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Scott Shapiro's Planning Theory of Law represents the most sophisticated attempt to understand the nature of law through the lens of shared action. This is not only an ambitious project, but an important one in encouraging the development of research at the intersection of legal philosophy and social ontology. It does this by shifting the methodological focus of traditional analytic jurisprudence from investigating the nature of legal norms to the groups and shared activities that create them. To support this endeavour, this thesis presents a thorough, comprehensive analysis and critique of Shapiro's legal theory in order to identify both its flaws and virtues. It does so by elucidating and examining its three main claims: (1)the group claim: legal organisations are social planning organisations; (2) the activity claim: legal activity is social planning activity; and (3) the norm claim: legal rules are plans and plan-like norms. The thesis begins by unpacking the group claim. Partly due to a methodological inconsistency, it argues that Shapiro does not provide a sufficient account of legal organisations. To help with this task, some recent contributions on the ontology of groups are explored as well as Brian Epstein's metaphysical framework for analysing the nature of groups. While the thesis concludes that legal organisations are not social planning organisations, it suggests that the beginnings of an alternative account can be provided by utilising Epstein's framework. Next, the thesis examines the activity claim which is central to Shapiro's view and explores two main questions which arise from it: (a) What makes legal activity social planning activity? and (b) How do legal organisations carry out legal activity? The thesis considers Shapiro's answers to these questions and presents some challenges to each. Although the activity claim will ultimately be rejected, the thesis briefly suggests an alternative way to answer the second question - rather than relying on Michael Bratman's theory of shared agency to explain how legal organisations perform legal activities, a more promising option is provided by Raimo Tuomela's account of group action. Lastly, the thesis assesses the norm claim by considering Shapiro's analysis of the nature and normativity of plans. It argues that this claim fails for two reasons. First, that legal rules cannot be characterised as different types of plans, and second, that plan rationality cannot explain the normative force of law, despite Shapiro's best attempt to show that it can. The chapter ends by exploring, and ultimately rejecting, the possibility for Shapiro to hold on to a weaker version of his norm claim. While this thesis argues that none of the Planning Theory's main claims survive scrutiny, it nonetheless highlights the significance of Shapiro's project in laying the foundations for a more constructive dialogue between legal philosophers and social ontologists. It contributes towards this goal by calling for a fresh start that moves away from the deadlocked HartDworkin debate of traditional analytic jurisprudence in identifying new lines of enquiry in social ontology that can help us to understand law's institutional nature.

Right to privacy litigation in international human rights law (IHRL) is often pursued by non-hegemonic human legal subjects (NHHLs), particularly before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). In this thesis, I explore the limitations of this right vis-à-vis NHHLSs and ask how the emerging right to individual self-determination can be shaped as an appropriate alternative avenue for their claims. I examine privacy as a particular expression of IHRL's acts of inclusion and exclusion of subjects, objects, actions and spaces. In particular, I focus on two foundational acts: (i) the making of legal subjects and (ii) the division of the (legal) space into private and public spheres of discretion and regulation. These acts invisiblise the identity of IHRL's primary human legal subject: the hegemonic-heteronormative-cisgender-bodily-abled-adult-wealthy-Christian-Western-white-man. Moving between a specific critique to privacy and a broader one to IHRL, I analyse the jurisprudence on the right to privacy of NHHLSs to show (i) privacy is a precarious avenue for their claims and (ii) privacy is an insufficient framework to accommodate the harm of which they complain. Instead, a more foundational issue is at stake - the harm to their recognition as full human legal subjects which stems directly from IHRL's acts of inclusion and exclusion. While the concept of individual ¬self-determination is gaining visibility in IHRL, it is used in a fragmented way and has not yet been studied as a unified concept. I fill this gap by organising, theorising and operationalising the emerging right to individual self-determination. By centring on the notion of substantive recognition of subjects, I define this emerging right as a necessary tool to bridging the gap between the human subject and the human legal subject in IHRL. By insisting on the importance of recognition, the emerging right is a further safeguard to ensure participation of subjects in IHRL.

