Exam Answers on EU Law

Exam Answers on EU Law (a)  The UK Parliament wishes to challenge the draft Directive on the basis that it infringes the principle of subsidiarity. The UK Parliament has a system of scrutiny committees that are responsible to review the proposal established by the EU Commission. In the given scenario, the draft Directive touches on the area of ‘Research, Technological Development and Space’. According to Article 4 of Lisbon Treaty, the EU and Member States have shared competence in this field, but paragraph 3 further stipulates that the exercise of the EU’s competence in this field does not limit the competence of the Member States. Therefore, the scrutiny committees may issue a reasoned opinion on the basis that the draft Directive has infringed the principle of subsidiarity set out in Article 5(3) of the Lisbon Treaty of European Union. According to Article 6 of Protocol 2, the UK committees must issue the reasoned opinion that oppose the draft Directive within eight weeks from the date of transmission.[1] Here, the draft Directive was established on 15 December 2012 and thus the deadline for the UK Parliament to issue the reasoned opinion will be 9 February 2013. It must be noted that, if at least one third of the national parliaments have given the reasoned opinion, it is considered as a ‘yellow card’ and the Commission can be required to review the draft Directive. However, in case of more than a simple majority, this is an orange card and this allows the European Parliament and the Council to reject the draft Directive before the first reading.[2] (b)  The German Association of University Professors and Lecturers (hereinafter referred to as ‘the association’) wishes to challenge the regulation, in order for it to be declared invalid. There are two ways available: a direct action under Article 263 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (hereinafter referred to as ‘TFEU’); or an indirect action under Article 267 of TFEU. Direct Action under Article 263 In order to strike down the directive successfully under Article 263,[3] there are three procedural requirements: there is a legal act, the action is raised within the prescribed limit of two months and the applicant must have sufficient legal standing to initiate the action.[4] By virtue of Article 288 of the TFEU, a directive is a ‘legal act’ that fulfil the Article 263 requirement. We are told that the directive was adopted on 1 July 2013 and thus the latest date for the association to bring the action is 1 September 2013. Further, the association is a non-privileged applicant who has no automatic standing and thus it is necessary for the association to satisfy that the adopted Directive is of both the direct and individual concern to them.[5] Nevertheless, as shown in the Salamander case, it may be extremely difficult for a non-privileged applicant to prove that a directive is of direct concern to him.[6] According to Plaumann, it is likely that the directive casts no individual concern to the association as they cannot be differentiated from the other researchers.[7] Thus, the action under Article 263 looks unlikely materialise to the association. Indirect Action under Article 267 Alternatively, under Article 267, the association may have to be a party to an action in a national court and the court would have discretion as to whether or not to make a reference on this issue to the CJEU. According to Rau v BALM, the facts that the association has no standing under Article 263 would not affect their ability in bring an Article 267 action.[8] But it is still not advisable for the association to bring an action under Article 267 as it has been pointed out by Advocate General Jacobs in UnioÃÅ'’n de PequenÃÅ'Æ’os Agricultores that it is wrong to expect someone to ‘breach the law in order to gain access to justice’.[9] (c)  Professor Moltisanti wishes to bring an action against Italian government for its failure to implement the directive. There are two actions available to him: the doctrine of direct effect; or the Francovich principle. The Doctrine of Direct Effect According to the leading case of Van Gen den Loos, in order for directive to give rise to direct effects, certain criteria has to be satisfied.[10] First of all, as shown in Ratti, the court held that the applicant is only allowed to rely on a directive that the deadline for implementation has been expired.[11] On the facts, the grant scheme runs from July 2014, this indicates that the deadline for transposition (1 November 2013) has already expired and thus Professor Moltisanti may be able to rely on the directive directly in the court. Next, in Marshall v Southampton SW Hampshire AHA, it was held that a directive could be invoked vertically against a public body.[12] In the other words, Professor Moltisanti can rely on the directive vertically against the Italian government. Francovich Principle On the other hand, an alternative way that available for Professor Moltisanti is the principle established in the Francovich case that a right to damages against the member states is available to individuals if they have suffered loss as a result of the member state’s failure to implement a directive.[13] This principle is further developed Factortame, where the court laid down the criteria in replying the Francovich principle that there must be a sufficiently serious breach and direct causal link can be established between the breach and the loss suffered by the individual.