The Social Obligation of Property Ownership: A Comparison of German and U.S. Law

Although both Germany and the United States have strong market-based economies characterized by rigorous protection of private property rights, the two countries have different conceptions of land ownership based on distinct notions of the individual’s place in society. Whereas property protection under the U.S. Constitution emphasizes individual freedom, German law explicitly considers the individual’s place in and relationship to the social order in defining ownership rights. The property clause in the German Grundgesetz (The Basic Law, the German constitution) contains an affirmative social obligation alongside its positive guarantee of ownership rights. The U.S. Constitution, on the other hand, does not explicitly recognize an affirmative social obligation of property use. At the same time, courts have not considered property a fundamental right and are reluctant to use a language of natural rights to describe ownership relations. Thus, in locating a limit on the social obligation of ownership, the U.S. Supreme Court has employed rhetoric emphasizing the purely economic impact of regulation rather than its effect on a property owner’s dignity or autonomy, as in Germany. Beginning with the assumption that both legal systems recognize a significant social obligation (in the language of German court decisions) or expansive regulatory power (in the language of U.S. courts), this note will compare how the scope of that regulatory authority is circumscribed in the respective jurisdictions by the different values protected by the respective property clauses. In depicting the German social obligation, I will pay particular attention to the positive guarantee of property rights codified in the German constitution, not only to illustrate this as a limit on the social obligation, but also to show that German courts are comfortable with highly individualized determinations into the personal meaning of property for property owners (invoking what are referred to in Anglo-American jurisprudence as personhood interests) and use such determinations to exclude purely economic interests from constitutional protection. In considering these differences between U.S. and German constitutional property regimes, I aim to address the question of what, if anything, the Fifth Amendment positively guarantees for property owners

Perceptions and Predictors of U.S. Combat Veterans’ Responses to Suicide and Combat Deaths

This mixed-methods study examined how U.S. combat veterans experience the deaths of comrades who have died in combat or by suicide and explored factors that predict their level of grief over those deaths. Recruitment of participants for semi-structured interviews was done through purposive snowball sampling, which enables researchers to create a participant network by receiving referrals from existing participants. Recruitment of participants for completion of a web-based survey was also done through snowball sampling, as well as veterans’ social media sites and non-profit organizations serving veterans’ health needs. In addition, veteran services offices on college and university campuses in several states disseminated the survey link, as did key informants, individuals who are not necessarily part of the study population but who are familiar with the population professionally or personally. All participants who were interviewed were also asked to complete the survey.Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who lost comrades to both combat and suicide (N=28) were interviewed. Veterans who lost a comrade in combat or to suicide completed the survey (N=186), which included measures of grief, combat exposure, unit cohesion, anger, posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), and social support. Text analyses of the interview transcripts revealed seven themes: 1) Suicide death as unexpected can make acceptance of death harder; 2) Combat death as expected can ease acceptance of death; 3) Combat death as heroic can make acceptance of death easier; 4) Brotherhood forged in combat intensifies the emotional response, even if the deceased was not a friend; 5) Guilt over inability to prevent a comrade’s death makes acceptance harder; 6) Attribution of blame for a death creates anger; and 7) Detachment from the civilian world may make it more difficult to cope with comrades’ deaths. Multiple regression analyses of survey data indicated: 1) Suicide deaths predict a higher level of non-acceptance; 2) The mode of death moderates the association between unit cohesion and grief; 3) Combat exposure, anger, closeness to the deceased, and gender predict the level of grief; 4) Combat exposure is an equally strong predictor of grief and PTSS. This study’s focus on veteran’s grief further delineates war’s toll. The mixed-methods design allowed the study to tell a complex story about a complicated and previously unexplored consequence of war. These findings have important public health implications because these outcomes impact not only veterans, but their families and communities as well

The Social Obligation of Property Ownership: A Comparison of German and U.S. Law [Article]

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Perceptions and Predictors of U.S. Combat Veterans’ Responses to Suicide and Combat Deaths

This mixed-methods study examined how U.S. combat veterans experience the deaths of comrades who have died in combat or by suicide and explored factors that predict their level of grief over those deaths. Recruitment of participants for semi-structured interviews was done through purposive snowball sampling, which enables researchers to create a participant network by receiving referrals from existing participants. Recruitment of participants for completion of a web-based survey was also done through snowball sampling, as well as veterans’ social media sites and non-profit organizations serving veterans’ health needs. In addition, veteran services offices on college and university campuses in several states disseminated the survey link, as did key informants, individuals who are not necessarily part of the study population but who are familiar with the population professionally or personally. All participants who were interviewed were also asked to complete the survey.Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who lost comrades to both combat and suicide (N=28) were interviewed. Veterans who lost a comrade in combat or to suicide completed the survey (N=186), which included measures of grief, combat exposure, unit cohesion, anger, posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), and social support. Text analyses of the interview transcripts revealed seven themes: 1) Suicide death as unexpected can make acceptance of death harder; 2) Combat death as expected can ease acceptance of death; 3) Combat death as heroic can make acceptance of death easier; 4) Brotherhood forged in combat intensifies the emotional response, even if the deceased was not a friend; 5) Guilt over inability to prevent a comrade’s death makes acceptance harder; 6) Attribution of blame for a death creates anger; and 7) Detachment from the civilian world may make it more difficult to cope with comrades’ deaths. Multiple regression analyses of survey data indicated: 1) Suicide deaths predict a higher level of non-acceptance; 2) The mode of death moderates the association between unit cohesion and grief; 3) Combat exposure, anger, closeness to the deceased, and gender predict the level of grief; 4) Combat exposure is an equally strong predictor of grief and PTSS. This study’s focus on veteran’s grief further delineates war’s toll. The mixed-methods design allowed the study to tell a complex story about a complicated and previously unexplored consequence of war. These findings have important public health implications because these outcomes impact not only veterans, but their families and communities as well

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Emergency Mental Health Services for Children After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.

Much literature documents elevated psychiatric symptoms among adults after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11). We, however, know of no research in children that examines emergency mental health services following 9/11. We test whether children's emergency services for crisis mental health care rose above expected values in September 2001. We applied time-series methods to California Medicaid claims (1999-2003; N = 127,200 visits). Findings in California indicate an 8.7% increase of children's emergency mental health visits statistically attributable to 9/11. Non-Hispanic white more than African American children account for this acute rise in emergency services