Interrelationship between Human Rights and Natural Law

Interrelationship between Human Rights and Natural Law In the second half of the 20th century, the growth of interest in human rights has been accompanied by a revival in natural law. Consider why this should be so, critically exploring the interrelationship between human rights and natural law; and also, by using concrete examples, critically assess ONE or TWO theories that critique human rights with particular emphasis on the grounds for such critique. Word count: 5293 words (body) + 504 words (footnotes) = 5,797 words (+ 962 words bibliography, not including list of reports referred to) There is an assumed correlation between what is good and what comes naturally. For example, parental affection, heterosexual love and support for the elderly are all natural concepts, and therefore, arguably, good. Anything that ignores or distorts human nature is bad[1]. Legislators and lawyers have referred to naturalistic arguments in the past, particularly where the issues at stake are those not already covered by legal precedent[2]. Harris notes that the jurists who developed the law of the Roman Empire frequently made references to the nature of the case as a basis for dealing with matters not covered by previous authority. The compilers of the Corpus Juris used the word ‘naturalis’ as a tag to distinguish natural obligations from their counterparts in the Jus Civile[3]. More recently, in Corbett v Corbett[4], a judge held that a marriage between a man and a person who had undergone a sex change was a nullity because it could not fulfil the natural, biologically determined consequences of marriage[5]. Such lawyer type references to the natural helped evolve the concept of natural law. Classically, natural law is â€Å"right reason in agreement with nature†[6]. It is â€Å"universal and immutable†[7], â€Å"unchanging and everlasting†[8], available at all times and in all places to those whose responsibilities include enacting and developing the law. It is a concept of justice so far as it is there to right wrongs and properly distribute benefits and burdens. It is also a higher law, in that it is superior to any law created by a political authority: it is not possible to be freed from its obligations by â€Å"Senate or People†[9]. Natural law determines whether or not ordinary laws are morally binding on subjects. The rules of natural law are not created by anyone, but are instead discoverable by reason. Since all men have natural essences, or ends (just like in nature, to become an oak tree, for example, is an end for an acorn[10]), knowledge of those qualities allows us to draw conclusions by rational steps about what justice requires to best fulfil man’s ‘end’[11]. Although some natural law philosophers have cited God as the basis for the existence of these natural laws, the theory does not fail if God is taken out of the equation. Even if God does not exist, it is through that natural law would â€Å"have the same content†; and just as God cannot cause that two times two shall not be four, so he cannot cause the intrinsically evil not to be evil[12]. According to Acquinas, human laws derive their legal quality and power to bind in conscience from natural law, guided by a reasoned assessment of the common good. The content of the law is deducible from the first principles of natural law, which include, for example, that one should ‘do no harm to no man’. Any apparently conflicting law is a corruption of the law and so is not binding[13]: in the Seventeenth Century, when it was still accepted that the Courts could hold invalid any Act contrary to natural law, it was said that â€Å"even an Act of Parliament made against natural equity, as, to make a man judge in his own case, is void in itself†[14]. Intrinsic to the concept of natural law is the fact that humans have rights ascribed to them that they possess merely by virtue of being human[15]. They follow directly from the necessary ends fixed by human nature, that is â€Å"from the single fact that man is man†[16]. Schneider describes the basic human rights as â€Å"the right to existence or life, to personal freedom, to the pursuit of perfection of moral and rational life, to the pursuit of eternal good, to keeping ones body whole, to marrying according to ones choice and raising a family, and to free associations†[17]. Whilst not all would agree exactly on what set of rights follow directly from what is ‘natural’, these arguments have been used throughout history to support action taken when ‘natural rights’ have been infringed. The American Colonists justified their overthrow of British rule in 1776 on the basis that the government had impaired their rights to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’, claiming that it was ‘self evident that man was endowed with such rights’. Indeed, that phrase is the cornerstone of the American Declaration of Independence which states: â€Å"We hold these truths to be self-evidence, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among those are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness†[18]. This is an adaptation of the phrase used by John Locke, who believed that â€Å"the state of nature has a law of nature to govern it which obliges ev eryone. And reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought harm another in his life, health, liberty and possessions†[19]. During the 19th Century, natural law theory lost a lot of its influence as positivism, materialism, utilitarianism and Benthamism became dominant. In the 20th century, however, particularly towards the second half, natural law theory received new attention[20]. This can partly be attributed to peoples’ reaction to the rise of totalitarianism: dictatorships such as those held by Hitler in Germany and Stalin in the USSR, based on terror and on mass support mobilised behind an ideology prescribing radical social change[21]. Such dictatorships are linked to the other factor that can be attributed to the rise in interest in natural law: an increased interest in human rights throughout the world[22]. In particular, the