represented by the prison and police). While carceral responses are perhaps unsurprisingly advocated by state feminism, they are also promoted by what would typically be described as anti-state actors. This paradoxical entanglement takes place during what I identify as the 'carceral moment', a period marked by the intensification of political and social repression and during which incarceration appears more readily available as a solution to remedy perceived problems of governance. I argue that, …

Article 6.21, Tatiana Stolpovskaya

Theses and Dissertations

Article 6.21 is a short documentary film that aims to examine the state of censorship around queerness in Russia today and its effects on personal lives in the queer community.

Twenty years after Russia decriminalized homosexuality, on June 30th in 2013, President Vladimir Putin signed Article 6.21 "for the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating for a Denial of Traditional Family Values", also known as the "Gay Propaganda Law". Its broad and ambiguous wording allows the government significant leeway in deciding what kind of public queerness is punishable.

In 2020 Russia passed multiple constitutional amendments that affect many areas …

The Push Factors That Impact Sex Trafficking In The Former Soviet Union, Liliya Kenzhebayeva

Dissertations and Theses

Sex trafficking is a global problem that has been denounced by the international community as a human rights abuse and determined to be a modern form of slavery. Through a comparative analysis of the experiences of Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine as they were a part of the Soviet Union the study identifies the push factors of sex trafficking in women as forced labor with particular emphasis on the role of weak legal systems and state institutions, corruption, social and economic factors, and environmental problems that are linked to organized crime (the Russian mafia) from 2001 to 2019. The thesis supports …

Pushed Out Of High School: Narratives Of Teaching Under The Testing Regime, Sheila Alexis-Fabius

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was enacted as an education intervention to close the achievement gap by increasing student attendance, graduation, and standard testing rates. NCLB held teachers and administrators accountable for successfully meeting adequate yearly progress gains. However, the emerging NCLB research uncovered a culture of conflict with academically at-risk students being pushed out of the public school system and rise in disciplinary actions towards minority students. This study employed John Gultang’s structural violence, John Burton’s basic human needs theory, and adultification theory to highlight the significance of understanding the conflict in high-stakes testing regimes. This research …

America’S Presidential Crisis Of Legitimacy: How The Electoral College Became Obsolete And How We Can Fix It, Julia Rose Foodman

Scripps Senior Theses

The goal of this thesis is to critique the current American Presidential electoral system, the Electoral College, and to show what an alternative could potentially mean for the American people. This paper seeks to answer the following questions: What are the main arguments for the Electoral College, why are they troubling, and how can we mend American Presidential elections for the greater purposes of political equality, democracy, and freedom? To do so, core arguments made by conservative pundits in favor of the Electoral College are outlined in order to bring attention to their logical, political, and moral inconsistencies. The inequalities …

The Durability Of Authenticity: An Examination Of The Art Conservator’S Role In Preserving Authenticity, Emily Crozier

MA Theses

This thesis will focus on the conservation of privately owned paintings by deceased artists to determine the durability of authenticity. The concept of authenticity is fragile and illusive. However, there are certain theories and attributes which help to determine whether a painting is authentic. It is generally agreed that the authenticity of a painting can be maintained or lost through conservation. It is therefore presumed that the conservator is ethically driven to preserve the authenticity of a painting as its cultural value is of paramount importance in the conservation process. However, conservation is not a purely ethical issue as it …

Neither “Post-War” Nor Post-Pregnancy Paranoia: How America’S War On Drugs Continues To Perpetuate Disparate Incarceration Outcomes For Pregnant, Substance-Involved Offenders, Becca S. Zimmerman

Pitzer Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the unique interactions between pregnancy, substance involvement, and race as they relate to the War on Drugs and the hyper-incarceration of women. Using ordinary least square regression analyses and data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates, I examine if (and how) pregnancy status, drug use, race, and their interactions influence two length of incarceration outcomes: sentence length and amount of time spent in jail between arrest and imprisonment. The results collectively indicate that pregnancy decreases length of incarceration outcomes for those offenders who are not substance-involved but not evenhandedly -- benefitting white …

Non-Indian Reservations, Joshua Matthew Rosenau

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis is a skeptical treatment of the logical distinctions presumed to exist between “Indian” and “non-Indian” people. Despite representing 99 percent of the U.S. population, “non-Indians” represent a legal identity which has no explicit definition. The basis for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions regarding non-Indians and Indians rests not on any objective, empirical or logical criterion or proof, but rather on the “assumption of a ‘guardian-ward’ status. This thesis investigates this assumption, and recommends that we suspend judgment on whether the difference between “Indians” and “non-Indians” can be determined either by logical argument or by legal assumption.