[14] Applying this to the facts, the failure to implement the directive is automatically a sufficiently serious breach within the SchoÃÅ'ˆppenstedt[15] formula and it is clearly that the Italian government’s failure to implement the directive makes Professor Moltisanti lost the opportunity to gain support under the scheme. Therefore, it is likely that he may seek redress under the Francovich principle. Introduction The statement suggests that the principle of supremacy of EU law is merely a myth originated from the Court of Justice case law, where in fact the national courts have constantly challenged on this concept. In this essay, we will deal with the principle of supremacy of EU law from both the Court of Justice and national courts’ perspectives and argue that the given statement is correct in the context that the supremacy principle enunciated by the Court of Justice is itself fictional and its application in the national courts is not absolute. The Principle of Supremacy of EU law from the Court of Justice’s Perspective When a State joins the European Union, it is considered that there will be a transfer of sovereignty for certain specific areas of policy from the state to the community. Nevertheless, the community treaty does not contain specific reference in the relationship between the EU law and national law and this leads to a situation where both law are in conflict. Not surprisingly, the Court of Justice (hereinafter referred to as ‘CJEU’, previously known as the ‘European Court of Justice’, ‘ECJ’) is on the view that the EU law must prevail in such conflict. The court took its first step in preserving the uniformity of application of EU law among the Member States in the landmark case of Van Gend en Loos.[16] The stance was affirmed in Costa v ENEL, where the ECJ held that the community has ‘created its own legal system which became an integral part of the legal systems of the Member States and which their courts are bound to apply’.[17] The ECJ further added force to the supremacy principle in the Simmenthal case, where it held that the national courts must set aside the national law if it is in conflict with the community law.[18] At this point, it can be argued that the supremacy principle established by the CJEU is ‘fictional’ as it merely requires a disapplication of national law. In Factortame, the ECJ made clear that if there is a dispute between the national law and the community law, the national courts must set aside its national law, instead on striking down the provision as ultra vires.[19] Furthermore, the supremacy principle from the CJEU’s perspective is not absolute and this was shown in the Asda Stores case in which the ECJ had forfeited the EU supremacy and applied the conflicting national law. [20] On the other hand, because of the wide variation of the constitutional background between the member states, the national courts have responded differently in interpreting the supremacy principle into their own legal system. The Principle of Supremacy of EU law from the National Courts’ Perspectives There are mainly two approaches to the incorporation of EU law by the national courts, namely monist or dualist approaches. Monistic Theory In monist States, such as Belgium and France, all law is treated equally, it is not necessary for an international law to be implemented into national law and the national courts can apply the law Dualistic Theory For states with a dualist system, such as Germany and United Kingdom, international law and national law are considered to be fundamentally distinct. This means that international law cannot be directly applied by the national courts but requires the translation into the national law. As to give a clearer analysis, we will deal with the legal system of the member states separately: Belgium Belgium provides a good example of acceptance of the supremacy of EU law based upon reasoning which is closest to that employed by the ECJ itself.[21] Even though there has no provision in the Belgian Constitution that supports the supremacy of EU law, the Belgian Court demonstrated its willingness to accord the supremacy principle in Le Ski case. In this case, it was held that if there is a conflict between the Belgian Constitution and a provision under EU treaty that imposes direct effect in the national legal system, the EU law prevails.[22] Is the Supremacy of EU law over national law a fantasy of the Court of Justice with reference to the Belgian court’s perspective? It is submitted that Belgium manages the supremacy principle of EU law with relatively ease. Can this be argued that as an evidence of the supremacy principle? Bribosa commented on this issue that the approach taken by the court was actually a consideration of Kompetenz-Kompetenz (competence-competence) doctrine but rather than the ruling of ECJ.[23] In other words, instead of treating that the EU law is superior to the Belgian law, it may be more appropriate to recognise that the Belgian courts has sought to emerge the new community rule with its established domestic legal framework. France In France, the court’s willingness to accord the supremacy of EU law was shown in the Administration des Douanes case[24], where it was held that by virtue of Article 55 of the French Constitution, if there is a conflict between national law and a ratified international treaty, the latter should be give precedence over the former.[25] This approach was only affirmed in Nicolo case[26] where the court suggested that Article 55 enables the courts to review the validity of French legislation with the EU provisions and thus the community law should be given precedence over the national law. Is the Supremacy of EU law over national law a fantasy of the Court of Justice with reference to the French court’s perspective? Even though the French courts have recognised the supremacy of EU treaty, it is arguable that the supremacy of EU law in the context of French jurisdiction is not absolute. The Constitutional Council had made it clear in the reasoned Decision given on 9 April 1992 Maastricht I[27] that France could derogate its sovereignty to the Union, only if the particular community rule is not contradictory to the French Constitution and will not violate the exercise of national sovereignty.[28] Such reasoning can be regarded as putting a limitation to France’s acceptance of supremacy and thus it may casts ambiguity on the supremacy principle that derived from the CJEU’s ruling. Germany In Germany, the EU supremacy principle is shaped with the terms of Article 23 of the German Basic Law. In Internationale Handelsgesellschaft mbH v EVGF (Solange I), the Federal Constitutional Court held that although Article 23 allowed the transfer of legislative power to EU law, the German Constitution would still take priority over the EU treaty if the community has not removed the possible conflict of norms between EU law and the fundamental rights provision under the German Constitution.[29] However, having considered the development of fundamental rights doctrine by the ECJ, the position has been altered in the case of Re Wuensche Handelsgesellschaft (Solange II), where it held stated that the court would no longer review EU provision in light of the German Constitution.