This thesis argues that bank customers need legal protection to be impurely paternalistic given their behavioural biases, weaker position and vulnerability, banking services' necessity, financial exclusion risk and banks' misconduct. The thesis argues that the current legal and regulatory framework fails to adequately provide such protection and provides reasons therefor. The thesis contends that a synthesis of private law and financial regulation is required to form a coherent system of finance law which would furnish adequate protection. The thesis claims that this is possible through primary legislation which would impose a statutory general fiduciary duty on banks to customers. The thesis asserts that such a duty should include the duty to advise. The duty to advise would require banks to consider the customer's existing personal circumstances and, accordingly, provide tailored advice to maintain or improve their welfare. The thesis further argues that the statutory fiduciary duty would provide adequate protection because it would furnish the kind of impure paternalism required. It would also provide proper both ex ante protection, at the moment the contract is concluded, and ex post protection, throughout the contract's life span. The thesis affirms that such a duty would therefore protect the welfare of customers throughout the whole duration of their relationship with banks, which relationship may experience life-changing situations. Finally, the thesis recommends a realistic and plausible method of implementing the statutory fiduciary duty, namely, by public funding of costs of litigation against banks by the Financial Conduct Authority. The statute establishing the fiduciary duty would empower the Financial Conduct Authority to finance litigation costs both to customers who intend to institute proceedings individually and to those who intend to represent others in class actions. The thesis also claims that a narrow degree of wealth redistribution is required to avoid financial exclusion of customers by compelling banks to provide their basic services to all customers, given the public utility nature of such services, and to prevent customers from paying the costs of banks' regulation, supervision and litigation against banks by imposing such costs on banks themselves.

Low-intensity cyber operations do not have physical effects yet constitute a potent mode of interaction, for example, when used to interfere with foreign elections. In the 21st century, inter-state relations have seen an increasing number of these cyber operations. Although there is widespread agreement that international law applies to them, the question remains how exactly existing principles apply. The thesis addresses this question by focussing on two applicable principles, the principles of sovereignty and non-intervention. This examination sheds new light on how the legality of low-intensity cyber operations can be determined by reference to these two principles. This question is addressed through a doctrinal analysis, situated within the context of the relationship of international law and technology which explores how technological advancements have influenced major milestones in the development of international law and state sovereignty. Specifically, the thesis provides a comparative analysis of how sovereignty is understood in domains of international law heavily influenced by technological advancements, including the law of the sea, air space and outer space. With these comparative insights in mind, the subsequent in-depth analysis of the application of sovereignty in cyberspace is structured by identifying three core issues: questions of governance, the principle vs rule debate, and jurisdiction. With respect to the principle of non-intervention, this thesis assesses what makes its application so complex. A case study on foreign election interference illustrates the practical difficulties that arise when applying the requirements of an unlawful intervention to low-intensity cyber operations. Against this backdrop, the thesis concludes that the challenges in applying each principle stem from competing understandings thereof, which precede the cyber debate. However, applying these principles to low-intensity cyber operations at times augments these challenges. Further, the thesis argues that, as state practice in the 2020s has, so far, primarily focused on the principle of sovereignty, non-intervention in cyberspace remains under-explored. Such conclusion is based on an in-depth analysis of the principle of non-intervention that demonstrates that states prefer to retain ambiguity around the application of non-intervention, including in cyberspace. While sovereignty has in contrast gained more attention, the thesis argues that meaningful agreement on its exact application is, in practice, unrealistic given the lack of a common understanding. A more nuanced, explicit regulation of these low-intensity cyber operations is, however, unlikely where states continue to benefit from the legal grey zones surrounding the use of low-intensity cyber operations.

