• used the fourth anniversary of the death of his wife Benazir Bhutto to say he would not resign in the face of numerous crises building around him.
• Speaking from behind bulletproof glass, Zardari appeared relaxed and healthy, which would likely calm rumors of his ill health.

• In a jab at the Supreme Court, which is currently pursuing several corruption cases against Zardari, who currently enjoys immunity as head of state, he asked about the as yet unsolved case of his wife's assassination.
  "People ask what happened to Benazir Bhutto's case," he said. "I ask (Chief Justice) Iftikhar Chaudhry: what happened to Benazir Bhutto's case?"
• Members of Zardari's Pakistan People's Party say opponents are working with the Supreme Court and the army to bring down the government. » The full Reuters article - By Hamid Shaikh | Reuters - December 27, 2011.

Original image source - Associated Press of Pakistan, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images - January 21,2010

Looking back:

“He’s come to the conclusion that if judiciary or the military want to knock him out, they can,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, an analyst in Lahore. “But he wants to fight back. That has given him a new lease on life, but his basic problem remains the same.”
The most serious of those vulnerabilities has always been his strained relationship with Pakistan’s military, a powerful institution whose leaders have ruled the country for about half of Pakistan’s 62-year history.
Strangely, Mr. Zardari’s weakness may serve him in the end. The army seems to have less appetite to re-enter politics directly, having seen its reputation badly tarnished during Mr. Musharraf’s years of military rule. A weak civilian leader, on the other hand, presents no threat to its power. » More in this New York Times article - By Sabrina Tavernise

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Investigating Nations That Are Transitioned to Democratic Forms of Government -
  Overview | Students consider words that reflect their knowledge and opinions about democracy. They then work in groups to research countries. Go to this Law and Building Society Lesson.
• A Learning Foundation Lesson - Compare and Contrast the Pakistan experience with Thailand. -
  Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, one of the country's leading constitutional lawyers, says the practice of military coups in Thailand is a bad habit that needs to end. "If we didn't have this coup the Thai people could have learned more about democracy and politics and about how to develop," From: News Analysis: Democracy, Thai style - Ban the politicians - By Thomas Fuller - International Herald Tribune. Go to this ESL Law and Society Lesson.

• Bangkok (AP) A Thai court has sentenced a political activist to 15 years in prison for insulting the monarchy, the second such action in less than a month.
• Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul, a journalist, became an activist after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was deposed in a 2006 coup and delivered fiery speeches at rallies organized by Thaksin's "Red Shirt" supporters.
• Daranee's sentencing for remarks in speeches at a 2008 rally came as the lèse majesté law is meeting increasing criticism for being an infringement on freedom of speech and an instrument for political persecution.
• Daranee said she would not appeal Thursday's sentence. "I have no will to keep fighting and I will neither lodge an appeal nor seek a royal pardon," she said.
• Sentiment against the law increased after a 61-year-old grandfather last month received a 20-year sentence for text messages sent from his phone. » The full AP article - By Vee Intarakratug – December 15, 2011.

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March Against Fear for Uncle Amphon and 112 prisoners"

• On Constitution Day more than 150 people from many walks of life joined a silent march from Victory Monument to Ratchaprasong.
• This march was not about politics—freedom of expression transcends politics. It was to protest the very human censorship of prosecutions and gaolings.

• Politics never changes but our global conversation can make Thailand live up to its name: “Free people”.
• Thai government is blocking a quarter of a million web pages, 2,500 books are banned. A political prison is being planned for political prisoners, and an even more draconian computer law has been tabled in Parliament, along with a law against public demonstrations exactly like this one.

Image source.

• Many marchers had written ‘Akong’ in Thai on their hands to support Uncle SMS Amphon Tangnoppakul who was sentenced last month to 20 years in prison for lèse majesté. » The full factthai article - December 11, 2011.

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(AFP) Image source and article
• "Ultimately, the notion of a constitution being replaced by military force is—from the perspective of human rights, justice and the rule of law—an absurdity," said the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).
• "While government propaganda in Thailand may persist in trying to give the appearance of a decent and harmless coup, the effect of removing the paramount law of a country by force is to make clear that the country is lawless…. Thus the country has devolved, in legal and institutional terms, to an extremely barbaric point that will have lasting bad effects for generations." » The full article - By Daniel Ten Kate - The Asian Sentinel - July 11, 2007.

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Political is Personal -
  Overview | Students explore their own personal political philosophies by identifying events, people and experiences that have helped shape their beliefs and writing an essay. Go to this Building Society and ESL Lesson.
• The Learning Foundation - Making Good Laws -
  Go to this Law and Building a Healthy Society Lesson."Is the Thai Constitution credible?"
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Keeping It Quiet -
  Overview | Students consider ways in which countries use censorship to control information. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Examining Military Coups Around the World -
  Overview | Students will consider military coups and their aftermaths, research famous coups... illustrating those events, and write letters from the perspectives of ousted leaders examined during class. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

Eyewitness testimony may be unreliable, but the Supreme Court doesn’t want to be the one to say so.

• As Justice Elena Kagan puts it, new research “should lead us all to wonder about the reliability of eyewitness testimony.” Just don’t expect the high court to do much more than wonder.
• As Justice William Brennan wrote in a 1981 dissent: “There is almost nothing more convincing than a live human being who takes the stand, points a finger at the defendant, and says, ‘That’s the one!’ ”
• The problem, of course, is that you can be very convincing and also wrong.


Image source

• In his book Convicting the Innocent (excerpted in Slate), Brandon Garrett studied 250 DNA-based innocent exonerations, and concluded that 190 of them (a whomping 76 percent) were based on false eyewitness identifications.

"DNA exonerations have shattered confidence in the criminal justice system by exposing how often we have convicted the innocent and let the guilty walk free. In this unsettling in-depth analysis, Brandon Garrett examines what went wrong in the cases of the first 250 wrongfully convicted people to be exonerated by DNA testing.

Based on trial transcripts, Garrett’s investigation into the causes of wrongful convictions reveals larger patterns of incompetence, abuse, and error. Evidence corrupted by suggestive eyewitness procedures, coercive interrogations, unsound and unreliable forensics, shoddy investigative practices, cognitive bias, and poor lawyering illustrates the weaknesses built into our current criminal justice system. Garrett proposes practical reforms that rely more on documented, recorded, and audited evidence, and less on fallible human memory.

• Just recently, a special master appointed by the New Jersey Supreme Court to examine eyewitness evidence concluded that such memory should be treated “as a form of trace evidence: a fragment collected at the scene of a crime, like a fingerprint or blood smear, whose integrity and reliability need to be monitored and assessed from the point of its recovery to its ultimate presentation at trial.” » The full Slate article - By Dahlia Lithwick - November 2, 2011.

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Justices for All -
  Overview | In this lesson, students examine the role of Supreme Court justices in the American political process. Students will research the qualities of the current Supreme Court justices and write opinion papers evaluating the current justices and recommending future nominations. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Courting Controversy? -
  Overview | In this lesson, students learn about the confirmation of Supreme Court justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. They then examine a number of individual issues from different ideological and philosophical perspectives. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Judges on Trial -
  Overview | In this lesson, students investigate how different branches of government affect or aid the appointment of a Supreme Court justice nominee and the responsibilities of a judge. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.
• Related Learning Foundation Lesson - Compare the treatment of the accused in China and America in two crime stories.

• Health Law Survives Test in Court of Appeals: Of four appellate court rulings on the health care law so far, this is the third to deal with the law on the merits, and the second that upholds it.
• Jack M. Balkin, a constitutional scholar at Yale Law School, said that what is emerging at the appeals level, including a June decision supporting the law from the Sixth Circuit that with a concurrence by Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton, another Bush appointee, shows “it’s actually a much more complicated story about how judges are seeing this act.”

• The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington issued the 37-page opinion by Judge Laurence H. Silberman. In the opinion, Judge Silberman, who was appointed by the Republican President Ronald Reagan, described the law as part of the fundamental tension between individual liberty and legislative power.
• “The right to be free from federal regulation is not absolute, and yields to the imperative that Congress be free to forge national solutions to national problems, no matter how local — or seemingly passive — their individual origins,” he wrote.
• The fact that Congress may have never issued an individual mandate to purchase something before, a central argument for many opposing the law, “seems to us a political judgment rather than a recognition of constitutional limitations,” he wrote. » The full New York Times article - By John Schwartz - November 8, 2011.

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The Obama administration asks the Supreme Court to hear a case concerning the 2010 health care overhaul law

• “Throughout history, there have been similar challenges to other landmark legislation, such as the Social Security Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, and all of those challenges failed,”
• the statement continued. “We believe the challenges to the Affordable Care Act — like the one in the 11th Circuit — will also ultimately fail and that the Supreme Court will uphold the law.”
• The political calculus is complicated. A decision striking down President Obama’s signature legislative achievement only months before the election would doubtless be a blow.
• But a decision from a court divided along ideological lines could further energize voters already critical of last year’s 5-to-4 campaign finance decision, Citizens United. » The full New York Times article - By Adam Liptak - Published: September 28, 2011.

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Looking Back: Obama v. Alito - Political dust-up during 2010 State of the Union

• Obama needled – well, lambasted – the US Supreme Court for a recent decision he said would “open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections.”

Image source By Barry Blitt.

• Sitting right in front of the president – robed in sober black, hands folded in their laps – were six of the justices, including three who had made it possible (in Obama’s words) for American elections to be “bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities.”

