Master of Arts / History / Lou F. Williams / During the course of Reconstruction both the Supreme Court and the lower level federal courts faced the task of interpreting Reconstruction legislation, including the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and the Enforcement Acts. By the end of Reconstruction the Supreme Court had defined these groundbreaking pieces of legislation in a conservative manner that negatively impacted the former slaves. The lower-level courts, however, had embraced earlier opportunities to broaden the nationalistic meaning of these Amendments. One such opportunity was United States v Hall. This trial level court case initially expanded the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment to protect the rights of African Americans. The Hall Case was one of the great “might have beens” in U.S. Constitutional history. This study analyzes Ku Klux Klan violence leading up to the Eutaw riot and the subsequent court case, U.S. v Hall. Conflict broke out during a pre-election political rally when Democrats and Republicans met simultaneously at the Greene County, AL, Court House. The riot resulted in the federal government’s attempts to prosecute the rioters under the Enforcement Act of 1870. The Hall case was one of the first in which federal judges interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment. Federal prosecutors challenged the judges to make a broad, nationalistic interpretation, which would have enabled the federal government to protect the rights of the former slaves for the long haul. What—exactly—were the privileges and immunities of national citizenship? Did the Fourteenth Amendment apply the Bill of Rights to the states? Are these rights protected against the state governments? These are the issues Attorney General John P. Southworth and Circuit Court Judge William Woods tackled in the federal trial. Ultimately, the government failed to secure a conviction of the rioters but set a strong precedent in Judge Woods’ opinion for later federal courts to establish the Fourteenth Amendment’s connection to the Bill of Rights. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court failed to follow the precedent. This analysis provides historians a better understanding of the work of the lower level federal courts’ and their contribution to the constitutional issues of Reconstruction.

This thesis first describes and analyzes the key concepts and rationalities that are dominant in the content of the Environmental Enforcement Act (EEA). The research project concludes that despite legislative shifts towards increased punishment and deterrence, key concepts and rationalities such as the importance of economic globalization, the continuation of risk-management and anthropocentric values, and the dominance of staples development can be observed in the content of the EEA. The EEA also reflects growing concerns towards managing known structural economic problems such as Canada’s staples development and economic globalization. Secondly, this thesis critically evaluates whether the EEA is likely to contribute towards the effectiveness of Canadian environmental governance strategies. The EEA is likely to be ineffective based on observations of structural challenges in environmental governance and the Canadian political economic context. Neoliberalism, economic globalization, risk management, anthropocentrism, and staples based economic development characterize the problems identified in existing research that the content of the EEA does not adequately address.

The scene of dangerous driving (street racing) has been seen in 1986; however, the situation has not been redressed a bit after the long-term prevention by police force. Nevertheless, since the problem of dangerous driving first appeared in 1955 in Japan, by the long-term prevention, the situation has been well redressed and some talented F1 racing drivers have been cultivated. On May, 11th, 2012, a Japanese racing driver, Kamui Kobayashi, took the 5th place in Spanish Grand Prix. Dangerous driving has been banned by force in our nation; yet, the auto racing industry has not been developed in line with modern society. In a long period of time, the prevention of dangerous driving has been ineffective due to the banning manner, instead of venting, that the government adopted, which leads to a huge waste of human power and resources. Police force is the current administrative authority for preventing dangerous driving. The legal basis for police to enforce or exercise its power or right is officially available since the Police Duties Enforcement Act was promulgated on Dec. 12th 2003, followed by the interpretation of Shih-Zih No. 535 made by the Council of Grand Justices. The Police Duties Enforcement Act does not only regulate that the enforcement of police powers should be complied with proportionality by specific manner, but also provides the legal basis for the enforcement of police powers. Human right and police itself are also safeguarded. Nevertheless, whether the enforcement of the Act can redress dangerous driving, or weather it can represent that dangerous driving can be corrected only by police is worth discussing in this study. Dangerous driving has been a troublesome problem to Kaohsiung City. By this study, I found out that banning dangerous driving by strict force affects little to the prevention of it. Through the analysis of the five major frameworks of administrative law, I suggest that the government should not regard dangerous driving as a pure event of public disorder, but a social phenomenon. Except for banning illegal dangerous driving, the central government should take the advantage of the situation to allow local self-governing to promote auto-racing industry. The government should also play the role of leading and changing the illegal and dangerous driving to the legal auto racing game with reasonable and effective management, and to set a managing mechanism in terms of the platform for modified parts. Through this manner, the government can not only benefit from taxing, but also control dangerous deriving effectively, which leads to a win-win situation for both of the government and its people.

This thesis first describes and analyzes the key concepts and rationalities that are dominant in the content of the Environmental Enforcement Act (EEA). The research project concludes that despite legislative shifts towards increased punishment and deterrence, key concepts and rationalities such as the importance of economic globalization, the continuation of risk-management and anthropocentric values, and the dominance of staples development can be observed in the content of the EEA. The EEA also reflects growing concerns towards managing known structural economic problems such as Canada’s staples development and economic globalization. Secondly, this thesis critically evaluates whether the EEA is likely to contribute towards the effectiveness of Canadian environmental governance strategies. The EEA is likely to be ineffective based on observations of structural challenges in environmental governance and the Canadian political economic context. Neoliberalism, economic globalization, risk management, anthropocentrism, and staples based economic development characterize the problems identified in existing research that the content of the EEA does not adequately address.

This thesis first describes and analyzes the key concepts and rationalities that are dominant in the content of the Environmental Enforcement Act (EEA). The research project concludes that despite legislative shifts towards increased punishment and deterrence, key concepts and rationalities such as the importance of economic globalization, the continuation of risk-management and anthropocentric values, and the dominance of staples development can be observed in the content of the EEA. The EEA also reflects growing concerns towards managing known structural economic problems such as Canada’s staples development and economic globalization. Secondly, this thesis critically evaluates whether the EEA is likely to contribute towards the effectiveness of Canadian environmental governance strategies. The EEA is likely to be ineffective based on observations of structural challenges in environmental governance and the Canadian political economic context. Neoliberalism, economic globalization, risk management, anthropocentrism, and staples based economic development characterize the problems identified in existing research that the content of the EEA does not adequately address.

The purpose of this study is: to explore and analyze the Communication Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (CALEA), to identify problems related to CALEA, to identify solutions devised by other countries to overcome problems similar to CALEA's, and to propose feasible solutions to CALEA problems.

Imagine a world where someone’s personal information is constantly compromised, where federal government entities AKA Big Brother always knows what anyone is Googling, who an individual is texting, and their emoticons on Twitter. Government entities have been doing this for years; they never cared if they were breaking the law or their moral compass of human dignity. Every day the Federal government blatantly siphons data with programs from the original ECHELON to the new series like PRISM and Xkeyscore so they can keep their tabs on issues that are none of their business; namely, the personal lives of millions. Our allies are taking note; some are learning our bad habits, from Government Communications Headquarters’ (GCHQ) mass shadowing sharing plan to America’s Russian inspiration, SORM. Some countries are following the United States’ poster child pose of a Brave New World like order of global events. Others like Germany are showing their resolve in their disdain for the rise of tyranny. Soon, these new found surveillance troubles will test the resolve of the American Constitution and its nation’s strong love and tradition of liberty. Courts are currently at work to resolve how current concepts of liberty and privacy apply to the current conditions facing the privacy of society. It remains to be determined how liberty will be affected as well; liberty for the United States of America, for the European Union, the Russian Federation and for the people of the World in regards to the extent of privacy in today’s blurred privacy expectations.