My topic is an analysis of the various theories of multiculturalism and how they would respond to controversial issues concerning freedom of speech with regard to religious sensitivities. While Western nations have often concentrated on 'nation building', or the integration of citizens into public institutions, there has been the emerging trend of minority rights and 'multiculturalism' (Kymlicka, 2001, pp. 2-3). Groups with diverse interests and political agendas are resisting assimilation into wider society and are struggling for acceptence, respect and public affirmation of their differences (Parekh, 2000, p. 1). While the nation state has not become obselete, many of its traditional functions have lost their relevance and value and we therefore need to reconceptualize its nature and role (Parekh, 2000, pp. 193-194). Many nations have a new found interest in multicultural policies and Australia has declared itself multicultural in the early 1970's as did Canada; and the debate around multicultural policies has raged on in Britain, Germany and Israel since the 1960's (Parekh, 2000, p. 5). In Kymlicka's view, public opinion has shifted from seeing minority rights as a pragmatic compromise to a matter of fundamental justice (Kymlicka, 2001, p. 6). One controversy that multiculturalist policies have raised is issues of tolerance of cultural difference, including group rights. This is evident on a daily basis, from the storm around Muslim girls wearing headscarves in France, to the debate surrounding the use of French as a first language in Quebec; multiculturalism has been asked, what should be tolerated? In my dissertation I will look at the controversial topic of freedom of speech within liberal democratic systems. Freedom of speech is an integral part of a democratic system, and in democratic systems discussion is often cited as a means of reaching consensus and compromise. Free speech is also intended to explore new ways of thinking and to criticize ways of thinking and living. The difficulty comes when there are certain topics, such as the lampooning of Islam and the Prophet and denying the Holocaust, which are deemed to be off limits by certain groups. Different liberal philosophies however have differing views on what the limits of free speech are. I will be looking into these philosophies and whether the limits they set apply to the Danish cartoon controversy and to the David Irving case of Holocaust denialism. There are three broad theories of how liberal systems ought to deal with the demands of a plural society. These are 'classical liberalism', 'liberal nationalism' and 'multiculturalism'. In broad terms, classical liberal theory is intolerant of special group rights, liberal-nationalism affirms certain kinds of group rights within a liberal framework, and multiculturalism asserts the equality of cultures, and questions the primacy of liberalism. The question that I will be answering is how these theories deal with group rights when those groups ask for the limiting of speech that is deemed offensive to group culture or religion. In a more global society, different cultural and religious groups have differing levels of tolerance toward certain kinds of speech. Certain groups value freedom of speech with very few constraints, whilst others believe that that some speech is harmful and disrespectful to their culture or religion. Questions about the viability of these different cultural and religious groups co-existing have been highlighted by recent events. The two cases to be explored in my analysis will be, firstly, the outcry following the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed in Denmark. Many of these cartoons were seen to be derogatory to Muslims and the depiction of the Prophet is also not allowed in many Islamic traditions. Much of Danish society felt that although these cartoons were offensive and in bad taste, they had to protect their right to freedom even though it may be offensive to others. This pits the Islamic culture against that of the Danish 'liberal' culture and asks the question of whether 'liberal' culture or 'multiculturalism' can assure religious tolerance? My second example is the controversial case involving the historian David Irving and his questioning of the Holocaust. This questioning led to his imprisonment in Austria for the crimes of Holocaust denial. This case involves someone expressing his freedom of speech, yet many liberal-democratic countries have laws expressly prohibiting this kind of Holocaust denial. The reasoning behind such laws is to protect the sentiments of Jewish community and the suffering they endured under the Holocaust. In both cases, the interests of religious groups are invoked as being sufficiently harmed, and the liberal right to free speech should therefore be limited. Hence the thesis looks to explore religious tolerance available in classical liberal, liberal-nationalist and multiculturalist systems at a theoretical level. I will also argue that certain kinds and manner of speech, such as speech that lampoons and offends group sensibilities, should be limited in certain cases and that liberal-nationalism provides the most fair way of adjudicating disputes. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

The subject of this thesis is the "San Andres Agreements on Indigenous Rights and Culture". Born out of a process of negotiation between the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), the Mexican government and various representatives of civil society, these agreements reflect and attempt to incorporate in the constitution, for the first time in Mexican history, individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples. Through ethnography and discourse analysis, the thesis addresses the political, economic and ideological issues underlying the exchanges between the various parties to the negotiations. It presumes a dominant government discourse and a marginal discourse advanced by the zapatista party in an effort to change the fundamental tenets of Mexican politics. The debate generated by the San Andres agreements is highlighted in order to examine its repercussions and the role it has played in bringing current indigenous claims to public attention.

