Senate Report Research Articles

Introductory Essay | Civic Engagement in an Era of Divisive Politics and Civil Unrest

On January 6, 2021, a joint session of the U.S. Congress met to certify the electoral votes from the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Some members of the House and Senate challenged the votes from several states. As the two chambers convened separately to consider the first of these challenges, an unruly mob stormed the Capitol, overwhelmed police, broke into offices, destroyed property, and threatened the lives of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence. The mob conducted this action in support of President Donald J. Trump, who repeatedly and erroneously claimed that there had been widespread election fraud. One week later, the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump for inciting an insurrection. A bipartisan Senate report found that at least seven people had lost their lives in connection with the insurrection, including at least four police officers who died by suicide in the months after they responded to the attack.

Social Media Disinformation Bots May Harm Psychiatry

Social Media Disinformation Bots May Harm Psychiatry

Reforming Laïcité or Reforming Islam?

Abstract This paper focuses on management of Islam by the French State since the state of emergency declared in 2015. We analyze the legal actions of the State using a law-in-context approach and theorize secularism as the State’s management of religion. We focus on the Senate Report (2016) concerning Muslim worship, the legal changes wrought by the state of emergency, and the institutions formed to govern Islam and secularism. We examine whether there has been a change in the French State’s approach to Muslim worship. Rather than remaining neutral, the French State has become even more actively involved in the field of religion by adopting a reformist attitude intended to transform not the principles of laïcité but the Muslims in France. In this period, the State has taken concrete steps and built institutions both to support the formation of a secularized French Islam and to govern the boundaries of laïcité.

Forgotten first responders: Australian surf lifesavers and lifeguards.

First responders often face traumatic and emotionally-taxing incidents in their role. Understanding their mental health and coping capacity is important for wellbeing and continued service delivery. Surf lifesavers and lifeguards are an under researched yet a vital part of the first responder workforce. The recent Senate Report on first responders explored mental health in the leading emergency services personnel in Australia and found a high incidence of mental health difficulties in those who worked or volunteered as emergency responders. However, a significant literature gap exists regarding mental health of surf lifesavers and lifeguards in both the international and Australian context. Here we propose a strategy to address this gap, at the individual, organisational and community level.

English

Senate Report recorded last 2013 show that tropical storms and floods are the principal disasters with 102 and 72 occurrences, respectively. Distinctly, flood is still one of the biggest problems of the country. Statistics shows that 31.9% of the natural disasters, which occur in the Philippines in the years 1990-2014, are attributed to flood related episodes with a mortality rate of 5.9%. The researchers seek to approach non-structural measures to mitigate flooding problems of the country, specifically creating flood warning systems and to conduct several experiments testing the effectivity and efficiency of the flood warning system. This paper also aims to confront the century long problem of flooding and address the lack of real time flood warning system, thus reducing the loss of lives and damage to property; and to determine the effectiveness of the design of the river warning system in giving real time river water level updates. Results show that it works better if in contact with river waters than tap water. The device is audible in all distances at average ambient sound level of 50 to 60 decibels. Hence, the device is efficient in giving off sound alarms when deployed in different river systems. Key words: River water level sensor, river flood warning system, river flood alarm system.  

Attempts to Create a Military Court for the Australian Defence Force

The 2005 Senate Report recommended the establishment of a permanent Chapter III court with jurisdiction to deal with serious military service offences. The Liberal Government responded to the recommendations by refusing to establish a permanent Chapter III court. Instead it established the ‘Australian Military Court’ in reliance on the defence power in s 51(vi) of the Constitution. The legality of the establishment of this ‘court’ was later successfully challenged in the High Court of Australia in Lane v Morrison on the grounds it was a breach of Chapter III of the Constitution. In Lane, the High Court unanimously upheld the challenge and the Australian Military Court ceased to exist. The Government then urgently introduced interim remedial legislation to preserve the judgments of the Australian Military Court and reintroduced the military disciplinary structure which had previously existed under the DFDA. In 2010, and again after its re-election in 2012, the Government introduced bills into the Parliament to establish a permanent Chapter III ‘Military Court of Australia’. However, due to the proroguing of Parliament in 2013, and the election of a new Government, thereafter no steps were taken to consider such a bill. Currently, ADF disciplinary matters are dealt with under the old DFDA procedures, reintroduced as interim remedial legislation, which appears to have now become a permanent regime by default in failing to consider any alternative regime.

