Human Rights, Responsibilities, and Democracy, Comments on Tasioulas and Moyn Papers: Symposium on the Future of International Human Rights Law

It is a pleasure and a challenge to comment on these two very different Articles, Saving Human Rights from Human Rights Law, by John Tasioulas, and \u27On Human Rights and Majority Politics: Felix Frankfurter\u27s Democratic Theory, by Samuel Moyn. Both are rich, complex, and thought-provoking. To the degree they share any common dimension, it would be their skepticism toward human rights law, and in particular toward the judicialization of human rights law. But the skepticism comes from quite different directions and from their different disciplines. In the case of Tasioulas\u27s paper, the skepticism derives from his belief that legal human rights have gone beyond the realm of moral human rights, and thus he critiques unjustified legalization and judicialization of human rights. Moyn focuses on US constitutional law to argue that courts should exercise more deference with regard to the laws and policies decided upon by democratic majorities. In Tasioulas\u27s case, human rights law is contrasted with morality and found wanting, and in Moyn\u27s case, human rights law is contrasted with democracy and found wanting

Utopian Literature from the Sixteenth Century to Present Day

Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, Lois Lowry’s The Giver, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland, Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, and George Orwell’s 1984 are all works of utopian literature. Although they were written during different time periods, the issues they explore are remarkably similar. My research project explores such ideas as literature, sex and reproduction, society, and family life in these utopian works in order to demonstrate these affinities

The Hidden Civic Lessons of Public and Private Schools

Curriculum theory has long acknowledged the presence of a hidden curriculum in schools. Whereas the formal curriculum is explicit and documented, the hidden curriculum involves those attitudes, experiences, and learnings that are largely implicit and unintended. This article compares the hidden civic lessons found in public and private schools. Catholic and other private schools have measurable organizational strengths that socialize students into participation in public institutions more effectively than public schools

Understanding Parliamentary Procedure

Millions of our citizens participate in groups which make some use of parliamentary procedure. The early books on parliamentary procedure by Jefferson, Cushing and Roberts were based on the practices of legislative bodies and many of these complex interpretations are difficult for non-legislative groups to understand. Recent books have simplified such rules to help us realize that a well run meeting is a demonstration of democracy in action. A person studying parliamentary procedure should emphasize intent over language, learn to use a summary of rules chart and find ways to orally practice newly understood concepts

Yellowstone Sage Belts 1958 to 2008: 50 Years of Change in the Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) Communities of Yellowstone National Park

In 1958, 13 belt transects were established within the ungulate winter range in the northern portion of Yellowstone National Park to study how shrub communities were affected by grazing from ungulate populations. Between 1958 and 2008, the belts have been measured and photographed by different researchers at least once per decade, which has resulted in a comprehensive 50 year time series of how these communities have responded to climatic change, herbivory, and natural disturbance. In this study, we compare the percent cover, seedling establishment, and plant survival in these communities at two points in time (1958 and 2008); and explore which factors – climatic, herbivory, or disturbance – were most influential to changes in canopy cover and number of seedlings after 50 years. The recovery of the big sagebrush community after the North Fork fire is also discussed. Herbivory has controlled tree growth on the shrub belts. Climate and lack of disturbance have resulted in an increase in big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) cover on many shrub belts inside and outside of exclosures. Invasive annual species have become important drivers of vegetation change at the lowest elevation site