Debate motions from 2022

A: A "pandemic amnesty" is a call to move on from the debates that occurred during the pandemic and to no longer place blame for policies implemented (eg, school closures, vaccine rollouts).

A: You are the captain of the Wales national team of football. Previously, you had publicly announced that you will be wearing the "One Love" armband in the World Cup against its rules, which exhibits support for the LGBTQ+ movement, in unity with 7 other nations in Europe. However, after FIFA's announcement that such an act may cause the player to be booked or sent off, all teams have reversed their previous decision. You will play your second game of the Group Stage in a couple of hours.

A: In 2022, countries in Latin America have engaged in significant subsidies of fossil fuels in response to inflation. For example, substantial subsidies have been implemented in Ecuador (worth 0.8% of GDP) and Mexico (worth 1% of GDP) and Peru has cut taxes on fuel (equal to around 0.9% of GDP).

C: Downstreaming is where a country bans the export of raw materials to force global firms to invest and build factories within the country.

A: Soulbound Tokens (SBTs) are digital identity tokens that represent the traits (eg, good communicator, dishonest), features, and achievements (eg, university degree) that make up a person or entity. SBTs are issued by "Souls," which represent blockchain accounts or wallets, and cannot be transferred.

A: The registered reports model has researchers submit detailed protocols for peer review before any experiments are conducted. The methods, hypothesis and background are peer reviewed prior to data collection. If the article is accepted, the journal guarantees the publication of the article irrespective of the significance of the results.

A: Manne's Program in Economics for Federal Judges was a program offering economics instruction to federal judges so that they could incorporate economic reasoning into their judgements. This looks like understanding cost-benefit analyses in understanding incentives for committing crime and Coase's Theorem for the allocation of property rights. It was a 2-3 week course and often included lectures from world famous economists like Milton Friedman. Both conservative and liberal judges attended this program with notable attendees being Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Clarence Thomas.

B: The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (CFA) exercises ultimate judicial power over Hong Kong. However, the Chinese Government has previously, on rare occasion, overturned the CFA's rulings. The CFA appoints a number of top foreign judges from other common law jurisdictions (e.g. UK, Australia) to adjudicate cases alongside Hong Kong's domestic judges. The foreign judges have historically exercised a large amount of influence over the development of Hong Kong Law. Three foreign judges have recently resigned in response to China's National Security Law. The majority of foreign judges remain.

C: A citizens' assembly is a body consisting of randomly-selected citizens who conduct participatory deliberation on a given political issue. Citizens' assemblies are provided with specialist advice and are overseen to ensure they remain independent. In 2019 and 2020, France conducted a citizens' assembly, termed the Citizens' Convention for Climate, where 150 randomly-selected, demographically-representative citizens were tasked with crafting climate policy, which Emanuel Macron largely committed to implement.

B: Since roughly the 1960s, there has been a gradual shift in the average education level of voter demographics for different political parties in democracies across the world. In the mid-twentieth century, the richest and most educated voters typically voted conservative while poorer, less educated voters tended to vote for social democratic/labour parties. While it is still true that the richest voters vote conservative and poorer voters vote progressive, more highly educated voters now tend to be more left-wing. One explanation for this trend is that rates of education attainment have gone up, meaning that education is no longer closely associated with elite voters. This trend has seen relatively less-educated voters vote in increased numbers for right-wing populists like Donald Trump.

A: There are two general approaches to urban planning with respect to peripheral areas of large cities (e.g. Campbelltown ❤). The 'three cities' approach involves developing peripheral areas to be their own, separate hubs, with most people within the area working there. The 'CBD' approach involves investing in greater connectivity between peripheral areas and the true city centre.

B: There are two main types of social housing policies. Public housing involves the government directly owning and managing affordable housing. Community housing involves the subsidised provision of housing via non-government organisations, such as companies and community groups.

C: Degrowth involves a planned decrease in the size of economic production and consumption occurring within a given economy (often measured via GDP). It could involve the prioritisation of less emissions intense industries, heavy taxes or limits on emissions, shorter work weeks, and voluntary reductions in consumer spending.

A: The European Union has recently voted to establish the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which will place a levy on carbon-intense goods being imported from outside of the EU. It applies to the importation of various goods (e.g. cement, iron and steel, fertilisers, plastics, electricity) and will assess both the direct and indirect emissions embedded in the production process of the goods.