Šio tyrimo tikslas – išsamiai ir sistemiškai išanalizuoti įmonės, kaip civilinių teisių objekto, teisinę prigimtį bei civilinį apyvartumą, nustatyti aktualiausias teorines ir praktines šio instituto aiškinimo ir taikymo problemas ir, remiantis užsienio valstybių patirtimi bei pasaulinėmis tendencijomis, pateikti pasiūlymus ir rekomendacijas šioms problemoms spręsti bei esamam teisiniam reguliavimui tobulinti, taip papildant nacionalinės teisės doktriną šioje srityje. Disertacijoje nagrinėjama problema aktuali tiek moksliniu, tiek praktiniu požiūriu, nes iki šiol Lietuvos teisės doktrinoje įmonės, kaip civilinių teisių objekto, specifika yra beveik nenagrinėta, išskyrus fragmentišką atskirų sandorių, kurių objektas yra įmonė, (pvz., įmonės pirkimą-pardavimą, įmonės įkeitimą) aptarimą. Šioje disertacijoje pirmą kartą Lietuvoje pateikiama visapusiška, nuodugni ir sisteminė įmonės, kaip civilinių teisių objekto, ypatumų analizė, todėl toks kompleksinis tyrimas, pirmiausia, yra reikšmingas teoriniu-doktrininiu požiūriu. Be to, šis tyrimas svarbus ir praktiniu požiūriu. Tyrimo metu išanalizuoti nacionaliniai ir užsienio valstybių teisės aktai, doktrina ir teismų praktika, susijusi su įmonės, kaip turtinio komplekso, teisinio statuso išskirtinumu bei sudaromų sandorių specifika. Šios analizės pagrindu suformuluoti praktiniai pasiūlymai Lietuvos įstatymų leidėjui, siekiant supaprastinti ir taip padidinti įmonės, kaip turtinio komplekso, civilinį apyvartumą (pvz., dėl kreditorių... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The purpose of the research is thorough and systematic analysis of the legal nature and civil turnover of enterprise as an object of civil rights, identifying the most relevant theoretical and practical problems in interpretation and application of legal norms regarding enterprise, providing with suggestions and recommendations for resolution of identified problems and improvement of existing legal regulation according to the experience of foreign countries and contemporary global trends, and contributing to the national legal doctrine. The subject-matter of the research is relevant both, in scientific and in practical terms, as the peculiarities of enterprise as an object civil rights lacks thorough analysis in the legal doctrine of Lithuania. Apart from several narrow problem-orientated publications regarding separate transactions with enterprise (e. g. sale-purchase and mortgage of enterprise), until now the legal doctrine of Lithuania lacks sufficiently profound analysis of peculiarities of enterprise as an object of civil rights. For the first time in Lithuania this dissertation delivers a thorough and systematic analysis of peculiarities of enterprise as an object of civil rights, thus such integrated research, firstly, is relevant in theoretical terms. Moreover this research is also relevant to legal practice. During the research the legal acts, court practice and legal doctrine of Lithuania and foreign countries regarding the peculiar legal status and specific... [to full text]

This thesis examines the role of interpretation in legal encounter in Lexington, Kentucky. Through an analysis of legal and interpretation practices, this study seeks to ascertain how these practices may affect non-native or low-proficiency English speakers’ (LLPs) experiences with both federal and local laws and legal spaces. This place-based study involves in-depth qualitative research. Using the methodological framework of feminist geo-jurisprudence, this research contributes to our understanding of 1) the limits of the publicity of legal space and, more specifically, the ways in which language barriers can prevent legal inclusion; 2) local strategies and tactics for dealing with the challenges to meaningful access before the law in terms of language as outlined by Title IV of the 1964 U.S. Civil Rights Act; 3) the broader implications of language access for immigrants and non-citizens at the intersection of legal discourse and society (discursive legal space). Furthermore, this research addresses the absence and presence of hospitality (Derrida, 2005) from this site of citizenship negotiation, and it addresses the ethics of hospitality behind the work that attempts to resist legal closure and to enforce laws that protect, rather than persecute, those facing language barriers.

