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Constitutionalizing Ethics
Get PDFThe purpose of this essay is not to weigh in the wisdom or utility in revising New York’s Constitution. However, in my opinion, one of the most compelling reasons to amend New York’s Constitution is the need to incorporate into the fundamental charter a meaningful code of ethics, including procedures for its enforcement, and sanctions for violations. New York over the past fifteen years has experienced more scandals, criminal prosecutions, and convictions of lawmakers and other government officials for corruption than any state in the nation. It is certainly arguable that the extent of New York’s corruption, and the widespread cynicism and distrust of the New York government, may be attributable to the state’s inability to enact meaningful and enforceable ethics laws. The public perception appears to be that New York’s government is not working for them and that some officials subordinate the good of the state to their own personal gain. It is this crisis in government ethics that to me offers one of the strongest arguments for amending the constitution to bring about meaningful ethics reforms
Updating New York’s Constitutional Environmental Rights
Get PDFThe stakes are high as New York State considers whether to amend the constitution. The electorate contemplates the gathering crises of sea level rise, disruption of weather patterns, intensified summer heat waves, and other climate change impacts. New York also faces escalating environmental problems, which the newly perceived climate impacts in turn exacerbate. It is timely to debate whether or not New York should recognize the right to the environment to its constitution. In 2016, the House of Delegates of the New York State Bar Association adopted the report of its committee on the constitution, regarding the environmental conservation article XIV. That report did not take a position on whether to expand the Constitution’s existing environmental rights to recognize a broad environmental right explicitly. A task force of the association’s section on environmental and energy law examined the issue for six months and concluded that there is merit in recognizing the right to the environment. This article introduces the emergence of this issue in its historical context
The Constitutional Convention and Court Merger in New York State
Get PDFIn November 2017, voters in New York, for the first time in twenty years, will be asked to decide whether there “[s]hall be a convention to revise the constitution and amend the same?” If it is decided by the electorate to call a convention, “delegates will be elected in November 2018, and the convention will convene in April 2019.” One of the significant goals of a convention would be the achievement of court merger in the Empire State. The purpose of this perspective is to discuss the pros and cons of a constitutional convention with an emphasis on court merger
A Study of the Relationships Between Cognitive Functioning, Prodromal Cognitive Decline, and Predictors of Psychosis in an Adolescent Inpatient Population
No full textThere is strong evidence that people with limited cognitive functioning are at higher risk of developing schizophrenia (SC) and other psychotic disorders. However, it is also known that the occurrence of severe psychopathology in children and adolescents is likely to have a deleterious effect on cognitive functioning. The present study looked at the associations between cognitive deficits, estimated premorbid cognitive decline, clinical symptomology, and psychotic disorders in adolescents. The sample was drawn from a larger sample of 819 males and 742 females, ages 13–18, who were referred for psychological evaluation in an inpatient hospital setting. The sample was administered cognitive, performance, self-report, and therapist report measures in order to examine cognitive, symptom, and personality patterns. Results revealed significant relationships between patterns of cognitive deficits in adolescents and psychotic symptoms. Specifically, older adolescents are more likely to demonstrate prodromal cognitive decline. Further, results demonstrated that general cognitive ability, cognitive efficiency skills, and verbal fluency abilities significantly predicted psychotic symptoms on self-report and therapist ratings but limitedly on a performance based measure. Visual-motor abilities demonstrated variable and less robust relationships with psychotic symptoms across the measures. Overall the study supports past research, done primarily with adults, that has found psychosis to be associated with significant and widespread impairments in neurocognitive functioning. These findings have important implications for school-clinical child psychologists
Maternal Movement Patterns in Relation to Personality Features and Emotional Availability: An Application of the Kestenberg Movement Profile
