Legal Studies Commons^™

Exploring District Judges' Decision Making In The Context Of Admitting Expert Testimony, Andrew Bryan Dzeguze

Dissertations and Theses

Over the last several decades, multiple schools of thought have emerged regarding what impacts judicial decision making. In contrast to the classic legal model, studies have argued alternatively that judges are policy actors who rule consistent with their political attitudes; that behavioral traits such as race, gender and socialization influence judicial conduct, both consciously and unconsciously; that whatever policy interests judges may have, these are moderated by institutional constraints and strategic considerations; and that judges are subject to some common cognitive shortcuts in decision making, although they may be moderated or present differently than in the general population in light …

Domestic And International Firearm Laws: Can Implementation Be Used To Nationally Decrease Firearm Violence And Mass Shootings, Kenneth Banuelos

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The issue of firearm violence in the United States is highly controversial, as there are sound arguments on both sides of the discussion. Advocates of stricter gun laws often refer to both international and domestic examples that highlight the effectiveness of more restrictive firearm policies. Japan and Australia are two such countries that are continually referred to when a tragedy, such as a mass shooting, occurs in the United States and initial reactions often emphasis a need for fewer guns in the general public. Opposition to the proposed reforms of firearm policies cite the importance of the Second Amendment which …

Mafia And Globalization: The Consequences Of Economic Integration Without Legal Symmetry, Benjamin White

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This project will examine the relationship between mafia and globalization through the lenses of two case studies, focusing on the Calabrian criminal organization known as ‘Ndrangheta. The first case study revolves around the Port of Gioia Tauro, which serves as the drug trafficking hub of ‘Ndrangheta and is emblematic of the overall trends in global commercial traffic and security deficits. The purpose of this case study is to demonstrate how ‘Ndrangheta exploits the advanced economic integration that began in the 1990s and continues to exist in the gap between frantic commercial activity and limited government oversight. This case study begins …

Proposition 47 And Crime: A Difference In Differences Analysis Of Incarceration Rates And Crime Using Border Counties, Brian J. Fischer

Theses and Dissertations

California passed Proposition 47 by vote and changed the way the state punishes drug and theft. I find an increase in crime using a difference in differences model by computing the change in thefts with the change in inmates. This effect sides with anecdotal claims and disagrees with empirical studies.

Non-Traditional Transitional Justice Mechanisms And Perceptions And Symptoms Of Victimization Among Diasporic Individuals: Members Of The Coptic Christian Diaspora In The United States As A Case Study, Samy S. A. Gerges

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

Transitional justice measures are state-centered measures articulating atrocities committed by officials and occurring within the borders of a specific state. Questioning members of a Diaspora about the impact of transitional justice on their self-classification as victims and their experienced symptoms of victimization may therefore support attempts to expand the field of transitional justice. This study contributes to a body of work promoting understanding of the possibilities and constraints of transitional justice mechanisms, in the context of hate crime against Copts by Muslims in Egypt. To analyze the impact of restored relationships on self-classified victimhood and experienced symptoms of victimization, the …

Polarization And The Supreme Court, Kyla Duffy

Senior Honors Projects

Political polarization has been commonly observed in American politics and has drawn scholarly interest. In recent years, trends of polarization have appeared to increase in Congress, with Democrats and Republicans drifting further and further apart. Americans appear to be deeply split on many social issues which have resulted in culture wars in American politics. According to the legal model of judicial decision making, decisions handed down by the Supreme Court should be unaffected by these trends of polarization. However, recent scholarship, most notably the attitudinal model of judicial decision making, calls into question the legal model of decision making. It …

Federal Circuit Courts’ Impact On Immigration Reform: An Analysis Of Judicial Ideology And Immigration Policy, Evanna Ojeda

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Regulation of immigration policy is an expressed power granted to the federal government in the Constitution; however, state and local governments often pass immigration policy legislation to address gaps in federal legislation. This research project seeks to understand the role of federal circuit courts ruling powers in determining the legal standing and substitute holding of merits for immigration policy regulation. By analyzing the political ideology of presiding judges and understanding the relationship between political ideology and judicial decision support for federal or state regulated policy, this project seeks to recognize the role of federal circuit courts in enhancing and shaping …

Oops!... I Infringed Again: An Analysis Of U.S. Copyright And Its Intended Beneficiaries, Gabriele A. Forbes-Bennett