barbarism of the Second World War moved the United Nations General Assembly to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 which, whilst not legally binding, urged member nations to promote a collection of human, civil, economic and social rights. The Asse mbly called these rights part of the ‘foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world’. These words are echoed in the preamble to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment 1984[23], which has been signed by the United Kingdom, Spain and Chile and by over 100 other nations in acknowledgement of a â€Å"clear recognition by the international community that certain crimes are so grave and so inhuman that they constitute crimes against international law and that the international community is under a duty to bring to justice a person who commits such crimes†. The preamble acknowledges that â€Å"recognition of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world† and recognises that â€Å"those rights derive from the inherent dignity of the human person†[24]. So natural law theory has been frequently cited by lawyers and forms the basis for many of our human rights conventions and agreements. Throughout history, certain ‘inalienable rights’ have been afforded to human beings simply by virtue of them being human. As well as the American Declaration of Independence and Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations, both of which we have looked at, the English Bill of Rights (1689), the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789), and the first 10 amendments to the Constitution of the United States (‘the Bill of Rights 1791’) all contain similar references. Natural law enables us to identify which ‘basic goods’ should be fundamental and unchangeable; in contrast to positive law, which is human-made, conditioned by history, and subject to continuous change[25]. Further, philosophers endorsing natural law theories have argued that the basic goods that natural law identifie s enable us to have objective knowledge of morality: and that they are sufficiently precise to rule out many kinds of injustice[26]. But natural law theories have attracted much criticism from other philosophical schools of thought. Jeremy Bentham for example, states: â€Å"Right is the child of law; from real laws come real rights, but from imaginary law, from laws of nature, come imaginary rights. ‘Natural rights’ is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptable rights, rhetorical nonsense nonsense upon stilts†[27]. Bentham thought that the way judges insisted upon relying on natural law to justify their decisions was merely to ward off criticism of the law: he believed that judges stretched the notion of rights to the point of vacuity[28], and that what they appealed to as the basis for their decisions involved no publicly assessable reasons whatsoever[29]. For Bentham, natural law theory was no more than a cloak of mystery used to clothe the exercise of unfettered discretion; and an unwritten law based on the general dictates of natural reason was a mere metaphor and convenient fiction, whe re the real basis for the decisions being made remained elusive[30]. Such an approach was inconsistent with how matters should proceed in a democratic society since, where the law is open to question, â€Å"unless citizens are able to know what the law is and are given a fair opportunity to take its directives into account, penal sanctions should not apply to them†[31]. It is, of course, abhorrent to the rule of law that judges should be free to render decisions that reflect their personal or social biases[32] and there is common agreement in modern times that Courts are better suited to resolving disputes by reference to what the law actually is than for getting involved in the creation of legalisation itself[33]. â€Å"The existence of law is one thing; its merit or demerit another†[34]; and judges are not concerned with the latter. Bentham was a utilitarianist: he believed that the fundamental basis of morality and justice was the requirement that happiness or goodness should be maximised. There are three basic elements to this theory. We will examine the three elements in the context of a moral dilemma – the use of organs or tissue from a deceased person without the consent of their parent or relative. The first element to consider is that the rightness or the wrongness of an action, which depends upon the consequences it produces. In this context, the failure to obtain parental consent, perhaps also with an element of intentional deceit in obtaining the organs or tissue, may be outweighed by the potential research benefits that may be afforded society, such as decreasing mortality rates and the potential development of new treatments for disease[35]. The second element establishes a claim with regard to who is to be considered when estimating what the likely consequence of the act will be[36]. The logic behind this principle being the promotion of the aggregate welfare or the maximisation of happiness[37]. Taking this into context, medical staff would need to balance the potential pain and suffering of the parents or relatives of the deceased at the discovery of the retention of organs, with the claim society has on the benefits that are made as a result of the retention[38]. The third element makes a claim as to what makes a good state of affairs good and a bad one bad. In our context, failure to use organs or tissues from a recently deceased person for research and education (regardless of parental or other consent) must be weighed against the possible benefits that such use could bring to society. Failure to use the material would be classified as being a bad state of affairs, whilst its subsequent use, regardless of how the material was obtained, would be viewed as being a good one[39]. This method of reasoning appears to be very powerful in comparison with natural law theory, as it requires no religious faith or explicit moral code[40]; natural law theory in contrast would simply claim that the organs should not be used because the human