Bibliographic Research Session at USFSP

We wish to thank librarian extraordinaire Jim Schnur for the outstanding Bibliographic Research session prepared for the USFSP students.

This was also my opportunity to review the assignment handout in greater detail for the USFSP students.

We are very much looking forward to our first joint session, via skype videoconference.

Jim Schnur provides students at USFSP with tips and tricks to conduct effective legal research

After the research tips from Jim Schnur, Dr. McLauchlan further explained the research project to the class. 

Our courses: State and Religion at SNSPA and Constitutional Law II: Civil Rights & Civil Liberties at USFSP

State and Religion 

Professor Gabriel Andreescu

Religion has been a constant presence in the history of humanity, but the evolution of Western democracies has limited the role of religious actors within Western society. The process of secularization has been a companion of the democratic transformation, and both have resulted in the emancipation of women, and increased equality and freedom. Nowadays, religion proves to be again a major factor in the national and international arena. How can we analyze its place in our liberal democracies? Our “State and Religion” course takes a human rights approach. As far as international human rights are concerned, “religious beliefs present competing universalist ideologies which, by posing alternative approaches, do indeed threaten the universalism of the idea of human rights. Religious belief must therefore be made subordinate to the human rights framework” (Evans, M.D., “Human Rights, Religious Liberty and the Universality Debate”).

We will systematically analyze the jurisprudence of the European Court for Human Rights regarding the freedom of thought, conscience and religion. By examining the cases before the Strasbourg Court, we will discuss the place of religion in public life, and the issues of children and religion, women and religion, freedom of religion and institutional settings, work without discrimination and religion, and freedoms and rights within Religious organizations. We are interested mainly in those manifestations of a pacifist belief, convictions defined as “those ideas based on human knowledge and reasoning concerning the world, life society … which a person adopts and professes according to the dictates of his or her conscience. These ideas can more briefly be characterized as a person’s outlook on life including, in particular, a concept of human behavior in society” (Arrowsmith v United Kingdom (1981).

After discussing the arguments in the ECtHR jurisprudence, we will start a mapping exercise of State-Religion relations in all 47 countries of the Council of Europe, plus the US. We will focus on religious symbols within state institutions; the funding of religious organizations; religious education; religious services in the army, prisons, and hospitals. Finally, we will focus on religious discrimination and repression in Europe and North America, and take a look at religion in the world today.

                                                                                                         

Through individual and team research, students will obtain a working knowledge of the norms and the realities of State-Religion relations in the European and American democracies of today.

Skills. Your active participation in this course will teach you how to:

·      Do advanced search with HUDOC

·      Elaborate arguments about the meaning of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion

·      Design policies in the field of State-Religion relations in a specific national context

·      Place State-Religion relations in Romania in the European context, and propose a better status quo

·      Develop know-how for participating as specialists and/or activists in the national debate on the discrimination of religious or non-religious actors

·      Enrich your knowledge of democratic values

Constitutional Law II: Civil Rights & Civil Liberties

 Dr. Judithanne McLauchlan

Thomas Paine declared that a constitution is “to liberty what a grammar is to language.” And, indeed, in the United States, the source of our civil liberties is the Constitution, especially its first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights. 

                                                                                                         

In this course, we will study the constitutional basis for civil liberties as well as the role of the Supreme Court in enforcing those constitutionally protected rights.  We will immerse ourselves in the case law surrounding the freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights – the freedom of and from religion, the freedom of speech and of the press, the freedom of association, the freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, the guarantee against self-accusation, the right to counsel and other criminal procedure guarantees, the guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment and the right of privacy – as well as the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of the equal protection of the laws. We will look at race discrimination in education, affirmative action and reverse discrimination, as well as non-racial classification and the equal protection of the laws.

In addition to teaching the student the substantive content described above, the course will develop in the student a variety of skills that will benefit him/her throughout life: the ability to read analytically, to think rationally, to reason logically, to speak persuasively, and to write clearly and concisely.

Our Project: Religious Freedom in the U.S. and in Europe -- USFSP - SNSPA

About our research project: Religious Freedom in the U.S. and in Europe

This group research project gave students from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg (“USF” or “USFSP”) and the National School of Political Science and Public Administration of Romania (“SPSNA”) an opportunity to work together on research projects regarding the freedom of religion.