[30] Is the Supremacy of EU law over national law a fantasy of the Court of Justice with reference to the German court’s perspective? By observing the change of attitude of Federal Constitutional Court in adopting the supremacy principle, it is likely that the ECJ’s wish that the EU law should prevail over national law may be fulfilled. However, in has been made clear in Brunner v European Union Treaty the supremacy of EU law within German jurisdiction is not unconditional, the EU law will be applied only because the national law says it does. [31] Therefore, it may not be appropriate to say that the EU law is supreme over German domestic law because the German courts have not surrendered Germany sovereignty but merely fulfil the obligations of EU membership.[32] United Kingdom The situation becomes more complicated in the UK jurisdiction because of its doctrine of Parliamentary Sovereignty. As a dualist states, the EU treaty will only have effect in the UK legal system with the incorporation of UK Act. This led to the publication of the European Communities Act 1972 (hereinafter referred to as ‘ECA 1972’), whereby it incorporates the EU provisions into the English legal system. In R v Secretary of State for Transport, ex parte Factortame, Lord Bridge stated that it had ‘always been clear that it was the duty of a United Kingdom court when delivering final judgment, to override any rule of national law found to be in conflict with any directly enforceable rule of Community law’.[33] Nevertheless, it must be noted that, the effect of this case would not actually nullify the existing UK legislation and this indicates that the UK national law is still superior to the EU law. Is the Supremacy of EU law over national law a fantasy of the Court of Justice with reference to the British court’s perspective? It is arguable that the EU law does not take precedence over the UK law since the community legislation may only be effective within the UK legal system with the incorporation of ECA 1972. Such approach has been adopted by Lord Justice Laws in the case of Thoburn v Sunderland City Council, where he pointed out that the relationship between the UK and the EU depends on UK law, not EU law. [34] Conclusion According to Maduro, ‘the acceptance of the supremacy of EU rules over national constitutional rules has not been unconditional’.[35] It is apparent from the discussion above, despite the distinction between monistic and dualist system, the application of EU law under the national legal framework is ultimately influenced by the national law. Therefore, it might be true that the supremacy principle is a fantasy of the CJEU. However, notwithstanding talk of any legal fiction, it can be observed from the case law that the national courts do give effect to supremacy of EU law. The fact that EU law has been consistently and uniformly applied in the member states’ courts today creates no real dispute over the application of supremacy principle in practice. Question: Word length: (2) 1129 (4) 1999 TOTAL 3128 Bibliography Tables of cases EU Cases Aktien-Zuckerfabrik SchoÃÅ'ˆppenstedt v Council (5/71) [1971] ECR 975 Amministrazione delle Finanze dello Stato v Simmenthal (106/77) [1978] ECR 629 Brasserie du PeÃÅ'‚cheur/Factortame III (C-46/93 48/93) [1996] ECR I-1029 Consorzio del Prosciutto di Parma and Another v Asda Stores Ltd and Another (C-108/01) [2003] ECR I-5121 Costa v ENEL (6/64) [1964] ECR 585 Francovich v Italy Republic (6/90) [1991] ECR I-5357 Marshall v Southampton and South West Hampshire AHA (271/91) [1993] ECR I-4367 Ministero Pubblico v Ratti (148/78) [1979] ECR 1629 P UnioÃÅ'’n de PequenÃÅ'Æ’os Agricultores v Council (C-50/00) [2002] ECR I-6677 Plaumann Co v Commission (25/62) [1963] ECR 95 Rau v Bundesanstalt fuÃÅ'ˆr Landswirtschaftliche Marktordnung (C-133/85) [1987] ECR-2289 Salamander and others v European Parliament and Council (T-172 175-177/98) [2000] ECR II- 2487 R v Secretary of State for Transport, ex parte Factortame Ltd and Others (C-213/89) [1990] ECR 2433 Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen (26/62) [1963] ECR 1 Belgian Case Minister for Economic Affairs v SA Fromagerie Franco-Suisse ‘Le Ski’ [1972] CMLR 330 French Cases Administration des Douanes v SocieÃÅ'’teÃÅ'’ CafeÃÅ'’s Jacques Vabre J. Weigel et Cie. SARL [1975] 2 CMLR 336 Raoul Georges Nicolo and another [1990] 1 CMLR 173 German Cases Brunner v European Union Treaty [1994] 1 CMLR 57 Internationale Handelsgesellschaft mbH v Einfuhr- und Vorratsstelle fà ¼r Getreide und Futtermittel [1974] 2 CMLR 540 Wà ¼nsche handelsgesellschaft,Re [1987] 3 CMLR 225 United Kingdom Cases Thoburn v Sunderland City Council [2003] QB 151 R v Secretary of State for Transport, ex parte Factortame [1991] AC 603 Table of Legislation EU Legislation Consolidated Version of the Treaty on European Union [2008] OJ C115/13, art 4 Consolidated Version of the Treaty on European Union [2008] OJ C115/13, art 5 Consolidated Version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [2008] OJ C115/47, art 263 Consolidated Version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [2008] OJ C115/47, art 264 Consolidated Version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [2008] OJ C115/47, art 267 Consolidated Version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [2008] OJ C115/47, art 288 Protocol (No.2) on the Application of the Principle of Subsidiarity and Proportionality [2010] OJ C 83/206, Art 6 Protocol (No.2) on the Application of the Principle of Subsidiarity and Proportionality [2010] OJ C 83/206, Art 7 French Legislation Conseil Constitutionnel, decision n.92-308 DC of 9 April 1992, Treaty of Maastricht I French Constitution, art 55 German Legislation Basic Law, art 24 United Kingdom Legislation European Communities Act 1972 Secondary Sources Books Chalmers D, Davies G and Monti G, European Union Law (3rd edn, Cambridge University Press 2014) Hartley T, European Union Law in a Global Context: Text, Cases and Materials (Cambridge University Press 2004) Articles Benvenisti E and Downs G, ‘The Premises, Assumptions, and Implication of Van Gend en Loos’ [2014] 25 EJIL 85 Martinoco G, ‘Is the European Convention going