• Obama’s mention of the campaign finance decision caused Associate Justice Samuel Alito’s expression to go dark as he shook his head and appeared to say “Simply not true.”
• “The court’s legitimacy is derived from the persuasiveness of its opinions and the expectation that those opinions are rendered free of partisan, political influences,” former New Jersey Supreme Court justice Peter G. Verniero told the New York Times. “The more that individual justices are drawn into public debates, the more the court as an institution will be seen in political terms, which was not the intent of the founders.” The full Christian Science article » By Brad Knickerbocker.

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Justices for All -
  Overview | In this lesson, students examine the role of Supreme Court justices in the American political process. Students will research the qualities of the current Supreme Court justices and write opinion papers evaluating the current justices and recommending future nominations. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Courting Controversy? -
  Overview | In this lesson, students learn about the confirmation of Supreme Court justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. They then examine a number of individual issues from different ideological and philosophical perspectives. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Judges on Trial -
  Overview | In this lesson, students investigate how different branches of government affect or aid the appointment of a Supreme Court justice nominee and the responsibilities of a judge. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

What changed from the first trial?

• "What happened this time,' says CBS news correspondent Peter van Sant, "was the judge ordered that a scientific panel review the evidence.
• They discovered 54 major mistakes by the crime scene investigators, and they also -- which we reported three years ago -- they also determined that the DNA evidence wasn't DNA evidence at all.
• The piece of evidence that really damned Amanda was the notion that her DNA was on the handle of the knife and the victim's DNA was on the blade, but what was really on the blade was residue from - rye bread, and I kid you not. » The full CBS article - By Peter van Sant - October 1, 2011.

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The Crime Scene

• "Be respectful of the pain caused by the death of Meredith Kercher. But don't make the mistake of keeping two innocent people in jail," said Knox's counsel, Carlo Dalla Vedova. He declared. "Pain is not a legal argument,".
• Dalla Vedova began a point-by-point examination of the case against the American by looking at a statement, made to police after an all-night interrogation.
• She had not been given any legal assistance and, at the time she was no more than a ragazzina, a young girl, with scant knowledge of Italian on her first trip abroad, he said. Knox had come to Italy less than a month before to study, along with Kercher, at Perugia's university for foreigners.
• Knox's other counsel, Luciano Ghirga, earlier appeared close to losing his temper as he accused the prosecution of irregularities in the conduct of the investigation and trial. Like Dalla Vedova, he repeatedly implied that the prosecutors and police ignored evidence that failed to support their theories. » The full Guardian article - By John Hooper - September 29, 2011.

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original dna-helix image and article

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Science in the Court Rooms -
  Overview | Students reflect on their opinions about the use of DNA databases in criminal investigations. They then generate a list of questions they have about DNA and its importance, prepare and give brief presentations, and then further discuss their positions on how DNA information should be collected and used by police. Go to this Law and Science Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Pressing Cases -
  Overview | Students investigate famous criminal cases in which the media has played a significant role and reflect on how the news helps to shape attitudes and behaviors in their own lives. Go to this Law and Science Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Evaluating How DNA Databases Are Used to Solve Crimes -
  Overview | Students reflect on their opinions about the use of DNA databases in criminal investigations. They then generate a list of questions they have about DNA and its importance, prepare and give brief presentations, and then further discuss their positions on how DNA information should be collected and used by police.  Go to this Law and Science Lesson.

• Famous Trials - The Trial and execution of Socrates in Athens in 399 B.C.E. - Law and Society lesson.
  Why, in a society enjoying more freedom and democracy than any the world had ever seen, would a seventy-year-old philosopher be put to death for what he was teaching?
  Historical chronology (events) leading up to the Trial - interview about the trial- By Journalist I.F. Stone.
  

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Democracy in Action -
  Overview | Students consider words that reflect their knowledge and opinions about democracy. They then work in groups to research countries that have recently transitioned to democratic forms of government. Their learning is further enhanced by reflecting on what has transpired in these countries to date. Go to this Building Society and Law Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Fight for Human Rights -
  Overview | Students explore the concept of human rights by developing and defending their own ‘Bill of Human Rights’ and by writing a reflective essay that compares their notions of human rights and the protection of them to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Go to this Law and Building a Healthy Society Lesson.

A Return to the Cultural Revolution?

• Washington — On April 3, the Chinese Communist authorities
  secretly detained the well-known artist Ai Weiwei.
  
  Original image source

• This action against one of China’s most well-known cultural figures recalls the opening shots of the Cultural Revolution, when the Maoist regime removed
  ideologically inconvenient artists, writers and intellectuals from the scene at will without any pretense to legal procedures.
• The Ai Weiwei case once again reveals the essence of the Chinese state for all the world to see. This is China’s legal system today: the rule by law for the authorities instead of the rule of law for the people. » The full New York Times Commentary - By Wei Jingsheng - Published: April 27, 2011.
• Wei Jingsheng was a leader of the Chinese democracy movement who spent 15 years in prison for authoring “The Fifth Modernization,” which he posted on the Democracy Wall in Beijing. He lives in exile in the United States.

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Democracy in Action -
  Overview | Students consider words that reflect their knowledge and opinions about democracy. They then work in groups to research countries that have recently transitioned to democratic forms of government. Their learning is further enhanced by reflecting on what has transpired in these countries to date. Go to this Building Society and Law Lesson.
• World Wise School - Worksheet - Students will learn to identify and modify generalizations -
  This activity introduces students to the difficult concept of generalization so that they will challenge generalizations made about people... Go to this Building Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Political is Personal -
  Overview | Students explore their own personal political philosophies by identifying events, people and experiences that have helped shape their beliefs and writing an essay. Go to this Building Society and ESL Lesson.

Image source and story.

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South Korea, Rape victim commits suicide after ‘insults’ from judge:

• The suicide note of 29-year-old Ms. Byun, who took her own life after saying she felt insulted by the judge in the trial of her accused rapist, was published on the 12th.

• The note, which was released to the Dong-A Ilbo today after being sent to her family and the judge, runs six pages and says that “the judge insulted me when he sided with the man who raped me and pushed me to accept a settlement.”
• Ms. Byun also wrote that “the judge refused to believe me because he said ‘you didn’t graduate middle school and just lived as a helper in a noraebang’…
• I may have come from difficult family circumstances and not had a chance to study much, but I am absolutely not a liar or someone who would put blame on a stranger.”

• In the letter sent to her mother, Ms. Byun wrote that “after going to court I felt I had been stripped naked in front of someone.” She wrote that “after I was assaulted I felt like dying so many times, but I barely decided to live… now I think I have to die, please listen to my words.” » The full Asia Correspondent article - By Nathan Schwartzman - Published June 13, 2011. - Update - June 14,2011

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Fair Judgment -
  Overview | Students consider the demands of the judicial process and work in small groups to write editorials in response to the one that is read in class. For homework, they grade a judge and write reflective essays. Go to this Law and Society Lesson
• World Wise School - Worksheet - First Impressions -
  Overview | Students will recognize that a single observation can be misleading, so that they will challenge generalizations made about people. Go to this Building Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring the Youth Court System by Engaging in a Mock Trial -
  Overview | Students learn about youth courts and explore the system further by engaging in a mock youth court trial. Go to this Law and Society Lesson

• Public shaming of the accused and the condemned has been a long tradition in China — one that the Communist Party embraced with zeal during episodes of class struggle and anticrime crusades. Although public executions have been discontinued, provincial cities still hold mass sentencing rallies, during which convicts wearing confessional placards are driven though the streets in open trucks. » The full New York Times article By Andrew Jacobs - Published: July 27, 2010.
• 
  
  Image source - China Daily, via Reuters
  Police officers watched over prostitutes during a public parade in 2006 in Shenzhen, in Guangdong Province in southern China

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• World Wise School - Worksheet - Students will learn to identify and modify generalizations -
  Overview | This activity introduces students to the difficult concept of generalization. Students will recognize that a single observation can be misleading, so that they will challenge generalizations made about people. Go to this Building Society Lesson.

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The Rights of the Accused in America

Update: Strauss-Kahn Case Seen as in Jeopardy

• Prosecutors from the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who initially were emphatic about the strength of the case and the account of the victim, plan to tell the judge on Friday that they “have problems with the case” based on what their investigators have discovered, and will disclose more of their findings to the defense.
• The woman still maintains that she was attacked, the officials said. » The full New York Times article - By Jim Dwyer, William K. Rashbaum, and John Elogon - Published: June 30, 2011

Conclusion: District Attorney Asks Judge to Drop Strauss-Kahn Case

• Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office formally moved on Monday to dismiss the three-month-old sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, filing a 25-page motion that serves as their intricate and devastating anatomy of a case collapsing. » The full New York Times article - By William K. Rashbaum and John Eligon - Published: August 22, 2011.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrested - image source.

• Looking Back: While the so-called perp walk is a New York police tradition, allowing the press to get photographs of a suspect, a 2000 law in France tries to reinforce the principle of the presumption of innocence by criminalizing the publication of photos of an identifiable person in handcuffs who has not yet been convicted.
• The former French justice minister whose name is on the law, Élisabeth Guigou, said she found the photos of Mr. Strauss-Kahn in cuffs indicative of “a brutality, a violence, of an incredible cruelty, and I’m happy that we don’t have the same judiciary system.” » The full New York Times article - By Steven Erlanger and Katrin Bennhold - Published: May 16, 2011.

