22222 research outputs found
Sort by
Distorted Burden Shifting & Barred Mitigation: Being a Stubborn 234 Years Old Ironically Hasn’t Helped the Supreme Court Mature
Get PDFThis Note explores the intricate relationship between emerging adulthood, defined as the transitional phase between youth and adulthood (ages 18-25), and the legal implications of capital punishment. Contrary to a fixed age determining adulthood, research highlights the prolonged nature of the maturation process, especially for individuals impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). The Note challenges the current legal framework that deems individuals aged 18 to 25 who experienced ACEs as eligible for capital punishment, highlighting the cognitive impact of ACEs on developmental trajectories. Examining cases like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Billy Joe Wardlow, this Note argues that courts often bypass mitigating evidence related to ACEs, thereby perpetuating judicial errors. The mismatched burdens of proof for aggravating and mitigating factors further compound the problem, contributing to a flawed system that disproportionately affects emerging adults. In response to these issues, some states are reevaluating their approach to emerging adult justice, considering initiatives such as “raise the age” campaigns and specialized courts. The Note promotes an approach that aligns with cognitive age appropriateness, tailoring interventions to encompass restorative justice, rehabilitative measures, and a comprehensive legal framework to address the distinct needs of the emerging adult population. Recognizing the potential for cognitive development and rehabilitation during this transitional phase, this Note contends that alternative methods can provide opportunities for ACE-impacted individuals to age out of criminal behaviors, potentially altering life trajectories and mitigating the imposition of capital punishment
Reinforcing the Educational Glass Ceiling: For-Profit Institution’s Cost of Attending for Women
Get PDFSecrets Clutched in a Dead Hand: Rethinking Posthumous Psychotherapist-Patient Privilege in the Light of Reason and Experience with Other Evidentiary Privileges
Get PDFAttorney-client privilege was held by the Supreme Court to extend beyond death in 1996, albeit only ratifying centuries of accepted practice in the lower courts and England before them. But with the lawyer’s client dead, the natural outcome of such a rule is that privilege—the legal enforcement of secrecy—will persist forever, for only the dead client could ever have waived and thus end it. Perpetuity is not traditionally favored by the law for good reason, and yet a long and broad line of precedent endorses its application to privilege. The recent emergence of a novel species of privilege for psychotherapy, however, affords an opportunity to take a fresh look at the long-tolerated enigma of eternity and the imprudence of thoughtlessly importing it to the newest addition to the family of privileges. Frankly, humanity has always deserved better than legalisms arrogating to the inscrutability of the infinite
Mediating Effect of BMI on the Association of Economic Status and Coexistence of Hypertension and Diabetes in Bangladesh: A Counterfactual Framework-based Weighting Approach
Get PDFBackground and Aims
Non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes are matters of huge concern worldwide, with an increasing trend in prevalence over the previous decade. First of all, this study aimed to evaluate the association between economic status (ES) and body mass index (BMI), ES and comorbidity of hypertension and diabetes, and BMI and comorbidity independently. Second, it explored the mediating role of BMI in the association between ES and comorbidity of hypertension and diabetes. Finally, it investigated whether the mediating effect differs with the place of residence, gender, and education levels. Methods
A total of 11,291 complete cases from the Bangladesh demographic and health survey 2017–18 were utilized for this study. Survey-based binary logistic regression or multiple logistic regression was used to find the association among outcome, exposure, and mediator variables, and a counterfactual framework-based weighting approach was utilized for mediation analysis. Results
Middle-income (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 1.696, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.219, 2.360) and rich (AOR: 2.770, CI: 2.054, 3.736) respondents were more likely to have comorbidity of hypertension and diabetes compared to the poor. The odds of comorbidity increased with the increase in BMI. A positive association was observed between ES and BMI. A significant mediating role of BMI in the association between ES and comorbidity was found. We observed that 19.85% (95% CI: 11.50%, 49.6%) and 20.35% (95% CI: 14.9%, 29.3%) of total effect was mediated by BMI for middle and rich respondents, respectively, compared to the poor. Conclusions
The mediating role of BMI was greater for female, no or primary educated respondents, and respondents from rural areas. Therefore, the study will facilitate policymakers of Bangladesh and other countries with a similar set-up to decide on health policies regarding hypertension and diabetes
Pleading for Justice: Analyzing Ohio’s Wrongful Conviction Compensation Statute and the Guilty Plea Disqualification Provision
Get PDFInnocent until proven guilty? For some who have walked through the criminal justice system, this American adage did not seem to ring true. The criminal justice system has produced many wrongful convictions, which is an unthinkable injustice. These individuals must then fight for compensation to get back on their feet in society after spending years, if not decades, unjustly behind bars. Ohio’s wrongful conviction compensation statute perpetuates this injustice by categorically excluding exonerees who pled guilty to a crime they did not commit from receiving compensation from the State, with no exceptions. This Note critically analyzes the inherent harms from such an exclusion and proposes an amendment to Ohio’s compensation statute that remedies these harms by giving the exoneree an opportunity to show why they pled guilty to a crime they did not commit. Ohio’s abandonment of this guilty plea disqualification provision in the compensation statute would be one step in the direction of seeking justice for those who were presumed guilty until proven innocent
Remodeling the Fruitless Link Between the Security Council and the International Criminal Court: Why Amending the UN Charter Could be the Greatest Tribute International Politics Has Ever Paid to International Law
Get PDFEstablished in 2002, the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) has become a symbolic cornerstone of international criminal jurisprudence—prosecuting and convicting individuals for the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression—collectively referred to as atrocity crimes.