to be ‘supreme’? A Comparative-constitutional overview of ECHR and EU law before national courts’ [2010] EJIL 401 Maduro M, ‘Interpreting European Law: Judicial Adjudication in a Context of Constitutional Pluralism’ [2007]1 EJLS 2 Electronic Sources Craig P, ‘The ECJ, National Courts and the Supremacy of Community Law’ http://www.ecln.net/elements/conferences/bookrome/craig.pdf> accessed 29 December 2014 1 [1] Protocol (No.2) on the Application of the Principle of Subsidiarity and Proportionality [2010] OJ C 83/206, art 7. [2] Ibid, art 6. [3] Consolidated Version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [2008] OJ C115/47, art 264. [4] Ibid, art 263. [5] Ibid. [6] Joined Cases T-172 175-177/98 Salamander and others v European Parliament and Council [2000] ECR II- 2487. [7] Case 25/62 Plaumann Co v Commission [1963] ECR 95. [8] Case C-133/85 Rau v Bundesanstalt fuÃÅ'ˆr Landswirtschaftliche Marktordnung [1987] ECR-2289. [9] Case C-50/00 P UnioÃÅ'’n de PequenÃÅ'Æ’os Agricultores v Council [2002] ECR I-6677, Opinion of AG Jacobs, paras. 41-9. [10] Case 26/62 Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen [1963] ECR 1. [11] Case 148/78, Ministero Pubblico v Ratti [1979] ECR 1629. [12] Case 271/91, Marshall v Southampton and South West Hampshire AHA [1993] ECR I-4367. [13] Case 6/90 Francovich v Italy Republic [1991] ECR I-5357. [14] Joined Cases C-46/93 48/93 Brasserie du PeÃÅ'‚cheur/Factortame III [1996] ECR I-1029. [15] Case 5/71 Aktien-Zuckerfabrik SchoÃÅ'ˆppenstedt v Council [1971] ECR 975. [16] Van Gend en Loos (n 10). [17] Case 6/64 Costa v ENEL [1964] ECR 585, 593. [18] Case 106/77 Amministrazione delle Finanze dello Stato v Simmenthal [1978] ECR 629, 21. [19] Case C-213/89 R v Secretary of State for Transport, ex parte Factortame Ltd and Others [1990] ECR 2433. [20] Case C-108/01 Consorzio del Prosciutto di Parma and Another v Asda Stores Ltd and Another [2003] ECR I-5121. [21] Paul Craig, ‘The ECJ, National Courts and the Supremacy of Community Law’ http://www.ecln.net/elements/conferences/bookrome/craig.pdf> accessed 29 December 2014. [22] Eyal Benvenisti and George Downs, ‘The Premises, Assumptions, and Implication of Van Gend en Loos’ [2014] 25 EJIL 85, http://www.ejil.org/pdfs/25/1/2477.pdf> accessed 9 January 2014, citing Minister for Economic Affairs v SA Fromagerie Franco-Suisse ‘Le Ski’ [1972] CMLR 330, 347. [23] Paul (n 21), citing H Bribosia, ‘Report on Belgium’, in A-M Slaughter, A Stone Sweet and J H H Weiler (eds), The European Court and National Courts, Doctrine and Jurisprudence (Oxford: Hart Publishing 1998) p.21-22. [24] Paul (n 21), citing Administration des Douanes v SocieÃÅ'’teÃÅ'’ CafeÃÅ'’s Jacques Vabre J. Weigel et Cie. SARL [1975] 2 CMLR 336. [25] Paul (n 21). [26] Raoul Georges Nicolo and another [1990] 1 CMLR 173, as translation can be found in http://www.utexas.edu/law/academics/centers/transnational/work_new/french/case.php?id=1440> accessed 9 January 2014. [27]Conseil Constitutionnel, decision n.92-308 DC of 9 April 1992, Treaty of Maastricht I, as translation can be found in http://www.utexas.edu/law/academics/centers/transnational/work_new/french/case.php?id=998> accessed 9 January 2014. [28] Giuseppe Martinoco, ‘Is the European Convention going to be ‘supreme’? A Comparative-constitutional overview of ECHR and EU law before national courts’ [2010] EJIL 401. [29] Internationale Handelsgesellschaft mbH v Einfuhr- und Vorratsstelle fà ¼r Getreide und Futtermittel [1974] 2 CMLR 540, as translation can be found in http://www.utexas.edu/law/academics/centers/transnational/work_new/german/case.php?id=588> assessed 9 January 2014.

The Things They Carried Essay -- Literary Analysis, History

Joy Kogawa and Tim O’Brien: two authors that have wielded their mastery of the English language to yield literary masterpieces that reflect not only their own struggles, but the hardships of multitudes around them. In her acclaimed Obasan, Joy Kogawa illustrates the intense discrimination that was faced by Japanese-Canadians during World War 2, and provides many reflective anecdotes to give the reader some insight on her personal situation. Tim O’Brien accomplishes basically the same goal in The Things They Carried by giving the reader many brief stories about his time in the Vietnam War. These two books- though incredibly different on the surface - share a plethora of themes and symbology, as well as many similar events. They do not, however, emphasize or present these ideas in the same way. Each of these authors has a unique way of incorporating their own themes or values into their writing, which gives the reader an entirely different view of what may be happeni ng. The brain is an amazing thing. It allows us to think, blink, walk and talk; it enables us to run, hide, seek, and stride; but most importantly, it allows us to remember. Neither literary work takes a firm stance on their opinion of memories, as both have many different characters with many different opinions. Naomi views and even loosely mirrors Obasan’s opinions on memory; that the past be left to the past and the future will bear what is to come (65 Kogawa). This â€Å"Ashes to Ashes† stance is mirrored by Rat Kiley in The Things They Carried (SparkNotes Editors). Though Obasan has a much tougher exterior and is able to keep her composure, they are both haunted by cruel memories that they are trying to suppress. Rat, however, doesn’t have as much luck as ... ...n previously expected. Things aren’t always what they seem; a concept that applies to the characters themselves. Obasan is more than just a wrinkled old lady, just as Rat Kiley is more than just an infantry soldier. Don’t judge a book by its cover, and don’t jump to conclusions; everyone is different. Take some time to find out and get to know someone, and you might just be surprised by The Things They Carried. Works Cited SparkNotes Editors. â€Å"SparkNote on Obasan.† SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2007. Web. 22 Feb. 2012. SparkNotes Editors. â€Å"SparkNote on The Things They Carried.† SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 22 Feb. 2012. Kogawa, Joy. Obasan. 1981. New York: First Anchor, 1994. Print. The Purdue OWL. Purdue U Writing Lab, 2010. Web. Feb. 22 2012. O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1990. Print.