No full textThe current study is part of a set of studies developed within the Mind, Movement, Interaction and Development Research Group of Pace University, supervised by K. Mark Sossin, Ph.D. This study was designed to contribute to current understandings of relational qualities, interpersonal differences, and meaningful nonverbal behaviors observable in parent-dyad relationships. The purpose of this particular study is to explore correspondences among nonverbal behavioral indices of relational patterns demonstrated by both mother and infant, maternal personality features, and observed emotional availability in the dyads. The sample is comprised of 10 mothers in co-presence and unstructured interaction with their 8-14 month old infants. The Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP; Kestenberg, 1975) was used to systemically code the movement of mothers interacting with their children on digital media video. This was executed in real-time speed, in which the coders coded per movement event. The quality of mother-infant interactions was observed and coded utilizing the Emotional Availability Scales, 4th Edition (EAS; Biringen, 2008); these data were from a larger data set and analyzed by a previous team. EAS was assessed from the interaction of mother-infant pairs who participated in a 20-minute free play session that was videotaped. The same video sampling was used for both EAS and KMP codings. The Laban and Kestenberg literatures suggest correspondences between Effort Movement Patterns and adult personality. Current findings with this small sample partially supported specific hypotheses, and did not confirm others. Key findings included that reliability proved to be challenging between both co-raters for several variables which limited the interpretation of certain results containing unreliable variables. Further, the exploration of the 23 most frequent sequential movement patterns indicate correlations between lagl movement sequences with EA and NEO-FFI-3 variables: direct followed by strong and strong followed by direct were found to have positive correlations with EA Structure, acceleration followed by direct positively correlated with NEO Extraversion, and direct followed by light was found to negatively correlate with EA Non-Hostility. Regarding singular movement frequencies, it was found that Extraversion was negatively correlated with the Strong movement, Neuroticism was positively correlated with Gentle movement patterns, Agreeableness positively correlated with Light movements. Results suggest that there are associations between select movement patterns and personality traits within the constructs of the KMP and NEO-FFI-3 assessments. Results are further discussed in terms of the limitations, practical applications of the findings and implications for future research
Personality Patterns Among Adolescents with Histories of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury With or Without Attempted Suicide
No full textA growing body of research has attempted to better understand the complex relationship between non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidal behavior among adolescents. However, there is a lack of research utilizing performance based psychological measures to examine the unique traits and patterns of adolescents who engage in any or both of these behaviors. The present study aimed to compare the personality patterns and correlates of adolescent inpatients with histories of NSSI and/or suicide attempts (SA). The sample consisted of 185 adolescents, ages 13-18, who were referred for psychological evaluation in an inpatient hospital setting. The Rorschach, a self-report measure, and chart reviews were used to compare the groups. Results revealed a statistically significant relationship between NSSI and suicide attempts; specifically, participants with a history of NSSI have nearly four times the likelihood of attempting suicide. Findings from the performance-based measure indicate that teens with a history of NSSI experience significantly more anxiety, higher levels of emotional lability, and aggression in comparison to those with histories of suicide attempts. Findings suggests that the NSSI group exhibited the following grouping of traits which differentiate the NSSI group from the SA group: anxiety, affective distress, unmodulated affect, and limited capacity to experience and enjoy positive feelings. Suicidality was the main variable that differentiated adolescents with suicide attempts only in comparison to the NSSI only group. These findings have important implications for school-clinical child psychologists who are treating adolescents with different variations of suicidal and non-suicidal behaviors. Key Words: NSSI, suicide, adolescent
Commercial Arbitration: Germany and the United States
Get PDFArbitration has deep roots in the legal cultures of the United States and Germany--and is still an important option for resolving disputes in both countries today. As far back as Colonial times, US merchants used arbitration to settle industry disputes, and in the early 19th century, American stockbrokers resolved intra-industry disputes through arbitration at the New York Stock Exchange. In Germany, a country with a civil law rather than a common law tradition, commercial arbitration has been practiced for centuries: the first draft of the German Code of Civil Procedure from 1877 included a section establishing the legal foundations of arbitration
The Dynamic Landscape of Marketing Children\u27s Books: Publishers find Consistent Success Through a Combination of Online and Traditional Marketing to Adults and Children.