The 2005 Senate Report Into the ADF Disciplinary System

This chapter analyses the pivotal report of the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, entitled “The effectiveness of Australia's military justice system” June 2005 (2005 Senate Report) which provided a scathing review of the hesitancy and refusal of the ADF to embrace a civilianisation of the ADF disciplinary system. This chapter examines the investigation by the Senate Committee which found there were significant endemic failures in the military justice system which were endemic to the system and included flawed investigations and prosecution decisions, together with unreasonable denials of access to legal advice to defence members. It was to also find that the failure to establish a Director of Military Prosecutions had contributed to an unsatisfactory military disciplinary system. After a review of the military justice system, the Senate Committee, concluded it was inherently unfair to defence members and recommended the establishment of a permanent Chapter III military court to ensure independence and impartiality from the chain of command.

Canadian Senate Report on Obesity: Focusing on Individual Behaviours versus Social Determinants of Health May Promote Weight Stigma.

Very little attention has been given to unintended consequences of government reporting on obesity. This paper argues that the 2016 Senate report, “Obesity in Canada: A Whole-Of-Society Approach,” exemplifies the systemic public health issue of weight stigma. The purpose of this viewpoint is to critique the approach taken in the Report, by illustrating that it (1) takes a weight-centric approach to health, (2) does not acknowledge important limitations of the definition and measurement of obesity, (3) reifies obesity as a categorical phenomenon that must be prevented, and (4) uses aggressive framing and disrespectful terminology. The Report perpetuates a focus on the individual, thereby failing to recognize the role that governments can play in reducing weight stigma and addressing social determinants of health. If steps are taken to avoid propagating weight stigma, future reports could more constructively address health promotion, equity, and social determinants of health in their policies.

The landscape of Australian gifted education research: 1992–2013

ABSTRACTThis study seeks to investigate the body of literature generated in the Australasian Journal of Gifted Education from the establishment of the journal in 1992 until 2013, focusing on the research field in order to understand its research foci, the rigor of research generated, and how events in the Australian context can influence the type of research undertaken. This study was guided by four research questions (1) to what extent is research published in AJGE empirical?; (2) what proportions of the articles are quantitative, qualitative, or non-empirical?; (3) how does the empirical rigor compare over time?; and (4) to what extent has the 2001 Australian Senate Inquiry into the Education of Gifted Children influenced the research foci? A database of AJGE articles was constructed, and an adapted version of the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used to classify empirical studies. Results indicated that qualitative and quantitative research was equally undertaken; however, case studies and quantitative descriptive analysis were favored over other types of approaches. Empirical rigor varied over time, and few recommendations from the 2001Australian Senate Report were reflected in the research undertaken. There are a number of contextual explanations for the irregular presentation and lack of robustness in the quality of research, which are explored in this article.

Monopoly and public health in the medication market: The case of sofosbuvir

Pharmaceutical industries explain high price of medications with high cost of R&D. This paper investigates whether this statement is justified in the case of sofosbuvir, which was commercialized at a particularly high price. With sofosbuvir, Gilead Sciences Inc. had for several months a monopoly on the interferon-free treatment of HCV infected people. Information, usually not publicly disclosed, was derived from a report on a US Senate enquiry on the price of a course of therapy of sofosbuvir. Other sources were the Gilead website and other webpages. Revenue data were available in the Senate Report and in the Gilead financial report to SEC. R&D cost was derived again from the Senate Report, from the annual reports in the Gilead website and from literature. Gilead appeared to be rather efficient in the R&D process, showing cost and failure rate much better than those reported in the literature. Revenue was orders of magnitude larger than production and R&D costs. The premium granted to Gilead by monopoly is estimated. Pressure from patients on payor and the role of the monopoly in generating such a large amount of revenue are discussed. An ideal business plan on sofosbuvir commercialization is then designed, based on the number of patients in the USA and EU, to show the hypothetic burden on health organizations without the rent granted by the monopoly.

