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This thesis concerns: (a) how we should understand legislative words and phrases if they have changed in meaning since they were enacted; and (b) how the UK courts have actually done so. The key question is: should we give legislative language its original meaning (treating its meaning as 'static'); or, if not, should it be given its current meaning (treating its meaning as 'mobile')? I claim that, to address this 'temporal issue', we need to recognise that legislation is generally 'always speaking'. This means that we are to treat it as if it were being constantly re-enacted, and therefore to treat is as if it is able - like, say, traffic signs - to 'speak' to new facts and situations as they arise, on an ongoing basis. But this raises a key question: does legislation necessarily 'say' the same thing each time it 'speaks'? The 'always speaking' metaphor suggests we should give legislation its current meaning; but this creates certain problems, particularly for old legislation where the meaning of words or phrases may have changed radically since the time of enactment. I suggest a two-fold response to this temporal issue. First, that whether legislative language should be given its original meaning (or, if not, it should be given its current meaning) should turn on what the original enacting legislature objectively intended on that question. I call this 'intention-dependence'. Second, that we need to distinguish three notions of meaning that can (and do) differ in mobility. The first notion of 'meaning' is application - roughly, the things that the legislative words apply to at a particular time - and it is typically mobile. A common response to the temporal issue is to distinguish application from meaning, and to give legislation its original meaning but its current application. This response, I argue, is inadequate: because 'meaning' (as opposed to application) conflates two further notions which legislatures often intend to differ in their mobility. The second notion ('character') is the abstract, purely linguistic, meaning of words: the notion of meaning that dictionary definitions attempt to capture. We will usually best understand what someone meant by what they said if we give their words their original character. For example, Queen Anne said of the newly-built St. Paul's Cathedral that it is "awful, artificial, and amusing". To understand that she was complimenting, rather than criticising, the Cathedral's architects we need to travel back to 1711: when those words meant 'awe-inspiring', 'artistic', and 'thought-provoking'. The third notion ('content') is a more concrete, practical, notion of meaning: it is what tells us what a word or phrase actually applies to. Consider a law made in 1791 that forbids 'cruel punishments'. The character of 'cruel' is much the same now as it was in 1791, but what counts as being cruel today is very different from what counted as cruel in 1791 (when flogging and ear-notching, for example, were common punishments). We seem to want to give this law its current content - so that, today, it forbids flogging and ear-notching - rather than its original content. In Part I of this thesis, I articulate these three notions of meaning, show their utility in modelling adjudication, and relate them to three types of uncertainty in meaning: vagueness, context-sensitivity, and ambiguity. I show that this tripartite meaning framework admits of four general approaches to the temporal issue, depending on which notions of meaning are static or mobile. I then address some questions about these approaches: when a legislature might use concept-words referentially, and whether the original legislature's expectations as to how a provision will be applied are binding. Finally, I review some reasons for or against adopting these approaches, and I suggest that they most strongly favour the approach that treats legislative content (and application) as mobile but treats its character as static - which I call a 'Character Originalist' approach. In Part II, I turn to identifying the UK response to the temporal issue. I start with the historical (pre-1997) UK approach. I argue that the standard account of this is flawed: as the two doctrines on which that account is based do not establish what they are standardly taken to establish, and UK courts have treated the content of legislative language as mobile in appropriate cases. I then turn to the modern (1997-) UK approach. I analyse Lord Steyn's landmark judgment in Ireland (1997) and I show that it established two principles: (a) intention-dependence; and (b) what I call the 'Mobility Presumption'. I explore the sources of Ireland, and its aftermath, to identify which notions of meaning we are to presume to be mobile; and I hypothesise that the UK approach is, generally, Character Originalist. Finally, I test that hypothesis against the UK case law: and I conclude that there is strong support for the hypothesis. The meaning of UK legislation may therefore, generally, evolve over time - but only within the bounds set by its original character. So the solution to our puzzle is to recognise the sense in which we must give legislation its original meaning (character) and the sense in which we must give legislation its current meaning (content).

Restorative justice is an aspirational social movement with Indigenous roots. Around the world, an increasing number of schools are implementing restorative justice as a behaviour management mechanism and in some cases, as a means of transforming everyday interaction and relationships. Correspondingly, there is an expanding body of literature on the potential positive effects of restorative justice in education (Brown, 2018; Cameron and Thorsborne, 1999; Hendry 2009; Hopkins, 2002; Karp and Breslin, 2001; McCluskey et al., 2011; Morrison, 2006; Thorsborne and Blood, 2013). However, amidst this optimism, there are considerable gaps in our knowledge of how restorative justice is "characterised and operationalised" in the everyday operation of schools (Morrison and Vaandering, 2012, p.148). To gain a better understanding of restorative justice in schools, I negotiated access to three primary schools in Ontario, Canada where significant time was spent observing, interviewing and collecting documentary information. The primary research question was: How is restorative justice constructed, and embedded within primary schools? And the sub-question: How does restorative justice interact with the school's educational mission? The findings illustrate the complexities of restorative justice in schools. The three schools had different histories with restorative justice and were at different stages of implementation. In an established whole school approach, restorative justice was largely viewed relationally, whereas in two schools with a new commitment it was most commonly described as a behaviour management technique used by staff. However, there were significant similarities across sites. In all three schools, leaders were essential to the construction and embedment of restorative justice. Gaining buy-in was a process that took time and continued far beyond implementation, yet what occurred was not overtly called or labelled "restorative justice," and students in all three schools were unfamiliar with the terminology. However, questions and dialogue were essential to how restorative justice was constructed and embedded. Circles were the most visible practice, and while punishment was understood as oppositional to restorative justice, it was still utilised. By considering restorative justice with educational theories on social control and radical change, I was able to explore how and to what extent restorative justice represented a change. This interaction was complex and multidimensional. However, when restorative justice was viewed as a relational ethos, it was seen as transforming the entire school.

It has long been recognised that business users pay limited attention to the content of the contracts they use and the process of forming and executing a contract. This is especially true of standard form contracts used across millions of business transactions daily. Two particular topics that have been identified as potential areas of concern that have generated previous empirical studies are those of contract formation and use of contracts in resolving disputes. The first of these is fundamental to achieving the framework for the transaction and agreement to the deliverable and the compensation, but is rarely seen to be a problem. The second of these should be one of the core reasons for entering a formal legal agreement, but business users prefer to use alternative means of resolving issues which they consider are more effective, quicker and more likely to retain business relationships. These issues are more relevant with standard form contracts, where there is no transaction specific detail and less effort exerted in concluding the formal legal requirements for either formation or resolution. This work is intended to review these issues in relation to standard form contracts, in the UK building services industry in the current environment. To achieve this, new empirical work is undertaken in two areas. Firstly, a survey of the knowledge and views of a sample of contract users from different companies and different specialisms provides a picture of the opinions of business. Secondly a sample of standard form contracts from the same segment is reviewed to assess whether the contracts align with these views and how they deal with the key issues identified in the survey. The results are evaluated against previous work on the subject and variances and consistencies identified with a view to understanding whether standard form contracts are effective and where not, what options are available. Ultimately, whether they satisfy a need for formal relationships and what is their relevance to business effectiveness.

How does one lead a life of law, love and freedom? This inquiry has very deep roots in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Indeed, the divergent answers to this inquiry mark the transition from Judeo to Christian. This dissertation returns to those roots to trace the routes that these ideas have taken as they move from the sacred to the secular. The argument of this dissertation is threefold. First, it argues that the concepts of law, love and freedom are each internally polarized. Each concept contains, within itself, conflicting values. Paul's equivocation in his letters is a striking manifestation of this internal polarization. Second, it argues that, while values are many, my life is one. Hence, one needs to combine the plurality of values within a singular life. Values find their coherence within a form of life. There are, at least, two ways of leading a life of law, love and freedom: monastic versus antinomian. Third, it argues that the Reformation transformed these religious ideals into political ideologies. The monastic ideal is politically manifested as constitutionalism, and the antinomian ideal is politically manifested as anarchism. There are, at least, two ways of creating a polity of law, love and freedom: constitutional versus anarchic. To mount the threefold argument, the dissertation deploys a whole range of disciplinary tools. The dissertation draws on analytic jurisprudence in its analysis of law; ethics and aesthetics in its analysis of love; political philosophy in its analysis of freedom; biblical scholarship in its interpretation of Paul; the history of ideas in its study of the formation and transformation of these ideas; and moral philosophy in concluding how one could lead a life of law, love and freedom.

