A First for South Korea – Juries come to Asia

Posted on March 16, 2012 by admin

Could jury trials improve the credibility, fairness and competence of the Thai court system?

Editor: Juries offer what judges lack, experience with living everyday life outside courtrooms.
As a step in that direction all Thai court testimony should be digitally recorded. The digital recording should be a permanent part of the record and available to both the defendant and plaintiff or prosecutor.
The current practice in which the judge interprets what witnesses have said then has a witness try to recall if the judge’s interpretation was correct allows judges to ignore or slant what they heard or thought they heard. This practice makes their rulings unfair and removes critical evidence that could be used on appeal.
Thai law school students (and practicing lawyers and judges) should study jury selection in other countries, to avoid the common myth that Thai juries won’t work because they can be easily bought.

South Korean Jury Trial
Jurors take an oath at the nation’s first trial by jury at Daegu District Court, Tuesday. The experiment to introduce the U.S.-style jury system is aimed to help modernize Korea’s judicial system. The reforms are being closely watched by Japan, which also plans to adopt a jury system. Article By Kim Rahn – Staff Reporter The Korea Times

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.

Keeping memory sharp – Active Lifestyle Reduces Dementia Risk

Posted on March 8, 2012 by admin

According to the new study, all physical activity adds up and makes a difference in risk.

In the study, researchers asked 716 older individuals without dementia to wear a device called an actigraph that monitors activity for 10 days. This is one of the study’s strong points, as people don’t always report activity accurately.
During about 3.5 years of follow-up, 71 people developed Alzheimer’s disease. Those who were in the bottom 10% for daily physical activity were more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease as those in the top 10%, the study shows.
And it’s not just walking, running, or other exercises that count. Tasks like washing dishes, cooking, playing cards, and even moving a wheelchair with a person’s arms count as physical activity and can help lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease. » The full WebMed report – By Denise Mann – April 19, 2012.

Memory Loss Image source

The New York Times – Learning Network – If Memory Serves -
Overview | Students will reflect on their opinions about intelligence, discover ways intelligence can increase through memory training and develop some of their own effective exercises. Then they create posters to share this information with the school community. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
The New York Times – Learning Network – The Science of Aging -
Overview | Student reflect on the lives of older people they know, then research and debate the key issues surrounding scientific experimentation in anti-aging. (Related NYT article: » Even more reason to get moving – By Jane E. Brody) Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
The New York Times – Learning Network – Do You Know Your Health I.Q.? -
Overview | In this lesson, students offer definitions for common medical terms and determine those that are most accurate. They then prepare quizzes on health-related topics to administer to peers and adults, and write analysis papers based on their findings. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

Zhou Youguang 106 years old embodies a contradiction in China

Posted on March 5, 2012 by admin

“Innovation and invention don’t grow out of the government’s orders”

A Chinese Voice of Dissent That Took Its Time.
But he is making up for lost time. Chatting recently in his study, filled with overflowing bookshelves, Mr. Zhou declared democracy “the natural form of a modern society.” He rejected the argument that China is not suited to it.
Zhou Youguang – born Jan. 13, 1906, when the Qing Dynasty ruled and women bound their feet embodies a contradiction at the heart of a Chinese notion that free thinkers are to be venerated unless and until they challenge the legitimacy of the ruling Communist Party.
Mr. Zhou is the inventor of Pinyin, the Romanized spelling system that linked China’s ancient written language to the modern age and helped China all but stamp out illiteracy. He was one of the leaders of the Chinese translation of the Encyclopaedia Britannica in the 1980s.
Mr. Zhou says Chinese characters will exist for centuries to come. But to his delight, Pinyin has proven ever more useful. Chinese now rely on Pinyin-to-character programs to send cellphone text messages, post on Internet microblogs and write e-mails. » The full New York Times article – By Sharon LaFraniere – Published March 2, 2012.

Zhou Youguang

“You can have democracy no matter what level of development. Just look at the Arab Spring.” – Zhou Youguang – Image source

The New York Times – Learning Network – What Will You Do With Your Life?
Overview | Students consider what it means to live a life well-lived by creating life lists of goals they would like to accomplish and analyzing patterns in the lists of their peers. Go to this Life and Building a Health 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.

Making a Constitution

Posted on March 3, 2012 by admin

Voting in Syria Image source – Chappatte dans “International Herald Tribune”

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 Law and Building a Healthy Society 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 – 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.

If You Feel O.K., Maybe You Are O.K.

Posted on January 13, 2012 by admin

Overdiagnosed

For years now, people have been encouraged to look to medical care as the way to make them healthy. But that’s your job — you can’t contract that out.
Doctors might be able to help, but so might an author of a good cookbook, a personal trainer, a cleric or a good friend.
We would all be better off if the medical system got a little closer to its original mission of helping sick patients, and let the healthy be. » The full NYT – Op-Ed – By H. Gilbert Welch – February 27, 2012

Tai Chi Makes Parkinson’s Patients More Steady on Their Feet, Study Shows

Tai chi, a Chinese martial art of precise, gentle movements, helps patients with mild-to-moderate Parkinson’s disease improve their balance, a study found.
Andrew Feigin, a neurologist specializing in Parkinson’s disease at the North Shore-LIJ Medical Group in Great Neck, New York, said the findings give scientific backing to doctor recommendations that patients try exercises like tai chi to improve balance.
“Balance and gait are problems that people with Parkinson’s disease have,” said Feigin, who wasn’t an author of today’s paper, in a Feb. 6 telephone interview. “Things like stretching and resistance aren’t really working on balance. Tai chi really focuses on improvements in balance. It’s nice to get some actual data that shows doing those things can be helpful.” » The full Bloomberg article – By Nicole Ostrow – February 9, 2012.

