Political Science Commons^™

A Canyon Apart: Immigration Politics And Ethnic Identity In Arizona, Peter Morrissey Fcrh '11

The Fordham Undergraduate Research Journal

This article examines the political and social forces surrounding the April 23, 2010 passage of Arizona’s stringent immigration enforcement measure, Senate Bill (S.B.) 1070, which empowered local law enforcement to demand proof of legal residency from any person suspected of being undocumented. A person’s failure to produce documentation would result in arrest, detention, investigation, and potentially deportation to his or her nation of origin. Through the law’s lens, the article explores the development of the social tension that followed Arizona’s explosive population growth, and examines how Arizona’s large Hispanic population has been unable to assert itself at the ballot box …

The Morality Of Human Rights, Michael J. Perry

San Diego Law Review

My discussion of the morality of human rights in this Article presupposes that the reader is familiar with the internationalization of human rights: the growing international recognition and protection, in the period since the end of the Second World War, of certain rights as human rights. The Appendix to this Article is for readers not familiar with the internationalization of human rights. I begin, in the first Part of the Article, by explaining what the term human right means in the context of the internationalization of human rights. I also explain both the sense in which some human rights are, …

Does The Existing Human Rights Regime Have Political Authority?, Christopher Heath Wellman

San Diego Law Review

In this Article I consider whether the existing international legal human rights regime enjoys political authority over sovereign states. In particular, I explore whether, just as states can cite their role as the primary institutions that protect human rights in order to justify their claim to authority over their citizens, perhaps the current human rights regime might plausibly cite its secondary role in securing human rights in order to ground its authority over these states.

The Relevance Of Marxist Academics, Raju Das

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This commentary examines the relationship between a Marxist scholar and the institutional and societal environment of the university. The focus is on how a Marxist academic navigates the social, economic and political aspects of the university while attempting to maintain a commitment to class analysis and Marxism as political practice.

How (And Why) Nclb Failed To Close The Achievement Gap:Evidence From North Carolina, 1998-2004, Roslyn Mickelson, Jason Giersch, Elizabeth Stearns, Stephanie Moller

The Bridge: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Legal & Social Policy

Recent state and national policy changes for public education are premised upon the idea that high-stakes tests can improve student outcomes and close achievement gaps. Opponents maintain that such policies fail on both counts. Using a unique longitudinal dataset from North Carolina, we find that high-stakes tests have failed to close achievement gaps associated with social class and race, and that the persistence of these gaps is related, at least in part, to academic tracking. Such findings add to the questions being raised about such policies as No Child Left Behind.

Symposium - The U.S.-Iranian Relationship And The Future Of International Order

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

No abstract provided.

The Corporatization Of Higher Education, Ronald W. Cox

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This essay reviews recent books and articles that examine the politics and economics of the restructuring of public universities in the United States. The author weaves the arguments together to point to several prominent trends: increased corporatization of university governance and increased dependence on the market for resources previously provided by the state, reduction of full-time faculty in favor of instructors and adjuncts, dramatic growth of administrative personnel, and mounting student debt. The history of these developments is explored by examining the roots of the political attacks on the public university.

2012-13 Jlia Masthead

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

No abstract provided.

Protecting Shareholders From Themselves: How The United Kingdom’S 2011 Takeover Code Amendments Hit Their Mark, Matthew Peetz

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury in 2011 caused considerable uproar in the United Kingdom. The political outcry caused significant amendments to the United Kingdom’s regulatory framework over mergers and acquisitions, the so-called, Takeover Code. These changes to the Takeover Code were made to help relieve pressure on target companies during takeover situations, and to correct the imbalance of power in favor of bidding companies that the political community had perceived during the Kraft-Cadbury takeover. After the changes were made, but before they were implemented, the business community expressed concern that these added regulations would be detrimental to the M&A market as …

The Case Of Christmas Island: How International Law Affects The Australian-Malaysian Refugee Deal, Ria Pereira