This PhD thesis is primarily concerned with the critical examination of a principle commonly, but inaccurately, called ‘Uti Possidetis’. This Latin American origin principle, has found a universal adoption over the years. The present study seeks to explore in depth, the merit and viability of this colonial formulation, with specific reference towards its application to contemporary issues of statehood in the 21st century. The thesis shows that the principle has been universally accepted and invoked. Across the globe, states and international judicial bodies warmly embraced this principle. This, in turn, has propelled the principle towards paramount significance within international law. It has contributed effectively to shaping the boundary lines of more than 80% of current sovereign states. However, on the jurisprudential level, the principle is one of the most criticised and controversial principles, dividing international lawyers and political scientists. There have always been recursive controversies concerning its viability and applicability in the modern age. Scholarly views of the principle present an extreme division, and no dominant opinion has yet emerged. The central argument of the thesis is that claiming the inapplicability of the principle in the modern time, is but a futile argument in contradiction with the spirit of international law and the prevalent practice on the ground. However, the principle in its current traditional form suffers from several theoretical complications and numerous of practical deficiencies, and that no aspect of it has been immune from diverse complexities. This has made the principle to provide an equitable solution for the territorial and boundary issues. Having reviewed a prodigious amount of literature, the thesis demonstrates that, despite the enormous amount of academic activity focused on the principle, its precise contours have remained ambiguous. Thus, the current literature has left a multiplicity of questions unanswered and dozen sets of gaps unfilled. The thesis expounds that neither frequent application nor a revival in academic interest have mitigated the fatal deficiencies from which the traditional version of the principle has long suffered. Despite its universally widespread invocation, the traditional formulation of the principle has remained somewhat tenuous, with extensive discourse over its proper derivation, identification and application. However, this traditional formulation cannot be deemed without merit. In the absence of palatable alternatives, it might still offer the viable solution, but only when it is reconceptualised, modernised, and purged of its anachronistic features. Thus, the provision of this reconceptualisation is the central task of the thesis, and its authentic contribution to knowledge. Deploying a modern methodology, and a deeper more holistic analysis, the thesis hones the old version of the principle, inherently down to its core, and ameliorates its increasing complexities. Ultimately, the thesis sets out to establish a totally fresh formulation out of it, to be dubbed as the modern Default Boundary Principle. The modernised formulation, which will be developed in this thesis, accommodates modern developments in the contemporary international law. It provides a sophisticated means of conflict prevention and management for the territorial and boundary aspects of statehood. It functions as a restorative, clear-cut, and equitable solution, which is capable of delivering wideset range of peace and stability. This pioneering academic enterprise will, therefore, provide a genuine contribution to current understanding of the principle and offer guidance to the relevant decision makers on how to apply the new formulation. Thus, to ensure the validity and unbiased progression of the novel approach, the thesis will examine the modernised formulation as applied to contemporary cases of statehood, namely the entangled and the grossly under-studied case of Kurdistan and Iraq. Finally, this in-depth study of modernising ‘Uti Possidetis is unique. This, can be attributed to the fact that such an approach has not previously been available, and no other work provides an equivalent understanding. Thus, the thesis claims to be among the first comprehensive academic research dealing with the international legal problems involved in the principle. The findings of this study challenge several prevalent views and settled opinions in the relevant current literature. The thesis, therefore, needs to be firmly established in intellectual discourse and in the lexicon of international law. This observation is highlighting a genuinely novel trend as far as we can tell, comes out as a direct and genuine contribution of the present thesis to knowledge.

Article 50 of the Anti-Monopoly Law of China (AML) 2007 and its complementing rules, the Judicial Interpretation 2012 of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC), have provided a legal framework for the antitrust damages action in China. However, the general and ambiguous language of Article 50 and the Judicial Interpretation 2012 fails to provide clear guidance for the courts and parties to antitrust damages actions, in terms of key issues, such as quantification of antitrust damages and the availability of collective action. Moreover, the current framework provided by the AML 2007 has not touched on some controversial issues, such as whether damages litigation is possible against antitrust violations conducted by an administrative agency. These weakness and gaps have impeded the development of the antitrust damages mechanism in China. Meanwhile, the EU has adopted Directive 2014/104 to facilitate private enforcement of competition law in the Member States. Due to the similarity in the combined public/private enforcement model of competition law between the EU and China, the thesis adopts the private enforcement mechanism of EU competition law, as a comparative reference. In doing so, the thesis seeks to fill in some gaps in the existing antitrust damages mechanism provided by the AML 2007, by focusing not only on civil procedural issues in the antitrust damages action against private anticompetitive behaviour, but also examining the administrative litigation procedures and substantive issues involved in the antitrust damages action against administrative monopoly. Regarding the debate on compensation vs. deterrence as goals of antitrust damages actions in China, the thesis contributes to this debate, by submitting that full compensation should be the goal actively pursued by antitrust damages actions, while deterrence, as a side effect of antitrust damages actions, complements optimal deterrence pursued by public enforcement of the AML. Then the thesis examines the quantification of antitrust damages which is directly linked to the achievement of full compensation. The thesis also seeks to propose a workable collective action mechanism for antitrust damages actions in China, which is indispensable to achieving full compensation in an antitrust mass harm situation. By referring to the recent reform of collective actions adopted in the UK, where opt-out collective proceedings have been introduced into the antitrust collective action, the thesis finds that opt-out proceedings would be a good incentive to support the initiation of antitrust damages litigation in China, while proper limitations are needed to be imposed on its application in order to avoid US-style unmeritorious litigation. In addition to private anticompetitive behaviour, the thesis also explores the antitrust damages mechanism against public anticompetitive behaviour, from both substantive and procedural perspectives. It finds that a proportionality test would be an approach to consider when assessing whether an anticompetitive administrative measure is justified on the grounds of public interest, or alternatively whether such regulation or behaviour amounts to abusive and ultimately illegal conduct. In the procedural aspect, the thesis proposes a two-step procedure, including first, judicial review of the alleged measure, and second, the follow-on damages assessment; and the requirement for a compulsory linkage to be established between them.

When should it be permissible to act against someone's expressed wishes in their best interests? In both political philosophy and legal practice, answers to this question often appeal to the concept of autonomy. Broadly, the idea is that if a person is sufficiently self-governing, then their wishes must prevail; but if they are not, then their wishes need not be respected when promoting whatever is good for them. This thesis analyses both philosophical models of autonomy and the practice of judges in England and Wales when implementing the Mental Capacity Act 2005. With regard to the philosophical models, it finds that, despite claims to the contrary, they do not offer a plausible way of assessing whether someone else is autonomous without appealing to values that are not the person's own. With regard to legal practice, it finds that, although judges speak about 'autonomy' in contradictory ways, a coherent account of when they will find that they must respect a person's expressed wishes can be constructed. This first stage of analysis makes a gulf between 'autonomy' in philosophy and law obvious. When philosophers talk about 'autonomy', they are largely concerned with the person's relationship to themselves. When judges talk about 'autonomy', they are largely concerned with the person's relationship to the world. 'Autonomy' in the philosophical sense cannot justify current practice because it does not deal with the same subject matter. Analysis of mental capacity cases does, however, allow the development of an alternative justification for actions against a person's expressed wishes. This justification lies in an evaluation of the entire situation, not of the person. It is not reducible to any model of autonomy, not even 'relational' models. Taken seriously, this justification requires a reorientation of the ethics of mental capacity law: away from overreliance on relatively few abstract 'principles' and towards articulating the difficulty and complexity of real situations. The thesis offers two papers towards the development of this latter mode.

Saudi Arabia and Islam have had a very close relationship since the establishment of Saudi Arabia. Thus, Saudi Arabia chose Islam to govern all its laws. Since 1952, with the discovery of oil, the country has witnessed a huge development including the establishment of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) as a Central Bank. SAMA was expected to only allow financial activities that did not conflict with the teachings of Islamic law, as stated in its Charter. However, since its existence, SAMA has supervised and licensed conventional banks that charge Riba (interest or usury) and all the regulations made by SAMA have been designed to deal with conventional banks. Consequently, there is a difference between the law, Islamic law, and the practice. Over the years a dramatic improvement in Islamic finance has been realised. Many countries and international organisations that specialised in Islamic finance have set especial regulations that suit such finance. Nonetheless, Saudi Arabia as a regulatory body preferred not to join this trend and continued adopting and practising the same regulations that were made for conventional finance. This thesis seeks to develop the regulatory framework towards Islamic finance by sheding light on the legal challenges and difficulties that may encounter Islamic finance in Saudi Arabia, which may prevent the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from being the leading country for developing Islamic finance. To help in identifying these challenges, an Islamic financial product Sukuk (Islamic bonds) is chosen to be a case study to show some of the challenges in practice. The thesis firstly discusses Islamic principles toward finance, then the legal environment of Saudi Arabia and how Islamic finance is practised in the Kingdom. It then introduces the new development in the legal environment in response to the Saudi Vision 2030 which can be a tool to help solving the obsricales that Saudi Arabia is encountering. Then the thesis discusses some challenges related to sharia boards in financial institutions, such as not having sharia governance as part of the corporate governance of financial institutions that market their products as being compliant with sharia law; in addition, the absence of a Central Sharia Board that should help in ensuring the conformity of financial products to sharia law. The thesis proposes that the regulators should develop and adopt especial regulations framework that could help the development of Islamic finance. The thesis defines Sukuk and shows how it differs from other financial instruments in conventional finance. Then, it identifies some of the challenges that face Sukuk and its development in the country. Moreover, it looks at a very recent development in the Saudi legal system, which is in response to the Saudi Vision 2030 and the recent interest that was shown by decision-makers, such as the Chairman of the CMA, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, the Deputy Minister for Internal Trade, and also both the Governor and Vice-Governor of the SAMA, in response to the Vision 2030 which could contribute to the development of Islamic finance. As far as the researcher is aware, hardly any studies have addressed this issue with respect to the new development that Saudi Arabia is currently witnessing in response to the Saudi Vision 2030 and the recent developments taking place in neighbouring countries which broadly share similar cultural and religious values. Finally, the thesis proposes some recommendations to develop Islamic finance including some guidelines for establishing a Central Sharia Board, and also, a sharia supervisory governance for Islamic financial institutions which should have a positive effect on Islamic finance in the country.