has some inherent right to dignity and completeness by virtue of them being human. The medical profession sought to rely on similar principles to justify their exclusion of families from the decision-making process in the organ retention scandals brought to public attention by the Bristol, Kennedy, Redfern, CMO and Isaacs Reports[41]. The response to this was that to exclude relatives from such decisions relating to their loved ones would undermine family autonomy, and would be â€Å"objectionable, unethical, paternalistic and reflective of a stance no longer acceptable in contemporary Western medicine†[42]. It is clear that natural law theories are the basis for reasoning behind our development of the law of human rights that we see today. But the use of such theory as a basis for human rights is problematic because, firstly, there is no common agreement on what is ‘good’. The basic human goods mentioned earlier that Schneider identified were not available to all persons during Schneider’s lifetime, and indeed it is not until recently that some have been secured by the law today. Schneider thought that marrying according to ones choice was a right that humans should have by virtue of being human, but only recently by the Civil Partnership Act 2004, which came into force on 5 December 2005, same sex couples have been allowed to marry in the United Kingdom[43]. Before that time, everyone did not have the right to ‘marry according to one’s choice’ because same sex-couples could not marry. Even now, there are some restrictions on who can get married à ¢â‚¬â€œ for example, a marriage solemnised between persons either of whom is under the age of 16 is void[44]. Similarly, as Bentham asserts, men are not really ‘free’ and there is no real freedom. Bentham states: â€Å"All men, on the contrary, are born in subjection, and the most absolute subjection the subjection of a helpless child to the parents on whom he depends every moment for his existence. In this subjection every man is born in this subjection he continues for years for a great number of years and the existence of the individual and of the species depends upon his so doing†[45]. Secondly, even if certain fundamental rights can be agreed upon, conflicts arise between the fundamental rights of one person and another. The obvious questions that arise from these issues are, how do we determine what fundamental rights should be available to all persons? How do we decide on the level of state interference that is ‘right’ when it comes to people making choices? And, where ethical decisions are at stake, how do we effectively balance the fundamental rights of one person against another? For example, with reproductive technology, couples may use screening to avoid implanting an embryo identified as having genetic predispositions towards disease. They may also select the sex of their baby, or even identify if their embryo has the right tissue match to make it a compatible donor for another family member[46]. It is extremely difficult to decide how far the state should restrict such reproductive choices using natural law theory alone. The rights of the parents, the unborn child and the potential beneficiary of a donor, must be considered: all of which we may argue have a set of inherent right s afforded to them by virtue of them being human, but whose rights should prevail? Even if such choices can be agreed on now, Bentham points out that future governments may not have honesty to be trusted with the determination of â€Å"what rights shall be maintained, what abrogated what laws kept in force, what repealed†. Similarly, future subjects â€Å"will not have wit enough to be trusted with the choice whether to submit to the determination of the government of their time, or to resist it.†[47] There can be no agreement on the fundamental ‘goods’ and even if an agreement is reached, it may be that those in power in the future will change their decision as to what rights are inherent. It may also be that those subject to that power do not agree on the decisions that have been made for them. Because natural law makes no reference to anything (the right is just based on is inherently deducible from what is natural) and there is no real marker by which to measure decisions and laws, these cannot be immutable. Further, even if natural law theory is successful in identifying inherent rights that we can agree on, it does not state what limits there are in enforcing morally legitimate directives[48]. This begs the question: if a person has an inherent right by virtue of being human, how far can they go to enforce that right? The actions of Dr Martin Luther King demonstrate how far some have gone: King protested against segregation laws which he claimed violated natural law, and as a result he urged civil disobedience, which entailed violating the law[49]. A person held in captivity might for example need to go so far as to encroach on other people’s inherent to protect their own: in order to protect their right to life and freedom, a prisoner may have to kill their captor to escape. Bedau, in fact, suggests that Bentham misses the opportunity to make a further attack on natural law theory because of this lack of reference to what a citizen should do if their rights are encroached upon, the absence of which could be viewed as a â€Å"tacit invitation to insurrection, violence and anarchy†; since it is â€Å"hardly surprising that believers in â€Å"natural and imprescriptable rights might use direct and violent measures in an effort to secure those rights†[50]. The act of citizens using violence to secure their natural rights which encroach on others’ natural rights is an issue of balancing. There are many other scenarios where balancing respective rights are a problem: abortion, for example, could be seen as the murder of innocent lives that have inherent rights as human beings. Per natural law theory, laws that permit abortion must be invalid and Doctors who conduct abortions must be murderers. Arguably then, the execution of abortion doctors is a legitimate defence of others, and perhaps also a justified