The key to the successful reform of the criminal justice response to sexual crime lies in understanding the structural position of victims within the criminal process and the role that they play in criminal justice decision-making. This thesis accordingly confronts the conflicting narratives of progressive law reform and stymied delivery in the investigation and prosecution of sexual crime in Scotland. It explores the structural barriers to the effective integration of victims' interests into the criminal process and frames the entrenched, systemic challenges in meeting victims' justice needs as a human rights issue. By combining a review of legislative and policy developments in Scotland with indepth interviews with Advocates Depute and other specialist sexual offence prosecutors, it explores the victim's current role in criminal justice decisionmaking and what, in terms of Scotland's legal and constitutional commitment to human rights norms, that role ought to be. Ultimately, this thesis advances a principled framework for integrating victims' substantive and procedural justice needs into the criminal process and proposes a human rights-based approach to prosecutorial decision-making in sexual offence cases. By re-positioning victims of sexual crime, not as tools in the prosecutor's case, but rather as rights-bearers - respected individuals with a legitimate, legal interest in the process and the decisions that are taken - it argues that much can be done to improve the criminal justice response to sexual crime, while at the same time future proofing the justice system from Convention rights-based challenges in years to come.

This thesis concerns on-demand workers' struggles and resistance in China and the question, in particular, of how the workers' choices are structured by the particular legal, social and economic contexts within which they live and work. As a novel form of employment, on-demand work has gained popularity and has attracted a large workforce; however, the regulation of on-demand work is still in its early stages, leaving many workers without adequate labour protections. Many on-demand workers have expressed their grievances and discontent through a variety of individual and collective actions. What remains unclear is why they feel discontent and what factors influence their choice of different forms of struggle and resistance. These factors also give some indication as to how labour laws could be amended to provide effective protection of on-demand workers' rights and interests. Advocating an 'economic sociology of law' approach to the study of labour law, Dukes (2019) suggests that contracting for work ought to be conceived of as social behaviour that is likely economically motivated and, at the same time, influenced by actors' perceptions of the applicable rules, social norms, and shared understandings of what is standard or fair or reasonable practice in the specific context. Here, this approach is used to analyse and explain how Chinese delivery riders, as the targeted participants in the qualitative research, think of their work and make decisions that are influenced by their economic interests and their perceptions of labour laws, social norms, and shared understandings. The research illustrates that delivery riders have a multifaceted perception of their work. On the one hand, they experience precarious working conditions, disrespect, and discrimination under the bureaucratic and algorithmic control of platforms, worsened by the presence of a duopoly market. Compared to more stable factory jobs, on the other hand, on-demand work provides better opportunities for making money and enjoying flexibility and freedom within the confines of existing labour laws and social and economic circumstances. Individual riders have attempted to improve their working conditions through both formal and informal channels. Due to a number of factors, however, ii including the use of outsourcing by the platforms, the limitations of litigation, the unregulated nature of the platform labour market, unequal bargaining power, the lack of anti-retaliation laws and unreliable labour security administration, there is very little room for riders to voice their concerns. Riders have also attempted to 'game' the algorithms and to use social media and mainstream news-reporting but these strategies are not always effective. When there is no good alternative, radical forms of resistance may occur, including self-harm and suicide. On-demand riders have formed occupational communities and have used these to address the challenges collectively, however, the success of their protests can be inhibited by the weak trade union system and non-supportive laws and government attitudes towards collective action. Platforms may try to undermine riders' solidarity by using various repressive strategies. Moreover, the deteriorating employment environment also hinders collective mobilisation. The current legal, social, and economic context constrains the individual and collective struggles of riders in a wide variety of ways. While they may have a basic awareness of their legal rights, on-demand riders show a strong tendency to prioritise the right to subsistence or the economic conditions necessary for subsistence when attempting to express their discontent. Prioritisation of the right to subsistence or the economic conditions necessary for subsistence is also reflected in policy documents issued by the government in China to regulate on-demand work. To truly improve the working conditions of on-demand workers, it would be necessary to grant them the right to strike with the support of strong trade unions and to improve their rights to social security.