Notwithstanding the strategic importance of service quality to public sector reforms, the Government of Jamaica has given it no consideration in its justice reform project. Neither had anyone previously applied the service quality methodology to service delivery in the Jamaican Supreme Court. This thesis is a study of service quality in the Supreme Court civil registry in Jamaica and of theservices provided to legal practitioners using the registry by clerks, administrators and registrars engaged in that registry. The aim was to identify, investigate andunderstand the perceptions of service quality in the registry. The study was conducted in three stages: A pilot study, a main study andfocus groups' assessments of the findings. The main study used the SERVQUAL instrument, adapted to suit the circumstances of a court's civil registry. The sample frame for the main study was legal practitioners working in the Kingston Metropolitan Area who were users of the civil registry. Survey methodology was used to collect data. Three focus groups of practitioners later evaluated theparticipants' understanding of the items on the questionnaires. The groups supported the findings of the main study and confirmed that the service quality dimensions used in the study represented an accurate interpretation of the servicequality experience of users of the registry. The study also supports the dominant opinion in the literature thatSERVQUAL and SERVPERF are both good measures of overall service quality. The findings were that practitioners in Jamaica experienced poor overall service quality in several service quality dimensions, including the areas that they considered to be most important, and that this dissatisfaction did not vary by gender or how far their place of employment was from the Supreme Court. This work confirms that the Government of Jamaica's programme of civil justice reform is notmeeting the needs of important stakeholders, such as legal practitioners, and that the emphasis of the reforms may be misplaced.

The aim of the thesis is to examine whether the prohibition of overcompensation in the Antitrust Damages Directive is compatible with the EU legal and normative framework. To this end, the analysis is carried out on two levels. First, the rationale for damages in the selected jurisdictions (England, France and Germany) and in the EU is examined to test the main underpinning justification for the prohibition of overcompensation in the Antitrust Damages Directive, i.e. the 'European legal tradition argument'. Second, the thesis addresses broader constitutional implications that underpin the debate on the desirability of the pursuit to prohibit overcompensation in the EU. These entail questions pertaining to the adoption of such measures and, thus, exploring whether the EU has the legitimacy to legislate and the related question of competence and the choice of the appropriate legal basis. The argument to be advanced in this thesis is that the aim of achieving a sufficient level of deterrence with awarding damages for EU competition law infringements stems from the very conceptual basis in which the right to damages is grounded - the principle of effective judicial protection and the principle of effectiveness. Thus, as the analysis reveals, the prohibition of overcompensation is inconsistent with the EU legal framework, since it has potential to jeopardise the deterrent or dissuasive function of antitrust damages actions. The prohibition of overcompensation has significantly contributed to the business-biased gist of the Directive, and thus to breaking the link between the rationale for the right to damages for EU competition law infringements, the legal basis and the content of the Directive. The thesis ultimately argues that the Directive's prohibition is incompatible with the principles of conferral, subsidiarity and proportionality, and to a considerable extent inconsistent with the EU's legal and normative framework.

This thesis explores the theoretical basis of precontractual liability for the unilateral breaking-off of negotiations, by undertaking a comparative study between three selected jurisdictions (Germany, France and Chile). It defines a 'paradigm case' and focuses on it in order to find the theoretical basis of this liability. Traditionally, precontractual liability for breaking off negotiations has been founded upon or at least linked with the notion of good faith. This thesis, however, argues that in the selected jurisdictions the true basis of this liability is the notion of 'reliance' and distinguishes two dimensions of reliance (referring to them as 'trust-based' and 'expectation-based'). It analyses the relationship between these dimensions arguing that in the selected jurisdictions the trust-dimension merges with the general principle of good faith and that the expectation-dimension emanates from the trust-dimension. This thesis argues that this innovative approach to the theoretical analysis of the foundation of this liability could have important practical consequences in jurisdictions which do not embrace a general principle of good faith. It focuses on English law, as a contrasting jurisdiction to the selected jurisdictions, in that it rejects a general principle of good faith and, especially, the notion of a duty to negotiate in good faith, which is generally considered to lead necessarily to the rejection of a general principle of precontractual liability. This thesis demonstrates that while English law can provide protection for certain cases of precontractual liability, it currently does not protect the paradigm case. It argues that if the analysis is shifted from good faith to the notion of reliance, English law could develop one or more of its particular solutions in order to protect the paradigm case, if it desired to do so, and explores how such a development could be implemented without establishing a general principle of precontractual liability.

This thesis is placed at the intersection of international labour law, EU law, human rights and migration. It focuses on workers employed and transferred temporarily across borders by multinational corporations within their company structure – intra-corporate transferees (ICTs) – and on their family members. The thesis analyses the protection of their economic, labour and social rights from the perspective of equality and integration. The work examines and compares the level of rights protection granted to EU nationals and third-country (non-EU) national ICTs in Slovakia and England under the national law and policy, EU law, human rights law, and international labour law. The study involves doctrinal and theoretical considerations of the law and policy relating to the protection of rights of ICTs and their families, which are then contrasted with accounts of ICTs’ practical experiences within these legal and policy frameworks, obtained through interviews conducted in Slovakia and England. The aim is to identify the differences in rights protection guaranteed in law and as experienced in practice in each country, and to compare the diverse approaches in the two countries and at EU level (through the Intra-Corporate Transfers Directive) to find the weaknesses and strengths of each system. This comparative exercise enables an identification of the best practices, which could serve as an inspiration for policy makers in Slovakia, England, at EU level and for ICTs’ employers regarding improvements of their rights protection, integration, and experience during the intra-corporate transfer.

The use of indicators within marine legislation and policy is a developing phenomenon worldwide. What is less apparent, however, is the effectiveness of such policies in prompting regulatory or remedial responses and achieving particular conservation objectives. Even less well-understood are the relationships that develop between the science, policies, and law in these regulatory frameworks. As such, it is imperative to reach an understanding as to how scientific, economic and social goals are interconnected, and how they in turn influence indicator development. This gap in understanding provides the rationale for this work, which is to explore and explain the way in which law, policy and science interface in the context of marine regulations. The overall aim of this thesis is to provide a detailed, critical analysis of marine environmental indicators within regulatory and policy texts at the international, European and national levels. Furthermore, it measures the effectiveness of such indicators, as well as their foundation within science, by providing an examination of the operational efficiency of marine environmental indicators, with an emphasis on the techniques and approaches used to accommodate indicators and similar devices. It also analyzes the resultant relationships that have evolved between science, policy and legislation, with a particular focus on the utilization of indicators within national marine industries. The thesis also evaluates the understanding and application of indicators by non-technical personnel by demonstrating through case law review the courts’ stance on the utilization of evidence and expert testimony. This research also examines a variety of indicators used in support of the environmental management of the national marine aggregate-extraction industry. The central argument of this thesis is that indicators are relevant within policy and legislative agenda – they create dialogue and bridge communication gaps. This thesis demonstrates that when founded upon the discussed criteria, indicators allow for effective communication and provide the opportunity to gauge the success of current marine management techniques within international, European and national set agenda. Whether scientifically or politically driven, they are crucial to the successful development and implementation of environmental policies and legislation world-wide. They cross various disciplines (scientific, political, legal) and when properly understood and applied, can assess progress in achieving political and legal goals, ensuring that the needs of humans and the environment are equally balanced.

This thesis addresses the problem of the dissonance between the formulation of highly generalized norms in world society and the failure of those norms to find accommodation in law. To construct this problem and its possible solutions, the thesis adopts Niklas Luhmann's systems theory and functional method of analysis. Employing a distinction between private and public law, the thesis begins by examining the accommodation of such general norms in a model of global law beyond the state which is commonly held to accommodate an increasing range of norms at the global level. However, the limits of this legal system in relation to general norms are located in its exclusive specialization in the niches of world society and in its marginalization of state entities which remain crucial to the stabilization of those norms. The thesis therefore examines public international law as a legal system that is also increasingly orientated to realizing normative expectations of global public goods. Through analysis, the thesis identifies the limits of this legal system in relation to normative expectations of the prohibition of nuclear weapons. This antinuclear norm is nonetheless shown to be clearly formulated and recognized in world society, and the thesis traces the solution to this problem to transnational social movement organizations which stabilize the norm through formal decision-making and through communication of the norm to organizations of the political and legal systems. This forms the basis of a theory of the functional specification of social movement organizations as a solution to the problem of general norms. Finally it is argued that lawyers must develop a more definite appreciation of these developments, so that any structural relationship with social movement organizations reflects the functional importance they have gained in world society.

Respect is a value whose importance in contemporary criminal justice many would endorse in principle. It is well-established that every person, by virtue of his or her humanity, has a claim to respect that need not be negotiated and cannot be forfeited. As the principal means by which to recognise a person's intrinsic worth, respect is attitudinal but also requires a degree of expressive action. The core claim of the thesis is that at two defining points in the criminal process - policing and imprisonment - there is an overwhelming preoccupation with instrumental outcomes, with the result that respect is understood reductively and, at best, as a weak side-constraint on the pursuit of those outcomes. The thesis takes the form of a sustained critique of the respect deficit in policing and imprisonment. It is especially concerned with the ways in which both institutions are merely constrained and not characterised by respect. Respect shows great flexibility as a concept of critical enquiry, in particular, in its striking capacity to sharpen our critique of a diverse range of policies and practices. It swiftly emerges, for example, that both institutions appeal to the word 'respect' - relying on its inclusive ethos in official documentation when it is expedient to do so - but rarely and only superficially address the prior question of what it is to respect and be respected. Despite much criminological activity on the 'democratic design' of these institutions in recent decades, respect is more akin to a slogan than a foundational value of criminal justice practice. Yet respect is not only of analytic merit. It is also a matter of material significance. The dominant institutional approach to respect would prove difficult to correct, sustained as it is by intuitive understandings, convenient fictions and a preoccupation with outcomes. With a sense of modest realism, the thesis concludes by considering how best to embed respect in policing and imprisonment, anticipating the challenges - as well as the advances that could be made - in inscribing respectful relations between state and subject.