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Jury Trials and the Media:

• In the American legal system, criminal jury trials are held in open court.
• Public trials were seen by the American Founders as a critical safeguard for the accused against the abuses of government, and the press have understood their role as being the eyes and ears of the public.
• There is a tension, however, between these two principles - a tension that can lead to prejudicial pre-trial coverage of sensational trials. » More Background and classroom Lessons from: The Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago.

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Crime Time -
  Overview | Students examine the fundamentals of American criminal justice by analyzing and describing each step of the criminal process. They then follow the process of a well-known or publicized criminal case in The New York Times, and keep a journal of its newspaper coverage.Go to this Law and Society Lesson.
• A Learning Foundation Lesson - Similarities and differences between how the accused were treated in the stories in China and America - Go to this ESL Compare and Contrast Lesson.

For decades, bodies like the Foreign Ministry and the Finance Ministry managed to make the public believe they had been relatively “clean” during the Nazi years.

• Eckart Conze, head of the commission of historians, described the Foreign Ministry under Hitler as a “criminal organization.”
  The decision by the Foreign Ministry to break its silence on the role of its diplomats led to much soul-searching in other official bodies in Germany, among them the Finance Ministry.
• Plundering Jewish assets could not have been possible without an efficient civil service.
  “What is revealing is the way the civil service, the bureaucrats, applied the law,” said Professor Jane Caplan, a historian at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford, and part of a commission investigating the German Finance Ministry’s past. “They were not passive in their work.
• “The Reich’s Finance Ministry literally plundered the assets of the Jews,” Mr. Peer Steinbrück, who was the Social Democrat finance minister from 2005 to 2009, said. “It was systematic.”
  “The Jews were stripped of savings, assets, anything with a financial or material value,” he said.
• But most importantly, it is only now that Germans seem ready for these publications. For a long time after the war, not even the younger generation wanted to know about the past, preferring to concentrate on rebuilding the country. » The full New York Times article - By Judy Dempsey - Published December 26, 2010

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Political is Personal -
  Overview | Students explore their own personal political philosophies by identifying events, people and experiences that have helped shape their beliefs and writing an essay. Go to this Building Society and ESL Lesson.
• The Learning Foundation - "Did Li Qingyou Break the Law?" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson -
  Red Guard, Li Qingyou's statement: "Our mentality was that when Chairman Mao waved his hand, we would move, and whatever he said, we would do.
  - We took their money, gold, silver, and things and gave it to the government."
  - Pin Dueng was one of the landowners described as ’rich’ in Li’s statement, and has accused Li of stealing his things and has brought the case to court. Go to this Simplified Mock Trial.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Responding in Kind -
  Overview | Students explore events in which people choose kindness in the face of cruelty and write personal essays about their own experiences. Go to this Building Society and ESL Lesson.

To complete her cross-examination, prosecutor Sarah Carr, 16, had one final question for Andrew G., 17, the defendant in a recent case at the youth court in Colonie, N.Y.: "Didn't you know it was wrong?" Andrew nodded shyly, eyes averted. He knew that stealing a $4.97 Star Wars action figure from Wal-Mart was not only a petty crime but also a geeky one in the eyes of his high school peers, some of whom were serving on the jury..... Continued after the image

In Colonie, defendants finish their sentences by serving on a jury. "They know what it's like to be in that hot seat, so they're in a good position to find a punishment that suits the crime," says Violet Colydas, the youth court's director. » More in this Time Magazine article.

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Peer Pressure -
  Overview | Students learn about youth courts and explore the system further by engaging in a mock youth court trial. Go to this Law and Society Lesson

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Conducting a Mock Trial -
  Overview | What are the main components of a court proceeding? How can holding a mock trial provide insights into curricular material? In this lesson, students learn the key terms associated with the United States court system, then engage with core texts and subjects through the mock trial process. Go to this Law and Society Lesson

• Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a referendum on changes to Turkey’s constitution that will strengthen his government’s powers over the courts and army, boosting his prospects of re-election next year.
  The amendments bring Turkey’s military, already weakened by European Union-backed reforms and a series of investigations into alleged coup plots, further under civilian control, allowing members of the armed forces to be tried in civilian rather than military courts for crimes against the state. The 15th article of the constitution is abolished, allowing the architects of the 1980 coup, including its leader, General Kenan Evren, now in his nineties, to be put on trial.
  The country’s leading business group, Tusiad, said the vote reinforced the need to completely rewrite the 1982 constitution “The goal must be to prepare a 21st-century constitution that is a real social contract expressing our desire to live together freely,” the group said in a statement after the referendum. » The full Bloomberg article - By Benjamin Harvey and Steve Bryant - Published September 13, 2010
• Related New York Times article: “There is an activist understanding of the judiciary in the current system that undermines the will and decisions of the legislative and executive organs,” Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin said before the vote. “This new model will prevent today’s legal system from leading the country into a judicial dictatorship, while paving the way for other progressive reforms.” » The full NYT article - By Sebnem Arsu and Dan Bilefsky - Published: September 12, 2010.

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Democracy in Action -
  Overview | Students consider words that reflect their knowledge and opinions about democracy. They then work in groups to research countries that have recently transitioned to democratic forms of government. Their learning is further enhanced by reflecting on what has transpired in these countries to date. Go to this Building Society and Law Lesson.
• A Learning Foundation Lesson - Compare and Contrast: the Turkish and The Thai Constitution -
  Go to this ESL Compare and Contrast Lesson.
• The Learning Foundation - Who chooses the way a country is governed? -
  "It's my country - I can do what I want!" - A Simplified Mock Trial Lesson Plan.
• The Learning Foundation - Making Good Laws: "Is the Thai Constitution credible?" -
  Go to this Building a Healthy Society and Law Lesson.

WASHINGTON— President Obama sharply criticized a Florida pastor’s plan to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, calling it a “stunt” that threatens the lives of American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and violates American principles of religious tolerance.
“He says he’s someone who is motivated by his faith,” Mr. Obama said. “I hope he listens to those better angels and understands that this is a destructive act that he’s engaging in.” » More in this New York Times article - By Helene Cooper - Published: September 9, 2010

President’s Role
“As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as
everyone else in this country,” President Barack Obama said during an annual White House iftar dinner, marking
the breaking of the daily fast in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. “That includes the right to build a place of worship
and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan in accordance with local laws and
ordinances.”
“It is not his role as president to pass judgment on every local project,” White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton said in an e-mailed
statement. “But it is his responsibility to stand up for the constitutional principle of religious freedom and equal treatment for all Americans.” More from this Bloomberg article - By William McQuillen - Published August 16, 2010

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Democracy in Action -
  Overview | Students consider words that reflect their knowledge and opinions about democracy. They then work in groups to research countries that have recently transitioned to democratic forms of government. Their learning is further enhanced by reflecting on what has transpired in these countries to date. Go to this Building Society and Law Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Fight for Human Rights -
  Overview | Students explore the concept of human rights by developing and defending their own ‘Bill of Human Rights’ and by writing a reflective essay that compares their notions of human rights and the protection of them to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Go to this Law and Building a Healthy Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Resources for Teaching the Constitution -
  Go to this Building Society and Law Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Responding in Kind -
  Overview | Students explore events in which people choose kindness in the face of cruelty and write personal essays about their own experiences. Go to this Building Society and Law Lesson.

Public shaming of the accused and the condemned has been a long
tradition in China — one that the Communist Party embraced with
zeal during episodes of class struggle and anticrime crusades.
Although public executions have been discontinued, provincial cities
still hold mass sentencing rallies, during which convicts wearing
confessional placards are driven though the streets in open trucks.

The public response, at least on the Internet, has tended toward outrage, with many postings expressing sympathy for the women.
“Why aren’t corrupt officials dragged through the streets?” read one posting. “These women are only trying to feed themselves.” But much of the anger has been directed at the police, who are a focus of growing public mistrust. Although corruption among the police is rife in China, the disdain has been further heightened by a series of widely publicized episodes involving the torture of detainees, suspects who mysteriously died in custody and innocent people jailed on trumped-up evidence.
One man spent 10 years in prison for murder after the police extracted his confession — only to be freed when his supposed victim turned out to be alive. »The full New York Times article By Andrew Jacobs - Published: July 27, 2010

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Fight for Human Rights -
  Overview | Students explore the concept of human rights by developing and defending their own ‘Bills of Human Rights’ and by writing a reflective essay that compares their notions of human rights and the protection of them to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Go to this Law and Building a Healthy Society Lesson.
• The Learning Foundation - "Did Li Qingyou Break the Law?" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson -
  Li Qingyou's statment: "Our mentality was that when Chairman Mao waved his hand, we would move, and whatever he said, we would do.
  - We took their money, gold, silver, and things and gave it to the government."
  - Pin Dueng was one of the landowners described as ’rich’ in Li’s statement, and has accused Li of stealing his things and has brought the case to court. Go to this Simplified Mock Trial.
• World Wise School - Worksheet - Students will learn to identify and modify generalizations -
  This activity introduces students to the difficult concept of generalization so that they will challenge generalizations made about people... Go to this Building Society Lesson.

"In Thailand, the monarchy is not only a symbolic institution. It is the pillar of national security," said Pirapan Salirathavibhaga, a former judge. "Whatever is deemed as affecting the monarchy must be treated as a threat to national security."

