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Juvenile drug use in the country has grown exponentially in recent years. As such, a large percentage of those juveniles currently charged, retained, or on probation for their crimes have committed these crimes while under the influence of drugs. Many of these juveniles come from drug afflicted childhoods, families, and neighborhoods. The rate of recidivism for juveniles is very high and often leads to adult incarceration. The theory of Therapeutic Jurisprudence, utilized through the drug court process, attempts to rehabilitate juveniles into healthy drug-free adults. This study is devoted to exploring the theory of Therapeutic Jurisprudence through juvenile drug courts and the drug court movement. It also investigates whether or not an universal implementation of drug courts into all Florida juvenile systems would have an affect on these juveniles in relation to rates of recidivism and overall health of these juveniles.

Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote in his acclaimed novel Crime and Punishment, "if he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake. That will be punishment as well as the prison."1 The plague of guilt on the mind of a criminal is a key element in this book and is quite applicable to the case study at hand which examines why some juveniles are habitual criminal offenders. What prompts a youth to commit crimes? How does a child deal with his conscience for the unlawful acts? Does he understand right from wrong, truth from falsehoods, and freedom from repercussions? And should there be more stringent punishments by the state for committing the offenses? Society has developed ideas on what is acceptable in handling problem children. The justice system has turned from the idea of punishing offending youths to rehabilitating them. However, given the many problems our country faces with crime rates for juvenile offenders, perhaps society should question if the methods currently employed are effective. This examination specifically reviews the crime rates in Florida and how the law is applied to youths. This thesis aims to discover aspects of what encourages children to commit violent acts and which governmental and societal methods employed are successful or ineffective in treating this behavior. The purpose of this thesis is to probe the boundaries of our society and provoke social imagination to find resolutions in how the state may bring down crime rates for this age group.

The laws of war ha e existed e er since warfare began. The sources of these laws are much more diverse and complex than national laws. They include conventions such as the Hague & the Gene a Con entions to war crime special courts such as the Nuremberg War Trials. The laws of war have brought the international community together to limit the barbaric fighting that was practiced during armed conflicts. Today, however the post 9/11 world is dealing with a different kind of war. The war on terrorism that was lunched after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 certainly requires different rules and procedures and my study attempts to develop a new legislation that would effectively deal with the new challenges of the War on Terror. My thesis examines the different international documents that deal with issues arising during armed conflicts such as the treatment and prosecution of detainees. In addition, my study also considers the approach of the United States government to the war on terror. The Supreme Court case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld 548 U.S. _ (2006) was the most important case as it deemed that many practices of the Bush Administration were unconstitutional and therefore a new approach was needed. I finally end with some recommendations that I strongly believe would strength our war on terrorism while respecting basic principles of justice and fairness.

Litigation involving the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is not an uncommon phenomenon in today's world. An issue involving the ADA that has received a great deal of attention by the courts in recent years concerns administrative notice/exhaustion. Specifically, a great debate has raged as to whether or not an aggrieved party seeking to file a private suit under Title III of the ADA must first exhaust available state or local administrative remedies or otherwise give notice to state or local administrative agencies having authority to remedy or grant relief from discriminatory practices. Aggrieved parties derive their ability to file private actions against ADA violators through the AD A's incorporation of§ 2000a-3(a) (located in the Civil Rights Act of 1964). While the ADA does not directly require that administrative notice be a prerequisite to filing a private action pursuant to § 2000a-3(a), some courts have argued that administrative notice/exhaustion is required by § 2000a-3( c ), which is located just a few paragraphs below§ 2000a-3(a), when suing in response to ADA violations. Other courts have argued that administrative notice/exhaustion is required on different grounds. Still, there are other courts that affirm that neither administrative notice nor exhaustion is required. This dynamic issue has created a virtual even division among the courts. This thesis examines the cases and arguments against the requirement of administrative notice/exhaustion, the cases and arguments in support of administrative notice/exhaustion, and provides a synopsis of what the law, promulgated by the legislature, intended to require and how this issue could be more appropriately adjudicated by the judiciary in future cases. A great deal of consideration and contemplation is given to the purpose of the ADA and how this purpose can be best effectuated when adjudicating the administrative involvement controversy.