An important question for general jurisprudence concerns method: what is the right way to form a philosophical understanding of law? Exploration of this question has, in one form or another, featured as a constant part of the work of those within the discipline, and many different answers have been given. The aim of this thesis is to argue that a controversial conception of philosophical method – as an investigation into our rule-bound conceptual practices and uses of language – is the appropriate means of understanding the nature of law. The first three chapters establish the initial connection between conceptual or linguistic analysis and the ability to gain insight into the social reality of law. I argue, in chapter one, that institutional concepts have a linguistic basis and, in chapters two and three, that legal systems are borne out of the shared use of certain basic concepts on the part of those who make up their law applying institutions, i.e. the courts. To understand the rules according to which such concepts are deployed, I suggest, is to understand the essential structure of legal practice. An assumption of that argument is tested in chapter four by considering Ronald Dworkin’s famous claim that certain forms of disagreement between lawyers and judges are incompatible with a picture of law dependent upon their agreement in the use of basic legal concepts. Chapter five takes up the question of whether the account of social ontology contained in the thesis is compatible with the fact of philosophical disagreement about the nature of law. Finally, chapters six and seven discuss alternate models of theoretical success in general jurisprudence, the first inspired by externalist views of linguistic and mental contents, and the second dependent upon a naturalistic conception of philosophy.

This thesis examines the legal history of the Northern Isles (Orkney and Shetland) and discusses aspects of udal law and practice in the medieval and early-modern periods. It shows the extent of the influence from Scotland and Norway, and contextualises this through discussion of other Norwegian colonies. Chapter one serves as an introduction to the thesis. Chapter two considers procedural law in the Isles and the roles of the different officers involved in the legal process. Chapters three and four examine land tenure and succession respectively. The conclusion reflects on the legal history of the Isles more generally, as well as on the more recent legal history and on the current position of udal law within Scots law.

This thesis is an examination of the international law of maritime piracy.1 Its purpose is to explore the content and dimensions of the international law of piracy, and to seek a positive doctrine of the law as it currently stands. The thesis argues that maritime piracy in international law is primarily a question of jurisdiction. The thesis explains that jurisdiction in public international law has two distinct aspects, that of jurisdiction to prescribe, which is primarily a question of international criminal law (ICL), and that of jurisdiction to enforce, which at sea is governed by rules set out in the law of the sea. The thesis expounded here is that piracy was not historically conceptualised as an ‘international crime’ in the sense of one directly proscribed by international law, nor was piracy categorised as what we now know as universal jurisdiction. The thesis argues instead that the real significance of maritime piracy in international law is that it is a special basis of enforcement jurisdiction, an exception to the general rule of the exclusivity of flag State jurisdiction on the high seas. The thesis also suggests however, that this special basis of enforcement jurisdiction is less than adequate to address the contemporary problem of transnational maritime crime. The thesis will contend that the current theories regarding the international law of piracy are contributing to the difficulties being experienced in bringing pirates to justice. Where prescriptive jurisdiction is concerned, the thesis will argue that the theory that piracy is directly proscribed by international law has created a situation where many State have inadequate or even non-existent municipal law criminalising piracy. Furthermore, the thesis will also contend that the theorisation of piracy as being subject to universal jurisdiction is also contributing to the failure of States to take responsibility for prosecuting pirates, and also runs the risk of encouraging excessive claims to jurisdiction. Consequently, the thesis will propose that piracy is more accurately characterised as a ‘transnational crime’, that is more logically prosecuted under the more normal bases of prescriptive jurisdiction, such as flag State jurisdiction, passive personality, and the protective principle. At the same time, the thesis also examines the concept of piracy as a special basis of enforcement jurisdiction. It suggests that whilst the extraordinary authority to interdict and seize vessels at sea may have seemed adequate at the time of its codification, that authority may not be as effective today, since the law of the sea has developed away from a paradigm of control by maritime powers, and towards greater control in particular by coastal States in the form of expanded claims over coastal waters. Again the thesis proposes that the development of effective measures suppression of piracy and maritime crime might best be accomplished by a reassessment of the law of piracy, in particular by taking into account the way that measures have been implemented in relation to other areas of maritime law enforcement, including the control of WMD proliferation, drugs smuggling, people trafficking, and fisheries regulation. The thesis therefore challenges the received wisdom concerning the international law of piracy, and seeks to close a gap between the prevailing doctrine, and actual practice. The thesis argues that that misconceptions about the crime of piracy, and current developments in the law of the sea demand a re-conceptualisation of the law of piracy, away from unilateral enforcement of an international crime subject to universal jurisdiction, to a transnational crime, primarily subject to the protective principle of jurisdiction, and enforced through multilateral regional cooperation agreements, and agreements with flag States.

Recent decades have seen the emergence of calls for financial reparations to African Americans, Caribbean nations and Africa. These claims have sought to utilise legal principles of torts and unjust enrichment to create a causal chain between the history of transatlantic slavery, via colonialism and segregation, to present-day national and international racial inequality. This thesis argues that such conceptualisations of reparations oversimplify the history and legacy of transatlantic slavery, and therefore what is required to repair that history and legacy. The foremost legacy is attitudinal and relational. Modern anti-black racism was developed to justify the institutionalisation of slavery in the New World by Europeans. Racism in turn has, both knowingly and unknowingly, shaped the construction of historical memory and the development of national and international European identity. These identities have in turn shaped the relationships between Europeans and Africans, leading to present-day injustice and racial inequality. To overcome the socioeconomic legacies of transatlantic slavery, reparation must prioritise relational and attitudinal repair. This thesis utilises the theories of restorative justice, and its implementation in truth and reconciliation processes, to argue that museums and schools, by broadening the history they present to include previously suppressed events and community perspectives, can potentially contribute to relational repair at a national level in Britain and the US, and internationally via projects such as UNESCO’s Slave Route Project. This thesis argues that the history of transatlantic slavery and its legacies of relational harm and socioeconomic inequality cannot be isolated or fully understood without a wider historical and present-day contextualisation of inequalities and prejudices, including class. This thesis, therefore, ties the history and legacy of transatlantic slavery firmly into wider national and international history and underlines how confronting historical injustice and its legacy is vital to the creation of a fair and just future.

This thesis argues that Art. V (2) (b) of the NYC, which states that recognition and enforcement may be refused by a competent authority if enforcement of the awards would be contrary to the public policy of the country in question, will mean that any foreign awards contrary to Islamic principles will not be enforced in Saudi Arabia, due to the Kingdom's strict adherence to Shari'ah. Furthermore, it argues that Article V (2)(b) of the NYC provides a safe harbour wherein Saudi Arabia does not have to recognize a non-Saudi Arabian award that is contrary to its public policy. Article V(b)(2) allows Saudi Arabia to embrace the international community and its rules for international dispute resolution and enforcement, without rejecting its own history and public policy. However, Saudi Arabia's apparent negative attitude towards enforcement of foreign awards is based, to a large extent, upon the conflict between the spirit of the NYC and Shari'ah rules applied in Saudi Arabia. In arguing this thesis, this study proceeds from the hypotheses that the enforcement of foreign awards in Saudi Arabia is impossible or at least extremely difficult, even after the county’s adherence to the NYC in 1994. Saudi Arabia's adoption of NYC remains consistent with its historical resistance to treaties on international arbitration. One possible explanation for such an attitude on the part of Saudi Arabia is seen in its persistent protection patterns perpetuated by key KSA authorities, especially with regard to resistance in internationalizing trade related to oil exploration and production.

This thesis investigated the sources of the problems with Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects in Nigeria. The reason for this enquiry is as a result of the multitude of problems threatening the collapse of most of the concluded projects. Therefore, against the backdrop that proper risk management is the most critical success factor for PPPs, the thesis evaluated how risks have been allocated and mitigated in the projects concluded thus far in Nigeria. This is premised on the basic assumption that if risks are better managed, that it would result in enhanced projects. Having determined that political risk, demand risk and stakeholder opposition risk were the most prominent risk factors affecting PPPs in Nigeria, three case studies were used to evaluate how these risks have been handled. The projects are the 26 ports concessions, the Murtala Muhammed Airport terminal 2 (MMA2) BOT project and the Lekki toll road concession. It is believed that the lessons learnt from these studies will provide a tool for policy reforms leading to more successful projects. Also, by adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the thesis ensures that its findings and recommendations may easily be generalised across other projects, economic sectors, and disciplines and even to other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, since these countries share the same socio-economic conditions with Nigeria.

This thesis examines whether the approach to privacy protection under the English legal system is adequate given the distinct challenges raised by online communicating between individuals. In doing this, it aims to fulfil three objectives. Firstly, to show that privacy is, regardless of forum, deserving of appropriate legal protection; secondly, that the existing substantive and procedural basis of protection in England and Wales is flawed, since the altered landscape of privacy engendered by the widespread use of new communications media has been insufficiently assimilated into judicial understandings of privacy; and, thirdly, to analyse whether a revised legal structure would better regulate this area of law. The protection of privacy is an emotive topic, not least because the very nature of privacy itself is open to debate. This thesis plays a vital part in untangling what is, without doubt, a complex area of what may be described as the evolving law of privacy. By adopting its contemporary focus, the thesis is able to offer evaluation and critique of the existing law, highlighting where the English legal system is open to challenge and suggesting how an understanding of the metamorphosed notions of privacy engendered by new communications media might lead to its improved protection at law. Given both the importance of privacy protection and the growing prominence of social media platforms, this represents a crucial and timely research test which, it is hoped, will add to an understanding of these contemporary issues and their consequences. Accordingly, the overall contribution made to knowledge by this study is that, by exploring privacy protection against a backdrop of online communications media, it addresses a gap in the available literature. Within this thesis, the author develops a unique framework with which to better comprehend the increasingly novel ways in which privacy may be violated in a technological age and application of this model allows for the constituent parts of privacy violation to be conceptually broken down against the reality of online communications. This, in turn, allows the author to advance various inventive proposals for how privacy might be better safeguarded in the future.