No full textThe Negative Ramifications of Hate Crime Legislation: It’s Time to Reevaluate Whether Hate Crime Laws are Beneficial to Society
Get PDFSupporters of hate crime legislation suggest that the primary reason for the codification of hate crime laws is “to send a strong message of tolerance and equality, signaling to all members of society that hatred and prejudice on the basis of identity will be punished with extra severity.” However, hate crime laws may actually be accomplishing the opposite effect of tolerance and equality because they encourage U.S. citizens to view themselves, not as members of our society, but as members of a protected group. The enactment of hate crime legislation at the federal and state levels has led to unintended consequences and unfair practices. Today, the controversy regarding the effectiveness of hate crime laws is debated, and people question whether this type of legislation is beneficial to society. This article will candidly reevaluate hate crime legislation. Part II will provide the definition of the term “hate crime” and the theoretical justification for enhanced sentencing involving discrimination-based conduct. Focus will be placed on data that disproves the theory that hate crime laws reduce or deter future hate crimes. It will also explain the underlying reasons for the enactment of hate crime laws, such as the media’s role and political influences, and it will present several of the misconceptions associated with hate crime legislation. Part III will present the unintended consequences associated with the enactment of hate crime statutes, including constitutional violations. It will also explain why hate crimes are rarely prosecuted, and will focus on the inconsistency, redundancy, and arbitrary usage/application of hate crime legislation. Part III will also present an individual’s response to the negative, unintended effects of hate crime legislation. Part IV will determine that hate crime legislation is not cost-effective. Part V sets forth a recommendation on improving community efforts to educate or reeducate citizens on respecting diversity. Finally, the article analyzes hate crime laws from supporting and opposing viewpoints and concludes that there is no need to separate hate crimes from other types of crimes as a means to promote a more tolerant, equal, and stable society
A Window of Opportunity for GMO Regulation: Achieving Food Integrity Through Cap-and-Trade Models from Climate Policy for GMO Regulation
Get PDFGMOs are the links of our centralized food system, largely dependent on international trade. GMOs are inherently unsustainable because they reduce biodiversity, harm the environment, and empower positive feedback loops between monocultures, industrial agriculture, and biodiversity depletion, thereby jeopardizing food safety, security, and sovereignty. Conglomerates of multi-national companies, in short BigAg, shape multi-lateral food trade and flood international markets with their small array and enormous volumes of crops, while controlling large aspects of agriculture and food production world-wide. Zooming in on the trans-Atlantic dispute about GE crops, this paper uses comparative law to explore how a cap-and-trade model borrowed from climate change policy might help to decentralize the current food system, thereby potentially restoring locally-oriented agriculture and food integrity.
GMOs are under-regulated in the US and international trade frameworks enable the centralization of trans-Atlantic food systems, dominated by the US. This is possible because of the free trade/biotechnology policy in the US and the agricultural exceptionalism, which are, in theory, obstacles to food integrity. By comparison, the precautionary and protectionist approaches in the EU facilitate some food integrity, albeit not enough as a result of US trade pressures. The pressures could be partially lifted if there were a cap on those crops that enable the centralization of the system, namely GE crops patented and produced by US-American BigAg conglomerates. Essentially, when GE corn, soy, wheat, rice were capped in permissible trade volumes, other non-GE crops may enter the market, thereby diversifying and decentralizing food systems, encouraging local agriculture, and opening pathways where more sustainable practices could be instituted.
In an effort to contextualize the herein proposed cap-and-trade upstream model regulation of GMOs borrowed from climate change policy, this paper explains the distinctions between GE and conventionally bred crops, between agriculture and food law, between the US free trade and the EU protectionism approaches (including the bedrocks of each legal framework) to trading GE crops, as well as the inherent dangers of the widespread use of GMOs in the trans-Atlantic food system. A likely conclusion of this paper will be that a cap-and-trade model, as proposed, may take decades to be passed into law, if ever, but it also highlights that the links between preserving food integrity, mitigating climate change, and maintaining open food trade are ripe for progressive and pro-active review