Global Voices Advocacy (GVD), has already criticized the government's policy on curbing freedom of media and called Thailand an "Internet Desert" approaching leaders' paranoia in Burma and North Korea.
Human rights groups have voiced their concerns about the arbitrary use of lèse-majesté. They say they believe the law has been employed as the government's weapon to silence the opposition.
The murky investigation/prosecution process has also added up to the intensity of fear. Nobody really knows about how many sets of blacklists the Thai authorities have been making. Who is indeed responsible for cases involving the violation of lèse-majesté law? The police? The DSI? The MICT? The Foreign Ministry (for the crime committed outside Thailand)? Or the Immigration Office?
The punishment is also getting harsher since the state authorities have defined the threat to monarchy so closely with the concept of national security. The full Asia Sentinel article Written by Pavin Chachavalpongpun, who is a Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. This is his personal view.
Published JULY 22, 2010

image source Tolerance.org

• World Wise School - "How Accurate is It?"
  Overview | This activity introduces students to the difficult concept of generalization so that they will challenge generalizations made about people...Go to this Building Society Lesson Worksheet.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring Bias in the News -
  Overview | Students look for biased words in news articles, suggest synonyms, then rewrite the sentences to demonstrate how word choice can alter meaning. Go to this Media and Building a Healthy Society Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Keeping It Quiet -
  Overview | Students consider ways in which countries use censorship to control information. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - When the News Ignites a Fuse -
  Overview | Students examine news stories and images that have incited violence in the past to put into historical context recent news coverage. Go to this Media and Building a Healthy Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - News or Propaganda? -
  Overview | Students discuss objectivity and press responsibility. Go to this Media and Building a Healthy Society Lesson.

BANGKOK — Thailand's ailing democracy faced more uncertainty
Thursday after a constitutional court shut down the political party of
former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and barred him and 110
other party executives from politics for five years.

"I think the polarization we have seen is going to deepen,"
"Now we have not just the disenfranchisement of Thai Rak Thai executives but also the vast majority of the electorate. Their party has been taken away. There is a gaping hole now."
"What we could be seeing very soon, I fear," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University, "is an emerging military dictatorship." - Quotes from: Thailand facing uncertainty after court ruling - By Seth Mydans International Herald Tribune Published: May 31,2007.

Looking Back - October 6, 2006
Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, one of the country's leading constitutional lawyers, (said) the practice of coups in Thailand is a bad habit that needs to end. "If we didn't have this coup the Thai people could have learned more about democracy and politics and about how to develop," - Quote from: News Analysis: Democracy, Thai style - Ban the politicians - By Thomas Fuller International Herald Tribune Published: October 6, 2006

• A Learning Foundation Lesson - Go to the Lesson: Compare and Contrast the above statements and stories.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Examining Military Coups Around the World -
  Students will consider military coups and their aftermaths, research famous coups... illustrating those events, and write letters from the perspectives of ousted leaders examined during class. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

BEIJING — The new regulations were issued weeks after the authorities conceded that the confession used to erroneously convict a farmer for a murder was based on torture. The case came to light only after the supposed victim turned up alive and the defendant had spent 10 years in prison. It has provoked national outrage.
Several lawyers said that they were curious to see the extent to which the regulations would be carried out, pointing out that China often fails to abide by its own rules and regulations.
The larger problem, legal experts say, is the disconnect between China’s stated desire for the rule of law and the Communist Party’s insistence that the judicial system serve the party. » The full New York Times article - By Andrew Jacobs - Published: May 31, 2010.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Torture Question -
  Overview | Students will research the recent history of torture in the U.S., examine opinions about whether torture is ever justified, and engage in a debate on the issue. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - A Question of Punishment -
  Overview | Students examine their own understanding of capital punishment as well as the recent reversal by some conservative politicians in their public stance on the death penalty. Through discussion and research, students explore the nuances of the debate surrounding capital punishment. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Science in the Court Room -
  Overview | Students reflect on their opinions about the use of DNA databases in criminal investigations. They then generate a list of questions they have about DNA and its importance, prepare and give brief presentations, and then further discuss their positions on how DNA information should be collected and used by police. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

Editor | Fifty years since the "Cultural Revolution" and China is still recovering from the damage, while Thailand is copying the mistakes.
Blocking elected governments using vindictive and biased courts, a malicious self serving media, a menacing military, and a street gang that was above the law and hijacked the airports to lead to Abhisit's artificially installed government, foreshadows the chaos that followed Mao's revenge. (Editor comment posted 10/26/2008).

Li Qingyou: "Our mentality was that when Chairman Mao waved his hand, we would move, and whatever he said, we would do. We never realized where it would all lead."

"The movement, which Mao had asserted would ensure permanent revolution, was in fact launched mainly to purge his political rivals. These included Deng Xiaoping (later to become Chinese leader) and the moderate Liu, whose liberal economic policies had undermined Mao’s authority and called into question his ability to run the country day-to-day after his introduction of the catastrophic Great Leap Forward in 1959. » The full Times Online article.

Wang Guangmei and her husband Liu Shaoqi before his fall from grace and her public humiliation by Mao's Red Guards... In 1966 he was stripped of the presidency, and the following year both were consigned to jail where he was to die, and from which she was not to emerge until 1978... She died on October 13, 2006, aged 85.

• "The Constitution Tribunal is illegitimate and the case is completely political,” said legal expert Kanin Boonsuwan, who helped draft the 1997 (Thai) Constitution. “Judicial powers have gone too far already; the judges are abusing their power and independence. This is not only about dissolution, but the future of democracy in Thailand."
  Many legal experts see the dissolution case as a sham. Indeed, many wonder how a body created by those who overthrew Thaksin has any right to terminate political parties for allegedly attempting to overthrow democracy. And especially to do so for violating a constitution the junta leaders discarded? - The Rise of Thailand’s Third Branch - By Daniel Ten Kate - The Asian Sentenel

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• June 2010 update:

  Ousting Abhisit May Not End Protests Over 'Autocratic Rulers'

  The current constitution, written after the 2006 coup, set up a Senate in which almost half the members are appointed. It also offered amnesty for generals such as Army Chief Anupong Paojinda, who helped oust Thaksin and (was) calling for parliament to be dissolved.
  "Abhisit may resign or dissolve parliament, but that doesn't necessarily get us anywhere," said Prudhisan Jumbala, a lecturer at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. "Nobody can implement the rule of law without the cooperation of society, and neither side trusts the authority of the state."
  The conflict underpins a split within Thailand's 67 million people over the extent to which the country's leaders should be elected. » The full Bloomberg article - By Daniel Ten Kate.

• World Wise School - Worksheet - Generalizations: How Accurate Are They?
  Overview | Students will examine how generalizations can be hurtful and unfair, and they will devise ways to qualify statements so they avoid stereotyping other people. Go to this Building Society Lesson.
• A Learning Foundation Lesson - Compare and Contrast -
  Mao's use of power with that in Thailand being used against deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and anyone associated with him. Go to this ESL, Law and Society Lesson.

Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told a news conference on Monday, “He’s a free man.”

Ms. Widmer-Schlumpf said the American authorities had rejected a request by her ministry for records of a hearing by the prosecutor in the case, Roger Gunson, in January 2010, which should have established whether the judge who tried the case in 1977 had assured Mr. Polanski that time he spent in a psychiatric unit would constitute the whole of the period of imprisonment he would serve.
“If this were the case, Roman Polanski would actually have already served his sentence and therefore both the proceedings on which the U.S. extradition request is founded and the request itself would have no foundation,” the Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement. » The full New York Times article - By Nick Cumming-Bruce - Published: July 12, 2010

Looking Back:

Is Polanski Case Nearing Its End? That could happen, for instance, if the appeals court were to find that the judicial system had been tainted by a newly described series of potentially improper contacts between the original judge, Laurence J. Rittenband, who is now deceased, and various people associated with the case. Or it could find that the judge — as Mr. Gunson is said to have testified — had made a promise that should now be kept, to give Mr. Polanski a sentence too short to qualify him for extradition.
That the appeals court is now demanding a first-hand look at Mr. Gunson’s testimony indicates that the justices, at the very least, believe that its claims could have bearing on Mr. Polanski’s fate. The Full New York Times article » By Michael Cieply.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Putting the United States' (and other countries') Appeals Process on Trial -
  Overview | Students (examine the Roman Palanski case) and analyze the United States' current appellate process, with a critical eye focused on possible inequities within the system(s). Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

Chiranuch was released after paying a Bt300,000 (US$9,269) bond and spending four hours in jail. The arrest was made under the Computer Crimes Act for not quickly removing public comments from her website that were deemed offensive to the monarchy. The website has become home to serious dissent and discussion of the situation in the country, which has been wracked by political turmoil, rallies, strikes and violence since former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted in a royalist coup in September of 2006. » The full Asian Sentinel article.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Keeping It Quiet -
  Overview | Students consider ways in which countries use censorship to control information. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Democracy in Action -
  Overview | Students consider words that reflect their knowledge and opinions about democracy. They then work in groups to research countries that have recently transitioned to democratic forms of government. Their learning is further enhanced by reflecting on what has transpired in these countries to date. Go to this Building Society and Law Lesson.
• The Learning Foundation - "Is the Thai Constitution credible?"-

  Anti-government demonstrators broke into the country's parliament building Wednesday, keeping a promise to intensify protests unless Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolves parliament.
  On Tuesday, Abhisit spoke on television saying the rallies violated the constitution. The full CNNN article » By Kocha Olarn, CNN

  Overview | Students consider what makes a law good. Go to this Updated Law and Society Lesson.