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

In July 2011, Australia and Malaysia entered into an arrangement in which Australian asylum seekers would be removed to neighboring Malaysia to have their asylum claims processed. Following widespread criticism in the media, Australia’s High Court ruled that such a deal violated Australia’s refuges protection laws. While this ruling should have put an end to the deal, Australia’s Immigration Minister indicated that the agreement might nevertheless be feasible. Policy makers proposed amending Australian domestic immigration laws to allow the deal to go forward unencumbered. A bill to amend Australia’s Migration Act was subsequently introduced. As it currently stands, Australian law …

The Cost Of Fear: An Analysis Of Sex Offender Registration, Community Notification, And Civil Commitment Laws In The United States And The United Kingdom, Kate Hynes

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

Sex offenders are often seen as a notorious group in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The public opinion of the masses has often found its way into the laws which restrict the privacy and freedoms of many sex offenders. This comment will examine the often divergent trends in lawmaking and judicial authority in both countries in regard to sex offender registration, community notification, and civil commitment. Further, the comment will study the lasting effects on the sex offender population and potential civil rights implications.

How Precipitous A Decline? U.S.-Iranian Relations And The Transition From American Primacy, Hillary Mann Leverett

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

This essay is grounded in two basic propositions. The first is that the greatest strategic challenge facing the United States is extricating its foreign policy from a well-worn but deeply counterproductive quest for hegemonic dominance in critical areas of the world, especially the Middle East. The second is that Washington’s handling of its relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran constitutes a crucial test of America’s capacity to put its foreign policy on a more productive and realistic trajectory. Since the Islamic Republic’s founding in 1979, Washington has refused to understand and accept the basic model underlying its political order—the …

The Prohibition On The Use Of Force For Arms Control: The Case Of Iran’S Nuclear Program, Mary Ellen O'Connell, Reyam El Molla

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

International law does not permit the use of military force against Iran to attempt to end its nuclear program. The resort to military force in international relations is covered first and foremost by Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter. Article 2(4) is a general prohibition on resort to force that includes resort to military force for arms control, including nuclear weapons control. The Charter has two express but limited exceptions to the ban on military force. A state that is the victim of a significant armed attack may use force in necessary and proportional self-defense; the United Nations Security …

Caroline Revisited: An Imagined Exchange Between John Kerry And Mohammad Javad Zarif, James W. Houck

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

In 1837, sailors of Great Britain's Royal Navy sank the American ship the Caroline over Niagra Falls. Great Britain justified the incident the preemptive strike as an act of self-defense. Diplomats of the two nations negotiated a legal framework to guide future preemptive uses of force. In the face of twenty-first century nuclear weapons, however, the Caroline framework seems outdated and impractical. To date, Iran continues to develop their nuclear program, while refusing international inspectors full access to their centrifuges. The United States is committed to keeping a nuclear weapon out of Iran's hands. The United States and Iran …

Iran's Nuclear Program And International Law, Daniel H. Joyner

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

In this article, Professor Daniel Joyner analyzes the legal arguments on both sides of the Iran nuclear issue. The article address what the sides regard as the relevant sources of international nuclear law, and their respective interpretations of these sources law. Professor Joyner argues that Iran’s case illustrates warped and incorrect legal interpretations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and other sources of law, and a prejudicial and inconsistent application of the law by the West and by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The article posits that this warped interpretation of NPT obligations has led to a bleak future for the …

Npt: A Pillar Of Global Governance, Richard Butler

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

The NPT is regarded as the cornerstone of nuclear arms control. It is the sole, widely agreed commitment in international law, to a world free of nuclear weapons. This fact and its operational mechanisms, establish NPT as a pillar of global governance. Any breakout from it, such as the development of nuclear weapons by Iran, a non-nuclear weapons state party to NPT, would jeopardize the future of the treaty and deeply harm the structure of contemporary global governance. If it chooses to do so, Iran cannot be prevented from taking such action by threatening it with the use of force, …

The Iranian Nuclear Issue, The End Of The American Century, And The Future Of International Order, Flynt L. Leverett

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

How the U.S.-Iranian competition for influence in the Middle East plays out will have profound consequences not just for the Middle East, but also for the legal frameworks, rules-based regimes, and mechanisms of global governance that shape international order in the 21^st century. This is particularly true with regard to U.S.-Iranian disagreements over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities. Strategic competition between America and Iran and its implications for international order play out against a backdrop of the progressive diminution of U.S. leadership in world affairs. Relative decline challenges the United States to share the prerogatives of global governance, especially …

Foreword, Amy C. Gaudion

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

No abstract provided.