Methods Of Execution :: essays research papers fc

Methods of Execution One man's taking of another's life is generally seen as an unforgivable act which is punishable with death. When this is done as punishment however, it is seen as an honorary deed by removing this criminal from the world and making it a much safer place to live. With executions in mind, it is incredible what ingenious methods can be thought of by the human brain and the fact that the idea is centered around the murdering of one man does not even change how prodigious these innovations are seen to be. Many different techniques and procedures for execution are used throughout the world revealing much about a country's culture and their concern for their citizens. By far one of the most well known and publicly glamorized of all methods of execution is electrocution. Present in nine American states, it was first used in New York in 1890. When a condemned man is scheduled to be executed, he is led into the death chamber and strapped to the point of immobility into a reinforced chair with belts crossing his chest, groin, legs, and arms. Two copper electrodes, dipped in brine or treated with Eletro-Creme to increase conductivity, are attached to him, one to his leg and the other to his head. The first jolt, between five-hundred and two-thousand volts depending on the size of the prisoner, is given for 30 seconds. Smoke will begin to come out of the prisoner's leg and head and these areas may catch fire if the victim has been sweating profusely. A doctor will examine him and if he still shows life signs, more jolts of two-thousand volts are administered to finish the job (Matthews). A main reason for electrocution's original use was the thought that death was immediate. Unfortunately this is not the case. Doctors today believe that the victim feels "himself begin burned to death and suffocating since the shock cause respiratory paralysis as well as cardiac arrest. Because the energy of the shock paralyzes the muscles, he cannot cry out, and therefore is presumed dead ("This is your death..."). How ironic that one reason electrocution was kept in use was that, although expensive, it was immensely serene as far as the prisoner is concerned. Still used extensively throughout the world today and in its sole representing U.S. state, Utah, the firing squad has a much greater claim to being humane as bullets directly into the heart generally cause instantaneous death. Utah uses an extremely exact and well-practiced method which is immensely centered around concern for the victim by taking almost every precaution

History of English Literature Essay

   1.What role does the mead-hall play in Anglo-Saxon warrior culture? What is the proper relationship between a lord and his warriors? What examples can you find throughout Beowulf? 2.What is the role of women in the heroic culture of Beowulf? 3.Compare/contrast what constitutes a hero or the notion of heroism in the Old English and Middle English periods. Draw your examples from two texts: either Beowulf OR The Dream of the Rood 4.Drawing your examples from Beowulf and one Middle English work, compare/contrast the roles assigned to women in literature of the Old and Middle English periods. 5.Analyze the different ways in which English Renaissance poets contributed to or responded to the Petrarchan tradition of love poetry. 6.In what ways does the idea of the court and the life of the courtier affect Renaissance English literature? Identify poems or works in which court life is represented or commented upon and explain how those texts reflect Renaissance attitudes toward court life. 7.The concept of meditation in Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey 8.The credibility of Pip’s character in Dickens’s Great Expectations 9.Discuss the Social critique in Dickens’s Great Expectations 10.Discus the concept of being a gentleman in Dickens’s Great Expectations 11.Ddiscuss the Reality and symbolism in Hopkins’s poetry 12.Discuss the concept of purity in Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles 13.Discuss Christianity and paganism pl in Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles 14.Discuss the symbolism of darkness and light in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness 15.Discuss the elements of postmodernism in British Contemporary Poems (take example from british contemporary writer) 16.Discuss the element of Romanticism in William Wordsworth’s Poems 17.Discuss The influence of Japanese Poetry in Modern Poetry by Ezra Pound 18.Discuss the portrayal of ideal women in Victorian Novel written by Women writers. 19.How did French Poetry influence the development of modern English Poetry? 20.Discuss various aspect of modernism in James Joyce’ Ulllyses† 21.Compare different attitude to war presented by the Poets William Butler Yeats, Sigfried Sassoon, and Wilfrid Owen in their poems. 22.How did Freud’s theory on human psyce influence the work of moden writer? Provide examples! 23.How did Asian Poetry influence the works of early modernist poets Eezra Pound and Richard Aldington?