• Bangkok – The leaders, including Veera Musikapong and Nattawut Saikua, had been detained since surrendering to the government on May 19 following weeks of clashes between so-called Red Shirt protesters and security forces in which nearly 90 people were killed and more than 1,400 injured.
• Most of the dead and injured were protesters, largely made up of rural and urban poor, who demanded a dissolution of Parliament and new elections, claiming the government had come to power through illegitimate means.
• Critics said the charges of terrorism will only serve to deepen the divisions and possibly lead to more violence. » The full Associated Press article - By Kinan Suchaovanich, Published June 15, 2010.

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Image source By Barry Blitt.

• Feb. 26, 2010: Thailand's Supreme Court declared deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra guilty of corruption and confiscating more than half of his personal fortune.
• Arnaud Leveau, a Thailand expert at the Bangkok-based Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia: "What (the Red Shirts) hear in the verdict is that you can be above the law, organize a coup and then ask the court to say that the coup was legal."
• To Jakrapob Penkair, former Minister of the Prime Minister's Office, "the verdict was simply a continuation, and in many ways, a completion of the 2006 coup. It is the first and foremost reason why the verdict will not heal anything in Thailand."
• Jakrapob asserted that in misusing state mechanisms to go after Thaksin, they have done great damage to their own country, its judicial credibility and its reputation in the eyes of the world.
• "A military takeover has been treated as a legitimate source of legal authority," Jakrapob said. "One does not even have to hear the rest of the case to understand what was actually going on." » The full Asian Sentinel article By Pavin Chachavalpongpun

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Examining Military Coups Around the World -
  Students will consider military coups and their aftermaths, research famous coups... illustrating those events, and write letters from the perspectives of ousted leaders examined during class. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Democracy in Action -
  Overview | Students consider words that reflect their knowledge and opinions about democracy. They then work in groups to research countries that have recently transitioned to democratic forms of government. Their learning is further enhanced by reflecting on what has transpired in these countries to date. Go to this Building Society and Law Lesson.
• The Learning Foundation - Making Good Laws: "Is the Thai Constitution credible?" -
  Go to this Building a Healthy Society and Law Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Political is Personal -
  Overview | Students explore their own personal political philosophies by identifying events, people and experiences that have helped shape their beliefs and writing an essay. Go to this Building Society and ESL Lesson.

To complete her cross-examination, prosecutor Sarah Carr, 16, had one final question for Andrew G., 17, the defendant in a recent case at the youth court in Colonie, N.Y.: "Didn't you know it was wrong?" Andrew nodded shyly, eyes averted. He knew that stealing a $4.97 Star Wars action figure from Wal-Mart was not only a petty crime but also a geeky one in the eyes of his high school peers, some of whom were serving on the jury. From the story - A Jury of Their Peers By Jeremy Caplan - Time Magazine

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring the Youth Court System by Engaging in a Mock Trial -
  Overview | Students learn about youth courts and explore the system further by engaging in a mock youth court trial. Go to this Law and Society Lesson

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring What It Takes to Become a Well-Informed Citizen -
  Overview | In this lesson, students explore education requirements for different professions, and define the skills and knowledge that adults use in their everyday lives. Go to this Building Society Lesson.

• “Throughout history, there have been similar challenges to other landmark legislation, such as the Social Security Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, and all of those challenges failed,”
• the statement continued. “We believe the challenges to the Affordable Care Act — like the one in the 11th Circuit — will also ultimately fail and that the Supreme Court will uphold the law.”
• The political calculus is complicated. A decision striking down President Obama’s signature legislative achievement only months before the election would doubtless be a blow.
• But a decision from a court divided along ideological lines could further energize voters already critical of last year’s 5-to-4 campaign finance decision, Citizens United. » The full New York Times article - By Adam Liptak - Published: September 28, 2011.

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Looking Back: Obama v. Alito - Political dust-up during 2010 State of the Union

Image source By Barry Blitt.

• Obama needled – well, lambasted – the US Supreme Court for a recent decision he said would “open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections.”
• Sitting right in front of the president – robed in sober black, hands folded in their laps – were six of the justices, including three who had made it possible (in Obama’s words) for American elections to be “bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities.”

• Obama’s mention of the campaign finance decision caused Associate Justice Samuel Alito’s expression to go dark as he shook his head and appeared to say “Simply not true.”
• “The court’s legitimacy is derived from the persuasiveness of its opinions and the expectation that those opinions are rendered free of partisan, political influences,” former New Jersey Supreme Court justice Peter G. Verniero told the New York Times. “The more that individual justices are drawn into public debates, the more the court as an institution will be seen in political terms, which was not the intent of the founders.” The full Christian Science article » By Brad Knickerbocker.

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Justices for All -
  Overview | In this lesson, students examine the role of Supreme Court justices in the American political process. Students will research the qualities of the current Supreme Court justices and write opinion papers evaluating the current justices and recommending future nominations. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Courting Controversy? -
  Overview | In this lesson, students learn about the confirmation of Supreme Court justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. They then examine a number of individual issues from different ideological and philosophical perspectives. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Judges on Trial -
  Overview | In this lesson, students investigate how different branches of government affect or aid the appointment of a Supreme Court justice nominee and the responsibilities of a judge. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

• used the fourth anniversary of the death of his wife Benazir Bhutto to say he would not resign in the face of numerous crises building around him.
• Speaking from behind bulletproof glass, Zardari appeared relaxed and healthy, which would likely calm rumors of his ill health.

• In a jab at the Supreme Court, which is currently pursuing several corruption cases against Zardari, who currently enjoys immunity as head of state, he asked about the as yet unsolved case of his wife's assassination.
  "People ask what happened to Benazir Bhutto's case," he said. "I ask (Chief Justice) Iftikhar Chaudhry: what happened to Benazir Bhutto's case?"
• Members of Zardari's Pakistan People's Party say opponents are working with the Supreme Court and the army to bring down the government. The full Reuters article - By Hamid Shaikh | Reuters - December 27, 2011.

Original image source - Associated Press of Pakistan, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images - January 21,2010

Looking back:

“He’s come to the conclusion that if judiciary or the military want to knock him out, they can,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, an analyst in Lahore. “But he wants to fight back. That has given him a new lease on life, but his basic problem remains the same.”
The most serious of those vulnerabilities has always been his strained relationship with Pakistan’s military, a powerful institution whose leaders have ruled the country for about half of Pakistan’s 62-year history.
Strangely, Mr. Zardari’s weakness may serve him in the end. The army seems to have less appetite to re-enter politics directly, having seen its reputation badly tarnished during Mr. Musharraf’s years of military rule. A weak civilian leader, on the other hand, presents no threat to its power. » More in this New York Times article - By Sabrina Tavernise

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Investigating Nations That Are Transitioned to Democratic Forms of Government -
  Overview: Students consider words that reflect their knowledge and opinions about democracy. They then work in groups to research countries. Go to this Law and Building Society Lesson.
• A Learning Foundation Lesson - Compare and Contrast the Pakistan experience with Thailand. -
  Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, one of the country's leading constitutional lawyers, says the practice of military coups in Thailand is a bad habit that needs to end. "If we didn't have this coup the Thai people could have learned more about democracy and politics and about how to develop," From: News Analysis: Democracy, Thai style - Ban the politicians - By Thomas Fuller - International Herald Tribune. Go to this ESL Law and Society Lesson.

Image source

(Unless) Timothy Geithner, the secretary of the Treasury, can persuade legislators otherwise, one of the great bank lobbying campaigns will have succeeded, in large part because some companies that buy derivatives from banks have been persuaded that their costs will rise if needed reforms were made.
Until the beginning of this decade, that was true in the corporate bond market, where actual trades were kept confidential. That made it easy for bond dealers to charge big markups when they sold bonds to customers.
After regulators forced timely disclosures, the bid-ask spreads — the difference between what customers paid when they bought bonds and what they could get when selling them — declined significantly. The result was smaller profits for bond dealers, and better returns for bond investors.The full article » Keeping Derivatives in the Dark By Floyd Norris, New York Times.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - A Plan for Recovery -
  Overview: Students examine the "who, what, where, when, why and how" of the proposed stimulus plan for the U.S. economy; they then write their own proposal outlining how stimulus funds might benefit their community. Go to this Economy and Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring the Impact of Keynesian Economics During a Recession -
  Overview: Students define and examine the role of Keynesian economics during recessions and depression, then write a memo to President Obama advising him on how to put Keynesian principles into practice. Go to this Economy and Society Lesson.

Chinese authorities say .. arrests are part of the Communist Party’s latest anticorruption campaign--
But analysts say that prominent corruption cases in China are often the outgrowth of power struggles within the Communist Party, with competing factions using the “war on corruption” as a tool to eliminate or weaken rivals and their corporate supporters.
Those caught in the party’s campaigns are usually humiliated and denounced for taking bribes, leading “decadent lifestyles” and, sometimes, for taking multiple mistresses. The full New York Times article » By David Barboza.

• A Learning Foundation Lesson - Compare and Contrast -
  China's use of "corruption allegations" with that in Thailand being used against deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and anyone associated with him.
  There have been 17 military coups in Thailand all claimed they did so to combat corruption. Go to this ESL, Law and Society Lesson.
• The Learning Foundation - What makes a law good lesson plan -
  Over half of Thailand's provinces were under martial law, controlling freedom of speech, press and assembly, during the referendum to pass the 18th Thai Constitution. Martial law persisted up to and including the referendum, and stayed in force up to and during the parliamentary elections in December 2007. "Is the Thai Constitution credible?"
• The Learning Foundation - "Did Li Qingyou Break the Law?" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson -
  Li Qingyou's statment: "Our mentality was that when Chairman Mao waved his hand, we would move, and whatever he said, we would do.
  - We took their money, gold, silver, and things and gave it to the government."
  - Pin Dueng was one of the landowners described as ’rich’ in Li’s statement, and has accused Li of stealing his things and has brought the case to court. Go to this Simplified Mock Trial.