This thesis will explore the media's increasing impact on the criminal court system, specifically through prejudicial publicity given to criminal trials. In our society, the primary responsibility for gathering and disseminating information rests on the media. The media, consisting primarily of television and written publications, feel that they have a duty to provide citizens with important information about the community and the world. While the media have traditionally gathered news for informational purposes, they also provide news coverage of people and events for entertainment value. This is accomplished by focusing on the out-of-the ordinary and on stories of intrigue that capture the public's fancy. The media's desire to inform and entertain has carried over into the legal process, specifically the criminal court system. The media are typically drawn to cases that either provide a shocking, outrageous storyline, or that have a high-profile, famous defendant. The media love to exploit criminal trials for the suspense, drama, and sensationalism that they produce, as the viewing audience is longing for inside gossip and pure outrageousness. However, the media have the capability of publicizing a case beyond just mere hype, essentially turning the trial into a "media circus." Concerns arise when media outlets release prejudicial information before the case has been tried in front of the trier-of- fact, the jury. If the potential jurors consume this prejudicial, often-times inadmissible, information, then this increases the chances that jurors will pre-form opinions as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant prior to hearing the in-court evidence. If this occurs, the defendant's Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial by an impartial jury is in serious jeopardy. The media's First Amendment rights of free speech and press, coupled with a presumed right of access to criminal proceedings, lie in direct conflict with the defendant's Sixth Amendment due process rights. Exactly how courts go about balancing these rights delineated by the United States Constitution is still not definitive. The media feel that they can publicize criminal trials in any way they deem appropriate, while defendants argue that the jury pool is tainted by the media's coverage of the case. This prevents a truly unbiased jury from being chosen. Because of these constitutional issues, the United States Supreme Court has seen fit to enter the media publicity debate. While not providing, any definitive rules on when media publicity violates a defendant's Sixth Amendment's rights, the members of the Court have provided some recommendations and direction on these issues. When a case arouses the interest of media outlets nationally and internationally, the primary focus turns to the jury pool. Since jurors are seen as the trial participants most influenced by the media coverage, methods to keep the jury from being exposed to prejudicial pretrial publicity are utilized. At times, a skillfully and thoroughly conducted voir dire can find jurors unexposed to media coverage about the case. The judge's role has expanded in recent years as the media have become more pervasive in the criminal court system. The judge is responsible for supervising the media and for making sure that they do not infringe on the defendant's Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial by an impartial jury. To accomplish this duty, the trial judge has a number of mechanisms that he or she can employ against the media in order to ensure that a fair and unbiased jury is chosen for the case. However, these mechanisms are loathed by media outlets as they assert that these tools violate their First Amendment rights. Attorneys have been impacted by the media; however this relationship is unique in that it is a reciprocal one. The media publicize the trial of the attorney's client. In turn, the attorney uses this publicity as a weapon to advocate his or her client's case and proclaim guilt or innocence. Concerns about these extrajudicial statements arise when attorneys themselves release prejudicial information through the media to the representative community from which the jury will be chosen. As a result, the American Bar Association and various states have enacted rules designed to limit attorney speech so as to prevent any possibility of prejudice to the defendant in his or her trial. Indeed, the media have become more pervasive in the criminal court system, projecting events to the world as they happen. The coverage also tends to focus on the entertainment value of the case, releasing details that play on the viewer's emotions. However, an aggressive media impacts the due process rights of the accused, thus harming the search for justice. These are all issues and concerns that would not have arisen in this context, but-for the media's continuing impact on the criminal justice system.

A person's right to publicity may often contradict with another person's rights under the First Amendment. While a person's legal protection over their right of publicity is relatively new in the eyes of our court, this topic of law and other related matters seem to be at the center of attention in current large profile civil litigation cases. The First Amendment seeks to promote speech, whereas the right of publicity laws seeks .to limit speech. If civil action is brought against a defendant for violating the plaintiffs right of publicity, a First Amendment exception may apply as a valid defense. This contradiction in the nature of these laws is forcing our court system to review applicable cases on a case by base basis, resulting in some degree of unpredictability in the courts. Because many of the parties in these cases are large commercial companies, more money is at stake as suits of misappropriation are filed. The issue of what direction(s) the courts should take in this matter spawns opposing views. While some views suggest that bright lines be drawn within right of publicity laws in order to avoid redundant and excessive cases and appeals, opposing views contend that bright lines cannot be drawn given the unique and sometimes artistic expression protected under the First Amendment. Our courts have applied the basic framework of copyright law in order to aid in their decision-making. Courts must weigh the right of publicity against the First Amendment.