Promoting the Culture of Peace in the World Essay

Introduction: No doubt, the world is a vast battle-field where almost every nation fights each other. Every nation has its own military equipments. What are these for? They are only for fighting other nations whenever a war breaks out. This only shows that the world is in a very dangerous situation now a day. Every day, every second, there is a possibility of outbreak of war, nuclear war as well as cold war. It means that there is a big threat in our every day life. Not only this, terrorists also make every corner of the globe insecure. It is disheartening that the old aged, innocent children and women are in this situation that they do not feel secured and safe. Who is responsible for this, is it the politicians, or the armies, or the bureaucrats? All of them including the selfish industrialists and rich people are responsible. Who would then step out to deal with this restlessness? â€Å"We, the Youth† would surely be the answer. Basic Elements: The basic important step to be taken by the youth is to protect and promote human rights. Human rights include our rights for living; in order to live, we need food, and in order to have food, we need to work to earn our daily living. Peaceful and happy life is the dream of everybody. If any one is lacking of peaceful life, he is automatically lacking of happiness, so that he may become desperate, depressed or disappointed in life. The desperate or disappointed persons are the most dangerous persons in the world. In the context of North East India where various terrorist groups are in active, one Minister in the region once said, â€Å"The main cause of insurgency in the North East region is that the Centre neglected this remote area†. This would be true to some extent that almost all the insurgent activities in North East India are demanding independence. Some of them are seeking for secure life which would be free from the threat of assimilation by other communities. The immediate cause of insurgency in the Lushai Hills (now Mizoram) was also Mautam Famine that Laldenga and friends felt that the Central Government of India was not taking a satisfactory action to relieve the victims of that famine, and then they rebelled against the Government of India and declared Independence in the year 1966. All these are related to Human Rights, since the people felt that the Government was not taking any step for the well being of its people, almost all of them supported the rebellious activities. From the above viewpoint, we may perceive that the main cause of insurgency and terrorism is human rights violation where the victims became conscious of their rights and then claimed the same consequently. In the context of the Middle East Crisis, one thing very clear is that almost all the terrorists in that area fight for freedom, not only for political freedom but also for religious freedom. Some Islamic terrorists fight for the supremacy of Islamism that would be free from Christian domination. In all the activities of the insurgents and the terrorists, the most important instruments are the youth of those respective communities. Supposed, all these youth who are in active in terrorism and insurgency had quitted their efforts for the same, obviously the activities of insurgency and terrorism would have been null and void and there would not be a big threat in our every day life. Nevertheless, these youth had firmly committed to fight for their community and to sacrifice their lives for the same. So, in order to promote peace culture, the youth are most concern. What to do: Since the important hand and leg of terrorists are youth among themselves, the responsibility of the youth today is very high that we need to step out to deal with this. Walt Disney said that the way to get started is to stop talking and to begin working, so that it is not enough to discuss and debate upon Promotion of Culture of Peace in the World, we have to step out. It is the duty of every intellectual and educated youth to win the heart of our brothers and sisters who are in active in terrorism. We need to negotiate them, whether or not they welcome, we need to approach them, we may fail at once, but we should not quit. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the former President of India on the occasion of his visit to Mizoram University on 24th September 2005 said, â€Å"Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is Peace in the World†. This statement is truly acceptable because the righteous person would never harm the others, he would never hamper development of the world Peace and Prosperity. So that we, the youth have to keep this in mind, and let it remind us of our duty to counsel our fellow youth, whether they are terrorists or civilians. For promoting the culture of peace in the world, it is an urgent need to take the suggested steps mentioned below: †¢As mentioned above, the first important step would be creating awareness among the youth, common people. We should make our fellow youth aware of the urgent need to make an effort for promoting the culture of Peace in the world. We can organize awareness campaign and other various programmes related to it. We can make them aware of the same by writing articles and essays in the newspapers and magazines. †¢We can produce Television Programme and documentary films related to terrorism and the urgent need of stepping out in mission to stop terrorism. †¢We can have sincere conversation with our friends, families and so on. So that they can propagate this issue to various other persons. If we do so, it would be effective in promoting the culture of peace in the world. †¢To have peaceful life, one should have secure life. So, it is our duty to push the government of our respective country to provide for various schemes for the well being of its subjects. For instance, in the State of Mizoram, the common people are not satisfied enough by the developmental works carried out by the state government, so that the farmers are recently conscious of their rights, they revive and constitute an organization known as â€Å"Zoram Kuthnathawktu Pawl (ZKP)† that is strongly going on to drive the government to the right way. In the mean time, almost all the members felt frustrated and has become despair because of corruption, and then there is a big threat of bloody revolution. All these are the result of unsatisfactory governance, practice of corruption, negligence, so on and so forth. However, at the same time in Mizoram, the senior prominent citizens revived and recently constituted â€Å"Mizoram Democratic Movement (MDM)† which was also the outcome of famous television Talk Show entitled â€Å"Thalaite Hmathlir (Vision of the Youth) organized by the youth that inspire and motivate everybody who is willing to have good governance. These youth of Mizoram also recently constituted an organization called â€Å"Youth Movement for Mizoarm (YMM)† that brought about moral reformation and awareness on the urgent need of good governance. And it blows like a cyclone within the state of Mizoram. Many people supported this movement and it is now hoped that it would bring about peaceful revolution. This YMM has been taking active part in promoting peace and prosperity, and because of their movement, the threat for bloody revolution by the ZKP has also calmed down and these three organizations are planning to work in cooperation for peace and development. So, it is obvious from this instance that we, the youth would step out to create awareness, to motivate our fellow youth, to inspire our parents to stop practicing corruptions and any other unfair means for promoting the culture of peace in the world. †¢We should negotiate and counsel our fellow youth who are in Terrorist groups telling them that it is not the reason why God made us to terrorize the others. We should prevent instigation of the new generations by terrorism and insurgency. †¢We should also motivate religious leaders to feed their sheep spiritual and moral laws, to tell them the purpose of God in creating men, to propagate the essentiality of peace and harmony in living together, to love one another. †¢We should always remember Gandhiji’s â€Å"Ahimsa†. As mentioned in the beginning of this paper, Nissim Ezekiel, Indian poet urged the people of the world to follow Mahatma Gandhi and that is the right way to promote Peace and Non-Violence. Works cited: oRamdinmawia, James. Poet or Reader. Talk on All India Radio, Aizawl Station. oEzzekiel, Nissim. Very Indian Poem in Indian English. oLalrawnliana, Col. Mizoramin Zalenna a Sua Vol. 2. oKindyah, P.R. Mizo Freedom Fighters.

