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Videotaping Experiments in an Analytical Chemistry Laboratory Course at Pace University
Get PDFInstructional videos for laboratory experiments performed in an analytical chemistry course were developed to show undergraduate students enrolled in the course how to conduct experiments. Students watched the videos before coming to the laboratory class. The effectiveness of using these videos was evaluated via a postlaboratory survey. The overall response to these videos was positive, with students reporting that the videos helped them to prepare beforehand and to understand the concepts covered in the experiment. The shortened discussion time at the beginning of class resulted in more laboratory time for the students to focus on performing the experiment and for the instructors to supervise, answer questions, make corrections to laboratory techniques, and ensure that the experiment is conducted in a safe manner
The Most Fundamental Right
Get PDFThe Magna Carta and successors recognize a right to the environment as central to human existence. Along with associated rule of law and due process, 193 national charters recognize such a right — but not the U.S. Constitution. This right does lie latent in America’s state constitutions, however, and can also be read into the federal document as well. Meanwhile, recognition of environmental rights is expanding globally
The Birth of a Nation: A Study of Slavery in Seventeenth-Century Virginia
Get PDFRace based slavery in North America had its origins in seventeenth-century Virginia. Initially, the position of the African worker was similar to that of the indentured servants from England. During the early to mid-seventeenth century, both African and English indentured servants served for a period of years and received the protections to which a servant was entitled. However, during the 1640s there appeared examples of Africans also being held as slaves. Thus, during the seventeenth century there existed a dual system of servitude or bondage for the African worker. One basis for this duality was the common law practice that mandated that Christians could not hold fellow Christians as slaves.
This dual system existed until the 1660s when the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative and highest judicial body in the colony, began to enact legislation that made it more difficult for Africans to assert claims that they were servants and not slaves. While the legal status of the black worker declined, that of white servants was elevated. White servants were granted protections under the laws as African servants and enslaved persons were denied those same accommodations. By 1705, the institution that became a codified system of slavery had been fully adopted in Virginia, and Africans had been reduced to property.
This article will explore the historical and legal status of the Africans in the Virginia Colony from 1619-1705. Part II will examine the status of African workers during the early years from 1619-1640. Part III will examine the transitional years from 1640-1660. Part IV explores the movement towards a fully formed slave institution. Part V discusses the final stage of the enslavement of Africans: the elimination of the servant status found in the early periods
The Time Has Come for a Universal Water Tribunal
Get PDFSince its inception in 1981, the International Water Tribunal has emerged as a non-governmental body with a multidisciplinary composition and a mandate based on conventional and customary international water law, which holds public hearings in order to address water-related complaints. This Article describes the historical background of the proposed Universal Water Tribunal (“UWT”) and significant difficulties on the horizon facing the proposed Tribunal (including political, practical, and legal-technical considerations). It then summarizes the key factors of such Tribunal and, finally, touches upon the proposed model based on an expanded concept of jurisdiction. The main underlying thesis is that, whereas the traditional model for interstate dispute settlement offers only limited possibilities of redress to non-state actors, the UWT provides them with the opportunity to present their demands before an environmental justice forum
#MeToo, Statutory Rape Laws, and the Persistence of Gender Stereotypes
Get PDFThis Article proceeds in five parts. Part I reviews the history of the legal and social movement from gender-specific to gender-neutral statutory rape laws. This Part includes an exploration of critical scholarship responding to the Supreme Court\u27s Michael M. decision. Part II explains the limitations of gender-specific legislation. This Part illustrates that there are two categories of gender-neutral statutory rape jurisdictions: age-differential statutes and arbitrary prosecution statutes. This Part also explores challenges to these statutes, particularly arbitrary prosecution statutes, on equal protection grounds. Part III provides empirical data that men are prosecuted at a rate four times greater than females and catalogs the overwhelming disparity between the prosecution of teenage males for consensual statutory rape and prosecution of teenage females for the same crimes. Part IV tests the outcomes of statutory rape prosecutions and considers whether the move to gender-neutral rape laws has achieved feminists\u27 goals such as removing female stereotypes and granting females more power over their own sexuality. Ultimately, this Article highlights how cultural movements can have long-simmering, unintended consequences, and the pernicious effects of the legislative shift to gender-neutrality stands as a cautionary tale to the #MeToo movement and its fight for workplace equality. This Article concludes with hope, offering a solution for change in the future
The Forgotten Unitary Executive Power: The Textualist, Originalist, and Functionalist Opinions Clause
Get PDFThis article will analyze the Opinion Clause’s text, its history and intent, and its potential functions as a power. Part II catalogues much of the prior scholarship on the Opinions Clause, which generally fits into two categories: the anti-unitary approach, which argues that a substantive reading of the Vesting Clause renders the Opinions Clause redundant, and the unitary response, which essentially accepts that redundancy. To some extent, both sides miss the mark. The unitary approach misreads the text, assigning great substantive weight to the descriptive Vesting Clause, while assigning descriptive status to the substantive Opinions Clause. The anti-unitary approach, on the other hand, neglects to analyze the substantive powers of the Opinions Clause and what they mean for the constitutional nature of the presidency. As a result, while anti-unitary scholars are correct in that the Opinions Clause refutes a substantive reading of the Vesting Clause, their position is undermined by their failure to advocate for a definable alternative. This article fills this space.