Law schools are criticized for graduating students who lack the skills necessary to practice law. Legal research is a foundational ability necessary to support lawyering competency. The American Bar Association (ABA) establishes standards for legal education that include a requirement that each law student receive substantial instruction in legal skills, including legal research. Despite the recognized importance of legal research in legal education, there is no consensus of what to teach as part of a legal research course or even how to teach such a course. Legal educators struggle to address these issues. The practicing bar and judiciary have expressed concerns about law school graduates ability to conduct legal research. Studies have been conducted detailing the poor research ability of law students and their lack of skills. Although deficiencies in law student research skills have been identified, there is no agreement as to how to remediate these deficiencies. This dissertation suggests the legal research resources that should be taught in law schools by identifying the research resources used by practicing attorneys and comparing them to those resources currently included in legal research instruction at the 202 ABA-accredited law schools. Multiple data sources were used in this study. Practitioner resource information was based on data provided by practicing attorneys responding to the 2013 ABA Legal Technology Survey. Resources taught in ABA-accredited law schools were identified through three sources: a 2014 law school legal research survey sent to the 202 ABA-accredited law schools, a review of law school syllabi from ABA-accredited law school legal research and legal research and writing courses, and the Association of Legal Writing Directors 2013 annual survey of legal research and writing faculty. The combined data from these three sources were compared to the resources used by practicing lawyers identified in the annual national 2013 ABA Legal Technology Survey. This comparison of what is taught with what is used in practice identifies a deficiency in law school instruction in the research resources used by practicing attorneys. These survey results detail distinct areas of inadequate instruction in legal research resources and provide legal educators with detailed information necessary to develop a curriculum that will result in graduating students with practice-ready competencies.

The thesis examines the expressions and origins of negative attitudes to gender equality in the Czech Republic, which have been noticeable especially in the process of implementation of the EU sex equality acquis. It asks whether and how they can be explained with reference to socio-legal developments that started during Czechoslovakia’s State Socialist past, but are still relevant today. In order to answer these research questions, the thesis examines how gender equality has been regulated through law and how it has been understood by law-makers, judges and legal scholars in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic during State Socialism (1948-1989) and Transition (1989-today). The thesis examines legal developments in gender-relevant areas, most importantly in antidiscrimination law. It also excavates the underlying, sometimes hidden, but crucial understandings of key concepts such as ‘women’, ‘gender’, ‘equality’, ‘discrimination’ and ‘rights’. The thesis argues that while formal legal guarantees for women have largely been satisfactory in the Czech Republic by international standards, the way these formal legal guarantees are understood, interpreted and applied has not been gender-progressive. It argues that the reasons for this are: (i) entrenched patriarchal ideas about women’s appropriate role both in private and public life; (ii) a failure to understand gender as a social construct and to recognize gender order as a pervasive social structure; (iii) an inadequate conceptualization of equality and a refusal to combat sex discrimination; and (iv) a limited understanding of the role of law and of rights in the shaping of social relations. It argues that these understandings have been considerably path-dependent on State Socialism, be it through a rejection of anything perceived as State Socialist (which has harmed redistributive policies), as well as through the mostly unconscious retention of ideas or their absence (which has led to a blindness to the cultural aspects of patriarchy).

Since the passing of Proposition 47 in California in 2014, drug court programs across the state have invariably undergone changes. In my thesis, I evaluate the drug court programs of three counties in Southern California: Orange County, Los Angeles County, and Riverside County. Through a qualitative analysis of the drug court programs in these counties, via interviews, data collection, and courtroom observation, I provide insight into the functionality of each county's program, as well as an analysis of the effects of Proposition 47. This paper aims to address the key factors involved in maintaining a functional and successful drug court system.