punishment for their evil behaviour and violation of natural law principles[51]. But to deny abortion is encroaching on the mother’s ‘natural’ rights of freedom and autonomy. These are arguments that are ongoing today. Bentham proposes that the whole concept of natural rights is flawed: there are simply no such things as natural rights. Rights anterior to the establishment of government do not exist; neither do rights that are opposed to, or in contradistinction to, legal rights. The expression, according to Bentham, is merely figurative; and as soon as one attempts to give it a literal meaning, it leads to error[52]. As well as attacking the use of natural law reasoning by judges, Bentham gives sound logic for his disapproval of the theory. First, men who have lived without government, live without rights: and such men are part of ‘savage nations’, with no habit of obedience and therefore no government; no government and therefore no laws; no laws and therefore no rights; and consequently, no security, property or liberty against regular control. Bentham argues that (since life without government brings unhappiness and savagery) we have a want for happiness and therefore a want for, and a reason for wanting, such rights. But â€Å"reasons for wishing there were such things as rights, are not rights; a reason for wishing that a certain right were established, is not that right want is not supply hunger is not bread.† In other words, simply stating that we are free because we want to be free, does not make us free[53]. Bentham points out that something which has no existence cannot be destroyed – and if it cannot be destroyed, it cannot therefore require anything to preserve it from destruction[54]. So for example, freedom does not exist and so we can’t destroy it; and since we can’t destroy it we don’t need to protect it from destruction by creating and being signatory to conventions like the Declaration of Rights which he attacks. To seek to do so is dangerous because as soon as a list of those natural rights is given, they are expressed to represent legal rights; but no government can abrogate or uphold them because they are a fallacy. They are not something we can rely on because they are non-existent. We have already examined Bentham’s alternative to natural law. Bentham’s model sees the virtue of the law expressed not in terms of morality, but instead, in efficiency: the greatest good of the greatest number, secured not by different decisions taken by different officials who rely on their own diverse judgements, but by detailed policy schemes whose complex consequences can be carefully considered in advance, laid down in detail, and enforced to the letter. Where in contrast moral tests are used to determine the law, which allow citizens and officials to disagree about what morality requires and to substitute their own judgement about what standards have been established, the consequent disorganisation will produce chaos[55]. Applying Bentham’s logic, the law is whatever the sovereign ruler or parliament has decreed. That Ruler or Parliament, in turn, restricts individuals only so far as is necessary to enable the law to maintain every other individual in the possession and exercise of such rights; and the law is consistent with the greatest good of the community that he should be allowed. The marking out of boundaries is the job of the legislator, and should not be left to any individual, such as the judge, to make ‘occasional and arbitrary’ decisions[56]. But utilitarianism does not necessarily hold the answer to the shortcomings of natural law theories. Since it promotes the idea of the greatest good for the greatest number, this implies that someone should be in charge, with the authority and duty to sacrifice any one person’s property, liberty, and life, for the greater good. It also assumes that the person in charge has the capacity to make those decisions selflessly and to correctly weigh the interests of one person against another. This may not necessarily be the case; and the decisions and actions made could be as ‘occasional and arbitrary’ as those made by supporters of natural law theory. Further, because the decisions are made by those in power, the decisions will become part of the law; and so they are harder to change where they seem unjust; in contrast to natural law theory where natural law (usually in the form of human rights law and conventions) is used to challenge existing laws. A further difficulty is that the greater good approach ignores the individual. Any one person is expendable for the greater good: and so, for example, it is difficult to make a convincing utilitarian argument that rape should be unlawful. Without a moral basis, spiritual basis or teleology for rights, there is an increased risk of materialist or secular ends justifying the means, thereby leading to disregard for individual welfare[57]: laws made for the greater good, based on this logic alone and ignoring reference to a moral code, can be brutal to the individual. Morality is, arguably, a valuable accompaniment to the law: it judges law, and moral attitudes shape the law. Law has moral ambitions; and morality may bear on the validity of law[58]. Bentham’s approach has yet further practical problems, with the stance that judges and such individuals may not interfere with the law, or expand it in any way. Firstly, whilst the law may be set out in great detail, the way it is applied by each judge is not entirely certain. Judges are humans and subject to human imperfection. Secondly, the law will never be able to cover every scenario in every detail as Bentham describes. There will always be some legally unregulated cases in which on some point no decision either way is dictated by the law and the law is accordingly partly indeterminate or incomplete. In such instances, the judge has to exercise his discretion and make law for the case, by expanding the application of existing principles, rather than merely applying already pre-existing settled law[59]. Perhaps a better solution, although not perfect, will draw inspiration from both