The Right to Restitution and Compensation in International Law and the Displaced Palestinians

In any final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, compensation for the material and moral losses of the Palestinian refugees will be a central feature. The parties have ostensibly agreed that compensation will be paid, but differ significantly on the principles that will determine the global amount of compensation, the valuation of losses, and the method of distribution to the recipients. Compensation for refugees, for victims of human rights violations, and for property loss have become well-grounded features in contemporary international law. The author argues that these international law principles should shape the compensation agreement that will settle the conflict, because fairness and transitional justice, rather than unequal bargaining power, will more readily hasten the healing of the many wounds that the Palestinians and Israelis have endured.Un aspect central de tout accord final entre Israël et les Palestiniens sera la compensation pour les pertes matérielles et morales subies par les réfugiés palestiniens. En apparence, les deux parties sont d’accord pour que des compensations soient être versées, mais un certain écart les sépare encore sur la question des principes qui serviront à déterminer la somme globale de la compensation, la façon d’évaluer les pertes et les méthodes de distribution aux bénéficiaires. Le droit international contemporain reconnaît pleinement aujourd’hui le droit aux compensations pour les réfugiés, les victimes de violations des droits humains et pour ceux qui ont subi des pertes de biens. L’auteur soutient que ce sont ces mêmes principes de droit international qui devront façonner l’accord de compensation qui clôturera le conflit, car c’est l’équité et la justice transitionnelle plutôt que le pouvoir de marchandage inégal, qui ont le plus de chances de guérir les nombreuses blessures que Palestiniens et Israéliens ont eu à subir

Effect of Source on Perception of Bias in Cable News

Problem: The central study question was whether or not believing that a certain media outlet is biased in a certain direction predisposes someone to perceive more or less bias in news content. The following hypotheses were formed: Hypothesis One: News consumers would find a news story to be more biased toward the corresponding associated political viewpoint of its source regardless of the actual content of the story. Hypothesis Two: Liberal respondents would be more likely to perceive the news stories as conservatively biased and conservative respondents would be more likely to perceive the new stories as being liberally biased. Hypothesis Three: Liberal respondents would be more likely to view content presented as being from Fox News as more conservatively biased than conservative respondents and conservatives would be more likely to view content presented as being from CNN or MSNBC as more liberally biased. Methods: A survey research design was created to test these hypotheses. Sixty-one participants read two different articles and were asked questions concerning their perception of bias in the articles. The articles were written by the researcher on two different topics from the spring of 2007: Iraq War troop reductions and universal health care proposals from Democratic presidential candidates. For each of these articles, three different versions were made (Neutral, Left-Leaning, and Right-Leaning) by either omitting or adding information that was more or less harmful to a certain political viewpoint or by word choice (i.e. “socialized” versus “universal” health care). Each article was then placed in three different visual contexts: FoxNews.com printout, CNN.com printout, and a text word document. Each participant was given only one version of the two article topics. Results: None of the hypotheses were proven with statistical significance; however, the data do tend to suggest that they may be provable with a larger sample size. For hypothesis one, in the first article those reading the possibility of a troop reduction article in the FoxNews.com visual context found the story to favor the conservative viewpoint 55 percent of the time compared to 28 percent for CNN.com and 25 percent for the control version. The results for the health care article were not as strong because of more subtle alterations to “manufacture” bias. However, those reading the Fox versions were still much less likely (57 percent) to say the articles favored the liberal viewpoint compared to CNN (83 percent). Hypothesis two and three were unable to be substantially tested due to low sample size. The results also show that perceptions of bias based on content may actually be stronger than based on visual cues. For example, those reading the liberal troop reduction article (for any visual context) found it to be favoring liberals 69 percent of the time compared to six percent for those reading the conservative version at a significance level of .01. Conclusion: It does appear that framing based upon preconceived ideas about the bias of certain news outlets can make someone more likely to perceive bias in that same direction. However, the actual content of the story is a better predictor of how someone in this participant pool would perceive bias

Union Democracy and the Law in Canada

The legal approach in Canada towards the regulation of trade union democracy has sought to balance individual member's rights with respect for the autonomy of unions. While the United States and England have heavily legislated the areas of internal trade union affairs, Canada has enacted relatively few laws in this area. Rather, unions in Canada have enjoyed considerable legal freedom to develop their own democratic practices and culture. The irony of this approach is that it is the Canadian courts, rather than the more experienced and liberal labour relations boards, that are the final legal arbiters over most internal union matters. However, this is slowly changing. Several provinces have recently enacted modest changes that direct their labour boards to hear complaints from union members respecting the fairness of internal hearings. In the absence of extensive statutory regulation, union constitutions and the democratic traditions behind them become significant legal documents. Au Canada, l’approche juridique à l’égard de la réglementation de la démocratie syndicale a consisté à chercher à mettre en équilibre les droits des membres et l’autonomie des syndicats. Les États-Unis et l’Angleterre ont une multitude de lois sur les affaires internes des syndicats, mais le Canada n’a adopté que relativement peu de lois à cet égard. Les syndicats du Canada ont joui d’une liberté juridique considérable dans l’établissement de leurs pratiques et de leur culture démocratiques. L’ironie de cette approche est que ce sont les tribunaux canadiens plutôt que les conseils des relations du travail, plus expérimentés et ayant moins de préjugés, qui sont les arbitres de dernier recours sur la plupart des questions syndicales internes. Toutefois, la situation change peu à peu. Plusieurs provinces ont adopté dernièrement de modestes modifications législatives ordonnant à leurs conseils des relations du travail d’entendre les plaintes de membres de syndicats au sujet de l’équité des audiences internes. En l’absence d’une réglementation étoffée, les statuts des syndicats et les traditions démocratiques qui les sous-tendent deviennent d’importants documents légaux

An integration of the history of Weymouth, Massachusetts 1622-1923 with the history of the United States for use in secondary schools

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit