Based on the German movie “The Experiment” where a group of men sign off on their civil rights to be part of a prison experiment. In the movie, the experiment went horribly wrong. If this happened, would their contract be upheld and would they have lost their right to sue? What are the implications for research on human subjects that affects them mentally or physically?
I signed away a lot when I joined the Army! On active duty, you have fewer civil rights than a civilian. For instance, as a commissioned officer, while I was on active duty, I couldn’t say disparaging things about the president or any other senior officials. It’s a violation of the UCMJ, “Contempt towards officials” and could have landed me in jail. As a civilian, unless I’m making direct threats, I can say pretty much whatever I want about our officials.
There are other reductions of civil rights in the military (can be ordered to foriegn lands with no option except jail time, etc), but that’s one of the obvious ones.
In addition you can certainly waive some of your rights such as the right to have a lawyer present, the right to a trial by jury, and the right not to have a warrantless search of your property.
Can you sacrifice your civil rights? Sure. The Supreme Court has ruled in Vernonia School District v. Acton, for instance, that students participating in extracurricular sports sacrifice their 4th amendment protection from searches without a warrant, so they are subject to mandatory drug tests.
However, this might not be what you are referring to. In this decision, the court ruled that the safety concerns of the school overwhelmed the minimal privacy loss; this certainly wasn’t a willingly signed contract by the students giving up their rights. Still, there’s a substantial number of situations where people give away their civil rights by participating in voluntary activities or taking certain jobs (soldiers and customs officers come to mind in particular).