Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper will discuss the kinds of learning that students undergo in an intensive language study abroad program. In addition to acquiring the basics of language, students take much more away from the experience when they are immersed in a culture. They learn nonverbal communication skills, lifestyles, values, popular culture, and the challenges of life outside the United States. This paper will use the Baylor in Argentina program as a case study to examine the kinds of learning, aside from language acquisition, that students take away from a study abroad experience and how that learning enhances their understanding of not just a foreign culture, but also their own.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Desire for and consent to sex on the part of the complainant in a rape trial has historically been inferred from dress, behaviour, intoxication and previous sexual history. The judicial reluctance to accept that a person who has voluntarily intoxicated themselves could be raped has a long history - Kim Stevenson (1999) for example notes that “the comment of Mr. Justice Willes in 1856, doubting that the offence of rape could be committed "upon the person of a woman who had rendered herself perfectly insensible by drink" (The Times, 6 December 1856)”. Arguably however, consent cannot be valid, and further there can be no reasonable belief in consent, if one party is in a condition, self-induced or otherwise, where communication is compromised to this degree. In the UK, the Home Office have recently recognised that intoxication presents a serious problem in establishing whether or not there was consent and have produced a consultation paper (2006) to prompt discussion on how to deal with incapacity through intoxication. They have recommended a statutory definition of capacity, but this does not address the issue, highlighted in R v Gardner [2005] EWCA Crim 1399, of the defendant’s claim to reasonable belief despite incapacity. This paper will examine the construction of consent and capacity to consent in criminal law where the victim is intoxicated, arguing that a more robust approach to the question of capacity to consent should be taken by courts and in legislative definitions of rape where the victim of the assault is intoxicated.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In recent years, charges of hypocrisy have been leveled at international institutions, often as part of a critique of their neo-liberal ideology. In the case of the World Trade Organization, for example, critics have pointed to the hypocrisy of the rich states, who preach the gospel of liberalization while strenuously protecting key economic sectors such as agriculture and textiles. Hypocrisy is often viewed as the prerogative of the powerful states, of the norm-setters in international organizations. Organizational hypocrisy has also been viewed as a way to sustain the legitimacy of an international organization by thinly disguising the disparities of influence based on power with a veneer of sovereign equality and multilateralism. Less attention has been given to the uses hypocrisy might have for the poorer and weaker states in the international system. This paper explores the extent to which poor states have paid lip service to WTO norms which they have no intention of upholding, and asks whether such practices might provide these states with a degree of policy autonomy that, if the norms of the trade regime are taken at face value, they would not otherwise enjoy.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Although public opinion is typically inclined to oppose most increases in taxes, voters frequently choose to raise their own taxes in property tax cap override elections. This phenomenon is studied in Massachusetts towns, where over 1200 overrides were successful during the period 1990-2007. Override outcomes were modeled as a function of economic factors and political factors. The results suggest economics are important. At least in part, overrides are explicable as a market transaction in which the ability to pay and the level of subsidies influence the willingness to support proposed tax increases and attendant increases in services. However, price seems not to matter, as the size of the override request made no difference in its outcome. The importance of political factors is difficult to determine based on the current analysis. While these factors did not perform as expected, this failure may be due to measurement issues. Possibilities for improved measurement strategies are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: As civil conflicts continue to rage around the globe, the UN has increasingly used peace-
keeping to try and quell these devastating wars. Attention focuses on the interveners
to explain success and failure, yet very few scholars have focused on the combatants
themselves. In fact, the literature tends to assume that consent signals a true desire for
peace with the hope that interveners can alleviate cooperation issues inherent to civil
conflict. We argue that consent is not always a signal of peaceful intentions and further
that peacekeepers may be used for strategic purposes, emphasizing that combatant inter-
ests and motivations for giving consent must factor into the discussion of peacekeeping
success and failure. We illustrate the various dynamics with cases from Africa.