Carbapenemase-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae and Duodenoscopes: an Unholy Alliance

The authors of this article come from different sectors of the health care industry. One (C.S.B.) is a clinical gastroenterology nurse; the other two (A.S.W. and P.H.V.) work in the microbiology laboratory. We have collaborated on this article so that each of our constituencies would be able to view the issue from an alternative perspective, in addition to appreciating the salient points important to each of them. The background information is based upon a 2016 U.S. Senate report. This is a story that has grabbed worldwide attention and still has no end in sight. It is the story of carbapenemase-resistant Enterobacteriaceae and duodenoscopes.

The Plight of Modern Markets: How Universal Banking Undermines Capital Markets

This paper explains the process of competitive deregulation that led both the US and the UK to embrace universal banking and to abandon the functional separation of financial activities that had long characterized their financial systems. The paper argues that some of the consequences of favouring universal banking over functional separation that were understood in the 1930s were rarely voiced in years preceding deregulation. The principal argument offered in favour of separation was that the commercial banking system, which is supported by a government ‘safety net’, needs to be protected from the risks inherent in investment banking. By contrast, this paper argues that functional separation played an important role in protecting capital markets from the banking system.Universal banking is associated historically with thinly traded stock markets, and this paper argues that universal banking promotes the formation of a small group of large dealer‐banks which dominate the financial system and whose interests are best served by trading on nonpublic over‐the‐counter (OTC) markets. The paper finds that just such a group played a key role in the growing importance of such OTC markets in the US over the past few decades.The paper then argues that the benefits of the greater liquidity that large universal banks can provide to capital markets are offset by the dangers they create when they err. Because mistakes at these large banks are often allowed to grow in size to match the size of the banks, they distort prices on financial markets and sometimes create systemic risk. Two recent examples are given: J.P. Morgan Chase Bank's ‘London whale’ fiasco and UBS, Merrill Lynch and Citibank's exposures to subprime mortgages.Finally, the paper explains that the Senate Report on the Glass–Steagall Act indicates that the Act was designed in part to limit commercial bank participation in the margin loan market, as this activity makes possible a feedback loop between increases in the money supply and increases in asset prices, which in turn can generate an asset price bubble in capital markets. The recent crisis has led modern researchers to rediscover the relationship between margin lending, feedback loops, and asset price bubbles that was well understood by at least some legislators in the 1930s. The paper argues that the recent crisis demonstrates that modern banking regulation needs to be informed by an understanding of the consequences that may arise when a financial system is dominated by universal banks.

The anti-torture norm and cooperation in the CIA black site programme

Does the interstate cooperation in the CIA rendition programme imply the anti-torture norm was severely degraded in the war on terror? Most scholarship currently suggests yes, pointing to the widespread cooperation of dozens of states, including many liberal democracies, in a programme designed to facilitate torture. This article argues that this conclusion is driven primarily by a focus on outcome, that states cooperated, and ignores the process through which cooperation happened. Using the data provided in the Senate report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation programme, this article demonstrates that studying the process of cooperation instead of merely the outcome allows us to see that the anti-torture norm had continuous causal effects that are currently unrecognised in the literature. This finding not only provides a counterpoint to much of the literature on the United States rendition programme that focusses on the negative human rights outcomes, but also builds on research which has argued that fundamental international human rights norms were not as damaged by American conduct in the war on terror as many scholars and activists had initially feared.

