The Content of Coercion

This Article is about a new approach to one of the law\u27s most basic questions: what is coercion? Under its traditional framing, coercion is about transactions. One person makes an offer to another person, who, under the circumstances, has no realistic option but to say yes. But that conception has not helped courts articulate a way to test when pressures cross the line from lawful persuasion to illegal compulsion. Without a metric, critics charge that coercion analyses are inevitably normative. This Article challenges that inevitability. Using the workplace as a case study, it argues that it is possible to weigh the impact of speech or conduct on choice, but only if the coercion\u27s content is clarified so that judges know what they are supposed to be evaluating. Drawing from rapid advances at the intersection of decision-making and emotion science, the Article is the first to describe what it is, exactly, about an external force that might push employees, their superiors, and consumers toward irrational judgments. The new approach unites labor law with emerging law and emotion scholarship, applies across existing doctrine, and, by lending itself to quantifiable assessments, defies normative assumptions to finally standardize the law of coercion at work

The relationship between specified dispositional and cognitive variables and AIDS related health behaviors

The research presented here provides evidence for the use of dispositional psychological states within the Ordered Protection Motivation model. Specifically, the use of dispositional variables is supported when the threat is one related to health (such as AIDS). The study examined a sample of undergraduate students from Louisiana Tech University. Regression was used to determine if four dispositional variables (Health Locus of Control, Sexual Locus of Control, Narcissism, and Sociosexual Orientation) added explanatory power to the ordered protection motivation model. This study is of particular interest to marketers who produce public service announcements. The objective of any public service campaign is to change the public\u27s behavior in some manner. By using dispositional psychological states to target high risk groups of people, the promotion (public service announcement) becomes more effective

Justice Isn\u27t Deaf

The music industry is an interesting phenomenon. It is a world that exists on image--and everyone has a say. For that very reason, the music industry is no stranger to critics. At its heart, they are what the industry is all about. Critics are the driving force in the business--their written and verbal exchange of ideas predicts the rise and fall of stars. Critics come in all shapes and sizes--they are the everyday consumer, the media at large, the hopeful artist, the record company executive, the legal scholar, and even our nation\u27s government. This article will take you on a journey and show you what happens behind the scenes in the music industry. You will become a fly on the wall at a fictitious record company meeting where insiders are discussing the potential signing of a controversial artist, Sam Satyr. In this scenario, you will witness how the critics previously mentioned interact, and how their social and legal concerns are approached

Managing Susceptibility to Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer

The recent identification of Breast Cancer 1 (BRCA1) and BRCA2 genes offers an opportunity for high-risk individuals to learn whether they may be genetically predisposed to develop breast and/or ovarian cancer. The purpose of this study was to examine how unaffected women, identified as BRCA positive and variant of uncertain significance (VUS) mutation carriers, managed their susceptibility to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC). Thirty North American women ranging in age from 22 to 60 years responded to open-ended interviews. These interviews were analyzed using constant comparative method to generate a grounded theory. Managing Susceptibility was identified as the basic social process, which characterized how these unaffected women responded to genetic testing and managed their risk of HBOC. Five categories were found that explain the actions, interactions, and consequences of managing susceptibility. These were: (a) gaining awareness, (b) confronting uncertainty and getting tested, (c) disclosing results, (d) deliberating and making risk management decisions, and (e) reflecting on actions. These women regarded breast and/or ovarian cancer as a predictable outcome, given their family history, and felt they had a responsibility to their family to prevent this danger if possible. After gaining awareness of their increased risk, they sought genetic counseling to take responsibility for their perceived susceptibility and were influenced by feelings of obligation to their family. Participants disclosed their test results to seek support and because of a sense of duty to inform their family members of their risks, no matter how difficult it was for them personally. They also felt they had a responsibility to persuade their family to act on the information. Past family and personal experiences, present view of themselves and their relationships, and aspirations for the future were all part of their complex risk management decision making. Engaging in risk management was seen as providing them with control over their susceptibility to HBOC. Those choosing prophylactic surgeries wanted to prevent cancer, as they were not satisfied with the limitations of vigilant surveillance which provided only early detection. By taking these measures they not only gained some control over their lives, but as importantly, could maintain their identity as mother and nurturer. The study\u27s findings support other research in genetic testing and risk management and have important implications for health policy, nursing practice, and future research

The making of monsters : has the medieval monster been reassembled as the unbounded body of medical science and environmental horror?

