The Motion for Round 3

Hey, y'all.

The theme for today's motion is the environment.

One of the most pressing issues confronting humanity today is the spectre of climate change. The rapid industrialisation of the world in the past 300 years has had an adverse impact on the environment and ecosystems around the world. Many in the scientific community consider the 21st Century to be the tipping point for the climate change phenomenon. If we continue polluting at this rate, the world will become an extremely hostile place for humans to live, with rising temperatures and mass industrialisation causing desertification of forest areas and melting of icecaps and glaciers. This will further result in mass flooding in low lying areas and may even submerge several small island nations in their entirety.

While governments have been slow to accept climate change, it seems as if the tide has finally turned, with the Lima and Paris Accords due to be ratified by the international community in the coming 2 years. However, as always, international co-operation on climate change is hampered by the mounting need for economic development. This involves the claim made by developing countries in stating that their obligations towards the environment are different from those of developed countries due to varying degrees of industrial development.

While the international community struggles to come to terms with this phenomenon, it is widely accepted that climate change is an undeniable reality that every country must come to terms with, in their policy.

Keeping this in mind, the motion for today is: 

This House believes that developing countries should prioritise the need to combat climate change over considerations of economic development

The First Motion of the Year

Customarily, the NLS Debate Junior has always featured 2 prepared motions in the preliminary rounds of the competition. A prepared motion is a motion which is disclosed beforehand. This allows teams to read up on the key concepts involved in the motion and allows, we believe, for a better debate. Debate is all about articulation of thought and a solid grasp on the core principles of a motion and relevant real world examples is a vital part of improved speaking. We firmly believe in the notion that deep arguments, with principles backed up by examples, are the best way to win debates and project thought.

The following is the motion for the first round. You will find a small context paragraph introducing the motion, followed by a few links that will help you get started in delving into the substance of the debate:

Context:   Crime is one of the fundamental problems that society finds itself deeply concerned with. People are denied from living their lives normally when there is a presence of crime around them. 

  One of the primary roles of governments is maintenance of law and order. A critical facet of maintaining law and order is punishment of criminals for offences committed. The law must propose sanctions for criminal actions in order for the sanctions to influence behaviour (if I am not going to be punished for a crime, there is a greater incentive for me to commit the crime when motivated). 

Punishment is a multi-faceted concept with multiple but concurrent purposes of being a deterrent for future crime, a preventive measure from future crime, retribution for a crime committed and a process that helps rehabilitate the criminal (ensuring  they do not commit the crime again and become law-abiding members of society . The most commonly accepted form of punishment for crimes in the world today is incarceration, locking the criminal up in a cell for a specified duration (duration dependent on the crime committed). You might know this term better as imprisonment. 

However it is unclear whether prison is effective as a punishment measure. Empirical and anecdotal evidence both suggest that prison has adverse impact on a prisoner’s life, putting them through a deprivation of liberty that renders them unproductive and more likely to return to a life of crime. It puts great financial and emotional pressure on the family of the criminal as well, essentially harming innocent individuals. The years spent in prison represent a huge opportunity cost for the prisoner and society, which may have been better off with a rehabilitated convict who was free and contributing to society rather than an individual more prone to crime.

Ouch.

An alternative to imprisonment is corporal punishment, or infliction of physical harm on the convict. Many studies have shown corporal punishment as having the ability to reduce the chance of a person behaving in a certain manner, reinforcing the potential deterrent effects of such a form of punishment. Proponents of corporal punishment often also argue that it allows an effective punishment to be meted out while also giving removing the harmful effects that time spent in incarceration inflicts on an individual and their innocent family members.

 Can corporal punishment be an effective replacement for jail terms? Or does it violate too many norms of basic human decency and treatment that we have come to accept as desirable for a society?

The government accepts the claims of proponents of corporal punishment and has proposed the motion:

This House Would allow prisoners to choose corporal punishment in lieu of part or all of their sentence

Here are some links to help you get started:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/04/crime_and_punishment

http://chronicle.com/article/In-Defense-of-Flogging/127208/

http://www.albany.edu/~grn92/jp13.html (long, but well worth the full read)

Looking forward to hosting you!

Regards,

The Organizing Committee of the 4th NLS Debate-Junior

The IV NLS Debate - Junior: Some Announcements!

Hi,

After a long hiatus, we're excited to be back up with this blog. We hope you're just as excited to see us back! 

Some announcements:

Schedule and Team Allocations: Find the schedule for the tournament here. The team allocations for the event can be found here.

Tournament Schedule: Do note that the workshop on Day 0 is entirely optional, as it will cover the basics of parliamentary debating. Kindly help us adhere to the schedule by ensuring that your contingent reaches the venue on time.

Dress Code: As with any inter-school competition, we would prefer it if your students attend the event in school uniforms.

Address: Our address is Gate 1, National Law School of India University, Jnanbharathi Road, Near Nagarbhavi Circle, Nagarbhavi, Bangalore - 560072.

Transport: If you are unable to arrange for transport, we request you to let us know so that we may provide a pick-up for you in the city. The college bus is of a limited capacity, so we request you to let us know at the earliest.

Stationery:  We request you to carry your own stationery to the event.

Debate Motions: Finally, the motions for the debate will be sent across in the very next post. 

Additional Workshops: We also conduct in-depth training workshops for schools around the city. Debaters who have won international debate tournaments interact with students and train them in every aspect of parliamentary debate and logical argumentation. These are separately chargeable, and will be conducted at your convenience if you desire to opt for them. Do let us know if you would like to have workshops conducted at your institution.

We look forward to seeing you here!

Cheers,

The Organizing Committee, 4th NLS Debate - Junior