Achieving Happiness

Nowadays we believe that if we are wealthy and have material possessions we would be happy and content with our lives. Is this really the case, how does money and materialistic items help us achieve happiness? If we look at celebrities, athletes, or individuals who possess large sums of wealth and material possessions we believe they are the happiest individuals; that they have everything and buy anything. However, are they really content with their lives? In Gretchen Rubin’s book The Happiness Project, she explains that to be happy it must come from inside oneself; you must do the things you love, have fun, freedom, be positive, and most important that inner drive to push you on the right track in becoming happy. Rubin realizing she was in danger of wasting her life gave herself a year to conduct a happiness project; to not only become happier, but also to be more satisfied and content with every life. Every month she completed a different set of resolutions to help her along the way. Nonetheless, Rubin was innately motivated to achieve true happiness and had that inner drive to change old habits and create new ones. Moreover, the methods Rubin used to become happy relates to Daniel H. Pink’s book Drive. Pink helps us understand whether or not happiness comes from outside sources or is it within oneself to make the change. His study on extrinsic forces such as money or material possession implies that these only keeps people happy for a short period of time; on the other hand intrinsic forces such as ones inner drive is a greater force than outside influences. Rubin also used intrinsic motivation to commit to her happiness project and commit to her daily habits. Charles Duhigg defines habit as â€Å" Charles Duhigg’s book The Power of Habit explains how we human beings can change addictive habits or create new and healthy ones. Rubin created and changed habits such as, keeping a low temper, and having more fun. Her overwhelming happiness rubbed off on others and ultimately changed the atmosphere around her house and friends. This emotional contagion relates to Lauren Slater’s text book Opening Skinners Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century where she explains two cientists John Darley and Bibb Latane’s who conducted an experiment to test the reaction of a naive subject; and if that naive subject attempted to aid themselves or others when something disastrous or out of the ordinary occurred. Rubin’s intrinsic motivation based on Drive, her creation of her habit loop and changing of habits explained by Duhigg, and social imitation based on Darley and Latane’s smoke experiment motivated her to change her habits, and become happier and content with her life. Gretchen Rubin was a mother of two young beautiful daughters, seven-year old Eliza and one-year old Eleanor. She was married to a handsome man named Jamie who loved her as much as she did. Rubin lived in New York City and was a full time writer. However, one April morning Rubin was sitting on a bus looking through rain spattered windows when realized she was in danger of wasting her life. She did not feel happy; she had everything: a loving husband, a loving family, two beautiful kids, friends, wealth, but she did not feel happy. Rubin describes â€Å"I wasn’t depressed and I wasn’t having a midlife crisis, but I was suffering from midlife malaise† (2). This midlife malaise was a sense of discontent and feeling of disbelief that she could not do and accomplish anything. As a result of being frustrated and unhappy, Rubin started her own happiness project; every month she set out 4 to 5 resolutions she wished to accomplish by the end of the month for one whole year. These goals led her to intrinsically motivate herself to start a long and dedicated track towards happiness. During the month of January she was dedicated to boost her energy and vitality; she had five resolutions to accomplish during that month: going to sleep earlier, exercising better, organizing her entire house, tackling a nagging task, and acting more energetic. Furthermore, these resolutions had to rely on being intrinsically motivated to complete them. Pink defines intrinsic motivation as â€Å"that enjoyment-based intrinsic motivation, namely how creative a person feels when working on the project, is the strongest and pervasive driver† (21). Her 2nd goal during January was to exercise better; however, her father used extrinsic motivation to try to make her exercise. Rubin says â€Å"with extrinsic motivation, people act to win external rewards or avoid external punishments† (22). As a result Rubin never became too fond of exercising on her own; only when someone forced her to she would. However, with this exercising goal, she inertly motivated herself to try to exercise every day; she did this to make herself feel better, boost energy, and look better. Studies show that when someone feels and looks better; they will be much happier with the way they look and feel. At the end of January Rubin was off to a promising start; she had been intrinsically motivated to become happier and rewarded herself with a check mark on her resolution chart, which made it easier for her to be motivated and stick with her happiness project. All the resolutions Rubin followed during every month were mostly habits that had to be developed. During the month of April, one of her resolutions was to sing in the morning. This was where instead of lashing out on her kids or husband as she used to do, she would try to sing their mistakes or complaints and make them laugh. This took extreme discipline for Rubin, because it was a habit of hers to attain a quick temper and lash out on her kids or husband. This is where the habit loop and golden rule of habit change comes into play. Duhigg defines the habit loop as â€Å"a loop which consists of the cue, routine, reward; cute, routine, reward becomes more and more automatic† (19). The cue is the trigger that tells your brain to go into instinctive mode and which habits to use† (19). Secondly, the routine is the action or addiction itself, it can be done mentally, emotionally, or physically (Duhigg 19). Lastly the reward is the pleasure and satisfaction in executing a habit. Rubin’s cue before her habit change was when her husband or kids complained about anything such as, when Rubin was changing Eleanor’s diaper and Eliza was complaining that she had not eaten her breakfast (Rubin 95). Her routine whenever this complaining occurred was lashing out or getting upset and lastly her reward was silence or the job getting done. According to Duhigg, the â€Å"golden rule of habit change is only achievable if you use the same cue; provide the same