This investigation examines perceptions of the monster as an unbounded body. Bodily containment is clearly disregarded in the fearsome physical abnormality of the medieval monster. Their hybrid physiologies and the emphasis on bodily orifices are reminiscent of those horrors described in Julia Kristeva's Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. My research argues that the monster continues to retain its impact as a metaphor for fear and horror of unforeseen dangers in contemporary secular circumstances. My studio practice addresses the unbounded body of the monster as a metaphor for environmental horror. An accompanying exegesis documents the methodology, experimentation and ideas that drove this practical research. In the resultant works the monster is presented as an elusive entity embedded within abstracted land forms and in small assemblages of found objects. My dissertation provides theoretical and historical links to my studio practice. It clarifies the significance of the tradition of medieval mapmaking in addressing the fears and horrors of the unknown by ordering connections between nature, theology and the workings of the cosmos. More specifically, the dissertation contrasts the shift from the monsters of medieval religion to their reconfiguration as an increasingly scientific/medical phenomenon culminating in the genetically altered bodies of today's biotechnologies. Recollecting the body/earth metaphor of the medieval Hereford mappa mundi, ten digital images record my journey through drought-stricken landscapes where the earth is conceptualised as a fragile body, vulnerable to environmental disaster. The medieval need to confine the monster to its rightful place in the mapped schema of God's 'plan of creation' is also reflected in the series of assemblages of found objects - bones, feathers, fur, mummified frogs, small lizards, cicadas, pig, goat, kangaroo and wombat skulls, metal objects and silk constructions - that are skewered on ancient medical, optical and mathematical instruments. The making or transforming of monsters and the containment of these unbounded bodies is alluded to by safely confining each little assemblage within a miniature glass tower. Grouped together, they recall the eclectic wonderment of the 'cabinet of curiosities' or Kunstkammer and Wunderkammer that encapsulated the emerging ethos of medical and scientific enquiry of Enlightenment Europe. Technically, I contribute to new knowledge in art practice by layering elements of my drawings and scanned found objects in Photoshop to create a painterly abstraction and in the employment of the new technologies of direct digital print to transfer these images onto silk fabric and archival papers. By further embellishing the silk prints with beads and stitching, I demonstrate the interaction of handmaking with digital processes: a multilayered method akin to collage and assemblage. This process of assemblage links the landscape pieces to the small glass towers. My investigations found that, although its appearance may differ from that of the medieval grotesque, the monster is undiminished as a metaphor for the unbounded body of medical science and environmental horror. The resulting body of work is to be exhibited at the ANU School of Art Gallery from 16 March to 1 April, 2011

Cognitive Competence in Executive-Branch Decision Making

The decisions Presidents and those operating under their authority take determine the course of our nation and the trajectory of our lives. Consequently, understanding who has the power and authority to decide has captured both the attention of legal scholars across a variety of fields for many years and the immediate worry of the public since the 2016 Presidential election. Prevailing interventions look for ways that law can offer procedural and institutional reforms that aim to maintain separation of powers and avoid an authoritarian regime. Yet, these views commonly overlook a fundamental factor and a more human one: the individuals empowered to make choices on behalf of the nation. In governance, sometimes the problem is legal or institutional. But sometimes a person is the problem. Taking up this view, this Article investigates how legal scholarship can expand its understanding of executive-branch decision making by adapting insights from neuroscience about how human cognition works. Individuals matter because every instance of executive-branch overreach can be located in a particular decision taken by a specific person. Attending to cognitive functions associated with individual judgment and choice offers a new way of understanding governmental decision making by broadening understanding ofthe government\u27s decision makers. The key to promoting effective governance, this Article argues, requires renovating how the law understands individual choice and determines who should have the legal authority to make decisions that affect the nation. Adopting a neuroscientifically informed perspective on decision making both produces a more accurate, descriptive understanding of how executive-branch decisions are made and destabilizes existing presumptions that a person is qualified to make decisions of national importance solely because she or he is legally authorized (appointed or otherwise selected) to do so. Who decides matters because, in the end, the difference between good and bad governance often comes down to the choices made by the people who are in charge

Neuroimaging and Capital Punishment

Can brain scans be used to determine whether a person is inclined toward criminality or violent behavior? This question, asked by Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware at the hearing considering the nomination of John Roberts to be Chief Justice of the United States, illustrates the extent to which cognitive neuroscience - increasingly augmented by the growing powers of neuroimaging, the use of various technologies to directly or indirectly observe the structure and function of the brain - has captured the imagination of those who make, enforce, interpret, and study the law. The attraction of the legal community to cognitive neuroscience is by no means unreciprocated. Cognitive neuroscientists have expressed profound interest in how their work might impact the law. Practitioners of cognitive neuroscience seem particularly drawn to the criminal law; more specifically, they have evinced an interest in the death penalty. Indeed, a well-formed cognitive neuroscience project to reform capital sentencing has emerged from their work in the courtroom and their arguments in the public square. In the short term, cognitive neuroscientists seek to invoke cutting-edge brain imaging research to bolster defendants\u27 claims that, although legally guilty, they do not deserve to die because brain abnormalities diminish their culpability. In the long term, cognitive neuroscientists aim to draw upon the tools of their discipline to embarrass, discredit, and ultimately overthrow retribution as a distributive justification for punishment