This comparative legal research project was designed to introduce students to legal research and writing, and to better understanding of the ECJ and the ECtHR in comparison to the SCOTUS.

Students utilized primary source material as well as secondary sources in relevant scholarly literature during their research. A thank you to reference librarian Jim Schnur at Poynter Library for assisting students with learning how to use Lexis/Nexis, Westlaw, JSTOR, and the other resources available to students at USF.

Students were given the opportunity to work independently and as part of an international group – linking students from the SPSNA in Bucharest with students in St. Petersburg, FL studying at USFSP.  Students met “virtually,” via skype videoconference (and also facebook group and email) and were able to share documents in a Dropbox folder. Working together, students were able to share information about religious freedom, the courts, and share/translate sources to aid each other in their research endeavors.

This joint project created a “virtual classroom” linking the students and professors from USF in St. Petersburg and SPSNA in Bucharest.

The main focus of the research was on freedom of religion, divided into the following six topics:

1. The place of religion in the public life

2. Children and religion

3. Women and religion

4. Freedom of religion and restricted/ institutional settings

5. Work without discrimination and religion

6. Freedoms and rights within Religious organizations

Our research partner: Prof. Gabriel Andreescu and his graduate class at the SNSPA in Bucharest

Professor Gabriel Andreescu

Gabriel Andreescu is Professor with the Department of Political Science at the National School for Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA) in Bucharest, and an active member of several Romanian human rights organizations. He is also a journalist, writing and lecturing on topics such as multiculturalism, national minorities, religious freedom and secularism, and the ethics and politics of memory. He is editor of the Romanian-language New Journal of Human Rights.

Biography

Andreescu obtained a BA in Physics from the University of Bucharest. Between 1983 -1987, Andreescu dispatched clandestine information on human rights abuses in Romania to Radio Free Europe and wrote several anti-communist articles and studies. He was arrested for his anti-communist activities in December 1987 and indicted for treason (but freed in January 1988). After the anti-Communist revolution Andreescu became a member of the first post-Communist governmental body (he soon resigned). He founded and headed organizations developing strategies and projects in support of human and minority rights. He was a member of the scientific boards of other organizations.


Since 1990, Andreescu abandoned his career as a physicist to continue his activism for human and minority rights, democracy, and the rule of law. His work as a human rights activist, political analyst, journalist, and writer blended with academic teaching and research. In 2003, he obtained a PhD in Political Sciences, and recently, the habilitation doctorate. In recognition of his human rights activism and contribution to the development of Romanian civil society, Andreescu received several awards from Romanian or international  institutions and organizations: He published more than 1000 articles, 100 studies, 26 books, and contributed to several collective volumes. Some of his works were translated into English, Italian, German and Hungarian.

And a little about me, Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan:

Professor Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan

Dr. Scourfield McLauchlan is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Founding Director of the Center for Civic Engagement at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, where she teaches courses in American Government and Public Law. 

McLauchlan was awarded the American Political Science Association and Pi Sigma Alpha's Certificate for Outstanding Teaching in Political Science, USF's Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, the USF Outstanding Faculty Award, and was named one of the Top 25 Women Professors in Florida. She has published widely in the scholarship of teaching and learning (focused on the integration of civic engagement in the curriculum), and she has presented those findings at regional, national and international conferences. 

Her book Congressional Participation as Amicus Curiae before the U.S. Supreme Court explores how Members of Congress attempt to influence Supreme Court decision-making in specific cases. 

In addition to her scholarly activities, Professor McLauchlan has extensive experience in American government and politics. McLauchlan worked at the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the White House. A veteran of several presidential campaigns, she has managed statewide operations across the US, from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon. In 2014 she was a candidate for Florida Senate District 22.

McLauchlan was a Fulbright Scholar to Moldova in 2010, and she was awarded a returning Fulbright to Moldova Summer 2012. Her current research examines the impact of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights on legal reform in Moldova.  McLauchlan was awarded a Diploma from the Government of the Republic of Moldova and the medal of ULIM in recognition of fruitful international research collaboration.