B: Competitive neutrality is an economic policy which ensures state owned enterprises and infrastructure must compete on an equal regulatory level with private businesses. Australia implemented competitive neutrality in many sectors throughout the 1990s, including the energy sector, which accompanied significant privatisation of state owned energy assets.

C: "Just transition" rhetoric refers to economic transitions away from emissions-intense industries that attempt to account for social justice, for example by providing guaranteed jobs for workers who lose their jobs due to decarbonisation. Currently, a just transition is conceived as a transition away from fossil fuels extraction and combustion.

A: The Presidential Leadership Council is the executive body of Yemen's internationally-recognized government, formed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, by a presidential decree on 7 April 2022, to seek a "comprehensive political solution" to the Yemeni civil war. It is headed by Rashad Muhammad Al-Alimi and has a membership of eight members after having Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi's resignation.

A: 'Afterlife A': After a life well lived, the 'ethereal soul' is separated from the 'physical body' and joins an eternal, blissful community of souls and 'God' (no physical body) 'Afterlife B': After a life well lived the 'ethereal soul' is separated from the 'physical body' and leads a second life with rewards from the previous life carrying into the next

B: Introvert' Catholics believe that the Church should remain discrete from the modern, secular world, keeping as close to tradition as possible, and being actively-countercultural. 'Extrovert' Catholics see the Church as responding to the needs of the world, and are more tolerant of making doctrinal change to align with changing social values. Pope Francis is very much an 'extrovert'.

B: Japan has lifted a ban on the creation of animal-human hybrids by allowing scientists to conduct stem-cell experiments to grow human organs inside animals. China has also been experimenting with the transplant of human brain cells into animal subjects to achieve advanced cognition.

A: An Advance Care Directive (ACD) is a legal document in which a person of sound mind specifies what actions should be taken for their health if they are no longer able to make decisions for themselves (because of illness or incapacity). Doctors are legally required to uphold the instructions of an ACD, irrespective of their professional medical opinions.

B: Traditionally in Japan, virtuous losses tend to gain significantly more popular support than victories. This value system manifests in various contexts including sports, popular culture, education, the veneration of historical figures, and… just about anywhere else. We decided to call this the Campbelltown value system.

C: "In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

There are two dominant models of E-Sports Leagues: The Franchise Model sets up regional leagues, where private groups buy teams which cannot be relegated from the league. Each league is overseen by their own central authority and the league is owned by the teams and game developer. Teams compete in matches throughout a season, at the end of which an eventual champion is named for that league. Prominent examples of E-Sports using this system are League of Legends, Valorant, Overwatch etc. The Qualifier Model involves a set of independently run tournaments ranging from smaller regional events to major tournaments that require qualification or invitation based on success at previous tournaments. All of the tournaments are run by different organizations or actors, which can have different criteria for inviting or allowing teams to participate. Prominent examples of E-Sports using this system are CS:GO, Dota 2 etc.

In many Balkan countries that were under Ottoman rule from the 14th to the 19th century (e.g. Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, etc.), the history curriculum focuses heavily on the national struggle against the Ottoman Empire as well as the crimes of the Ottomans against the local population (e.g. forcibly taking children to join the Janissary military corps, forcible conversions from Orthodox Christianity to Islam, murder and torture of local population etc.). In these countries, the Ottoman Empire is viewed as a colonizer, and those who led national uprisings fighting for independence are revered as national heroes.

For the purposes of this debate, "fiscal central banking" refers to an economic system that grants central banks the mandate to control circulation of money in the economy through fiscal policy in addition to monetary policy. Under this system central banks can define limitations for the size of the budget, but not its distribution. i.e. they can decide rates for various taxes and limit or increase overall government spending, but can't decide what the money is spent on

"Therapy speak" refers to the significant expansion of psychological and medical language and concepts to daily life, outside of the academic context. This could include but is not limited to: - using terms like "toxic" or "gaslighting" when talking about interactions, friendships, or relationships in situations that do not meet the academic definition of these terms - referring to the urge to tidy up as "OCD", or a temporary inability to focus as "ADHD" - partaking in speculative psychiatric diagnoses of others, including public figures

In 2004, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia joined the European Union (EU), followed by Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, and Croatia in 2013. For the purposes of this debate, the above countries are 'the Eastern bloc'. Serbia, Bosnia, and Northern Macedonia, along with other countries, are not currently part of the EU, but are aspiring to join the EU.

