Law

This study explores Afro-Caribbean religious traditions as they strive to be accepted and respected as world religions.  The study focuses on three broadly based traditions found throughout the Caribbean, the Americas, and the world: the Òrìşà traditions, Vodun traditions of the Lwa, and Palo Mayombe traditions of the Nkisi.  This qualitative study uses diagnostic framing as its theoretical approach to understanding how the practitioners perceive factors that inhibit world religion status.  Using content analysis, this study categories written statements gathered from 71 respondents to an open-ended set of interrogatories and found that there were five meta-categories that respondents across religions agreed upon that inhibit their religions universal acknowledgement. The data supports the need for further investigations.

The right to self-defence has been held to be one of the fundamental rights of individuals within society since the earliest days of natural law, but there is an underlying assumption within traditional jurisprudence that these encounters happen between two men of equal size, strength, and ability.  This article will argue that this legal fiction is no longer accurate in modern society as the law itself now engages with domestic violence and other instances where the parties involved do not fit into this mould.

This inequality could be overcome by recognising a narrowly tailored defence of necessity which would allow these individuals who would otherwise be disadvantaged to use measures that they believe to be necessary to defend themselves.  While this defence may exclude some individuals and places the rights of the defender above those of the aggressor, the narrow scope of the defence would prevent it from being abused and causing unjust acquittals.  The proposed defence would allow a jury to decide whether or not the defendant acted appropriately in the circumstances and would bring about more consistency within the law when dealing with exceptionally dangerous circumstances.

The modern job market is changing rapidly. Whereas previously employees would often stay at a job for decades, it has now become more and more common for individuals to search for another employer after a few years on the job. While this choice lies in the hands of employees, there is a considerable benefit for employers as well: it has become easier for companies to hire professionals who have already gained experience in the field. This is experience not only in the form of knowledge, but especially in the form of having pre-existing ideas of how to handle situations and make decisions. While the concept of experience is generally seen as beneficial, a concept often viewed as undesirable is inextricably linked to it: bias. Scholars have, for many years, focused on the negative effects of bias, and how to eliminate it from individuals’ decision-making (Kahneman, Slovic, & Tversky, 1982; Kahneman & Tversky, 2000; Croskerry, 2002). 
This essay will look into the matter of whether it is desirable to de-bias organisational decision-makers. Naturalistic Decision-Making and the Recognition-Primed Decision model will be used as a theoretical framework for the analysis. A background for the discussion will be established by defining the concepts of heuristics, bias, and de-biasing. Also, the main views of the heuristics and biases approach, as well as those within Naturalistic Decision-Making, will be discussed. It will be argued that de-biasing of experienced organisational decision-makers should not be pursued, because it undermines a main reason for their employment. Finally, an alternative will be provided as a solution to the possible problems stemming from heuristic use, while avoiding the detrimental effects of de-biasing.

We are all aware of our past, whether it is our turbulent history with colonialism, slavery, and imperialism. Whether it is the period of brutal civil wars and the violent regime changes, whether it the period of social hardship, and recession and whether it was the period of the late 1950s when the majority of African states gained their independence. So you see, why our past, despite terrible but equally significant to us understanding our identity—for which has been in crisis since political independence in the African Continent.  In this essay, I seek to trace our past, work my way to the present, and shed a positive light on our future by using the African identity question and its relations with the West as a focal point of reference.

It is fair to say that our society has many difficult problems. It is also fair to say that citizens and governments around the world are still doing a lousy job in finding practical and inclusive solutions for these problems. Today, we live in a world of labels that are meant to simplify our way of life and unite us. Instead, these labels are dividing us into inculcated echo chambers. In all reality, this state of affairs is unhealthy for our humanity and, in some way, sapping our society's creativity. This short paper will examine the dangers of sexism and offers a feasible genderless policy to eradicate this malaise in our society.