Student Theses and Dissertations

This paper seeks to establish the reasons why federal copyright protection was created, discuss the shifts in reasoning behind major amendments, and explore its effects on copyright holders and the public, with a slight focus on the music industry. Federal copyright has existed in the United States since the late 1700s, with the creation of the Copyright Act in 1790. Adopted from the first copyright law ever created, the English Statute of Anne (1710), the Copyright Act was meant to protect citizens from piracy in a world where the risk of such a thing was rapidly increasing. The stated objective …

Three Strikes Law: Penal Extremism And Draconian Rhetoric, Marcelo Swofford

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

In our modern political history, there has been a separation between the two main political parties, the Democrats and Republicans, on virtually every major issue that has surfaced in our society aside from incarceration, which was emphasized by Democrat Bill Clinton’s introduction of the Three Strikes Law at the beginning of his term in 1994. The logistics of the Three Strikes Law are that once a criminal has been convicted of two violent/serious crimes, once they are convicted of a third felony then they will be sentenced to anything between a 25 year sentence and life sentence; the Three Strikes …

Acknowledgments, Howard S. Carrier

International Journal on Responsibility

Serious work to bring the International Journal on Responsibility to life commenced during the summer of 2015. In the intervening period between conceptualization and publication, many organizations and individuals within James Madison University and the wider community have contributed enormously to bringing the journal to fruition.

Who Is Responsible For Ethical Legal Education, For What And To Whom? Case Of Kosovo, Sabiha Shala, Gjylbehare Muharti

International Journal on Responsibility

Legal education continues to be one of the most demanded areas of study from the younger generation in Kosovo. As result, the number of law graduates is quite high. On the other hand, the rule of law sector is quite fragile, judges and lawyers are perceived by parts of the society to be ethically dysfunctional. The trust in judicial institutions is quite low. The debate which is going on now is whose main responsibility for such a situation that is. Is the duty of the higher education institutions providing legal education, or is it a responsibility of educational institutions at …

Resolving The Paradox Of Holding People Responsible, Hal Pepinsky

International Journal on Responsibility

Regardless of justification, it is commonplace throughout the U.S. criminal justice system as in everyday life to teach our offenders and children alike that wrong actions “have consequences,” namely, those authority figures promise to impose upon them. We do so in the name of holding people responsible for their actions, or in legal parlance in civil law, holding them accountable or liable. I noticed that in Norwegian, responsibility, accountability and liability translate into one word, ansvar, which I have translated from Germanic to Latin roots as “responsiveness.” In practice, the state of being responsive to others with whom one conflicts …

Political Flip-Flopping, Political Responsibility, Current Governance, And The Disenfranchised, T.Y. Okosun

International Journal on Responsibility

No abstract provided.

What Does Responsibility Mean To Me?, Arun Gandhi

International Journal on Responsibility

No abstract provided.

Who Is Responsible To Do What For Whom? A Letter From The Editor-In-Chief, Terry Beitzel

International Journal on Responsibility

No abstract provided.

Ua12/2/2 2018 Talisman: Grit, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

2018 Talisman yearbook.

• Gibson, Helen. Grit
• Zambrano, Max. Cash Cows – Chaney’s Dairy Barn
• Holt, Delaney. A Quarry Story – White Stone Quarry, Caden Quarry
• McKee, Rylee. Beautiful Grit – BellaMoxi, Dance
• Voorhees, Jessica. Digging Deep – Jean-Luc Houle, Anthropology
• Lucas, Kaley. Black Mountain
• Edwards, Aly. Roots of Stigma – McKenna Vierstra, Jordan Frodge, Max Williams, Robin Farrell
• Eastham, Lillie. Grab ‘Em by the Ballot – Time’s Up Movement
• McCarthy, Hannah. Flesh Memories
• Barritt, Brooklyn. Making a Place at the Table – Dungeons & Dragons
• Gary, Summer. For Adoption: Unwanted Mutt
• Waters, Adrianna. For the Love of Creation – Art …

Beyond The Movement: State Action In Addressing Campus Sexual Violence, Amijo Wadena

Political Science Theses and Capstones

The "Me Too" movement, started by actress Alyssa Milano, has helped shine a light on the prevalence of sexual harassment and sexual violence throughout the country. While it has helped the public understand the magnitude of the issue, it has only started the conversation about sexual violence. And while the focus has mostly been on Hollywood, there has been one area that is being overlooked; sexual violence on College and University campuses. With Secretary DeVos' repeal of Obama era policies, the current administration is being a lot less transparent when it comes to sexual violence, in general. With policy-making responsibility …