This thesis explores the ways in which Islamic law and human rights interact within the work of women’s rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that advocate the reform of the Egyptian Personal Status Law (PSL) in the period between 2006 and 2010. The thesis shows the relevance of the human rights framework as well as the flexibility of Islamic legal discourse in the work of the NGOs. Drawing on both Islamic law and human rights enabled NGOs to develop a more gender-sensitive religious discourse, which supported their PSL reform demands. However the interaction between these two frameworks was largely affected by several important factors, which sometimes led NGOs to dilute some of their demands. These factors included the implications of the change in the form of Shari‘a as codified law under the modern nation-state; the Egyptian political context both internally and externally; the common local perception that human rights are a Western production and an extension of Western colonialism; the dominant religious but patriarchal discourse governing the PSL; the implications of activism through the NGO structure; and the personal religiosity of individual activists. The thesis explores NGOs’ PSL reform demands in depth bearing in mind these factors. It investigates NGOs’ discourse and shows its strengths and weaknesses. It shows that the interaction between Islamic law and human rights within NGOs’ work in this particular Egyptian context produced reform demands that were innovative and practically appealing on one hand, but epistemologically problematic in some instances, on another.

Most literatures on international law have been observed to neglect or give scanty attention to the contribution of Islamic law towards the development of modern international law, particularly the principles relating to the diplomatic immunity and privileges. It has often been maintained, especially by some Western commentators that there is no modicum of materiality between Islamic siyar and the rules of conventional international law; as such, Islamic law has nothing to offer the international legal system. The current spades of global terrorism which are allegedly perpetrated in the name of Islam against diplomatic institutions have further widened this perceived incongruity between the two legal regimes. This study therefore critiques and also evaluates the exactitude of the contention that the sources of the two legal regimes are incompatible. This study equally examines the compatibility in the diplomatic principles between Islamic diplomatic law and international diplomatic law. It also contends that the attacks on diplomats and diplomatic facilities are antithetical to the classical principles of jihaad and Islamic diplomatic law. It further argues that the need to harmonise the two legal systems and have a thorough cross-cultural understanding amongst nations generally with a view to enhancing unfettered diplomatic cooperation should be of paramount priority.

Jersey law, and within it Jersey property law, has received little academic attention. This thesis seeks to examine, and provide a systematic account of, the Jersey law of property. Specific aspects of substantive law are explored. From these, general observations about the nature and structure of property law are made. Unsurprisingly, given the small size of the island, Jersey has a relatively limited amount of indigenous legal material to offer, much of it in French. Inevitably, there are gaps in the sources and some way of addressing these has to be determined before a systematic account of the law is possible. Juristic writing and modern caselaw demonstrate consistent recourse to the laws of other jurisdictions when gaps are encountered. Norman law, modern French law, and English law (to a much lesser extent and mainly where it conforms to Roman law) are used in the cases on property law, and thus also in this thesis. Reference is also made to the law of Guernsey (Jersey’s sister jurisdiction) but the difficulties encountered in researching Jersey law are no less evident there. In areas such as the law of servitudes, Roman law is often referred to explicitly by the Jersey jurists and by the commentators on Norman law. The influence of Roman law is also evident in the division between real rights and personal rights, sometimes barely visible in Jersey law, and is also a general backdrop to the rules on classification of things. Norman feudal law remains vestigially in place but the structure of the law and its individual rules bear many civilian characteristics. For this reason, in addition to Jersey sources, Norman law, modern French law, and any other materials used by the courts, other jurisdictions with civilian systems of property law are also referred to, specifically mixed jurisdictions, of which Jersey is one.

This thesis is a comparative study of the theologies of the law in Martin Luther and John Wesley. Though Luther’s view of the law has been investigated by many Luther scholars, and Wesley’s view by a few Wesley scholars, no one has yet attempted to compare and contrast both theologians’ views of the law as a book-length project. This thesis contributes to scholarship, firstly, by investigating their theologies of the law in relation to subjects of systematic theology, namely, their views of God, Christology, Pneumatology, soteriology, anthropology, and Christian ethics. On the basis of a reliable examination of both theologians’ views of the law, this thesis also analyses the similarities and differences between them. For both theologians, the law was not just one subject among many, but an essential element that penetrated every topic they dealt with. This thesis makes clear the different motives and the characteristics of their theologies of the law in all of the subjects discussed in this thesis. Doing this, this thesis not only deals with long debated questions, such as whether Luther taught justification by imputed righteousness or by theosis, and whether he taught the so-called third use of the law, but also examines subjects which have not been fully explored, such as Wesley’s views of the three offices of Christ with regard to the law, and of the role of the Holy Spirit in revealing and enabling fulfilment of the law. To provide a contextual analysis, their theologies of the law have been considered in their respective historical and religious situations. In Luther's view, his reformation was an attempt to correct a human-centred religion of the Catholic Church characterized by intellectualism and moralism, which he believed was caused by misapplication and distortion of the law as meritorious cause. Employing Philip Watson’s theocentric motif, and Brian Gerrish’s emphasis on justification by faith and two kingdoms as a framework for interpreting Luther’s theology, this thesis demonstrates that Luther represented all aspects of God’s all-sufficiency, His absolute freedom, imputation of Christ’s righteousness, spiritual trials and comfort by the Holy Spirit, justification and sanctification by faith, human beings as earthly creatures, Christians as saints and sinners, two uses of the law in God’s two kingdoms, as countermeasures against a human-centred religion of the Catholic Church. In his own historical context, what Wesley aimed to correct was not only the Catholic Church’s legalism, but also the Protestant Church’s antinomianism which he thought Luther’s negative representation of the law caused owing to his over-reaction against the Catholic doctrine of meritorious salvation. On the foundation of Luther’s teaching of sola gratia, Wesley endeavoured to bring Luther’s negative view of the law back to a balanced theology of the law. Employing Kenneth Collins’ analysis of the two-fold axial theme in Wesley’s theology – holiness (holy love) and grace (free and co-operant) – as a framework for understanding Wesley’s theology of the law, this thesis shows that in all subjects of God’s works, the three offices of Christ, the witness and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the relationship between faith and love, human beings as the image of God, and sanctification as renewal of person and cosmos, Wesley’s evangelical synergism makes room for the role of the law on the foundation of God’s grace.

After the Enlargement of the European Union in 2004, around a million Accession State migrants arrived in the United Kingdom, with Polish migrants constituting the largest group. There is a growing body of literature focusing on their migratory patterns, networks, labour market performance, and identity. However, little has been said so far about the Polish migrants' relationship with law in the United Kingdom. This thesis asks: how do the Polish post-2004 EU Enlargement migrants form their relationship with the law, and what are the factors that affect this? It focuses on the intricacies of migrants' choices of `semi-legal' over legal status, subsequent legalization strategies, and the interpretations of legality they result in. Socio-legal integration has so far been viewed solely via state legal frameworks, following the traditional approach of the `law-first' perspective. This thesis argues that it is not the institutional arrangements and legal architecture alone that decide the nature of migrants' semi-legal relationship with law in the host society. A more comprehensive insight into the socio-legal integration of migrants is possible only when we combine in the analysis the interplay between the structural factors of the host country's legal environment, migrants' agency and the culturally derived values, attitudes, behaviour and social expectations towards the law and its enforcement. The thesis therefore makes a case for a `proper' recognition of migrants' legal culture in the study of their socio-legal integration. The thesis concludes that semi-legality, as an initial response to the legal environment is not static, but changing. As a result, migrants' socio-legal integration is extended in time and gradual. Migrants' legality could be discussed at two levels - at the behavioural level and at the level of a value. Changing status between the two poles of legality and illegality brings with it greater appreciation of legality as a value. This research presents a strong argument that the relationship between behaviour and attitudes to law could be meaningfully investigated in an applied domain of the new socio-legal environment.

This is a study of the genesis of the Corneal (Grafting) Act 1952, the Human Tissue Act 1961, the Human Tissue Act 2004, and the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006. The aim has been to understand why so much had apparently changed between 1952-61 and 2004-06, both in society and in medical practice, as an explanation of why the earlier Acts were essentially ‘enabling/permissive’, whereas the later Acts were ‘regulatory/restraining’. A comparison between the Human Tissue Act 2004 and the separate Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006 (both Acts concerned with ‘human tissue’ and with origins in ‘retention of organs without consent’, but with significant differences in their respective provisions), has allowed a finer dissection and comparative analysis of the possible factors involved. The Thesis focuses on the ‘inspiration’, ‘deliberation/ formulation’ and ‘legitimation’ phases of the legislative process (using the terminology of Drewry)-that is, the genesis of the various Acts- and has not sought to study the later (Drewry) phases of ‘implementation’ of the law nor subsequent ‘feedback’. The methodology has been to ‘interrogate the sources’ through in depth study of archived records, using publicly available documents, certain confidential papers made available by the Royal College of Pathologists and the Royal College of Physicians (London), papers released under Freedom of Information Acts, and analysis of the scholarly literature. The findings suggest that a complexity of factors contributed to shaping the 2004 and 2006 legislation, in addition to the proximate ‘organ scandals’. The study may contribute specifically to any wish of Government and the medical/scientific professions to review their processes of consultation and negotiation prior to developing new legislation with an impact on research; and more generally to the case for more regular use of pre-legislative scrutiny of Bills.