Part III focuses on the text of the Opinions Clause and analyzes its implications for the Presidency. The text vests the president with discretionary power to inform himself of the workings of the entire executive branch. On the other hand, the limited nature of this power suggests that the Constitution does not vest the president with unenumerated powers. For example, the Opinions Clause grants the president the authority to require a principal officer report to him, but it does not grant the president the power to remove that officer. To close this argument, the Opinions Clause and the broader structure of Article II is used to refute the unitary argument that the Vesting Clause fills in any of the gaps in power left by the Opinions Clause. Part IV assigns the Clause its historical significance by analyzing its introduction and adoption at the Philadelphia Convention. Then, it is shown that the Clause serves James Madison’s and the framers’ purpose of the presidency: to be a republican check on a factious legislature. To illustrate, Part V analyzes President Washington’s use of the Opinions Clause to prepare and execute a response to the Whiskey Rebellion. From this historical example, an inference is made of three Opinions Clause powers vested uniquely in the president: the Unitary Political and Legislative Power, the Unitary Judicial Power, and the Unitary Executive Power. These three powers enable the president to protect the executive branch from both legislative and judicial encroachments, garner political support amongst the electorate, and unify the executive branch even in situations where congress has restricted the president’s legal authority.
Finally, Part VI examines the recent practices of President Trump through the lens of the Opinions Clause, namely, President Trump’s attempt to use the Opinions Clause for his initial justification for the firing of former FBI Director James Comey. This Part includes the discovery of potentially troubling facts centered around the current President’s actions which tend to compromise the independence of the Department of Justice. In contrast to President Washington, who used the power of the Opinions Clause to further his legislative, judicial, and executive policies in crushing the Whiskey Rebellion, President Trump’s actions suggest a reason the framers granted the president this more limited power—to allow Congress the flexibility to regulate the execution of the law and prevent presidential abuse of power. Additionally, after documenting the evidence as we now know it, this Section turns to the steps congress can take on the basis of the correct reading of Article II. Congress can insulate inferior officers such as the FBI Director from reporting directly to the president, prevent presidents from ordering politically motivated investigations, and protect any officer, including Special Counsel Robert Mueller, from at-will removal
Board Diversity by Term Limits?
Get PDFFour-fifths of the corporate board seats in the United States are held by men and a shocking number of companies lack any female representation on their boards. While institutional investors have pushed these companies for change, California took a more aggressive step and followed several European countries by mandating a quota for board representation. Heated argument has ensued over what diversity we should prioritize and what mechanisms should be used to promote diversity. Yet could these challenges be avoided altogether through the use of term limits?
This Article is the first academic inquiry exploring the connection between term limits and the sex diversification of the corporate board. Drawing upon quantitative data on director turnover in the S&P 1500 and qualitative data on S&P 500 firms with term limits, our research shows that firms experiencing higher board turnover have more sex diversity. We argue that term limits, a mechanism that increases turnover, may correlate with improved sex diversity on boards. Our findings suggest that promoting term limits in the United States offers a market-based mechanism that could avert this polarized diversity debate