Volume 10, Taylor Hogg, Tiffany Carter, Brandyn Johnson, Haleigh James, Josh Baker, Tyler Cernak, Kirsten Bauer, Allie Snavely, Mary Zell Galen, Eric Powell, Thomas Wise, Katie Kinsey, Beth Barbolla, Maeleigh Ferlet, Rebecca Morra, Michala Day, Alexandra Evangelista, Max Flores, Harley Hodges, Clardene Jones, Harrison Samaniego, Jamesha Watson, Abby Gargiulo, Heather Green, Haley Klepatzki, Juan Guevara, Dani Bondurant, Michael Joseph Link Jr., Pamela Dahl, Maeve Losen, Charlotte Murphey

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Introduction Dr. Roger A. Byrne

An Analysis of Media Framing in Cases of Violence Against Women by Taylor Hogg

Writing in the Discipline of Nursing by Tiffany Carter

Photography by Brandyn Johnson

The Hidden Life of Beef Cattle: A Study of Cattle Welfare on Traditional Ranches and Industrial Farms by Haleigh James

Bloodworth's by Josh Baker and Tyler Cernak

Prosimians: Little Bodies, Big Significance by Kirsten Bauer

Skinformed by Allie Snavely

Coopertition and Gracious Professionalism: The Effects of First Robotics Folklore and Culture on the Stem Community by Mary Zell Galen

Tilt by Eric Powell And Thomas Wise

The Millennial …

Review, The New Era Of Secret Law, Patrice Mcdermott

Secrecy and Society

In a recent Brennan Center report, The New Era of Secret Law, Elizabeth (Liza) Goitein articulates, examines, and evaluates the claims for and objections to secret law. Under this banner, the report includes any law that is withheld from the public, regardless of whether it may be shared among agencies or with certain members or committees of Congress.” Goitein’s underlying goal is to propose procedural and substantive reforms. Secret Law is a deeply-researched and highly valuable policy brief with an aim of making specific policy recommendations. And readable to boot.

Explaining Civilian Attacks: Terrorist Networks, Principal-Agent Problems And Target Selection, Max Abrahms, Matthew Ward, Ryan Kennedy

Department of Political Science

Terrorist groups exhibit variation in their targeting choices. Why do some groups direct their violence against civilians while others limit this occurrence? This study analyzes the network relationships between terrorist groups to elucidate their targeting behavior. Drawing upon insights from the organizational ecology and conflict literatures, we predict that terrorist group affiliates will be significantly more likely than their parent group to attack civilian targets. Our original principal-agent theory consistently outperforms extant explanations in a multi-method analysis of 238 terrorist groups from 1998 to 2005. These results shed new light on why certain terrorist groups are more likely than others …

Sexual Violence In The Field Of Vision, Sharon Sliwinski

Data and Test Instruments

Meditating on a single photograph from a recent Human Rights Watch report concerning police violence in Northern British Columbia, Canada, this paper pursues two lines of questions about the visual politics of human rights. One concerns how our ways of seeing—our modes of attending to the vulnerability and integrity of particular persons—can itself be understood as a form of human rights practice. The other aims to widen space in contemporary political theory for thinking about how sexual violence functions as a central technology of sovereignty and how we might make this phenomenon more perceptible. The paper explores the ways photographs …

The Effect Of Partisanship On The Passage Of Environmental Legislation, Samantha Yoest

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

This paper addresses the question of how partisanship plays a role in congressional productivity by looking at the number of environmental laws passed each year. This includes analysis of anti-environmental legislation and the connection to party. It was found that, on average, Democratic majorities produce more environmental laws than Republican majorities. Not only that, but polarization has the largest influence on environmental legislation. With an increase in polarization on environmental issues, more anti-environmental legislation is being voted on in Congress, and fewer environmental laws are being passed per year. Ultimately, the conditions producing the lowest number of roll-back environmental bills …

Policy Implications Of News Media Coverage Of The Islamic State Of Iraq And Syria., Godfred A. Ababio

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) garnered global news media attention in Summer 2014 when it seized a significant section of land in Iraq and Syria. The group then mishandled and executed its captives. There is a lack of consensus among the international community, led by Russia and the United States, on how best to address the threat posed by ISIS. An understanding of the function of Russian and U.S. news media coverage of the ISIS threat is an appropriate research topic. The purpose of this qualitative content analysis study was to explore how the U.S, Russian, and …