The Brazilian competition law and policy are inspired by the EU and US competition law models and incorporate different aspects of these systems, such as the rule of reason and the concept of abuse of dominance. Based on the analysis of competition cases and in-depth interviews with members of the Brazilian competition authority, the research examines how the authority has dealt with the differences between the EU and the US models when applying its competition law. It identifies the ways in which the authority seeks to adjust its competition system to the particularities of a large developing country, in terms of legislation, economy, culture and institutional framework. The research also analyses the way in which the current competition legislation was intended to give flexibility to the competition authority but at the same time has produced the potential for inconsistencies in its enforcement. The study reveals differences between the formal provisions of the competition law and the manner in which it is applied. In addition, the research argues that the application of diverging concepts drawn from the EU and US models have resulted at times in incoherence in relation to issues such as the definition of the relevant market, the concepts of dominance and abuse, as well as the dissimilar treatment of specific offences. With regards to the latter, the findings suggest that there is a need to address institutional problems, such as the shortage of administrative personnel, political interference, inadequate training and a lack of an ‘institutional memory’. Possible solutions discussed include the publication of guidelines and II authoritative decisions to restate the law, improvements in training and funding, as well as proposals for administrative and legal reform.

The United Nations Human Rights Council was created in 2006 to replace the UN Commission on Human Rights. The Commission‘s failure had been attributed to its increasing politicisation and decreasing ability to discharge its mandate. Many radical reforms were not taken up at the Council‘s creation. The Council‘s constituent instrument did provide theoretical methods for avoiding the Commission‘s failings, all of which required implementation by states, regional groups and political blocs. Despite efforts at the Council‘s creation, and during early sessions, to avoid selectivity, partiality and bias, the new body has seen little change in the problems that had beset its predecessor. Many of the issues at the new body can be found in other international organisations. Unlike other bodies, however, those failings undermine the Council‘s ability to discharge its mandate. In order to examine the Council, I have used international law alongside general theories of international relations as applied to international organisations. Council sessions, procedures and mechanisms have been examined, and politicisation of the new body has been compared with the Commission‘s failings.

The meteoric growth in the economy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the success of the PRC’s increasingly vast participation in international trade and commerce could be viewed as resting at the intersection of three bodies of law: PRC Contract Law, the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), and the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (UPICC). If these three sources of law are not properly understood or correctly applied, their interplay can undermine uniformity goals that are at the heart of modern efforts to create an international legal regime on which buyers and sellers can, or must, depend. Further, these modern efforts often struggle against historical influences and biases of local law, courts and arbitration tribunals. These tensions are arguably felt most acutely in the PRC today, which, because of its burgeoning growth and enormous contribution as supplier of goods to the world’s developed and developing nations, stands to suffer if its internal law cannot be reconciled and applied consistently with international rules of law on contracts for international sales as reflected in the CISG and the UPICC. This research seeks to identify what barriers that the application of the CISG has faced and continues to face in the PRC. It examines those barriers arise from traditional understandings of contract law in the PRC and the attitudes of the PRC jurists and legal practitioners towards international uniform sales law instruments. It will put forward a number of proposals for overcoming those obstacles to the application of the CISG in the PRC, including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (as part of the PRC since 1997) and Macau Special Administrative Region (as part of the PRC since 1999), and Taiwan, whose political and legal status remains contentious.

European Criminal Law has been one of the most rapid, remarkable, but at the same time controversial developments in the European Union having a significant impact on domestic criminal justice systems. Judicial and police cooperation in criminal matters soon became a fully-fledged policy of the European Union affecting the national sovereignty of Member States, the relationship between individuals and the States as well as the protection of fundamental rights. My thesis examines the development of EU criminal law towards the creation of a European "Area of Freedom, Security and Justice" (via mutual recognition and the harmonization of substantive criminal law) and its impact on the Greek criminal justice system. In assessing the overall above mentioned question, I examine how EU criminal law has developed; what have been the main political and legal challenges for the implementation in Greece; to what extent, and how, the Greek Legislator has implemented EU law in the field of mutual recognition and harmonization, and, last, but not least, what has been the judges', practitioners' and academics' reaction to this development. The thesis has two parts: one on mutual recognition and one on the harmonization of substantive criminal law. Chapter one explores the main issues regarding the scope, extent, and nature of the principle of mutual recognition at EU level. Chapter two explores the main issues related to the impact as well as the practical operation of the principle of mutual recognition in the Greek Jurisdiction. Chapter three, then, turns its interest on harmonization of substantive criminal laws from the EU point of view. Finally, Chapter four focuses on the impact of the implementation of the EU harmonization system on the Greek Jurisdiction with regard to the same areas of substantive criminal laws, as discussed in chapter three. These chapters are then followed by a conclusion aiming to synthesize and highlight the main issues that have arisen during the analysis of this thesis and answer the main question: "What has been the impact of EU Criminal Law on the Greek Criminal Justice System?"

This thesis explores the ill-defined and oft-underestimated relationship between the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and taxation. By adopting a two-pronged approach, the work will (i) examine the extent to which the WTO legal framework exerts influence upon domestic tax law and international tax policy, and will (ii) question whether it is appropriate for the WTO to play a regulatory role in the field of taxation, and whether this role should be expanded or curtailed. The thesis presents an examination of the historical development of international trade law and international tax law, and reveals that these two separate areas of law are closely linked in terms of their underlying principles and historical evolution. The work then goes on to offer a doctrinal analysis of the tax content found in the WTO legal texts and highlights ambiguities therein. Analysis focuses on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (GATT), the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM Agreement), and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Throughout the analysis, attention is placed on the income tax litigation between the European Union and the United States (the Domestic International Sales Corporation and the Foreign Sales Corporation tax breaks), and on future possible tax conflicts. It is found that the WTO plays a crucial role in regulating taxation matters, but that the rules pertaining to taxation are often unmanageably ambiguous, and this may result in unforeseen conflicts with domestic and international tax policy. Four recommendations are offered to resolve this legal ambiguity: a reappraisal of the direct-indirect tax distinction, the clarification of legal texts, the establishment of a WTO Committee on Trade and Taxation, and the development of institutional linkages and dialogue between the WTO and the traditional international tax institutions, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations (UN).

This thesis is a comprehensive guide to the current interpretation of the principle of good faith in the lex mercatoria. It sets out the full background to this interpretation, exploring the development of good faith in major legal cultures in the Western world and in arbitral practice. Modern lex mercatoria is one of the most conspicuous manifestations of globalization in the field of law. Previous examples of global law are the Roman ius gentium and the medieval law merchant. The principle of good faith has been fundamental in all these manifestations. The thrust of this thesis represents an investigation of the reasons for the essential role of good faith in universal contexts, and in particular, its meaning in the lex mercatoria. It is argued here that national laws have been influential on the meaning of good faith in the current lex mercatoria. Hence, four major legal systems in the civil and the common law areas are studied: German, French, US and English. Nonetheless, other national systems are also mentioned throughout the thesis. This analysis will reveal the fundamental dynamism of the concept of good faith. This thesis challenges the traditional view of good faith as a moral and subjective concept, impractical and difficult to assess. It will show that an objective notion of good faith is vigorous in international commerce nowadays. This thesis explains that good faith in the lex mercatoria is interpreted as cooperation of the parties to a commercial contract. This notion fits the experience of global trade today. This theory will be verified through an analysis of: comparative legal history, sociological, philosophical and political theories, international instruments embracing the lex mercatoria and also through cases from national courts and international arbitration. This comprehensive study will serve as a context for future investigations on ancillary duties that emanate from good faith and on the principle of good faith in specific stages of the contractual iter, such as re-negotiation of the agreement. It will contribute to the harmonization and unification of law in different regions of the world and also to global projects containing the language of good faith. Likewise, it will be useful for traders and practitioners, especially arbitrators dealing with good faith in international disputes between merchants.

The relationship between the judiciary and arbitration must be based upon integration and cooperation and not upon competition and tension. From this point, the competent court must play the vital role of supporting and assisting the arbitration process during its various stages. To the extent that this relation is successful and harmonized, arbitration will be effective in resolving disputes within the shortest time and at the least expense. Judicial involvement in arbitral proceedings occurs during several stages of arbitration. This involvement starts with the competent court‟s decision to abstain from considering a case involving a dispute over an agreement that includes an arbitration clause. Court instead intervenes to enforce the arbitration agreement, supervising the selection of the arbitral tribunal and assisting in that process whenever the need arises. Thereafter, the court monitors the course of the arbitral proceedings by considering claims for the arbitrators' challenge and dismissal and, if such claims are successful, filling the resulting vacancy. Court Intervention extends to include an important and critical stage of the arbitral proceedings, which is the stage of pleading before the competent court. Whereas the competent court enjoys the power to enforce judicial decisions, the arbitral tribunal does not have such power. In this context, judicial assistance is indispensable to the arbitral tribunal, for example, in resolving a preliminary point, issuing a subpoena to a witness who refuses to appear before the tribunal, consolidating arbitral proceedings, ordering an uncooperative party to provide documents related to the dispute, rendering interim and conservatory measures, and extending the time limit for rendering the arbitration award. In considering the significance of the court's assistance of and support for arbitration at the procedural stage, the importance and contribution of this study is in its exploration of the pivots and patterns of the expected judicial review and assistance based upon both the provisions and rules of arbitration and judicial precedents. Interviews conducted with senior judges, arbitrators and chiefs of international arbitration centres provide a rich tributary that enhances this study and supports it with vast and vital experience and with fresh information that cannot be found in any previous scientific research of this topic. In short, this study focuses upon the conception of the judicial involvement in supporting arbitral proceedings inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and upon evaluating this involvement in comparison with the involvement of the judiciary in the rest of the GCC states and international applications in this regard. Moreover, the study offers proposals and recommendations to the Saudi legislator in particular and to the Gulf legislator in general, and draws a model framework for the relationship between the judiciary and arbitration during the proceedings stage.