Advanced Analytics is the autonomous or semi-autonomous examination of data or content. It involves using sophisticated techniques such as machine learning algorithms, deep learning, predictive modelling, or other tools to discover deeper insights, make predictions, or generate recommendations. Advanced Analytics can be used for political microtargeting, which involves identifying the detailed profile of individual voters and voter groups, testing the most persuasive messages, and tailoring campaign strategy to target different voter profiles.

For the purposes of this debate, pardoning committees are made up of random citizens from the local community, similar to how jury panels are constructed. Convicted criminals can apply for a pardon, to be reviewed by the pardoning committee.

For the purposes of this debate, religions that "center the self" embrace human existence and individual experiences as special. Believers are asked to consider their choices and experiences, struggles, and connection to God as uniquely important and a path to salvation. In contrast, religions that "reject the self" explicitly reject the idea that human existence and individual experiences are special. Believers are asked to accept individual experiences as temporary and unimportant, and individuality as an illusion that causes unhappiness.

It is the 6th of April, 1941. The bombing of Belgrade by Nazi Germany began at dawn. The air force of Belgrade consists of 10 airplanes and 10 pilots to operate the airplanes. Knowing that they are going into certain death, and that they are unlikely to change the outcome of the bombing, the 10 pilots decide to take to the skies to take down as many Nazi airplanes as they can before dying.

Advanced personal data is information relating to a person's identity. Examples include but are not limited to physiological, genetic, mental, etc

Applications such as Robinhood have recently made it significantly easier for private individuals to invest in specific stocks and financial instruments. People use the app to purchase those stocks and financial instruments hoping the value will increase and they will turn a profit. This type of person is known as a "retail investor".

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital assets backed by blockchain technology, representing things such as art, collectibles such as photos, videos and music, or even real estate. These assets are non-fungible, which means each token is unique and one cannot get a like-for-like replacement when they are traded. They can be verified to prove uniqueness and digital ownership of the token in the blockchain network.

'Influencer culture' refers to the advertising and celebrity culture consisting of branded images of individuals called 'influencers' who have online presences on different social media platforms.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is a 2021 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios. In the film, Peter Parker asks Dr. Stephen Strange to use magic to make his Spider-Man identity a secret again following its public revelation at the end of Far From Home. When the spell goes wrong, the multiverse is broken open which allows visitors from alternate realities to enter Parker's universe. The film brings back multiple characters from previous Spider-Man franchises, including Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man from the Amazing Spider-Man franchise.

You are Summer, a single individual who has been romantically pursuing Person A, someone you have loved for a long time who has recently shown signs of minor interest. On the other hand, Person B is strongly infatuated with you and has been supporting you through your struggles.

You are a staunch individual with an interest in the greater good and are in possession of the Death Note, a supernatural book which grants the owner of the book the ability to instantly and anonymously kill anyone whose name is written in its pages. For the purposes of the debate, only you are aware of the existence of the Death Note.

There is an oreo milkshake that will grant immortality, until the end of humanity, to whoever drinks it. Its existence is only known to you, and only you can drink it.

AUKUS is a trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, for the Indo-Pacific region. Under the pact, the US and the UK will help Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.

The "hate all men" narrative refers to having an inherent prejudice or bias against men, especially through harboring suspicion towards their intentions.

A vocational school is an education institution focused on education and training on technical skills required to complete the tasks of a particular and specific job.

An internship is a professional learning experience that offers meaningful, practical work related to a student's field of study or career interest, by allowing them to work in a relevant company for a limited time.

The 'global commons' is a term typically used to describe global resource domains in which common resources are found. Global commons include the earth's shared natural resources, such as the high oceans, the atmosphere and outer space and the Antarctic in particular.

Hollywood have been altering the films as a strategy to attract more Chinese audiences. Examples include Marvel tentpoles Black Widow, Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings from Disney, Space Jam: A New Legacy from Warner Bros., and Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Spider-Man: No Way Home from Sony.

For the context of this debate, blind voting refers to an electoral system where ballots do not include the names of politicians and partylists and instead are replaced by a number of policy and platform preferences that voters can get to choose from.

The "hate all men" narrative refers to having an inherent prejudice or bias against men, especially through harboring suspicion towards their intentions.

China's zero-COVID policy is an attempt to prevent any community spread of the coronavirus. To achieve this goal the country has enacted some draconian measures, implementing a strategy of using strict, targeted lockdowns and mass testing.