reward, but modify the routine to successfully change the habit† (62). Her new habit to sing in the morning changed her previous routine of lashing out to sing her child’s or husbands complaint and make them laugh and have silence. The cue was still the complaining and the reward was still silence or getting the job done. Rubin describes â€Å" One morning Eliza whined ‘why do I have to go to class today? I don’t want to go to tae kwon do ,’ I wanted to snap back, ‘ you always say you don’t want to go, but then you have fun,’ or ‘I don’t like to hear all this grumbling. ’ instead, even thou it wasn’t easy, I sang out ‘ I on’t want to go tae kwon do’† (96). This type of mentality in dealing with kids or spouses increases happiness and helps marital and child relations. This habit change allowed Rubin to not only deal with problems in a positive way, but also allowed her to spread happiness in an easy, but effective manner. Moreover, another habit that Rub in changed was during the month of June; she always had a problem with gossiping. However, one of her resolutions for that month was to stop gossiping all together. To obtain long term happiness, you must give up something that brings short term happiness; such as gossiping (Rubin 155). This short term happiness of gossiping is increasingly fun for social functions, but it is not a nice thing to do and whenever you say critical things about other people the spontaneous trait transference occurs. The spontaneous trait transference is a psychological phenomenon where people unintentionally transfer traits to the people who ascribe them (Rubin 156). For instance, if I was to tell Josh that Bill is ignorant; Josh would believe I was also ignorant. As a result Rubin wished to stop. Furthermore, her cue before stopping was an urge or a juicy story, the routine was talking excessively about it and lastly the reward was the happiness and satisfaction she gossiped. Moreover, she stopped her gossiping by replacing the routine with either walking away or defending the person individuals were talking about. Rubin shares an experience â€Å"I was at a meeting when someone mentioned of mutual acquaintances, ‘I heard that their marriage was in trouble. ’ ‘I hadn’t heard that,’ someone replied. So fill us in was the implication of her tone. ‘Oh I don’t think that’s true,’ I said dismissively. Let’s not talk about that was the implication of my tone† (155). Furthermore, two scientists John Darley and Bibb Latane conducted an experiment to test whether or not human beings are driven by social imitation. To test this they brought in three college students; two as actors and one as a naive subject and told them to fill out a questionnaire on college life. A few minutes into the experiment, nonhazardous smoke began to flow out from vents and captivate the room. The two actors continued to fill out the form, but the naive subject was more interested in the heavy smoke pouring out like cream. Slater describes â€Å"The confederates were instructed to keep filling out their forms, to display no fear. They did. The smoke started pouring like cream, coming faster, heavier, smearing the air and blotting out figures, faces. The smoke was an irritant and caused one to cough. Each time, the naive subject looked alarmed, looked at the smoke going from wisp to waft, looked at the calm confederates, and then, clearly confused, went back to filling out the questionnaire†(104). The results were extraordinary; the naive subject imitated the actors in the room, doing nothing about the smoke. Slater described â€Å"we are driven by imitation† (IDK). This experiment shows that we are driven by social imitation; copying other people to please ourselves and feel comfortable rather than feeling out of place. However, can this be related to happiness? Rubin described â€Å"a phenomenon called ‘emotional contagion’ is unconsciously catching emotions from other peoplewhether good moods or bad ones (127). Thus, social imitation and emotional contagion are the same; For example, we all have that friend that has a â€Å"contagious laughter†. Why do you think that is? Well, because of that friend’s continuous laughter, everyone else in the group may start to inexplicably feel the same way, sometimes without even realizing what is causing their reaction. During May, one of Rubin’s resolutions was to take time to be silly. Even though controlling her temper by singing complaints had done wonders, Rubin wanted even more happiness around her home. She wanted to create a happy atmosphere. One day while putting groceries away, Rubin used two clementine’s to make goggle eyes at her two daughters; not only making her laugh, but her whole family as well. Since, Eleanor and Eliza saw her mother laughing at her silly joke, they also joined in. This was exactly how the naive subject reacted when he saw the two confederates ignoring the smoke. Instead of reporting the smoke as an emergency, the naive subject also ignored the smoke. Moreover, social imitation or emotional contagion also played a role during the month of June when one of her resolutions was to make three new friends.

Problems with African Democracy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Problems with African Democracy - Research Paper Example To better understand the main challenges that Democracy has faced in Africa, it is important to briefly look at the history of Democracy in Africa. As Samuel Decalo argues in his book Psychosis of Power: African Personal Dictatorship, the struggle for independence in Africa since the first half of the twentieth century was based on the view that the colonized people had the right and the ability to determine their political destinies on the basis of self-determination (Decalo, 1989). Decalo goes ahead to argue in this book that many African countries embraced democracy as an ideal system of governance because democracy offered all the citizens of a country the opportunity to participate in the decision making of their countries. Decalo goes ahead to argue that African countries embraced Democracy because they were tired of the authoritarian rule of the colonizers and they therefore wanted a system of governance that would ensure that all the citizens of their countries would participate in making crucial decision of their countries. However, when many African countries became independent from late 1950s up to the early 1990s, what followed was a history of authoritarian regimes and many coup d’à ©tats (Owusu, 1991).  In his article â€Å"Democracy and Africa- A view from the Village†, Owusu says that from 1960 up to 1990, more than thirty African countries had experienced either a coup d’à ©tat, or an abortive coup d’à ©tat.