natural law theory and Bentham’s theories of utilitarianism. Laws, for example, believes that the search for a good constitution of rights is an exercise in moral philosophy: and necessarily involves a reflection on how people in society ought to live. As a constitution of rights exists for the benefit of individual citizens, the primary task will be to identify the essential needs and requirements of mankind. This need not be by reference to purely moral arguments, and need not ignore the needs of the individual when considering the greater good. According to Laws, it starts with the Kantian perception that the individual is an end in himself, never a means. From this, we can generate a constitutional model that prevents the human tendency to interfere with others to the extent that their ability to act autonomously is undermined. The creation of rights to protect autonomy will protect individual s from such interference. Therefore, autonomy â€Å"gives rise to rights†[60]. For this model to work, Laws believes that there must be an institution capable of enforcing the autonomy-protecting rights against the powerful, and especially the government. This institution, he believes, is the Courts. Such a model for human rights does not abolish altogether the difficulties that arise from natural law theory. One still has to agree on the ‘essential needs and requirements’ of mankind. But if one assumes for a moment that not they, nor anyone else, is in a position to state what those needs really are, then the only solution is to allow every individual to decide for themselves that their needs are. Restricting autonomy only to the extent where it encroaches on other people’s autonomy will allow this. It takes away the requirement that there has to be some higher moral order and allows each individual to make the decisions for themselves. This addresses one of the fundamental flaws of natural law theory. Natural law, as we stated, assumes man has an ‘end’ and that rights should be put in place to help him achieve that end. But man does not necessarily want to achieve that end: perhaps instead he wants to terminate his life before he reaches that en d. Human rights in the UK and Europe do not permit him to do so: to protect him from himself. But man is equipped with skills of reasoning, and reason, unlike natural growth, is â€Å"constituted by deliberative qualities like, reflection, analysis, prudence, principle, coherence and consistency. In a way therefore reason is precisely the opposite of a natural quality†[61]. Man may reason that he doesn’t want to follow what is natural, and ought to be permitted not to do so, provided his actions do not directly affect the choices of others. This is somewhat along the lines of John Mills’ harm principle, which denotes that: â€Å"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant†[62]. Of course, no man is an island[63] and our conduct necessarily involves interaction with others[64]; this is what makes the model imperfect, because it is simply theoretical and not practical. The degree of autonomy we could be afforded without affecting others in our actions is minute. But it is a starting point for considering what human rights should be enforced, and it gets around some complicated ethical problems (such as that of abortion, since autonomy must be restricted to prevent the taking of life of the unborn child, who would have no opportunity for autonomy at all if it were not). Bentham’s greater good theories are not entirely redundant, as in a balancing of autonomous rights question (such as where an organ is available for transplant but the relatives will not consent), the autonomy of the live person, dead person, relatives and medical professionals will still need some form of assessment. The action permitting the greatest autonomy (i.e. the transplant taking place or the unborn life surviving) should perhaps prevail. In conclusion, whilst we have seen a progressive inclusion in human rights into constitutions since the eighteenth century, the upholding of those rights has hardly been a success[65]. The aftermath of the Second World War, which saw the violation of human rights on a massive scale, and the rise in totalitarianism, has spurned a growth in interest towards establishing the security of such rights. In formulating what rights should be included in various conventions, there have be

Citizens United Case

In January 2008, Citizens United released a documentary that was critical of Senator Hilary Clinton and planned to run commercials of it at that time. However, through the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as the McCain-Feingold Act which â€Å"prohibits corporations and unions from using their general treasury funds to make independent expenditures for speech that is an ‘electioneering communication’ or for speech that expressly advocates the election or defeat of a candidate†, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the commercials violated the act.The case was brought up to the Supreme Court and would be one of the more important cases about the First Amendment with a controversial decision. On March 24, 2009, the Supreme Court took oral arguments from Malcolm Stewart, then Deputy Solicitor General representing the Federal Election Commission. He pointed out that with the current laws in place for the campaign-finance s ystem, even a book that had the same content as the documentary would be banned. An even more disturbing point that Stewart made was that the government could ban a book that has just one sentence about candidate advocacy.This caused the Supreme Court to ask the parties to reargue the case due to two cases that Stewart used: Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, a statute that prohibited a corporation to use its funds for or against a political candidate, and McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, the decision that upheld the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold law. The reason for rearguing the case was to determine if they, the justices, should overrule those two decisions. The