Suggested Topics For Term Papers

Following are topics that could make successful term papers for our course. I should emphasize that the choice of a paper topic and research is up to you, but these are ones that I know from experience with the course that can lead to success. I will be happy to assist with sources, and will be happy read drafts and make comments if they are submitted not later than two weeks before the due date.

I should remind you of the policies about downloading materials for use and about the original nature of your work. It must be your work, not in collaboration with others, other than myself. You must be careful to annotate and properly attribute sources to the material that is not exclusively your own. You must follow an accepted manual of style, especially single spacing and indenting long quotes. Quotes longer than a brief paragraph should be avoided. They can be footnoted, allowing more space for your original work.

Topics:

Capital Punishment, especially treating issues of executing juveniles, retarded persons; dealing with moratoria imposed by states in order to examine the basic fairness of process used to convict people of capital crimes.

Punishment in general. This is a topic that constantly needs reexamination. Our prisons hold more than 2 million people, more than any other country in the world. Why? Are the purposes of imprisonment being served? Exactly what are and what ought to be those purposes?

Healthcare as a matter of distributive justice. What are the infirmities of our system? How could they be improved? What are the main issues to be addressed? Method of delivery? Cost overall? Costs covered by insurance? Cost of insruance generally? Who gets covered and who not? Why not? What differences might be made by the proposals endorsed by the re-elected President Bush, especially now that he has a Republican Congress to be more favorably disposed to his programs?

Welfare “Reform”. What has the 1996 Personal Responsibility Act accomplished? Are the purposes of reform – primarily to end “dependence” being served? What should states be doing to improve the justice resulting from these reforms? Are “faith based” community groups appropriate to alleviate the burdens of reform? Are there constitutional issues involved here? What are they and how should they be resolved?

National Security and the Patriot Act of 2001 and the proposed amendments – the so-called Patriot Act II: Are they resulting in a Big Brother Society? Are our basic liberties being unfairly infringed? Is our nation safer, and does that factor justify the curtailment of freedoms that Americans have taken for granted as part of their social contract infringed? Recent revelations about "rendition" and torture by U.S. agents and allies. Constitutionality of such actions. Immigration Policy and how related to National Security and the "war" on terror. View the one hour video produced by MoveOn.org called “Unconstitutional” for information and ideas about how legal immigrants are being abused by roundups and designations as “enemy combatants” among other things. Think about illegal wiretaps, which the President acknowledges the government is using, seemingly not concerned about their legality.

What is the future of affirmative action as a means of improving distributive justice to disadvantaged portions of our population? Is the recently proposed change in Immigration procedures by President Bush a form of affirmative action or is it an immigration control mechanism in disguise? Is it consistent with American ideas of welcoming immigrants?

What should abortion policy be? Does the present state of Supreme Court Jurisprudence on the subject meet our expectations of free choice and protection of the rights of innocents who cannot fend for themselves? How should these conflicts be resolved? How can government interference in the choices made by a patient in private consultation with a licensed physician be justified in the first place?

Should the United States be engaged in “exporting” democracy and “nation building”? If this policy is implemented through the use of force of arms, what does justice require to prevent the U.S. from being seen as a naked aggressor when it perceives its interests to be at stake? What is the impact of such policies on our resources for the U.S. homeland and its social problems? To the extent the export of democracy results in the imposition of political systems that certain minorities in the affected populations would reject, is this imperialism? Should we reject it on those grounds? Is terrorism encouraged or deterred by such practices on the part of the U.S.? If solutions to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict are a pre-requisite to stability in the entire region, can the U.S. act as an “honest broker” in seeking a solution, or does it have an irreconcilable conflict of interest because of its support of Israel as a matter of U.S. foreign policy?

If you believe our system is “broken” would you favor a constitutional convention to reform and revise our existing one? If so, how would you imagine an ideal political society in the U.S., better able to deliver distributive justice as Rawls imagines it and to afford criminal justice defendants better access to legal defense and corrective measures? Would we have to revise our ideas of social contract?