Know your Rights, An Information Guide to the Basics of New York State Legal System 了解您的权益，纽约州法律制度基础信息指南 A Coalition for Peace & Ethics Project

On behalf of the Coalition for Peace & Ethics I am happy to announce the roll out of our first technical assistance project: Know your Rights, An Information Guide to the Basics of New York State Legal System 了解您的权益，纽约州法律制度基础信息指南

The Know Your Rights New York project targets the Chinese immigrant community in New York, and especially those communities in the greater New York City area. The laboring oar for the Know Your Rights New York project was undertaken by Shan Gao, who developed the approach and did much of the design work for the information booklet. It is Mr. Gao's voice that one hears on the audio version of the Know Your Rights New York booklet.Eventually we hope to augment the offerings with video segments that may be useful for our audience. 

We hope this is the first of other similar projects that will target immigrant and other communities whose access to information tends to be more constrained. This is in keeping with our mission to bring information, knowledge and greater control over everyday lives to people who are otherwise more likely to sit at the margins of mainstream society and mainstream social discourse. Having the tools to manage one's life is an essential element to individual dignity and to be able to take advantage of those opportunities society makes available to all. Future projects include outreach to other immigrant groups as well as to other groups whose access to basic information may be more limited. 

The introduction and links to the booklet and audio follow. 

Know your Rights, An Information Guide to the Basics of New York State Legal System 了解您的权益，纽约州法律制度基础信息指南

Starting a new life in a foreign land has always been exciting for many new immigrants, but it can also be quite challenging and stressful: there is so much to learn. Language and culture barriers sometimes make this process even harder. When you have an unexpected dispute with your neighbors, your sellers, your landlords, or your local government agencies, you have no clue how to react or proceed. You worried that others might take advantage of you.

America is a civilized society with rule of law: it promotes justice and fairness while condemns violence and inequitable acts. It has a long history of common law tradition and evolving democratic social culture. It is not uncommon that some norms and practice adopted by new immigrants from their home country might not conform with the standard here. Sometimes, misunderstanding could be dangerous and illegal.

The mission of this booklet is to provide new immigrants a framework of basic knowledge about American legal system and concept (New York State as an example) in their native language, so they could be more confident and comfortable in terms of understanding the nature of their disputes, and taking proper action to resolve such disputes. This booklet invites new immigrants to take advantage of the information provided here to understand and respect American legal culture and rules, to protect their rights and liberty, to get the help they need.

The research and drafting of this booklet is supervised and supported by Larry Catá Backer (白 轲) a director of the Coalition for Peace & Ethics (“CPE”), an independent organization founded in 2006, which engages and promotes the production and dissemination of knowledge that is meant to empower people to take control of their lives for personal and societal betterment in ways that are respectful to individuals and the communities to which they belong. Its website can be accessed at http://thecpe.org. Backer also serves on the faculty at Pennsylvania State where he teaches classes in law. . Dr. Gao is a member of CPE.

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在异国建立新生活总是令人心动的，然而有时也会富有挑战：新的事物，新的信息不断的需要去了解和学习。语言不通，文化差异有时使情形更加复杂化。特别是当您卷入到与邻居，商户，房东，甚至地方政府机构的争执之中，您不知如何应对，并担心被人利用。

美国是一个文明的法治社会，宣扬正义和公平，谴责暴力和不公。它拥有悠久的普通法历史和不断发展的民主社会文化。新移民所熟知的社会习俗不符合美国的标准是很常见的。有时这种误解是危险以及非法的。

本信息指南旨在为新移民提供一个关于美国法律基础常识（以纽约州为例）的中文指引，使您们在独立或者通过其他专业人士的协助下处理法律事务和纠纷更得心应手。同时，本信息指南希望新移民利用本指南提供的信息，得以理解和尊重美国的法律文化规则，保护您的权益和自由，并发现您们所需要的帮助。

本信息指南的编写在宾西法尼亚州立大学Larry Cata Backer教授以及The Coalition for Peace & Ethics 组织的支持以及监督指导下完成。该组织是一个于2006年成立的非营利、非党派的独立非政府组织。该组织的创立旨在参与和支持知识和信息的组织和传播。通过分享知识来帮助人们独立自主完善个人的生活，从而益于社会以及他们的社区。

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BOOKLET (English) Know your rights information guide to basic of new york law

小册子 中国语言 维护您的权益纽约州法律信息指南



AUDIO RECORDING BOOKLET

音频 记录 小册子 中国语言