The London Whale Scandal Under New Scrutiny - A Philosophical Analysis of the Idea of Retro-Causality

In this article, we focus on the dual philosophical and discursive dimension of the London Whale scandal, the nickname given to Bruno Iksil, the French trader employed by the London subsidiary of J.P Morgan Chase in 2012. We aim at specifying the conceptual articulation that underlies the discourse on the London Whale scandal, between the intentions, the actions and the temporality wherein the events have been inserted. We first elaborate upon the 1963 article by Donald Davidson titled 'actions, reasons and causes' in the Journal of Philosophy. We then show the limitations of the rationalization of actions as causal deterministic explanation in light of a methodical review of the US Senate Report Actors and of the Report of JPMorgan Chase & Co. Management Task Force. We put forward the idea that the London Whale scandal was in fact characterized by a flow of awareness reminiscent of the Bergsonian concept of duration. Finally, the conceptual articulation between intentions, actions and causes is performed by mobilizing the quantum theory of money developed by Bernard Schmitt, and redefining the events of the scandal as a quantum of time.

Halal Certification and Islamophobia

In recent years, there has been growing concern regarding halal certification, which has resulted in targeted campaigns against halal food and products. On 13 May 2015, the Australian Senate commissioned a six month parliamentary inquiry into food certification processes in Australia, but given focus on the halal certification process. A central component of the investigation involved seeking public submissions, with 1,492 received in total. The Senate released a report of its findings on 1 December 2015. All public submissions and the Senate report are analysed in this paper. This article first argues there is an emerging link between targeted campaigns against halal certified products and related processes, and broader Islamophobic campaigns against Muslims living in Australia; demonstrating how Islamophobic discourse takes shape. Second, while the context may differ, the Islamophobic narrative remains effectively the same even as it pertains to halal certified foods. Finally, the article will demonstrate that a small segment of the Australian public used the commissioned Inquiry into the Third Party Certification of Food as an opportunity to whip up antiMuslim sentiment within the wider Australian community.

Killing and the Wrongness of Torture

How can just warriors prohibit torture absolutely while still allowing that killing can be just? The best arguments for torture’s wrongness and impermissibility seem to suggest that killing, too, is always wrong. If torture is wrong because it attacks imago Dei , why isn’t killing wrong too, for killing seems at least as much an attack as torture? This question, which seems to force a choice between pacifism or countenancing “just torture” alongside just war killing, has scarcely been asked in Christian ethics. Nigel Biggar and Darrel Cole are among the only Christian ethicists even to consider this question. They leverage these issues to argue for torture’s permissibility. Against such views, this essay shows why torture but not killing is always wrong, what so distinguishes torture from just war killing that it but not killing should be categorically prohibited. I elucidate three features that distinguish torture from just war killing and establish torture as always wrong: its intention and proximate end, its violating as opposed to destructive character, and its context of domination. I conclude by showing how these features are illustrated and exemplified by practices documented in the 2014 US Senate report on torture.

Noble Landownership in 18th-Century Russia: Revisiting the Economic and Sociopolitical Consequences of Partible Inheritance