Background: In 2003, four lawyers from China's most prestigious university set up a non-governmental organization to advance the rule of law and constitutional rights. Knowing only too well official sensitivities, they promised that it would be not ‘critical' but ‘constructive' and work scrupulously within the law.
For his part, Xu-Zhiyong, (one of the founders said) "We helped the weak uphold their legal rights and promote the rule of democracy. This could have upset some vested interests. Since the progress of society will not be smooth, this was not unexpected. We cannot predict the outcome of the hearings. Our biggest obstacle has been an unreasonable system, the lack of independence of the judiciary and the inability of public interest firms to get legal status." the Full Asian Sentinel article » By Mark O'Neill.

Original photo and article: As lawyers here discover, there are limits to China’s embrace of judicial reform.
The Constitution, which includes guarantees of free speech and human rights, is unenforceable in court.
Judges routinely ignore evidence, making determinations based on political considerations.
And when it comes to vaguely defined offenses like “subversion of state power” or the invoking of “state secrets” laws, even the best-trained lawyers are powerless to defend the accused.
Last week, China’s justice minister gave a speech saying lawyers should above all obey the Communist Party and help foster a harmonious society. To improve discipline, the minister said, all law firms in China would be sent party liaisons to “guide their work.” NYT article: "Arrest in China Rattles Backers of Legal Rights" - Photo Greg Baker/Associated Press article - By Andrew Jacobs.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Understanding the Quest to Protect Human Rights -
  Overview: Students explore the concept of human rights by developing and defending their own "Bills of Human Rights" and by writing a reflective essay that compares their notions of human rights and the protection of them.  Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

• The Learning Foundation - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson - "Did Li Qingyou Break the Law?" -
  Li Qingyou's statment:"Our mentality was that when Chairman Mao waved his hand, we would move, and whatever he said, we would do. Go to this Simplified Mock Trial.

Update:The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which Chen once led, urged the government to free him immediately.
"It is no longer necessary to detain former president Chen after the verdict. We demand his immediate release to ensure his full legal rights" during the appeal, the party said in a statement.
"There are many flaws and disputes which violated the due process during the first trial, including prolonging his detention and switching the judges," the DPP added. "We hope the mistakes will be checked during the second trial."
Under Taiwanese law, a life sentence is automatically appealed. The full AFP article »

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Most people in Taiwan have seen the image of former President Chen holding his handcuffed wrists above his head last November and shouting “political persecution” when he was arrested on corruption charges.
So a scene in a skit last month performed in front of more than 200 of the island’s judges and prosecutors — some involved in deciding Mr. Chen’s fate in his coming trial — came as a surprise. A prosecutor acting in the skit held her wrists together over her head and yelled, “judicial persecution.”
(Taiwan does not have jury trials which would allow the accused to choose whether judges, who are appointed by the government, or ordinary people, selected as a jury, should decide their guilt or innocence.
Chen Shui-bian has asked the court to drop the charges against him citing the behaviour of the prosecutors and judges shows they have already decided his guilt and he will not be given a fair trial.)
Based on this » New York Times article - By Keith Bradsher.

• The Learning Foundation - Go to "Judging the Judges" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring the Youth Court System by Engaging in a Mock Trial -
  Overview: Students learn about youth courts and explore the system further by engaging in a mock youth court trial. Go to this Law and Society Lesson

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Evaluating How DNA Databases Are Used to Solve Crimes -
  Overview: Students reflect on their opinions about the use of DNA databases in criminal investigations. They then generate a list of questions they have about DNA and its importance, prepare and give brief presentations, and then further discuss their positions on how DNA information should be collected and used by police.  Go to this Law and Science Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Analyzing Media Coverage of Crime -
  Overview: Students will compare the coverage of two crime stories, analyzing both for objectivity, language, emotional impact, and local and national dissemination. Go to this Media and Law Lesson.

Six jurors are working with three judges to hand down a verdict for 72-year-old Katsuyoshi Fujii, who has been charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of a 66-year-old neighbor in May.
With the arrival of a jury trial, Japanese will have a chance to play a bigger role in doling out justice, Bar Association President Makoto Miyazaki said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
"A more transparent and fair criminal justice system serves everyone's interests," he said.
"With the change, trials will become more democratic," Justice Minister Eisuke Sato said. "We hope to achieve a justice system that is speedier, more accessible and reliable." From this Boston Globe article » By Mari Yamaguchi.

Related lessons:
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring the (American) Youth Court System by Engaging in a Mock Trial -
  Overview: Students learn about youth courts and explore the system further by engaging in a mock youth court trial. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.
• WWS - World Wise School- Is That a Fact? -
  Overview: Understanding the difference between fact and opinion is critical to our ability to examine our reactions to events and people. Stereotypes and prejudices are often based on opinions that are perceived as facts. Go to this Building Society Lesson Worksheet.

• The Learning Foundation - Simplified Mock Trials -
  Go to "What to Teach" - The Simplified Mock Trial.

Ireland (Britain and Denmark are) warning its nationals to "be extremely careful" when browsing at Bangkok's international airport Suvarnabhumi (pronounced "sue-WANNA-poom").
"We have received reports that innocent shoppers have been the subject of allegations of suspected theft and threatened that their cases will not be heard for several months unless they plead guilty and pay substantial fines," says an Irish government travel advisory. It tells shoppers to keep receipts to avoid "great distress." The full AP article » By Jocelyn Gecker.

Some of the 350,000 stranded tourists - Original Image and article DailyMail UK (Nov/2008)
The (military and court created) Abhisit government's deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban says (the 8 day) blockade of the two airports "caused no damage to aviation" so charges are baseless. the full article »

BANGKOK July 6 (AP) - Opposition members in Thailand's Parliament called Monday for the resignation of the foreign minister after police filed charges against him for alleged involvement in demonstrations that climaxed with the seizure of Bangkok's airports last year.
Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya and 35 other leaders of the "Yellow Shirt" movement face criminal charges including illegal assembly, attempts to stir unrest, and breaches of aviation law and terrorism for the eight-day siege of Bangkok's two airports in November and December.
The full AP article » By Ambika Ahuja.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Understanding the Quest to Protect Human Rights -
  Overview: Students explore the concept of human rights by developing and defending their own "Bills of Human Rights" and by writing a reflective essay that compares their notions of human rights and the protection of them...  Go to this Law and Society Lesson.
• The Learning Foundation - Lesson Plan - "Is the Thai Constitution credible?"
• The Learning Foundation - "It's my country/I can do what I want!" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson Plan.

The court cases come at a time when countries in the region are looking increasingly toward China as a political and economic model and questioning the democratic and humanitarian values of the West.
In recent years, China has become a major donor and investor in Cambodia in projects that do not place the kinds of demands on governing and management that generally accompany assistance from Western nations and aid organizations.
“We have been fearing all along that Cambodia’s government is looking eastward toward China and Vietnam as models,” with their strong central governments and intolerance of dissent, said Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights.
Together with land seizures that are driving tens of thousands of people from their homes, analysts say these actions demonstrate a sense of impunity in a government that has resisted efforts to strengthen the rule of law in Cambodia. From this New York Times article » By Seth Mydans.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Understanding the Quest to Protect Human Rights -
Overview: Students explore the concept of human rights by developing and defending their own "Bills of Human Rights" and by writing a reflective essay that compares their notions of human rights and the protection of them...  Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

Looking Back - July, 2009

Thailand's royalist leaders are beginning to learn the consequences of deposing a legitimately elected government, with red-shirted protesters at their gates and violence intensifying even during Songkran, the keenly-awaited Thai new year festival, a time when Thais traditionally splash water on each other with great abandon. (continued after the picture...)

Were the royalist, anti-Thaksin forces used mobs of yellow-shirt clad demonstrators (yellow is the color of the Thai king) to enforce their will, this time Thaksin's red shirts are upping the stakes in the battle for power.
It is questionable whether the Democrat Party government headed by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva can survive and, even if he goes, whether peace can be restored.
"The protesters are going against the establishment, not just Abhisit," Bloomberg quoted Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. "We have this brinkmanship and confrontation that appears now untenable."
Read the complete Asian Sentinel article.

Related BBC article: Army pressure ends Thai protest

• The Learning Foundation - Making Good Laws: "Is the Thai Constitution credible?" -
  Go to this Building a Healthy Society and Law Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Examining Military Coups Around the World -
  Students will consider military coups and their aftermaths, research famous coups... illustrating those events, and write letters from the perspectives of ousted leaders examined during class. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

The mourners lashed out at the prosecutors and the conservative media who had relentlessly pursued accusations of corruption for the past year, after Mr. Roh had left office. Most also accused the sitting president, Mr. Lee, of guiding or at least encouraging the investigations. In Mr. Roh’s native village, Bongha, his supporters trampled a funeral wreath sent by the president.