court reversed the ruling from the lower court and overruled Austin v.Michigan Chamber of Commerce and partially overruled McConnell v. Federal Election Commission. The overall ruling was 5-4 with Justice Steven’s dissent that was joined by Justice Breyer, Ginsberg, and Sotomayor. Justice Ke nnedy, part of the majority opinion, believed that â€Å"If the First Amendment  has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech. † In general, the Justices in the majority opinion believed that the case was based mostly on the First Amendment.Due to freedom of speech, corporations, whom the Justices believed were counted as individuals, could not be denied their right to voice out their opinion on running officials. The justices that favored the ruling brushed aside the warnings that might result in overturning the lower court’s decision. The dissenting justices warned that treating a corporation’s right to speech to be the same as an individual human was dangerous. However, eight of the justices agreed that Congress can require corporations to disclose how much they spent and to have disclaimers in the absence of facts.Chief Justice Roberts, one of whom that was part o f the majority opinion, believed that â€Å"the important principles of judicial restraint and  stare decisis  implicated in this case† had to be addressed. He believed that overturning a past decision, such as Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce and McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, in certain circumstances were necessary. Roberts stated that cases such as segregation and minimum wage would not be as of what they are today if it were not for judicial activism. Justice Stevens wrote a passionate dissent that was joined by the other three Justices who opposed the ruling.He stated that the Court’s ruling â€Å"threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the Nation. † Because corporations and the general public could now spend unlimited money to promote or demote politicians who are running for office anytime, Stevens fears that it would cause an large disturbance in the election process. Although the majority opinion did not touch the laws about direct contribution to the candidates, part of the argument was whether a direct contribution versus an indirect contribution was the same thing.The time between the case being introduced to the Supreme Court until the official ruling of the case created a large amount of publicity and different opinions. President Obama believed that the decision gave the corporations too much power to influence the election process. However, other politicians such as a Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, believed that the First Amendment applied to corporations which would let corporations to voice out their opinions on campaigning officials. The fundamental question here is whether the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v.Federal Election Commission a good decision or a bad decision. I personally feel that the arguments from both sides were valid. The fact that Congress essentially denied a form of free speech from a corporation is unconstitutional in m y opinion. However, my opinion in corporations becoming involved in political campaigns where they might have a large impact on how people view a certain politician is that it is not fair. I believe that the decision made by the Supreme Court was good in part of retaining the First Amendment’s freedom of speech but bad in part of the campaigning process for politicians.The decision gives too much power to a corporation versus the general public. If a corporation was allowed to spend without limit in the elections, politicians could strategically support a topic that the corporation would benefit from. This would result in the corporation to have the power to directly contribute in the campaign by running their own ads that promotes the politician. Campaigning would then become a war of getting the support of many of the biggest corporations. This gives too much power to the corporations and essentially removes the voices of the general public.As Obama pointed out in his state of the union address in 2010, it would also give the power to foreign corporations to help fund a certain election. I strongly oppose any kind of foreign involvement in any political activity in the United States. With the potential of candidates to â€Å"sell-out† to corporations would just ruin the whole election process. With the potential of unlimited spending of corporations, not only would they be allowed to endorse a political candidate, but they would also be able to attack candidates such as the documentary made by Citizens United.With the current campaigning process, political candidates have created attack ads that give negative images of an opposing candidate. Now that corporations can voice their opinions, there may be an increase of these attack ads. Through an ethical standpoint, it ruins the integrity of the election process. The election process would not just become a fight between politicians to gain support from corporations but also a fight of who can de stroy another candidate’s image to the public.It not only defaces the opposing candidate, but it shows how dirty a politician can be. The election process turns into an all-out fight between candidates who would deploy such a tactic. With the inclusion of corporations now, it would worsen the current state of the campaigning process. I see why the Justices would overrule the lower court’s decision due to the First Amendment. The argument made by Malcolm Stewart definitely gave the impression that the law was too restrictive in such a way that it banned any forms of view from a corporation of a political candidate.I would agree with how the law would be unconstitutional through Stewart’s argument; however, I would oppose it through an ethical view. A poll conducted by Washington Post showed that eight in ten poll respondents opposed the decision made by the Supreme Court. William Rehnquist, a former Supreme Court justice, also opposed the decision made by the cou