Law Commons^™

Freedom Isn’T Free: Why Washington State Needs To Move Beyond A Cash Bail System, Andre Jimenez

Global Honors Theses

Despite the belief that our justice system holds people “innocent until proven guilty,” for those who are unable to pay for their freedom from pretrial detention, they find the opposite to be true. The cash bail system in this country allows people to pay a court-determined fee to be released from jail after arrest while they wait for their trial. But as this paper demonstrates, the cash bail system as it currently stands in Washington State criminalizes poverty and simultaneously exacerbates racial inequities. Under this system, accused individuals who cannot afford bail, as well as their families, face extreme social …

Reshaping African American Women's Birthing Experience, Kiana Bulloch

Global Honors Theses

In the United States, African American women are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than any other race or ethnic group. The high maternal mortality rate has continued to be a global problem. The maternal mortality rate (MMR) is a universal measurement of registered maternal deaths due to birth or pregnancy-related complications. The U.S. has continued to have an MMR well above the global average despite establishing interventions in socio-economic gaps. In an effort to decrease MMR, the United Nations proposed a global plan to decrease maternal mortality by 75% as one of the eight …

Bridging Gaps Between Constituents And Policymakers In Climate Policy In Washington State, Rebecca Dickson

Global Honors Theses

Climate change is one of the preeminent concerns of our time. As nation-states around the world face rising sea levels, pollution, political instability, and a rise of national security concerns due to climate instability, greater international cooperation is needed in order to target and adapt to cross-border issues. However, international political action is often reliant upon a national support for that action, especially when national officials rely on the support of their citizenry, such as in democracies, like the United States.

In order to understand how countries such as the United States make decisions on the domestic and international level, …

Reforming Children's Rights: The Criminalization Of Youth At The Intersection Of Schools And Juvenile Justice Systems, Nicole Carbone

Global Honors Theses

This thesis examines children’s rights and support structures for youth of color in the United States, while relying on South Africa as a framework of the needed balance between individual rights and enforcement in a democratic country. Institutionalized racism and treatment of children can be seen throughout many different cultural histories. However, the United States is the only country that has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, with no robust standard on the treatment of children across the Country. Because of this, the literature review explores the consequences youth of color face in education …

The Rhetoric Is On The Wall: A Multimodal Study Of The U.S. – Mexico Border Through Image Narratives, Kristoffer Mason

Global Honors Theses

This paper applied social semiotics and systemic functional theory to study visual narratives related to President Trump’s border wall project and U.S. immigration policy. The images were selected by new articles posted by The New York Times using search parameters “border wall” and “undocumented immigration” between the dates of March 13 – April 13, 2018. Images were selected and categorized based on visual themes related to the border wall and policy enforcement. Of these categories, two images were selected for vertical perspective, vector patterns, and gestures to discover the narratives. Analysis of the images showed that social power and hierarchical …

The Torture Debate: What The Scholars And The Intellectuals Are Saying, Dieudonné Balla

Global Honors Theses

In the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib investigation and the 2009 CASUSS report on post-9/11 interrogation practices, the question of state-sanctioned torture has become the subject of much public and scholarly debate. In this thesis, the author examines three arguments in support of lawful torture: Alan Dershowitz’s Law of Necessity and the concept of “torture warrants,” Michael Walzer’s “problem of dirty hands,” and Richard Posner’s notion of Constitutional interpretation in times of emergency.

Killing History: The Effect Of Slavery And Wwii On The Death Penalty In America And Europe, Julie Turley

Global Honors Theses

The author examines the cultural and social factors that have impacted the United States’s and European Union’s opposing stances on capital punishment. Particular focus is paid to the United States’s history of race relations and views on economic inequality and to the influence of World War II on the EU’s human rights and welfare policies. The paper concludes with a discussion on how the US may enact its own path to abolition.