Known as the 'Quadrilateral Security Dialogue' (QSD), the Quad is an informal strategic forum comprising four nations, namely United States of America (USA), India, Australia and Japan. One of the primary objectives of the Quad is to work for a free, open, prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific region.

Humanity has invented a machine that will definitively determine whether intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe. The results will be revealed publicly in Zagreb in 15 minutes.

"Commanding Distance" is a military approach according to which commanders should actively maintain social and emotional distance from their subordinates. When interacting with their subordinates, commanders following this approach will typically: not express emotions or vulnerabilities, not share details from their personal lives, avoid social interactions and maintain a purely professional relationship.

The "Vienna Model" of social housing requires developers that build new residential complexes to lease 25% of units at significantly reduced rates to tenants chosen by the municipal government.

For the purposes of this debate, the "globalisation of art" refers to the significant increase in cross-border consumption of cultural products (e.g. movies, TV shows, music, etc.)

The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina is a position that was created in 1995 as part of the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the Bosnian War. The postholder is appointed by the United Nations Security Council. The High Representative's powers, without judicial oversight, include introducing or repealing laws or constitutional amendments, removing public officials from office, and banning individuals from running in elections. For example, in 2021 the outgoing High Representative, Austrian Valentin Inzko, amended existing criminal law to make genocide denial and the glorification of war criminals illegal.

Known as the "ABCDs", the four largest global agricultural commodities traders (ADM, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus) control an estimated 70-90% of the global trade in grains and oilseeds (e.g. wheat, corn, soybean, rapeseed, etc.)

Pegasus is spyware developed by the Israeli cyber-arms company NSO Group, which can be covertly installed on individual mobile devices. Its capabilities include: reading messages, tracking calls, collecting passwords, location tracking, and accessing the target device's microphone and camera. NSO claims to sell the software exclusively to government branches such as police forces and intelligence agencies, and has known customers from at least 14 EU countries.

Retail investors are non-professional individual investors who buy and sell financial assets (e.g stocks, bonds, commodities, cryptocurrency etc.). The percentage of overall US equity trading volume conducted by retail investors in 2021 was more than double that of 2011.

The term 'public intellectual' describes the intellectual participating in the public affairs discourse of society, in addition to an academic career.

In October 2022, the Government of Kenya revoked a long-standing ban on the importation of Genetically Modified Crops (GMOs).

In afterlife A, after a life well lived, the 'ethereal soul' is separated from the 'physical body' and joins an eternal, blissful community of souls and 'God' (no physical body). In afterlife B, after a life well lived, the 'ethereal soul' is separated from the 'physical body' and leads a next life, in a new body, in a new world with rewards from the previous life carried into the new world. After the life in the new world ends, the 'ethereal soul' leaves the physical body and leads into another subsequent world under the same conditions. In this version of the afterlife, the soul is on an endless journey of moving from one world to another carrying accumulations of moral rewards from previous lives into every new life. In both instances, people have the same knowledge about the afterlife as in the status quo.

A Behaviour Credit System (BCS) is a worldwide integrated technology that allow persons to vote on the social standing of anyone living in that country. The BCS can be accessed through any technological device whereby upon interacting with you, people can rate you on a numerical scale on their device based on their personal and discretionary feelings about you (not on legal grounds). In this system, businesses independently set minimum positive point and maximum negative point limits as requirements before they render services to you and by law, your positive or negative points tally has a bearing on the extent of punishment you get when you are tried for a crime.

Municipal bonds (or "munis" for short) are debt securities issued by districts, cities, counties and other governmental entities to fund day-to-day obligations and to finance capital projects.

Somaliland is an autonomous region in northern Somalia, which broke away and declared independence from Somalia in 1991. No foreign power recognises Somaliland's sovereignty.

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is a legal agreement between many countries, whose overall purpose was to promote international trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers such as tariffs or quotas-- this is the general foundation and guideline of the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, under Article XXI of the GATT (also known as the National Security Exception), member states can increase trade restrictions if it is done in the interest of national security. In 2018, Donald Trump put tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the US, claiming that this was done in the interest of national security (i.e. invoking Article XXI), and therefore allowed under WTO rules. China, Canada, the EU, and other nations have all filed cases against this policy in the WTO, while Saudi Arabia, India, and Russia have supported the US and have since used the "interest of national security" to raise trade barriers in their respective countries. After a three-year court ruling (from the WTO appellate), the WTO continued to uphold Article XXI

You are a scientist, working alone one night, you discover that humanity will inevitably end in exactly 5 years. You are alone in the lab and the odds of someone else discovering this information are non-existent.