A Critical Analysis Of Humanitarian Intervention As A Source Of Reputational Credibility, Margaux Arntson

CMC Senior Theses

Since his election into office, a cloud of uncertainty has surrounded President Trump’s foreign policy ambitions. Much of today’s scholarship concerns its unpredictable nature and scope. President Trump, like previous presidents who have come before him, entered office with very little foreign policy experience. A key feature of his non-principled, fast-alternating foreign policy is that few people know exactly what he is going to propose next in terms of his international strategy. Coupled with this strategy is Trump’s desire for international credibility and a strong reputation. This desire seems fundamentally at odds with his foreign policy strategy, as Trump proposes …

Making Brazil Work? Brazilian Coalitional Presidentialism At 30 And Its Post- Lava Jato Prospects, Andrea Scoseria Katz

Scholarship@WashULaw

In 1865, British constitutional theorist Walter Bagehot memorably explained that the success of British government lay in “the efficient secret” of its Constitution, which mandates “the nearly complete fusion” of the Government and a strong, programmatic, and productive Parliament. By this yardstick, it is not a terrible exaggeration to say that the Brazilian Constitution of 1988 harbors a very inefficient secret: a weak legislature, widely accused of opportunism and corruption coupled with a diffuse, weak party system that results in ad hoc, temporary, pork-driven legislative coalitions, and a president with ample powers and responsibility for public administrative outcomes.

For the …

Chevron Patterns In The Circuit Courts, Christina L. Boyd, Kent Barnett, Christopher J. Walker

Scholarship@WashULaw

Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. NRDC required courts to defer to federal agencies reasonable interpretation of ambiguous statutes that are administered through the agency. However, recently this “Chevron deference” has been called into question by the judiciary, the legal academy, and Congress. In this essay we briefly describe and highlight three of the most noteworthy findings from our empirical study of over 1,300 decisions of agency statutory interpretation (based on articles published in Chevron in the Circuit Courts, 116 Mich. L. Rev. 1 (2017) (Barnett and Walker); Chevron Step Two’s Domain, 93 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1441 (2018) (Barnett and Walker); …

Political Opportunism, Position Taking, And Court-Curbing Legislation., Laura Moyer, Ellen M. Key

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Although there is extensive scholarship on court-curbing efforts directed at the U.S. Supreme Court, much less is known about bills targeting the lower federal courts. This article argues that members of Congress also engage in position taking with respect to the U.S. Courts of Appeals, by proposing legislation to divide up the Ninth Circuit. Over seven decades, no other circuit has attracted as much court-curbing legislation as the Ninth Circuit, and yet no bill has succeeded. What accounts for this persistent focus on one court? We argue that bill sponsors are motivated primarily by electoral considerations and capitalize on the …

Edward A. Ross: Social Development And Social Control, Ernest M. Oleksy

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

With a foundation in philosophy and history, core concepts of sociology and criminology that were initially posited over a century ago are still useful in understanding the workings of today's society. The contributions of Edward A. Ross have helped latter day researchers centralize their studies of polycentric topics by using social control as an omnipresent social fact. By comparing Ross's descriptions of 19th century society and the researcher's descriptions of 21^st century society, a continuous understanding of a heavily pluralistic discipline comes to life.

Lgbtq+ Nondiscrimination Laws In Kentucky., Christopher M Wales

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the political and demographic obstacles facing the Fairness movement in Kentucky in regards to local employment protection ordinances for LGBTQ+ persons (Fairness Ordinances). Using case studies on recent Fairness debates in Berea and Bowling Green, this thesis explores the concern some Kentuckians have about LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination ordinances in their communities. From these cases studies, it can be concluded that many of the concerns espoused by opponents of Fairness are simple scare tactics with no evidence supporting their claims. This thesis then utilizes a logistical regression to uncover what demographic characteristics increase the odds of a municipality possessing …

Forming Community Partnerships, Lori Foley

CHAR

In the event of a disaster, regardless of the type or scope, the first response is always local. For the institutions and organizations charged with safeguarding the nation’s cultural and historic resources – museums, historical societies, libraries, and municipal offices, to name just a few – building relationships with local first responders and emergency managers before disaster strikes is key to ensuring the safety of staff and collections. State emergency management agencies are also collaborating with their state cultural agencies to protect these valuable and vulnerable resources. The resulting emergency networks better position the local community and the state to …