One way the ICC can lawfully exercise jurisdiction is by referral—in the form of a resolution—from the UN Security Council. The language of Charter of the United Nations and the Rome Statute collaborate to provide an avenue for the Security Council to grant the ICC jurisdiction over atrocity crime situations. Such resolutions grant the ICC full jurisdiction over the suspected criminal individual(s), regardless of whether the party has per se accepted ICC jurisdiction.
But, there is a problem. The ICC has been accused to be “all bark, no bite” by some, and as being “a giant without limbs” by others because of its scant conviction record. This has induced calls to amend or abolish the ICC. Even more troublesome is the ICC’s less-than-fruitful association with the Permanent Five members of the Security Council: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The incessant disagreement among the Permanent Five has, in effect, tied the jurisdictional hands of the ICC, permitting dozens of perpetrators of atrocity crimes to go without proper adjudication by the ICC.
International law is inherently political, and it can be difficult, if not impossible, to separate Security Council political interests from legal analysis. Therefore, a dramatic reform of pertinent articles of the UN Charter must be considered in an effort to both resolve Security Council paralysis and foster greater influence of the ICC.
The Security Council’s damaging influence on the utility of the ICC has its roots in two sources: (1) the political motives of the Permanent Five and (2), the permissive text of the UN Charter. In statutory terms, those sources are Article 27 of the UN Charter, which empowers each of the Permanent Five with an unrestricted veto when the Security Council is voting to pass a resolution, and Article 41, which affords great deference to the Security Council in determining if an atrocity crime situation is worthy of considering jurisdiction to the ICC. As a result, the Security Council has consistently neglected to draft resolutions—let alone vote on them—concerning alleged crimes and proposing ICC jurisdiction, harmfully keeping the ICC on the sidelines.
This Note proposes additions to the statutory language of Articles 27 and 41 of the UN Charter, aiming to reduce the impact of the political wills of the Permanent Five, and thereby strengthening the link between the Security Council and the ICC. The proposed amendments below may be regarded as improbable or idealistic. However, it is impossible to suggest new language to the UN Charter without some degree of far-reaching optimism—a confidence that the objectivity of the law will eventually prevail over the subjectivity of geopolitics
Breaking “Golden Handcuffs” with the ADAPT OER Homework Platform
No full textOne of the principal limiting factors in large scale adoption of OER is the absence of comparable free or low-cost homework platforms to complement existing and developing OER textbooks. This action lab addresses the LibreTexts efforts to remove this barrier by building and expanding the open-source ADAPT homework system - a central component of the LibreVerse ecosystem of courseware technologies - to supplant existing for-profit commercial systems. ADAPT is designed as a centralized OER question bank (\u3e190 k questions) that combines adaptive learning incorporating learning trees with culturally responsive pedagogy for advanced use. We will demonstrate how instructors can use ADAPT to augment existing and newly constructed OER textbooks with summative exercises and embed them in LMSs, LibreTexts textbooks, in a standalone web application, and in-class clickers. Discussions will demonstrate how the ADAPT empowers faculty to build and use existing questions in multiple modalities
Comprehensive Mechanistic Analysis of the Ring-Opening Polymerization of [PCl2N]3 Using Quantum Mechanical Calculations
No full textThe most popular method to synthesize polychlorophosphazenes, the parent of a prominent class of inorganic polymers, is the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of [PCl2N](3). In contrast to the accepted (S(N)1-initiated) ROP mechanism that begins with heterolytic P-Cl bond cleavage in [PCl2N](3), our quantum mechanical (QM) calculations suggest that the ROP can proceed through a S(N)2-like route in which one [PCl2N](3) can be attacked by a neighboring [PCl2N](3) and hence transform through a four-center transition state (4C PNPCl TS), yielding a cyclic chlorophosphazene with a linear tail, termed a tadpole . Meanwhile, two [PCl2N](3) molecules can morph into [PCl2N](6) (RR expansion) through a different four-center transition state (4C PNPN TS) without the assistance of a bridging chlorine. As the activation energy of these processes follows the trend tadpole backbite \u3c chain branching \u3c ROP initiatio