This thesis explores how hope is experienced and understood by those at various stages of the desistance process. This is an interdisciplinary project combining criminology and theology. Hope can of course be viewed through the social structures which create an environment in which hopeful characteristics can be developed and hopeful actions displayed. This is of great significance in this research given the importance of relational support in generating hope which is revealed in the data collected. However, interpreting this data on merely a socially constructed level limits the extent to which we can know the value of hopefulness. The complex nature of human existence and experience can, and should, be examined on various levels, as McGrath suggests, in order that a more rounded picture can be created. The use of theology allows for not only an additional level of knowing, but also a deeper level of examining that which can be known (McGrath 2015). This research offers an invitation to consider a different perspective, it does not contend that this is the only viewpoint, it is one lens which can contribute to a wider and deeper understanding of the overall lives being examined. I do not argue for the existence of God or the need for religion; this project does not lend itself to such discussion. Rather, theology is used as both a guiding analytical tool, and explanatory lens through which participants' experiences of both hope and desistance can be viewed and understood. Some existing literature shows desisters naming hope as a contributing factor to desistance. Weaver's (2016) research revealed narratives naming hope, to varying degrees, as a contributing factor to desistance. For some, hope was very targeted, and goal based, whilst others used hope to describe a state of being. Conversely, Schinkel and Nugent (2016) show, that for some, hope often led to disappointment therefore becoming a source of pain rather than encouragement. Halsey et al (2017) found that a sense of hopelessness can often result in re-offending and disturbing the desistance process. The fieldwork for this research began in January 2019 and was completed by the end of October 2019. Participants for this research were male and were recruited on the basis of belonging to one of the groups: (1) those who were serving the last six weeks of a short-term sentence; (2) those who had been out of prison for between three to six months; (3) those who had been out of prison for 2 years or more. The research groups were developed in order to capture a snapshot of how hope is experienced along different stages of the desistance journey. The fieldwork consisted of a creative element: photography; collage; painting and drawing; followed by two interview stages. Photo and image elicitation was used in order to 'set the scene' of hope allowing for a natural flow of conversation of what might otherwise be an abstract concept. All participants were interviewed in a semi-structured style alongside their images and those who I was able to maintain contact with were re-interviewed 3 months (Group 1), or 6 months (Groups 2 and 3) after the first interview stage. Using theology as a guide in both fieldwork and analysis has revealed an additional layer to meaning making and the experience of desisters. The research reveals the main sources of hope, such as community, relationships and small acts of mercy. The thesis highlights the main obstacles in hope and how desisters battle with this in order to sustain their desistance journey. I argue that small acts of mercy can have a dramatic impact on desisters hope journeys leading to significant life turning points.

This thesis is the first detailed analysis of portrayals of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in fiction. Ratified in 1967, the Amendment established a constitutional process for managing the contingency of presidential inability. The research examines the portrayal of the Amendment in eight political thrillers published between 1965 and 2014 to analyse issues relating to presidential inability, succession and the role of the Constitution in American culture. The Amendment is a frequent plot device in political thrillers across various popular culture media, and concerns over presidential inability remain topical to this day. A strand of scholarship interprets political or societal issues as problem narratives that look to constitutional interpretation and change to raise public debate and suggest a resolution. This thesis presents presidential inability as a problem narrative with two facets, anxiety and usurpation and identifies a subgenre of the American political novel that these novels represent. Many expert recommendations to improve the Amendment recognise the need to provide information and educate the public on the 25th's purpose. Fiction is one public platform that can engage with that aim. I argue that in the absence of real-life precedent, fictional representations illuminate the contingency that the Amendment plans for and, perhaps, can act as surrogate contingency planning manuals by illustrating the Amendment's provisions and suggesting interpretations. The novels highlight the Amendment's flexibility and ambiguities. The core of the study uses the concepts of political power and legitimacy to explore the novels' treatment of four key aspects of the Amendment, its wording, the roles of the constitutional actors, the processes it sets out and the circumstances when constitutional actors should at least consider its invocation. This thesis uses these four aspects for its structure, bookended by its investigation of three broader features of fiction's use of the 25th: its representations of the presidency, the Amendment's limitations and the use of alternative means of removing a president. Scholars have criticised wider fictional representations of the Amendment as creating misconceptions. Detailed analysis of the eight novels shows that fiction goes beyond representing the Amendment correctly. By presenting characters that essentially act in good-faith and demonstrate its drafters' intent of constitutional morality, the novels show that the problem narrative of presidential inability is unfounded.

