Monday, March 03, 2008

The Limits of Justice

By Nathan Bruschi, Staff Columnist

Dartmouth students fear their justice system — and with good reason. Compared to the Federal justice system, our Committee on Standards operates with severely restricted rights. Defendants lack the ability to directly question their accusers and only the letter of the law is considered in rendering a verdict. Under the “preponderance” or “51 percent” proof burden that COS currently employs — when the charge of the accuser is balanced on the scales of justice by the denial of the accused — a single grain of sand separates a verdict of guilt from innocence. More »

Literary Renaissance

By Sam Buntz, Contributing Columnist

In an article from the Dec. 24 issue of The New Yorker, “The Twilight of the Books,” Caleb Crain suggests that electronic media are swiftly replacing the written word as the primary means of communicating stories and ideas. In doing so, they are transforming the Western literary tradition into a pre-literate oral tradition in which stories are communicated by sound and picture rather than through text. This is not only changing the culture, says Crain, but also our patterns of cognition. More »