Maitland Jones was a widely respected organic chemistry professor at NYU. He was fired from his job after 82/350 of his students signed a petition against him complaining about his class. The students stated that the classes were too difficult, and that they received little help and sympathy during the pandemic in the form of extra credit which would ruin the chances of students especially planning to pursue med school

With budgetary aid, funds are given directly to a recipient country's government. This is independent from project aid (funds directed towards a particular relief project) and central bank aid.

For the purposes of this debate, there exists a technology that can accurately measure how successful rehabilitation has been and determine whether someone will recommit crimes in the future

The Ivy League, comprised of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), Dartmouth, Cornell, Columbia, and Brown, are known to be eight of the most renowned private universities in the United States. They are all highly competitive, with the highest acceptance rate in 2022 being 6.9% (Cornell University) and the lowest being 3.2% (Harvard University).

Formed in 1949 with the signing of the Washington Treaty, NATO is a security alliance of 30 countries from North America and Europe. NATO's fundamental goal is to safeguard the Allies' freedom and security by political and military means.

The overemployment movement refers to remote working professionals who over the last couple of years have transitioned to working multiple full time remote jobs simultaneously. They do this by working to meet the minimum requirements of each job and utilising the flexible nature of remote working combined with the large amounts of idle time they may observe in their chosen careers.

An incorporeal trial refers to a regular civil or criminal trial that abolishes physical court hearings. Judge and/or jury will still preside over the case with documents and evidence submitted for the purpose of adjudication and sentencing. However, all lawyers, plaintiffs and defendants are not physically present. Cross examinations are conducted via written text, automated voice recordings, and are submitted as such.

For the purpose of this debate, a 'sporting dividend' refers to a payout which a sport team makes to a third party, upon generating profits from successes in league campaigns. These may include prize money awarded after reaching a certain position in a league, or after winning a cup trophy.

Currently, children are believed to be inherently good and pure beings. Meaning, even if they can be influenced by bad actors and actions, they start out innocent and good and can go back to being good since this is a built-in characteristic in them.

A efectos de este debate, en relación con el consumo cultural, existen dos grandes posturas: 1) Relativismo: Hay que tener en cuenta el contexto de creación de la obra artística, relativizando así cuestiones como la falta de diversidad racial o de género y manteniéndolas en el canon y en el consumo masivo. 2) Actualismo: Las obras artísticas deben juzgarse con criterios contemporáneos, y obras que no respetan valores actualmente valorados como, por ejemplo, de diversidad, deben ser desplazadas del canon o no consumidas

El principio de no afectación de ingresos es aquel que establece que todos los ingresos públicos deben destinarse de manera indistinta y global a la cobertura de los gastos públicos, impidiendo vincular un determinado gasto a una determinado ingreso (por ejemplo, lo recaudado por el Impuesto de Bienes Inmuebles (IBI) o el Impuesto sobre la Renta de las Personas Físicas (IRPF) se puede emplear indistintamente para cualquier gasto).

Para efectos de este debate, la idea del "centro de gravedad permanente" consistirá en la actitud de buscar, en aquellos casos donde haya posiciones discrepantes igualmente legítimas, un equilibrio entre dos cosas o el mantenimiento de una equidistancia entre los conflictos que puedan provocarse (no dar apoyo expreso a nadie o no posicionarse).

En 1934, en medio de un contexto de crisis económica y polarización política, se produjeron levantamientos contra el Gobierno de la II República en varias partes de España, sobre todo en Andalucía (campesinado), Cataluña (Generalitat) y Asturias (mineros) con la excusa de la entrada de la CEDA, coalición derechista y no republicana, en el Gobierno. La Revolución del 34 fue un evento caracterizado por la acción violenta, la unidad de toda la izquierda y su repercusión internacional. Los revolucionarios logran establecer comunidades autogestionadas en varias localidades hasta que tras semanas de lucha y una rendición pactada son brutalmente reprimidos por las tropas del Gobierno republicano al mando del general Franco. Las cárceles se llenaron de presos políticos, entre ellos el gobierno catalán, dando argumentos al Frente Popular para triunfar en las elecciones de febrero de 1936. La Revolución del 34 ha sido exaltada por sus partidarios como el último bastión de resistencia obrera en Occidente y usada por sus detractores como arma arrojadiza para legitimar el golpe de Estado de 1936.