The impact of Black Power rhetoric and ideology in Louisville, Kentucky in 1967-1970 is explored. The role of Black Power in shaping the discourse of Louisville’s black counter-public and civil rights counter-public is analyzed in the context of the 1967 open housing demonstrations, the May, 1968 riot, and the trial of the ‘Black Six’. Black Power played a vital role in community organizing and in displays of black national and cultural pride. It actively challenged the city’s mystique of Southern white paternalism embraced by the mayoral administration of Kenneth Schmied. Despite that administrations allegations, Black power rhetoric in the West End did not play a significant role in the riot that left two African American youth dead.

This study has presented a comprehensive historical overview of the context and significance of a, criminal defendants constitutional right to due process of law. The evidence suggests that, in many circumstances, a criminal defendant is not being afforded our most basic constitutional guarantee of fairness and justice for allOne of the primary objectives of this study was to develop a working definition for journalists to better understand the fundamental concepts of a defendants right to exculpatory evidence during criminal proceedings.Since 1791, the Supreme Court has had to continually broaden a criminal defendants right to exculpatory information. In case after case, a similar fad pattern has shown that pauper criminal defendants with court appointed attorneys having to compete against state or federal prosecutors with unlimited investigative and legal research funding This disparity is further compounded when the state or government prosecutors define to turn over information or evidence which could help the defendants case.Further analysis identified other problem areas within the scope of due process which deserve significant attention such as: the grand jury process, plea-bargains, probable cause warrants, and post-conviction hearings. / Department of Journalism

This dissertation is an evaluation of the concept of a minimum core content to the constitutional right to health, with particular reference to HIV-positive persons in South Africa. The analysis involves an assessment of what the minimum core entails; whether such a formulation is necessary in the South African health context; the application of the concept in national and international law; as well as enforcement and implementation in the South African context. An appraisal of the South African social reality reveals the extent of the suffering of HIV-positive individuals and the difficulties experienced in accessing health care, especially for the vulnerable and disempowered. The problem is exacerbated by a critical inadequacy in national jurisprudence which fails to generate certainty in respect of the minimum, basic entitlements of affected people. Such a shortcoming maligns transformative constitutionalism, which requires the judiciary to develop a construction of human rights that accords with the canons of the Constitution. It is argued that one such course of action is the adoption of the minimum core, which prescribes a basic level of human rights that is guaranteed to all people – and which may withstand legislative challenge on the basis of resource constraints or progressive realisation. Reference to international law, in terms of Section 39(1) of the Constitution, assists us to overcome the shortcoming in domestic legislation in this regard. Of particular relevance is covenantal guidance offered by the ICESCR, and its guidelines of interpretation, which include the CESCR General Comments and the WHO recommendations. It is postulated that a minimum obligation to HIV-positive individuals under the right to health encompasses the duty of treatment and prevention and control in respect of the epidemic, on a non-discriminatory basis. Enforcement and implementation of such core obligations must be strictly and timeously effected. Of crucial importance in such a process is a competent judiciary that is able to resist an undue deference to the legislature. A review of court judgments, however, reveals an inadequate judicial approach to the implementation of socioeconomic rights and an appeal is made to the Constitutional Court to re-commit itself to an interpretation of the Bill of Rights that accords with Constitutional values, such as uBuntu. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2014.