“It has become a bad political habit for presidents in South Korea to try to gain support by punishing the former president,” said Kang Won-taek, a politics professor at Seoul’s Soongsil University. “What happened to Roh Moo-hyun shows that it is time to break this habit.”
But political experts, and even many average Koreans, say that their nation’s struggle to shed its authoritarian past was never finished, and that investigation of Mr. Roh highlighted at least two other legacies: a powerful presidency and a justice system with few checks and balances, especially on its prosecutors. The full article » By Martin Fackler

Judging the judges - Compare and Contrast the experiences of former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and Thailand's treatment of Thaksin Shinawatra and his suppporters -

Thailand - 8/12/2008 - The former prime minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, skipped a court appearance Monday and announced he was seeking refuge in London, leaving behind more than $2 billion frozen by the generals who ousted him from power two years ago.
He said that in Thailand he had been the victim of a “political assassination” and said that his enemies had used dictatorial powers to persecute his family. “My family and I were continually treated unfairly, without justice or truth,” he said. in this New York Times article » By Jane Perlez (IHT)

Editors Note - 6/6/2009: Thailand's "normal" rule of law has been overthrown and rewritten 17 times, on average every two and a half years, since the country became a constitutional monarchy 75 years ago.
The current military and court installed government of Abhisit Vejjajiva has ordered prosecutors to pursue cases against Thaksin supporters who claimed he had seized power illegally and he should call a new election.
But no prosecutions have been filed against the group, which helped Abhisit take power, by hijacking both Thailand's international airports stranding over 300,000 tourists for weeks in December last year.

Abhisit claims his actions show “This is to signal to the world that our country has returned to normal,” Abhisit told reporters in Bangkok. “We will maintain the nation’s peace and order by using existing laws.”
More about the credibility of » Thailand's military constitution.)

A Learning Foundation Lesson - Compare and Contrast justice in South Korea and Thailand - Go to this ESL Law and Society Lesson.

“The state of emergency was not an emergency,” said Paul Quaglia, director of PSA Asia, a Bangkok-based security and risk assessment consulting firm. “It was always in place for political reasons and the economic drivers finally forced Abhisit to climb down.” From this Bloomberg article » By Suttinee Yuvejwattana and Daniel Ten Kate.

Editors Note: Thailand's "normal" rule of law has been overthrown and rewritten 17 times, on average every two and a half years, since the country became a constitutional monarchy 75 years ago. More about the credibility of » Thailand's military constitution.)

About 300 Afghan women, facing an angry throng three times larger than their own, walked the streets of the capital on Wednesday to demand that Parliament repeal a new law that introduces a range of Taliban-like restrictions on women, and permits, among other things, marital rape.
"Whenever a man wants sex, we cannot refuse," said Fatima Husseini, 26, one of the marchers. "It means a woman is a kind of property, to be used by the man in any way that he wants."
One provision makes it illegal for a woman to resist her husband's sexual advances. A second provision requires a husband's permission for a woman to work outside the home or go to school. And a third makes it illegal for a woman to refuse to "make herself up" or "dress up" if that is what her husband wants.

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The cleric, Mohammed Hussein Jafaari, (answered) "This law was approved by the scholars. It was passed by both houses of Parliament. It was signed by the president."
He said it was between professionals and nonprofessionals; that is, between the clerics, who understood the Koran and Islamic law, and the women calling for the law's repeal who did not.
The religious scholars, Mr. Jafaari conceded, were all men.
Mr. Jafaari said that what was really driving the dispute was the foreigners who loomed so large over the country.
"We Afghans don't want a bunch of NATO commanders and foreign ministers telling us what to do."
The full New York Times article - By Dexter Filkins

• The Learning Foundation - "An Afgan Woman's Rights"- What makes a law good lesson plan. -
Students decide if a law approved by the scholars, passed by both houses of Parliament and signed by the president makes it a "good law" and discuss if the claim by the cleric, Mohammed Hussein Jafaari, that it is foreigners making the dispute in the country.
Writing assignment based on this statement: "NATO commanders and foreign ministers involved in Afganistan have a right (or no right) to speak out about these laws."

Last year it was the yellow shirt (PAD) movement which closed down the airports, took over Government House and forced political change.
The army (that staged the 2006 coup overthrowing the elected government of Thaksin and supports Abhisit) did not react in this way when they were on the streets, but it seems clear the prime minister, or his military commanders, have decided to bring this to an end. Read this BBC article By Alastair Leithead.

• The Learning Foundation - "Is the military created Thai constitution credible?" - What makes a law good lesson plan.

• The Learning Foundation - "It's my country/I can do what I want!" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson Plan.

The legal difficulties in Asia related to inconsistent interpretation and implementation of the law, David Maund, managing director at Alvarez & Marsal, a debt-restructuring consultancy explained. "That tends to be an issue particularly in places like the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, India and China," he said. Read The full International Herald Tribune article »By Umesh Desai and Andrew Marshall for Reuters.

Learning Foundation Simplified Mock Trials:

• Two related cases: The Case of "Finishing too Late" - A Contract Dispute, and Appealing a lower court opinion/ "The Road Builder vs The Sales Company"
• "Freezing Bus Fares" Appealing a lower court opinion
• "The 18th Thai constitution?" - What makes a law good lesson plan.
• "It's my country/I can do what I want!" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson Plan.

The son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, the Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his victory by defeating Republican Sen. John McCain in a string of wins in hard-fought battleground states — Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Iowa. » read more

• The New York Times - Learning Network - History in the Making -
Overview: Students explore the social history of the United States to better understand why the election of Barack Obama is historic from a variety of perspectives. Go to this Building Society and Law Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Educating Youth on Voting and the Electoral Process -
Overview: Students create voter education campaigns to raise awareness of and interest in the government for future voters. Go to this Building Society and Law Lesson.

Most South Korean Web portals and online news sites have discussion boards where users can post uncensored, anonymous comments. Some news articles attract hundreds of feedback entries, ranging from thoughtful comments to raving obscenities.
The police reported 10,028 cases of online libel last year, up from 3,667 reported in 2004. "Yellow journalism" spread through the Internet and picked up by newspapers (is pervasive).
So many teenagers are addicted to online games that the government runs "Internet rescue" boot camps to help them rehabilitate.
Under a new edict from the Education Ministry, teachers must spend more time teaching online ethics, starting in primary school. Read the IHT Article » By Choe Sang-Hun

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Talking Trash -
Examines how online anonymity grants teens license to gossip:
Students will consider their own experiences with online message boards and chat rooms, discover how teens are using the Web to talk about people in their lives. Go to this Media, Law and Health Lesson.

• Three related Learning Foundation Simplified Mock Trial cases.
- "I can say what I want!"
- "I was just protecting my kid"
- "News vs Gossip"

As advanced science (communications and international agreements) play a larger role in courtrooms across the country (and the world) judges who earned degrees in English, the humanities (or only Law as in Thailand) face the daunting task of making informed decisions about some very technical disputes. Read the entire article Judges get crash course in sciences - By Mike Baker - Associated Press Writer.

"... This is a problem for Thailand. They ignore the scientific evidence. The judge, the attorney, the police... I think they don’t know much about forensic science, especially DNA...." read the rest of the Interview with Dr. Porntip - Foreign Correspondent.

• WWS - World Wise School- Is That a Fact?
Overview: Understanding the difference between fact and opinion is critical to our ability to examine our reactions to events and people. Stereotypes and prejudices are often based on opinions that are perceived as facts. Go to this Building Society Lesson Worksheet.

• The New York Times - Learning Network  Learning About Cell Renewal Throughout the Body -
Overview: Students learn about the latest research on cell and tissue renewal. They then explore the various internal body parts and systems examined in these studies.  Go to this Science Lesson.

• The Learning Foundation - Simplified Mock Trials - "What to Teach" - Simplified Mock Trial.

Thailand 2006 - In the most bizarre case, a junta-appointed court dissolved Thai Rak Thai for trying to gain power through unconstitutional means even as it upheld administrative orders from the generals who tore up the constitution when they took power. The decision essentially gave legal legitimacy to coups.
Many political analysts in Thailand accepted the court decisions at the time under the belief that they would be one-off measures to get the country through the political crisis. But then the military-appointed assembly took another step by permanently changing the constitution and the law to reflect the dubious legal interpretations. Read the Asian Sentinel Article »
The military then wrote its own laws to prosecute Thaksin Shinawatra, the ousted prime minster. Thai courts protected the military from prosecution for the coup.
Thaksin gave up on getting justice in Thailand and returned to exile in Britain. More in this New York Times article.

• A Learning Foundation Lesson - Using these examples Compare and Contrast: the rule of Law in Pakistan and Thailand - Go to this ESL Law and Society Lesson.

Musharraf led the coup in 1999 that overthrew prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who was exiled until his return to Pakistan this year. Sharif along with Zardari, the husband of assassinated leader, Benazir Bhutto, are now coalition partners in the recently elected Pakistan government. Image source and 1999 coup report - BBC

No previous Pakistani leader has been impeached. The military will not let him be persecuted, it said, quoting a senior army officer it didn't name. Pakistan's military is seeking to broker a deal to let President Pervez Musharraf make an "honorable exit" and retire with immunity from prosecution, the Sunday Times reported.
(There have been 4 coups since Pakistan was founded 60 years ago. but the military has controlled the country for most of that time.) More on this subject - Bloomberg.com

Related - Learning Foundation - Simplified Mock Trial lesson Plans:
• "It's my country/I can do what I want!"
• "Is The 18th Thai constitution credible?" - What makes a law good?