Mamluk Jerusalem: Architecturally Challenging Narratives, Andrew C. Smith

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Narratives abound concerning the religious and political positioning of Jerusalem in the past as well as the present and have been used in a variety of ways to serve various ideologies or political ends. One such narrative (which can be found even in some academic treatises of the history of Jerusalem) states that following the Muslim re-conquest of the city after the Crusades Muslim rulers neglected the city entirely, leading to its decline into obscurity and ruin. This narrative asserts that the city remained as such until Zionism, Jewish immigration, and, most especially, the establishment of the state of Israel …

Optimism Versus Pessmism: An Exploratory Analysis Of China In Zambian Media, Bob Wekesa

Zambia Social Science Journal

The huge interest in Zambia-­‐China relations globally, both in academia and popular press, inspires several inquisitions. How have these relations changed and panned out in the present, from a Zambian media perspective? Would a Zambian media approach help provide insights into the ebb and flow of perceptions about China inside Zambia? What can we gather from the Zambian media on the September 2011 regime change in Zambia vis-­‐à-­‐vis China’s engagement? In other words, how did Zambian media craft perceptions on and of China in the era of late president Michael Chilufya Sata’s leadership? To answer these questions, this exploratory study …

Leaving A Legacy, Walter Lotze

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The ongoing conflict in Somalia, and the complexities that come with finding lasting solutions to a conflict that has raged for decades now, continue to perplex the international community. While a range of previously tried and tested approaches to conflict management are being applied, it is becoming apparent that the international toolkit for responding to conflict situations of such complexity is extremely limited. Indeed, as one international conference after another on Somalia takes place, compacts are signed and funding windows established, old frameworks are abandoned and new ones are forged, and roadmap after roadmap pave the way for further engagement, …

Somali Battlegrounds: On Interest And Accountability, Ines Mzali

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In the wake of the latest and deadliest of Al-Shabab's attacks in Kenya since Kenyan troops entered Somalia in October 2011, Ben Rawlence reiterates the question raised anew by each attack: "What is Kenya doing in Somalia and is it worth the price?" The question leads him to explore the contradiction between the official objectives of the mission and Kenya's particular motivations to launch an offensive of its own. This problematic discrepancy also draws attention to the question of accountability when violations of international humanitarian law have occurred in the context of a military operation by a neighboring country and …

Climate Change And The Color Line, Michael Murphy

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Climate change is estimated to be responsible for 400,000 deaths per year, mostly because of hunger and communicable diseases affecting children in the Global South. Using the sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois, I attempt to demonstrate how and why climate change occurs along the color line. I conclude by arguing why it is important to think about climate change as a human rights issue.

With An Eye On A Set Of New Eyes: Beasts Of The Southern Wild, Kette Thomas

Journal of Religion & Film

This article focuses on how, Beasts of the Southern Wild, represents both divergence and transgression from paradigmatic structures that determine how certain visual representations are to be used. Specifically, the cinematic detours taken by the filmmakers, Lucy Alibar and Behn Zeitlin, do not lead to alien places for most viewers; on the contrary, ancient myths, legends, heroes and prehistoric references are recalled in total isolation from current social and political discourse. In this way, Beasts of the Southern Wild, effectively, highlights mythological structures operating in contemporary American society. Mircea Eliade, Roger Caillois and G.S. Kirk define mythology as a …

Is Multiculturalism Good For Children? The Rights Of The Child And Multiculturalist Policies In Sweden, Pernilla Ouis, Göran Adamson, Aje Carlbom