This thesis studies the evolution of the war prerogative in England from 1600-2010. It traces the historical theory and practice of the war prerogative and proposes reform of the constitutional arrangements for its exercise. It addresses three key questions. First, what have writers on political and constitutional theory said about the constitutional arrangements for the war prerogative, and, in particular, what justifications have been advanced for those arrangements? Secondly, in practice, has the executive in fact possessed sole and exclusive powers over war and the deployment of force, or have Parliament and the courts had a role to play in their exercise and scrutiny? Thirdly, are there better ways to organise our constitutional arrangements for the war prerogative, to enable a more substantive role for Parliament (particularly the House of Commons) in its exercise and scrutiny? On the first question, I show that orthodox theoretical and political discourses have continuously asserted the executive’s exclusive power over war, but the justifications advanced for that arrangement have changed over time. Those changes reflect the varying influence of different political theories at different times. On the second question, I find that, contrary to orthodox theoretical and political discourses, Parliament has played an active and substantive role in the exercise and scrutiny of the war prerogative. The courts have refused to intervene in the exercise of the war prerogative, but have been more ready to intervene in cases involving the exercise of powers incidental to the war prerogative. On the third question, I argue that reform of the constitutional arrangements for the war prerogative is necessary and desirable. I recommend the use of ‘institutional mechanisms’, which are small-scale rules and institutional arrangements, within existing institutions, which aim to promote certain normative goals. In particular, I propose a statute which would impose conditions on the executive’s exercise of its war prerogative. I argue that these proposals show that, through careful institutional design, democratic values, national security and operational efficiency can each be reconciled and promoted.

Business format franchising is a specific, distinct and uniform type of commercial activity with significant economic impact in the European Union. It stimulates economic activity by offering significant advantages to all those involved, improving distribution and giving business increased access to other member states. It comprises nearly 10,000 franchised brands, which account for over €215 billion (US$300 billion) turnover per annum. However, compared to its scale in the USA and Australia, franchising is not realising its full potential in the EU. Its disproportionate concentration in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain also evidences that franchising is not promoting trade between member states as much as it could and should do. Applying a comparative law approach and drawing upon member states’ existing statutory laws, this thesis seeks to show that this underdevelopment of franchising in the EU is, in part, due to the regulatory environment it is subject to. This is primarily because of two distinct factors. Firstly, a failure by the member states’ regulatory eco-systems to adequately govern franchising. They fail both to adequately reinforce the economic drivers that attract franchisors and franchisees to franchising and to reduce to an appropriate level the inherent consequential risk to which both parties are exposed. Secondly, there is a lack of homogeneity between the different legal eco-systems which amounts to a barrier to trade between member states. It is proposed that the adoption of an appropriately drafted directive will not only harmonise the approach of the EU’s legal eco-systems towards franchising but will also re-enforce the relevant economic drivers and reduce the inherent consequential risks to an appropriate level. It is suggested that the directive does this by accentuating the influence of three commercial imperatives on the EU’s legal eco-systems. These are promoting market confidence in franchising, ensuring pre-contractual hygiene and imposing a mandatory taxonomy of rights and obligations on to the franchise relationship.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) involves striving for balance between environmental, social and economic performances of business. Encouraged by growing pressure for transparency and accountability in business, CSR constitutes an overall contribution of business to sustainable development; hence, healthy business requires a healthy community. The research asks if the law can assist CSR to deliver sustainable development to the underdeveloped but oil-rich Niger Delta, establishing areas of good practice whereby oil companies support the region's economy and social needs through their CSR activities. However, regulations do bring about social change thus business are obliged to obey the laws, codes of good practice and initiatives. Although CSR is not business' primary responsibilities, business can encourage poverty reduction and societal development. The analysis of Nigerian oil production laws reveals that court interpretations regarding rising number of oil-related litigations and procedures of settlements, neglects of oil communities and compensation payments have become difficult. While the outcomes of Joint Venture Arrangement (JVAs) crucially affect CSR performance, the need for reforms is necessary. Using the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) criteria, the analysis of Shell Petroleum Development Corporation (SPDC)'s CSR performance in Nigeria reveals that while improvements are needed in some areas including environmental and human rights protections, consultation and dialogue, overall, the research shows that the company positively affects the region. The research establishes that through effective enforcement, the law can assist CSR to deliver sustainable societal development. It is concluded that until CSR is made compulsory supported by legislations to guide businesses, the full gains of CSR cannot be achieved. Hence, the research offers a detailed novel definition of CSR to make businesses become more liable as the existing model allows them to act voluntarily. Using novel models, the research demonstrates how sustainable development can be attained through CSR and considering compulsory legislations, enforcement, compliance, stakeholders' integration, consultation, dialogue and prolific partnerships. The research also offers Government Social Responsibility (GSR), a concept to further governments' commitments to their citizens.

Even though it is over a century since the abolition of transatlantic slavery, people are still sold as commodities in the form of human trafficking, to be exploited for sexual services, cheap labour, domestic servitude and other emerging forms of contemporary slavery. Human Trafficking (Hereafter, Trafficking) is a transnational human rights violation that has generated renewed global attention over the last decade. Its prominence has placed the issue at the top of growing political agendas for both national governments and anti-trafficking agencies at various levels. In an effort to address the issue, the anti-trafficking regime has given rise to the 3Ps (Prevention, Protection and Prosecution) as foci areas through which states can cooperate towards tackling this modern-day slavery. Despite the measures put in place to tackle the problem including the enactment of relevant international anti-trafficking laws, the issue continues unabated due to the inadequacies of some of the approaches adopted to deal with the issue. Subsequently, these limitations have also impacted on the extent to which states have cooperated within the issue area. This thesis is founded on the premise that human rights violations are the major causes and consequences of trafficking and that the anti-trafficking measures will continue to fall short until the concerns of those whom it intends to protect are placed at the forefront of current approaches. Whilst a rights-based approach is still giving rise to burgeoning amount of literature within the anti-trafficking discourse, this study contends that it can only be proficient, if it is broadened to cover the diverse nature and interpretations of human trafficking across various cultural traditions that often transcends legality. Hence, this thesis introduces a human-centred approach to surpass the objective of human rights in this context. It is emphasised that the adopting of such a ‗beyond law‘ approach during interaction amongst states can be useful to international cooperation in this instance. Using a case study of trafficking between Nigeria and the UK, this research sheds more light on the contextual nature of trafficking that warrants better intervention including how both states have cooperated in this regard. Ongoing socio-economic and political factors within Nigeria and the UK are crucial to understanding the modus operandi (MO) of human trafficking. Furtherance to the MO, the extent to which both countries have addressed the current realities of the problem across their territories, in terms of internalizing anti-trafficking measures and operationalizing their 2004 bilateral cooperation is also analysed. This thesis concludes that anti-trafficking approaches needs to move on from those which are currently identified with the political interest of states to one geared towards achieving the best outcomes for those at risk/victims/survivors of trafficking.

Relocation cases are disputes between separated parents which arise when one proposes to move to a new locality with their child and the other objects. Relocation disputes are increasingly common and are becoming a topic of international concern. This thesis takes a comparative socio-legal approach to examining the legal responses to relocation cases in England and New Zealand. In England, Payne v Payne [2001] 1 FLR 1052 continues to apply principles first enunciated in Poel v Poel [1970] 1 WLR 1469, and generally sees children’s welfare as being promoted by allowing primary carers to relocate, so long as such moves are bona fide and well-considered. New Zealand rejected this approach in the mid-1990s, and now places more emphasis on children having strong relationships with both parents. Consequently, where England is characterised as ‘pro-relocation’, New Zealand is ‘anti-relocation’. Qualitative interviews with legal practitioners in both countries suggest that these characterisations are reflective of the law in practice. Looking at hypothetical case-studies, English practitioners are more likely to support proposed relocations than New Zealanders. Many English practitioners think their law to be outdated, and in particular that it gives too much weight to applicants’ well-being and too little to the value of children having strong relationships with both parents. However, in New Zealand, where an approach similar to that favoured by many English participants is applied, practitioners have the opposite concern, that applicants’ well-being is given insufficient weight, and promoting strong relationships with both parents has become overly dominant when assessing children’s welfare. It is suggested that the current variation in approaches to relocation may fit broader trends in post-separation parenting in different countries. However, given the current ‘search for common principles’ which can be applied to relocation cases internationally, this thesis raises questions about the likelihood of international agreement being reached.

A major objective of the Human Rights Act (HRA) was to bring about a culture of rights in the UK. Its introduction fore-grounded questions about the use of rights to advance social justice issues and was the impetus for this research. At about the same as the Act came into effect another law, Section 55, an antithesis of what the HRA promised, was passed which forced thousands of asylum-seekers into destitution. Section 55 became a major battleground pitting non-governmental organisations (NGOs) against the Home Office in a three-year long campaign, characterised by rancour and viciousness, unlike any in recent memory. The NGOs, with the new HRA as a key part of their strategy, defeated the legislation. This thesis, a bottom-up case study of rights at work, examines the role of rights in the campaign to assess (1) if rights brought about social changes and (2) is a culture of rights developing in the UK? The paper first considers the various theoretical frameworks on rights and social change and analyses various case studies of rights at work. Context is important; therefore, it also examines how asylum has come to be framed in present-day discourse, with an overview on the evolution of welfare as a coercive measure. The study, framed against current events of the day, concludes that while test-case challenges eventually defeated Section 55 welfare as a coercive measure continues. In short, the HRA has proven to be ineffective against illiberal policies and the development of a culture of rights, insofar as asylum is concerned, has stalled. And it has happened with deliberation by a government determined to be tough on asylum irrespective of the HRA.