rt by joining the dissent made by Stevens. Sandra Day O’Connor, also another former Supreme Court justice, made a point that the checks and balances on campaign spending were demolished. However, O’Connor was an author of McConnell v.Federal Election Commission. The Supreme Court’s case about allowing the Westboro Baptist Church to protest at military funerals is similar to this case due to both cases involving the right to free speech. In both cases, the general public did not like the ruling; however, it made sense constitutionally. There may be alternatives that Congress can take in battling the problems of corporations being involved in political campaigns. Although the court overruled it, I believe that there should be some sort of regulation on how much a corporation could spend on a candidate.Instead of limiting the corporation’s freedom of speech, why can’t we limit how much they can endorse a candidate? One can argue that money is not spee ch, so limiting the amount a corporation could spend would be constitutional. Another way to tackle the problem is to let shareholders decide on the political expenditures made by a corporation, as Great Britain does. This would let a larger majority decide on what the corporation would do for political expenditures. However, even though it is still a larger pool of people, they probably will still act in the interest of the company due them be driven by profits.Now that the court has made its decision, corporations can now spend as much as they want on politics. Many problems would arise due to this; however, it would still be constitutional. I believe that the decision of overruling Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and partially overruling McConnell v. Federal Election Commission was good due to following the First Amendment. However through a practical stance, it would create a large possibility of corrupting the campaigning process. Bibliography Eggen, Dan. â€Å" Poll: Large majority opposes Supreme Court's decision on campaign financing.   Washington Post17 February 2010, n. pag. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. ;http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/17/AR201 0021701151. html;. Hasen, Rick. â€Å"CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS' CONCURRING OPINION IN CITIZENS UNITED: TWO MYSTERIESCHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS' CONCURRING OPINION IN CITIZENS UNITED: TWO MYSTERIES . â€Å"Election Law Blog. N. p. , 23 January, 2010. Web. 17 Feb 2012. ;http://electionlawblog. org/archives/015118. html;. â€Å"High-Court Hypocrisy. †Ã‚  Newsweek. 22 January 2010: n. page. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. ;http://www. thedailybeast. om/newsweek/2010/01/22/high-court-hypocrisy. html;. Liptak, Adam. â€Å"Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending LimitJustices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit . †Ã‚  New York Times  21 January 2010, n. pag. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. ;http://www. nytimes. com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22scotus. html;. Liptak, Adam. â€Å"O’Connor M ildly Criticizes Court’s Campaign Finance Decision. †Ã‚  New York Times  26 January 2010, n. pag. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. ;http://thecaucus. blogs. nytimes. com/2010/01/26/oconnor-mildly-criticizes-courts-campaign-finance-decision/? p;. Robert, John. â€Å"Roberts, C. J. , concurring. † n. pag. Legal Information Institute. Web. 17 Feb 2012. ;http://www. law. cornell. edu/supct/html/08-205. ZC. html;. Scalia, Antonin. â€Å"Scalia, J. , concurring. † n. pag. Legal Information Institute. Web. 17 Feb 2012. ;http://www. law. cornell. edu/supct/html/08-205. ZC1. html;. Smith, Bradley. â€Å"The Myth of Campaign Finance Reform. â€Å"National Affairs. N. p. , n. d. Web. 17 Feb 2012. ;http://www. nationalaffairs. com/publications/detail/the-myth-of-campaign-finance-reform;.

The Biggest Myth About Expository Research Paper Exposed

The Biggest Myth About Expository Research Paper Exposed Expository writing takes a sufficient amount of discipline. Social or technological procedure, understanding the way the movement of thought is managed through an essay has a profound effect on its general cogency and capability to impress. You might need an expert aid for it, so in case you need somebody to look at your grammar, just contact our writers, and your paper will be ideal! Writing an expository research problem may be an intimidating undertaking, but we can ensure it is simpler for you. Expository writing is also the most common sort of academic writing! There are a couple unique procedures for writing an expository essay. Writing an essay conclusion might appear an examples and straightforward step in the full essay writing task. Now you have a clearer comprehension of expository writing, you're prepared to compose your essay. Want to Know More About Expository Research Paper? Expository essays offer i nformation and analysis. Essays, naturally, are a standard sort of assignment, but even these arrive in a lot of distinct types, of which the expository essay is only one example. Have a look at the expository essay samples, which one can easily find online nowadays. If you aren't sure, you may always review expository essay examples for the suitable cue words. An expository essay outline presupposes a very clear structure, which isn't difficult to embody. There are lots of expository essay topics to pick from. There are lots of ways to write an outstanding essay, however all expository essays follow the identical essential measures. While an expository essay needs to be clear and concise, it may also be lively and engaging. Every essay has an identical structure, and you may never fail if your paper has a good introduction, a coherent principal body and a succinct conclusion. The body of the majority of essays is comprised of approximately 3 paragraphs. As with other essays, it is composed of an introductory paragraph, which contains the thesis statement, the major body paragraphs that demonstrate the statement, and a