International Dialogue

In the present paper, the objective is to investigate if multiculturalism is good for children. The method is to use secondary sources, as well as current examples from Swedish society, to show how multiculturalist policies have negative consequences for minority children's rights. The paper, as well as previous research, reveals that parents of immigrant origin often forbid children to attend school activities such as camps, gymnastics, swimming, and lessons in music and religion. Parents motivate their actions with reference to their traditions and religion, and a fear that their children might learn sexual immorality. The wishes of parents are accepted …

Jerusalem Obscured: The Crescent On The Temple: The Dome Of The Rock As Image Of The Ancient Jewish Sanctuary, Curtis Hutt

International Dialogue

To begin with, what is it? In order to answer this question one must, of course, qualify it by asking—to whom? Pamela Berger in The Crescent on the Temple: The Dome of the Rock as Image of the Ancient Jewish Sanctuary has done a great service by supplying us with a history of the iconographic representation of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock (the Qubbat al-Sakhrah). While no publication could ever exhaustively summarize the countless visual and literary portrayals of this world heritage site, Berger not only makes a valiant attempt at such but necessarily changes the way that almost all …

Sites Of Contestation: What Apology Debates Tell Us About International Relations: Sorry States: Apologies In International Politics; Troubled Apologies Among Japan, Korea, And The United States, Elizabeth S. Dahl

International Dialogue

Some scholars have stated that an “age of apology” began in the 1990s (Brooks 1999: 3)—that apologies now are considered standard and beneficial practice in business, domestic politics, and international affairs. Some praise this trend, seeing it as a sign that a new space has opened up in the post-Cold War world for moral concerns and “national self-reflexivity” (Barkan 2000: xvii).1 Such scholars and other commentators see a great deal of potential in apology to change relationships for the better.2 While more discussions public apologies occurred in the 1990s,3 however, it is unclear what this change means. After all, despite …

The Transgressive Allure Of White Gold In Peruvian Amazonia: Towards A Genealogy Of Coca Capitalisms And Social Dread: Andean Cocaine: The Making Of A Global Drug; Coca's Gone: Of Might And Right In The Huallaga Post-Boom, Bartholomew Dean

International Dialogue

“I have tested this effect of coca, which wards off hunger, sleep, and fatigue and steels one to intellectual effort, some dozen times on myself; I had no opportunity to engage in physical work.”—Sigmund Freud, from ‘Über Coca’, Centralblatt für die ges. Therapie, 2, 1884.

Circulating through multiple regimes of value, the transgressive allure of coca has gripped the Occidental imagination for more than a century and a half, shaping the contours of modernity; first as a magical elixir, then to a demonized underground drug, and eventually being transformed into a lucrative global commodity with grievous effects. Coca and cocaine …

Twilight Of Impunity: The War Crimes Trial Of Slobodan Milosevic, Sabrina P. Ramet

International Dialogue

Judith Armatta, a lawyer and journalist, attended the proceedings of the trial of former Serbian president Slobodan Milošević over a period of nearly three years. During this period, the court was in session for 466 days, interrupted by repeated breaks necessitated by the accused’s increasing health problems. Charged with sixty-six counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, Milošević declined to have counsel appointed, electing instead to defend himself. The court’s willingness to allow Milošević to do so and to do so on his own terms proved to be a huge mistake, as Armatta stresses. The fallen Serbian leader’s …

Sayyid Qutb And The Origins Of Radical Islamism, Ramazan Kılınç

International Dialogue

In August 2013, the Egyptian military, which deposed the elected president Mohammed Mursi a month earlier, harshly cracked down on the protestors. The protestors, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, aimed to restore the Mursi government through their sit-ins. The military crackdown left hundreds, if not thousands, died and several thousand arrests behind. While scholars are trying to account for what is happening in Egypt and states are searching for relevant policies to respond to these developments, only a few books can offer as nuanced insights as John Calvert’s Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Radical Islamism offers. Based on diligent …