<p>What happens when the dominant binary categories used to describe American race relations--either "black and white," or "Anglo and Mexican"--are examined contemporaneously, not comparatively, but in relation to one another? How do the long African American and Chicano/a struggles for racial equality and economic opportunity look different? And what role did ordinary people play in shaping these movements? Using oral history interviews, the Texas Labor Archives, and the papers of dozens of black, brown, and white activists, this dissertation follows diverse labor, civil rights, and political organizers from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s.</p><p>Tracing their movements revealed a startling story. Beginning in the mid-1930s, African American and ethnic Mexican working people across Texas quietly and tentatively approached one another as well as white laborers for support in their efforts to counter discrimination at work, in their unions, and in the cities in which they lived. Such efforts evolved in different ways due to the repression of the early Cold War, but most organizers simply redirected their activism into new channels. By the close of the 1950s, new forms of multiracial alliances were beginning to take hold. Mutual suspicion slowly gave way to mutual trust, especially in San Antonio. There, and increasingly statewide, black and brown activists separately developed robust civil rights movements that encompassed demands not only for integration but also equal economic opportunities and the quest for independent political power.</p><p>The distinct civil rights and labor movements overlapped, especially in the realm of electoral politics. By the mid-1960s, what began as inchoate collaboration at the local level had gradually expanded from its origins in the barrios, ghettos, union halls, and shop floors to become a broad-based, state-wide coalition in support of liberal politicians and an expansive civil rights agenda. At the same time, African American and ethnic Mexican activists were engaged in new waves of organizing for both political power and civil rights, but they encountered opposition from members of their own ethnic groups. Thus the activists' efforts to forge inter-ethnic coalitions coexisted with protracted intra-ethnic conflict. In many cases distinctions of class and political philosophy and tactics mattered at least as much as did ties of ethnicity. Activists learned this lesson experientially: in the trenches, through countless small conflicts over several decades, they slowly separated themselves from their more conservative counterparts and looked to multiracial coalitions as their primary strategy for outflanking their intra-ethnic opponents. Meanwhile, organized labor and white liberals had been searching for allies in their efforts to wrest control of the Democratic Party away from its conservative wing. In the early 1960s, they reached the conclusion that black and brown voters would prove key to their own success, so they gradually transitioned toward civil rights organizing in order to build a coalition with the black and brown civil rights movements.</p><p>After decades of fighting separately and dabbling in experimental partnerships, veteran ethnic Mexican, African American, and white labor and liberal activists finally came together into a powerful statewide Democratic Coalition. Between 1962 and 1964, their collaborative campaign for civil rights, economic opportunity, and political power reached a fever pitch, resulting in the state's largest ever direct action protests, massive door-to-door electoral initiatives, and an ever-deepening commitment by labor to putting boots on the ground for community organizing. In the late 1960s the statewide multiracial coalition reached its apex and began to lose steam. At the same time, local multiracial coalitions continued to thrive, underpinning both the African American and Chicano/a urban electoral mobilizations and the rising Black and Brown Power movements. At the local level and in the short term, black, brown, and white working-class civil rights activists won--they achieved a degree of economic and political democracy in Texas that was scarcely imaginable in the age of Jim Crow just a few decades earlier. But as they won local battles they also lost the larger war.</p><p>Working-class civil rights organizers thus failed in the end to democratize Texas and America. Their goals remain distant to this day. Yet they were themselves transformed by their experiences in the struggle. Most transitioned from near-complete political and economic exclusion to having a voice. Their collective story indicates that scholars have much to gain from studying organized labor, electoral politics, and the African American and ethnic Mexican civil rights movements simultaneously. Doing so not only adds to the emerging historical sub-field of black-brown relations but also makes each of the individual movements look different. It reconnects class to the black freedom struggle, militancy to the ethnic Mexican civil rights movement, organized labor to community activism, and all three movements to the creation of today's urban politics.</p> / Dissertation

The recent shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri rekindled the age-old debate of how the authority of the state to enact the law and guard public safety, specifically in terms of police use of deadly force, ought to properly be balanced against citizens’ rights. The social consequences of this incident illustrate the profound importance of policy governing this issue. This thesis provides an analysis of the governing Supreme Court precedent which informs this issue, as well as the state statutes of Missouri and the police department regulations of Ferguson, Seattle, Denver, and New Hampshire which govern the police use of deadly force. The application of these standards to varying scenarios of the Ferguson shooting serves to demonstrate how these standards operationalize and highlights the discrepancies that exist across jurisdictions in terms of restricting and evaluating police use of deadly force. Ultimately, ambiguity in the current standards, incongruities and difficulties in their implementation, as well as significant concerns of inherent injustice lead to the conclusion that the police use of deadly force should be limited to instances in which such force is necessary to protect human life or prevent serious physical injury.

The beginning of industrialized fish processing plants reveals themes of labor exploitation, racial and gender segregation, and antagonistic legislation that have continued well into the present. Today in the Pacific North West, the majority of workers are Latino and many among them are undocumented or DACAmented. Many aspects of the work conditions in salmon canneries back in the late 1800’s to the mid 1900’s and the work conditions in present day fish processing plants have not changed. Many jobs in a fish processing plant remain gendered, and when there is more than one race working in a single plant racial tensions as well as differences in the owners expectations of labor output by race may arise. The study interviews undocumented workers and documents their experience working in fish processing plants as well as provides historical context.