The significance of bones. Yoga strengthens bones. Skeleton image source // Yoga posture Image.

Read the full New York Times article –

The New York Times – Learning Network – Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes -
Overview | Students gain a greater understanding of the anatomy and physiology of the muscular system, the skeletal system and connective tissue by researching joints in the body. They also reflect on the effects of injuries on their joints and learn about new treatment methods. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
The New York Times – Learning Network – Investigating the Complex Significance of Bones -
Overview | Students examine the literal, physiological and figurative significance of bones through experimentation, then create their own skeleton-related exhibits for a “Bone and Skeleton Museum.” Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

Eyewitnesses are mistaken far more often than people think

Posted on December 8, 2011 by admin

Every year, more than 75,000 eyewitnesses identify criminal suspects in the U.S., and studies suggest that as many as a third of them are wrong.
Mistaken eyewitnesses helped convict three quarters of the 273 people who have been freed from U.S. prisons on DNA evidence presented by The Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal organization that challenges dubious prosecutions. The full article in The Week – November 4, 2011.

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.

Are eyewitnesses reliable? 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.

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.

News vs Gossip – Inquiry into Press Tactics

Posted on November 8, 2011 by admin

Inquiry Into Press Tactics Turns the Tables on Tabloids

The high court judge leading the inquiry, Sir Brian Leveson, has called the sessions that began this week, relayed live on the inquiry’s Web site, a “right of reply” for victims of tabloid excesses.
Beyond the wolf-pack excesses of paparazzi, beyond the phone hacking that has been news here for months, witnesses have told of practices that they described as bullying and intimidation.
Now it is commonplace, at the hearings and beyond, to describe the tabloids as a mafia, and to demand steps to bring them back within the scope of the law.
Sir Brian Leveson has refused requests by the newspapers’ lawyers for the right to cross-examine the witnesses, and issued a formal warning to the mass-circulation papers not to strike back against those testifying with new articles that invade their privacy or damage their reputations. » The full New York Times article – By John F. Burns Published: November 25, 2011.

The New York Times – Learning Network – Talking Trash –
Overview | 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 Building Society and Law Lesson.
The New York Times – Learning Network – A Snapshot of Fame –
Overview | Students debate the limits to celebrity privacy and to paparazzi rights after reading the above article. » Go to this Building Society, Media and Law Lesson.

“News Vs Gossip” – Simplified Mock Trial – Fact Summary »

Use and abuse of chat rooms selling gossip as news? 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”

Another credibility test for US Supreme Court

Posted on October 16, 2011 by admin

Let’s start with the already famous exchange in which Justice Antonin Scalia compared the purchase of health insurance to the purchase of broccoli. That comparison horrified health care experts all across America because health insurance is nothing like broccoli.

Supreme court questions health care insurance Image – By Walt Handelsman

Why? When people choose not to buy broccoli, they don’t make broccoli unavailable to those who want it. But when people don’t buy health insurance until they get sick — which is what happens in the absence of a mandate — the resulting worsening of the risk pool makes insurance more expensive, and often unaffordable, for those who remain. As a result, unregulated health insurance basically doesn’t work, and never has.
There are at least two ways to address this reality — One is to tax everyone — healthy and sick alike — and use the money raised to provide health coverage. That’s what Medicare and Medicaid do. The other is to require that everyone buy insurance, while aiding those for whom this is a financial hardship.
We don’t know how this will go. But it’s hard not to feel a sense of foreboding — and to worry that the nation’s already badly damaged faith in the Supreme Court’s ability to stand above politics is about to take another severe hit. » The full New York Times Column – By Paul Krugman – Published March 30, 2012.
“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 – January 30, 2010.

Looking Back: 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.

Looking Further 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.”

Justice is blind 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.

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.

Cash, Charge or Save? – Warren Buffett stars in children’s cartoon

Posted on October 1, 2011 by admin

» Original Guardian image and article source

Nebraska-based Buffett

From this Guardina article »

The New York Times – Learning Network – Preparing an Annual Budget -
Overview | Students play a game to determine if they know the costs of common items. As consumers, they then develop their own personal finance budgets to determine how they might reduce their personal spending.Go to this Economy and ESL Lesson.
The New York Times – Learning Network – Understanding Credit Cards and Credit Card Debt -
Overview | Students examine and learn the basics about credit cards and credit card debt, then create an informational brochure for young students. Go to this Economy and ESL Lesson.

Italian appeals court frees Amanda Knox, codefendant

Posted on September 30, 2011 by admin

A jury of eight Italians, which included two judges, delivered its verdict after more than 11 hours of deliberations.
The decision overturns the December 2009 ruling that sentenced Amanda Knox to 26 years in prison and her codefendant, Raffaele Sollecito, a former boyfriend, to 25 years in prison in the 2007 fatal stabbing of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, a Briton who shared an apartment with Knox.
Court-appointed independent specialists said the DNA had been collected in a way that could have allowed for contamination and the genetic information on two main pieces of evidence could not be matched to the defendants with certainty.
A lawyer for Sollecito, Giulia Bongiorno argued that the evidence collected 46 days after the police first went through the scene should have been thrown out. » The full Boston Globe article – By Elisabetta Povoledo – Published: October 4, 2011.

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.

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.

DNA can be faked? 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.

LFS Lessons Asia

encourages independent thinking