conclusion paragraph that summarizes all crucial points. The body paragraphs contain the key steps which you should take to finish the approach. If you're told to compose an expository paper that's devoted to Ancient Rome, it most likely means you need to choose 1 part of life in the Ancient Rome and describe it correctly. As a rule of thumb, it's advisable to restate every one of your principal points and end the entire paper with a probing thought. Your research on this aspect is likely to involve a small amount of groundwork so be well prepared. In reality, this write-up itself is an illustration of an expository writing style. Expository essay about global warming is among the most well-known topics students face each moment. Students lead busy lives and frequently forget about an approaching deadline. Some students believe they can't speak to a topic that they're still learning or are unfamiliar with, and it can be difficult to think of a topic which makes them feel comfortable. Therefore, many students and employees decide to purchase cheap essay rather than writing it themselves. New Step by Step Roadmap for Expository Research Paper The intention of any expository writing is t o reveal the characteristics of notions indicated in this issue. If your objective is to clarify something or maybe to shed light on something, you may want to consider choosing something you understand about, or, at the very least, you're interested in sufficient to pursue more information. An expository piece may still be creative in the feeling it leaves an effect on the reader. After you have gathered all of the necessary and appropriate material, you will have to get started organizing your suggestions and thoughts and putting an action plan into place in respect of the way to approach your essay. Working with a template will be able to help you structure your essayand will permit you to make a high quality paper to turn in. It enables you to make an outline and have a clearer idea of how to do your paper. Any issue which will be highlighted in the paper has to be fascinating to draw readers' attention and keep them interested throughout the entire bit of work. Leave yo urself enough time to have a look at your paper to see whether you've covered the fundamentals. Choosing our service, you will realize that studying can be simple if you gain from the aid of capable experts. Generally speaking, social science research, a scientific research, applies similar research methodologies the exact same as different forms of research like marketing research that's inherent with both quantitative strategy and qualitative strategy, clinical research that's emphasized on specific areas like pharmaceutical, chemical, health care research, and so forth. Moreover, without doing hefty research, students might want to understand how they can find with information to devote an expository essay. The Appeal of Expository Research Paper Many people think that your introduction is the most essential portion of the essay because it either grabs or loses the reader's interest. You should include things like all your research sources in a bibliography. Therefore, if you prefer to have nontrivial expository essay topic that demands thorough research, choose something which refers to a technological field of study. You could also do the research initially and then compose the essay, but this might result in some troubles.

Why dialogue is needed in organization - 1700 Words

Introduction Why dialogue is needed in organization? Dialogue is different from any other tool of the techniques it is method for problem-formulation and problem-solving technologies. Dialogue is essential for understanding culture and sub culture, for that instance organizational learning will probably depend upon such cultural understanding. Because of the high revolution seen in the technology and technological advancement its essential for an organization to accept the path of dialogue. There are many subunits had been formed in organization because of knowledge based information, geographies, market, product, and technology. So this subunits transform their subcultures. So organization have to require some mental models. And this†¦show more content†¦But decisive dialogues can not be duplicated. These factors constitute an organization’s most enduring competitive advantage, and they are heavily dependent on the character of dialogue that a leader exhibits and thereby influences throughout the organization. (ram cha ran 2001). Dialogue is not just a path of productive conversation but it also implies reflectiveness or positive response. It is not just improving the effectiveness of business and proving objectives but its create the relation between two parties eg. Stakeholder and owner, manager and worker, owner and manager etc. in dialogue â€Å"each person is participating, is partaking the whole meaning of the group and also taking part in it.† ( david bohm- 1996,p. xiii) When one time dialogue is in act than its possible to short the gap between two groups and cultures. Groups are interested for making fairness results in their given task through good conversation and by giving their different thoughts. ‘Dialogue encourages their participants to cut their stereotypes’. (daniel yankelovich 1999) Dialogue explore the self organizing theory in which individual have to act in a team for accomplish such objectives in way of culture. when individual being together they have specific ideas for making such communication. Dialogue is a way to get us awayShow MoreRelatedA Leadership Theory Based On Values And Teamwork1260 Words   |  6 PagesMoving an organization from stagnation in a new direction can be challenging. Leaders are often faced with a variety of employee commitment they must navigate and everything becomes enhanced when leadership is new. For leaders to lead a continuously changing organization they must establish a foundational leadership theory based on values and teamwork that fit within the organization and the leaders own skill set. 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