Noble Landownership in 18th-Century RussiaRevisiting the Economic and Sociopolitical Consequences of Partible Inheritance Sergey Chernikov (bio) Translated by Aleksei Tereshchenko The idea that partible inheritance had a negative influence on the economic well-being of noble families is well known; it was set out in the famous Law of Single Inheritance published by Peter the Great in 1714.1 Most historians believe that after a few generations, the absence of primogeniture led to a catastrophic reduction in the size of landed property belonging to the descendants of noblemen, even to their complete ruin.2 Several works demonstrate that the practice of partible inheritance undermined the independence of landowners, making the nobles dependent on the state and their opposition to the crown impossible.3 Scholars who have adopted [End Page 277] a more moderate point of view have pointed out that the negative effects of such fragmentation of landed property were to a large extent offset by the acquisition of new lands through inheritance, purchase, or the receipt of dowries.4 A key strand of the discussion is the Law of Single Inheritance itself. Many still adhere to the popular opinion—based on a Senate report of 9 December 1730—that the law was often infringed. M. D. Rabinovich and G. V. Kalashnikov, however, analyzed the wealth of Russian army officers between 1720 and 1745 and found that the law was implemented with regard to the inheritance of real estate.5 I have also calculated how much fragmentation of landed estates took place in the first half of the 18th century.6 At the same time, many questions have not received sufficient attention. For instance, how did the fragmentation of landed property affect agricultural productivity? Were five small estates, each with 20 serf “souls,” the economic equivalent of a large, unfragmented hereditary estate with 100 souls? Is there a connection between the size (population) of a noble estate, the labor resources of a peasant family, the allocation of serfs’ obligations, and the amount of unpaid taxes? The first part of my article addresses these questions. It is based on the results of household censuses from the early 1730s conducted in the St. Petersburg region (Ingermanland guberniia) and in the South, in the fertile black-soil lands of Sloboda Ukraine. Never before have revision documents and tax collectors’ data been used to study the economic and social impact of the fragmentation of noble estates. My calculations show that large estates were economically more efficient, and that the only way to keep the fragmented estates profitable was to intensify the exploitation of peasants and to bring new lands under cultivation. These results provide the basis for the second part of my work. The analysis of interrelationships among models of inheritance, the profitability of noble estates, and peasant labor resources allows me to show why the introduction of single inheritance and the elimination of the old model of service (pomest’e) [End Page 278] land tenure were united to create the Law of Single Inheritance. Until now, these key decisions by Peter the Great have been studied separately. As I show, the distribution of conditional service lands (pomestnye razdachi) in the 16th and 17th centuries was in essence a compensatory mechanism that diminished the negative effects of the fragmentation of hereditary estates (votchiny). As a result, the 1714 Law of Single Inheritance can be interpreted as an attempt by Peter to save the profitability of noble estates in a situation where land resources were becoming scarce. The second part of the article also deals with the economic and sociopolitical impact of the abrogation of the Law of Single Inheritance through an analysis of the new situation confronted by nobles after 1731, when they were able to resume the practice of partible inheritance. On the one hand, the state no longer helped nobles by assigning large-scale service land grants. The growing dependence of lower-income gentry (the majority of nobles) on state salaries appears to be one of the main reasons that led the authorities to stop compelling nobles to serve.7 On the other hand, the desire of nobles to keep their fragmented estates profitable led them to demand more from...

A Review of the U.S. Senate Report on the Amaranth Debacle

On June 25th, 2007, the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report on the Amaranth debacle, entitled, “Excessive Speculation in the Natural Gas Market.” The report was released in conjunction with the subcommittee’s public hearing on the same date. The 135-page report (and its further 345 pages of appendices) provides a wealth of detail on the largest hedge-fund debacle to have thus far occurred. In carrying out their forensic analysis, the Senate subcommittee examined several million individual trades. The subcommittee obtained this information by subpoenaing records from the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Amaranth, and other traders.The report basically covers two areas: (1) It provides factual detail on how massive Amaranth’s natural-gas positions were; and (2) It discusses how inadequate the U.S. regulatory approach currently is in the face of large-scale energy trading. This review will mainly summarize what the report covered, and then will briefly touch upon important areas that the report omitted.

Senate report pinpoints problems with institutions' handling of sexual assaults

“Sexual Violence on Campus: How Too Many Institutions of Higher Education Are Failing to Protect Students,” is the newest assessment by federal legislators of how colleges and universities address reports of sexual violence. The report, which is based on a survey of 440 four‐year institutions across the country, was prepared by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Financial & Contracting Oversight at the request of U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri.

Information ShiftBig Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, And Think By Mayer-Schonberger Viktor Cukier Kenneth New York (NY) : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt , 2013 , 242 pp., $27.00

Information ShiftBig Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, And Think By Mayer-Schonberger Viktor Cukier Kenneth New York (NY) : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt , 2013 , 242 pp., $27.00