This DPhil thesis analyses the Takeover Bid Directive in the light of EU Law and examines the extent to which this Directive facilitates the exercise of the fundamental freedom of establishment and the free movement of capital in the internal market. Since the Directive is based on the EC Treaty chapter on freedom of establishment (Articles 43 and 44(2)(g) EC Treaty), it should in principle contribute to cross frontier corporate mobility in the internal market through takeover bids; this was the aim of the Commission in its various proposals. Takeover bids and the EC Treaty provisions on freedom of establishment are closely related. The Directive forms part of the EU company law harmonization programme whose weaknesses and limits are also explored. However, the Takeover Bid Directive is an EU company law instrument with strong links to EU capital market law. The initial aims of the EU legislature were to establish an internal market for companies and to achieve market integration in the field of EU company law. However, the Takeover Bid Directive is a compromise and watered down version of a proposal which the Commission envisaged would lead to a more effective pan-European takeover regime than that which actually proved possible. The need for compromise was the result of the very different legal and policy approaches of the Member States in the field of takeover regulation. Some provisions of the Directive are obligatory for all Member States. These provisions include the mandatory bid rule, the squeeze-out right, and the sell-out right. All these obligatory provisions of the Directive are in their present form open to criticism. The two key provisions of the Directive have been made optional for Member States. These are the non-frustration rule, requiring the board to obtain the prior authorization of the general meeting of shareholders before taking any action which could result in the frustration of the bid; and the breakthrough rule, requiring that any restrictions on the transfer of securities or voting rights provided for in the articles of association of the offeree company or in contractual agreements between the offeree company and the holders of its securities or in contractual agreements between holders of the offeree company’s securities shall not apply vis-à-vis the offeror during the time allowed for acceptance of the bid. Nevertheless, Member States, which opt out, are obliged to allow individual companies to opt in. Moreover, a reciprocity rule was also adopted, which allows Member States to permit those companies, which apply these provisions, to opt out again if they are the target of a bidder, which does not itself apply the same takeover provisions. Additionally, the non-frustration and the breakthrough rule are not fully comprehensive and even when a company applies them, it might still be able to evade their application since some corporate and financial structures remain outside the Directive’s scope. Finally, this thesis discusses the extent to which obstacles to cross border takeovers addressed by the Directive, or indeed left intact by the Directive, are to be regarded as restrictions on the right of establishment stricto sensu, or simply as obstacles in practice to making a successful takeover bid. More specifically, it scrutinizes the horizontal direct effect of the EC fundamental freedoms and seeks to analyze the extent to which conduct of the board and articles in the corporate constitution might be said to constitute restrictions on the freedom of establishment and on the free movement of capital.

Personality rights and property rights are not adequately protected by End User License Agreements (EULAs). This thesis explains how they may be safeguarded by expanding traditional intellectual property rules and developing more cohesive rules for user-generated content. Currently virtual property is governed under a system where initial rights are allocated to traditional intellectual property rights holders, and subsequent rights are governed by EULAs. The traditional intellectual property rights holders have been systematically eliminating any emerging or potential virtual property rights to which game players may be entitled. This is causing an imbalance in resources and rights. The law of contract and the law of property have traditionally balanced each other. The law of contract permits parties to realize the value of idiosyncratic preferences through trades. The law of property traditionally limits the burdens that parties may place on the productive use or marketability of high-value resources by means of contract. Presently, emergent useful property forms in cyberspace are being eliminated by contract. Property law theories provide strong grounds for recognizing that property rights should inhere in virtual assets. Intellectual property rights, specifically copyright, protect the author’s expression of his ideas. The question remains who is creating what? Is it the games company who provide the backdrop and venue or the players who provide the dialogue, action, and plot? The structure and building-blocks are the legal property of the creator-company; however, each character is the embodiment of a player’s story. The fair use doctrine creates a “breathing space” for certain subsidiary or derivative uses of a work by declining to recognize the copyright holder’s entitlement to control (or exploit) the markets for these uses. In determining which of these uses fall into this breathing space, the courts will use a sliding scale.

The management of diversity has been the chief dilemma of the Turkish state since the 19th century to the present day. This thesis explains, from a legal perspective, the ongoing dilemmas regarding the management of diversity in Turkey. The Turkish legal system is shown to have persistently failed to accommodate ethno-religious diversity in the country. This failure is attributable to the state’s founding philosophy - Turkish nationalism - and its influence upon legislation and judicial bodies. The concepts of ‘nation’, ‘citizenship’ and ‘minority’, formulated in line with this nationalist perception, are key coordinates of a policy on managing diversity in the Turkish legal system. The ‘civic’ language used in the Constitutions is therefore argued to be misleading if one takes into account the heavily loaded ethno-cultural and religious references in the constitutional preambles, legislation, and particularly the courts’ jurisprudence. In fact, as shown here, the state’s official stance of ‘civic/territorial nationalism’ has been used to justify the promotion of ‘Turkishness’ and the Turkification of ‘others’ in Turkey. Thus, one of the main concerns of this thesis is to examine the scope as well as the ethnic and religious coordinates of the notion of ‘Turk’ which is claimed by the state and judicial bodies to be an ‘umbrella’ identity. Lastly, this thesis argues that the Turkish state and legal system’s nationalist stance has created a legal discourse which has problems with the very justification for minority protection given in international law. Thus, the thesis further hopes to demonstrate that without a thorough reconstruction of the founding philosophy of the state and the legal system, which would also require a de-construction of history, education, legislation, jurisprudence, etc., any solution to dilemmas of managing diversity would be inadequate.

Copyright is a property right that confers valuable economic rights. However, the benefits of the copyright system can be realized only if the rights are suitably managed. Traditionally, copyright is managed on a territorial basis. This thesis questions the suitability of copyright management on a territorial basis in the small states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). It argues that the relatively small pool of right-holders in each state, and the small national repertoires make the territorial management of rights unsuitable and unviable. The hypothesis of the study is that copyright management in CARICOM will be successful only if it is undertaken on a regional basis with centralized structures that can benefit from economies of scale. The hypothesis is tested with reference to the management of copyright generated by two distinct groups of right-holders in CARICOM a) authors, composers and publishers of music and b) Universities. The study concludes that the effective management of the rights of authors, composers and publishers of music should be undertaken in CARICOM by one collective management organization which would issue a pan-Caribbean licence covering the works of right-holders in all CARICOM states, and that the copyright generated by Universities in these states should be managed by a single regional mechanism.

The thesis analyzes Russian laws of security and insolvency and reviews common legal issues arising in cross-border financing transactions. To aid better understanding of up-to-date Russian law, the analysis includes historical information. The thesis concludes that Russian law traditionally did not adopt a regime favorable to lenders and that the law of security was inefficient. In addition, commercial practice suffered from the inflexible approach of courts to innovations. Statutory law was not appropriate for commercial, as opposed to retail, transactions. This situation may be partially attributed to the recent transition from planned to market economy and, hence, relatively short history of modern Russian law. The thesis highlights recent Russian legal reforms and their impact on lending practices. At the thesis shows, the respective changes provided more comfort and protection to the lenders and increased certainty in business transactions. In this way laws of security and insolvency were elevated to new levels and this demonstrated the changing approach of legislators and courts. This originality of this work is in that it combines the study of the original Russian sources of law with the perspective of financial transactions in the international markets. It also includes a comparative element: where appropriate rules of Russian law are contrasted with their counterparts in English law. Furthermore, Russian security and insolvency laws are often reviewed through the prism of their practical application and effect on lending practices. Thus, the link between law and economy is also exposed.

Arbitration plays an effective role in settling commercial disputes. It is indeed the first and oldest means of dispute settlement mankind has ever known. Its importance has shored up the Court System by reducing the burden of backlog of cases. In addition to its wide acceptance as a matter of party autonomy, countries have adopted such a method of dispute settlement in parallel to the existing national judicial system. Saudi Arabia is among the countries that has benefited from arbitration. The new Arbitration law was issued under the Royal Decree Number M/46 dated 12/7/1403 Hejira, - 25 April 1983 Gregorian. Ten years later, the establishment of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) States Commercial Arbitration Center at the GCC meeting in Riyadh was approved. In 1993, Saudi Arabia ratified the New York Convention on Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards 1958 (The New York Convention) and in 2005, joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). This thesis, examines the existence and extent of respect for party autonomy under the current Saudi Arbitration Law with particular reference to Arbitration Agreement, the freedom of parties to choose arbitration as an alternative to dispute resolution in courts under applicable law and tribunal will be examined in the light of best practice, and its compatibility with best practice will also be assessed. It also examines the role of Saudi courts in arbitration. Specifically, the role of the courts at the beginning of arbitration, during the Arbitral proceedings, and after the award has been rendered will be analysed to evaluate whether the Saudi courts support the Arbitral tribunal or intervene in the process. In an attempt to justify the theme of this research, references have been made to the English Arbitration Act 1996, the 1985 UNCITRAL Model Law, and Egyptian Law Concerning Arbitration in Civil and Commercial Matters. Recommendations, related to the party autonomy principle and the role of the courts in arbitration under the current Saudi Arbitration Law, are submitted at the conclusion of this thesis. It is divided into three chapters in addition to an Introduction and Conclusion that includes the Most Important Results that have emerged and the Recommendations.