Honorable Judge
Dr. Dorothy Nelson
Presentations by Dr. Dorothy Nelson
Dorothy Nelson is a federal judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. “Peaceful Conflict Resolution, an Exciting Development" is the title of her talk. Speaks first of the world’s worst industrial accident in Bopal, India and how the people of the world are hungering for “a peaceful non-adversarial way, if you will, to resolve conflict.” In India it takes 20 years to get to court in a civil lawsuit. She goes on to discuss consultation and its importance in resolving issues private and public.
This recording opens with the reading of a letter of greeting from the Mayor of Irvine, California addressed to the attendees of the ABS Conference. The official title of this year’s conference is “Full Partnership an International Conference on the Equality of Women and Men.” Judge Dorothy Nelson, Chair of the NSA of the USA is then introduced. Judge Nelson praises the conference planners for bringing together “unmatched” talents. She recalls the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 in which thousands were killed in India.
The Baha’i Perspective on Law, Language, and Ethics
Dr. Nelson reviews some of the misuses of State law, such as in Nazi Germany, where the State required the repression and eventual genocide of an entire category of people. For the individual then the question arises: ‘When then is it right to disobey a law?’
She enumerates and describes the three fundamental bases of natural law theory; and states that nearly every past civilization relied in some manner upon natural law to maintain the order and harmony of the people of that civilization.