Thailand - The former prime minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, skipped a court appearance Monday and announced he was seeking refuge in London, leaving behind more than $2 billion frozen by the generals who ousted him from power two years ago.
He said that in Thailand he had been the victim of a “political assassination” and said that his enemies had used dictatorial powers to persecute his family. “My family and I were continually treated unfairly, without justice or truth,” he said. » in this New York Times article - By Thomas Fuller - Published: August 11, 2008.
Update | Thailand’s Political Drama Continues - Interview from The Asia Sentinel.

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Zardari Image source

Pakistan - Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of the slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, now sits at the pinnacle of Pakistani politics. It is a startling comeback for a man who, though never convicted here, spent 11 years in jail here on corruption and murder charges as one of Pakistan's most ostracized figures.
Zardari's sudden revival is a reminder of how Pakistan has veered between military rule and civilian governments that have been dogged by allegations of corruption, and how those cases can be prosecuted — or wiped away — depending on the political wind.
"They always come to me through legality," Zardari said. "They always have a legal reason. After all, Christ was tried. It is not that they didn't give him a trial. They did. How good the trial was, that is another thing."
» The full New York Times Article - By Jane Perlez - Published: Tuesday, March 11, 2008

• A Learning Foundation Lesson - Compare and Contrast the rule of Law in Thailand and Pakistan - Go to this ESL Law and Society Lesson.

• The Learning Foundation - Making Good Laws: "Is the Thai Constitution credible?" -
  Go to this Building a Healthy Society and Law Lesson.
• The Learning Foundation - Who chooses the way a country is governed? -
  "It's my country - I can do what I want!" - A Simplified Mock Trial Lesson Plan.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Examining Military Coups Around the World -
  Students will consider military coups and their aftermaths, research famous coups... illustrating those events, and write letters from the perspectives of ousted leaders examined during class. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

Youk Chhang was 14 when the Khmer Rouge seized power, and like many teenagers, he was forced into hard labor in the fields, with food and death his twin obsessions.
"There were all those people my age, just little kids, naive, innocent."
Read Article » By Seth Mydans - International Herald Tribune

"They're us, and we are them," Youk Chhang said in an interview in his small office in Phnom Penh where photographs of both victims and killers hang on the walls. "They are the evil side of us. Crimes are committed by human beings, by people just like me."

• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Killing Fields -
Documenting Ethnic Division and Ethnic Cleansing Throughout Modern History
Overview: Students learn about ethnic divisions in the West African nation of Ivory Coast and research instances of ethnic cleansing in many nations throughout history. Students then create global history textbook entries that explore, compare and contrast these historic examples. The Killing Fields Go to Law and Society Lesson.

Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama told reporters that if Bin Laden were found during his watch, he would bring him to justice in a way that wouldn't allow the terrorist mastermind to become a martyr... "and to assure that the United States government is abiding by basic conventions that would strengthen our hand in the broader battle against terrorism," he said. Read this UK Press article »

Making a Case - Compare and Contrast: Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Investigating the Charges Against Saddam Hussein -
Overview: Students share opinions about human rights. They then research the specific charges in the case against Saddam Hussein, and propose an argument for or against the accused. Go to this Law and Society lesson.

The jury unanimously found the defendant guilty of the assault of a 70-year-old woman during an attempted burglary.
But in a passionate closing argument, the defence counsel urged leniency, saying the defendant had taken his victim to hospital and turned himself in, said Korean news agency Yonhap.
After a two-hour deliberation the jury recommended a suspended sentence of 30 months and 80 hours' community service, and the judge agreed. Read this BBC Article »

More Background: This initial learning process has been facilitated by the South Korean government, which is running commercials about jury service and conducting mock trials. Read the IHT article » By Thaddeus Hoffmeister.

• Related Lesson The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring the (American) Youth Court System by Engaging in a Mock Trial
Overview: Students learn about youth courts and explore the system further by engaging in a mock youth court trial. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

• The Learning Foundation - "What to Teach" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson Plan.

Chat room image Florida online reading - selling newspapers image source newscopy.org

A Newspaper that looks for possible stories from Thai web site bulletin boards, blogs, and chat-rooms picked up the story spreading about Lek who had claimed her teacher had stolen her hand phone.

The newspaper called her mother for an interview.
Lek’s mother told the Newspaper that Ms Lawson hated her daughter and took her hand phone to punish her.

The Thai Newspaper printed a story: Headline News - "Teacher abuses kid"
The story added that the school in which the teacher taught was very bad and should be closed until the government investigates.

The same day, a parent of a student from the school sent the newspaper article to the head of the school.
He translated the article for Lek's teacher, Ms lawson, who became very upset.
"That's not true!" She said. "They lied!"
"Don’t they need any evidence to show what they print is true?"

The Newspaper said it was just passing along stories that interested readers and the damage to Ms Lawson and the school were their own fault not the Newspapers.

• This is the third of three related Learning Foundation Simplified Mock Trial cases:
- "I can say what I want!"
- "I was just protecting my kid"
- "News vs Gossip"

Noppadol Pattama, the Shinawatra family lawyer, told reporters that Pojaman made the decision to return "a couple of days ago" and that she was now ready to fight the charges against her.
Thaksin faces charges in the same cases as his wife; both cases were brought after investigations by a special committee formed by the (military) junta that removed Thaksin from power. Read Article » By Thomas Fuller - IHT

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Analyzing Media Coverage of Crime
Overview: Students will compare the coverage of two crime stories, analyzing both for objectivity, language, emotional impact, and local and national dissemination. Go to this Media and Law Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Understanding the Quest to Protect Human Rights.
Overview: Students explore the concept of human rights by developing and defending their own "Bills of Human Rights" and by writing a reflective essay that compares their notions of human rights and the protection of them.  Go to this Media and Law Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Analyzing the Substance and Credibility of Newspapers
Students share opinions about the factors that influence their decisions about which newspapers to read. They then analyze the tone, content and perspective of major newspapers and rank them based on personal criteria. Go to this Media and ESL Lesson.

• Related Thai stories - Rumor Nation - The Asian Sentinel and "But rumours sell." - The Bangkok Post
• The Learning Foundation - Simplified Mock Trials
- The Case of Slanted News
- "News vs Gossip"

Oscar Pistorius asked the Court of Appeal to examine qualification to compete while using of an assistive device, not only in solely biomechanical terms.
"These have always been my legs. I train harder than other guys, eat better, sleep better and wake up thinking about athletics. I think that's probably why I'm a bit of an exception."
There are many disadvantages to sprinting on carbon-fiber legs, Pistorius and his coach said. After a cumbersome start, he needs about 30 meters to gain his rhythm. His knees do not flex as readily, limiting his power output. His grip can be unsure in the rain. And when he runs into a headwind or grows fatigued, he must fight rotational forces that turn his prosthetic devices sideways, said Ampie Louw, who coaches Pistorius.
My legs allow me to run, but to win I face the same challenges as every other Olympic runner, and I am asking the Court of Appeal to overturn the decision of the I.A.A.F, so I can compete in the 2008 Olympics.

Background: The coup leaders used state power for political ends, manipulated the rule of law to suit their needs and kept martial law in place in certain provincial areas up until Election Day. With the interim government’s popularity sinking, the military-appointed legislature waited until a few days before the election before quickly passing 64 laws as a parting gift to anyone who still held illusions that the junta respected democracy.
One of those laws passed at the last minute was the Internal Security Act, which gives the military sweeping powers to detain people, wiretap phones and declare emergency rule. Read article » By Daniel Ten Kate - Asian Sentinel.

(AFP) image on right from article on Thai voting.

“I think what we’re seeing over these past couple of years is that the Thai elite has become disillusioned with democracy because Thaksin opened up the possibility that the poor can have some say in politics, and they don’t like that,” said Giles from Chulalongkorn University. “To develop democracy, civil society will have to push against the Thai elite. It’s going to take some time to educate the elites about the benefits of democracy.” Read Article »

• The Learning Foundation - "The 18th Thai constitution?" - What makes a law good lesson plan.

• The Learning Foundation - "It's my country/I can do what I want!" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson Plan. Editor's note: This case is based on the conflicting opinions about who chooses the way a country is governed.

• Related Lesson: The New York Times - Learning Network - Explore the positives and negatives of democratic governments and dictatorships - Go to this Building Society Lesson.

Japan, after a lapse of 60 years, is planning to bring back a jury system - but a huge effort will be required to convince ordinary Japanese about its advantages. Americans can help by sharing their jury experiences with the Japanese.

The return to citizen participation represents a bold commitment to have ordinary Japanese take greater responsibility in running the country. If a jury is sufficiently unhappy with the government's case or the government's conduct, it can simply refuse to convict. This possibility puts powerful pressure on the state to behave properly and ultimately leads to better governance. For this reason, a jury is one of the most important protections of a democracy. The full article - By Robert E. Precht - The New York Times

(pictured are) Members of a theater group, in Hitachiota, Japan, performed "12 Angry Men" (a mock trial) to help prepare residents for jury duty, which will start in 2009. Related article - By Normimistsu Onishi - The Herald Tribune

Getting kids ready now:
• The Learning Foundation - A full-scale mock trial can be an intimidating prospect for an elementary classroom-both for teacher and students. Simplified mock trials provide an opportunity to experience the fundamentals of a trial. - One of many examples: The Case of: "What to Teach."

Related lesson:
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring How the Jury Decided Zacarias Moussaoui's Sentence
Students consider the mitigating factors involved in the sentencing of Zacarias Moussaoui, convicted of having played a role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.