This thesis examines the SEP licensing framework with a view to understanding whether it can be improved by revising IPR policies. The ICT standardisation, which provides interoperability, is one of the building blocks of the modern economy. Put simply, without standards, there would not be IoT or for example, consumers would only be able to connect to a wireless network with devices specifically built for that network. Standards are not a new phenomenon; however, they became more complex with the increasing importance of technology, which made them, in return, more dependent on patented technologies (i.e. SEPs). SEPs cause complications in standardisation as they require SEP owners and potential licensees to negotiate/agree on usually complex licensing agreements. Although SSOs have attempted to regulate this relationship with their IPR policies, now it seems these policies cannot keep up with the changing dynamics and needs in standardisation. Dysfunctions in the system do not only affect competition in the relevant markets, they also prejudice consumers' interests, for example, by passing on higher prices to cover supra-competitive royalties. In particular, since the first Rambus case in the US, competition/antitrust agencies and courts have been dealing with SEP-related issues. Recently, the EU has been considering addressing some of those with legislation. Conversely, this research derives from the notion that active standardisation participants are better equipped to deal with SEP-related issues, and flexible IPR policies are more suitable for addressing these issues in the dynamic standardisation ecosystem. Against this backdrop, this comparative research aims to identify areas where SEP licensing framework can be improved by reforming IPR policies, and it develops some proposals using the black-letter and empirical research methods that SSOs can implement.

Based on a case study of the UK's Government Agency Intelligence Network (GAIN), the research evaluated the organisational and operational risks and benefits of a novel commitment to intelligence sharing and the impact of the new arrangements on the agencies that make up the Network. It answered the question: In the modern era, the police no longer have monopoly control of crime-fighting; therefore, to what extent does British policing engage with partners to prevent and detect serious organised crime? A case study of the GAIN network A systematic literature review was undertaken, and a case study approach was employed. The former focused on globalisation and its relationship with transnational organised crime; the social factors that led to the creation of support agencies in response to that phenomenon, and how relationships between actors are influenced during a mutual collaboration. Data was collected via a survey and a series of semi-structured interviews. In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the data collection strategy employed was modified to mitigate any risk to the health and/or safety of the research participants. The study found that the police still have almost complete control over crime-fighting policy and practice in the context of serious and organised crime. GAIN has delivered benefits for policing, but its benefits for policing's partners are rather less obvious. Ostensibly, the multi-agency collaboration promotes intelligence sharing, disruption activity, and networking among police and other partners. There is some evidence of success in that regard, but largely that is confined to the mechanisms for collaboration that GAIN has established. The strong links that have been forged between partners and between individuals employed by those partners undoubtedly have strengthened those relationships and delivered individuals a greater understanding of the challenges that each other faces. That may bring advantages, in terms of increased outputs and greater efficiencies, in the longer run. However, there is little evidence today of the kinds of creativity or innovation that are likely to see the partnership develop in those ways. Essentially, the GAIN experience suggests that the police are doing what they always have done; leading and directing partnerships and limiting partners' opportunities to influence the direction or gain meaningful control. Arguably, that means that goals remain too narrowly focused and opportunities to think about policing problems (in this case, serious and organised crime) in new ways are overlooked. The study has emphasised that the police institution needs to pay constant attention to environmental and social changes as they affect crime and criminal behaviour. Without the knowledge gained through that activity, the police's ability to adapt their responses to serious and organised crime and/or to better harness the energies and endeavours of partners, is bound to be constrained.

On any given day, over 11.5 million people globally are deprived of their liberty. Detention spaces are high risk environments for poor health, exposure to inter-personal violence and disease outbreaks. The Portfolio of Works concerns normative standards of detention and the varying degrees to which the health rights of people deprived of their liberty are upheld in different detention spaces (prisons, immigration, prisoner of war). The 23 Works focus on right to health of people deprived of their liberty in African prisons; in European and South African immigration detention settings; and during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They were compiled in 2018-2023 and are underpinned by timespans before, during and beyond the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) global pandemic. To varying degrees, the health rights of these detainees were/are not sufficiently upheld despite the various international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law frameworks and the United Nations normative standards of detention. Hence, there is a coherent theme of 'right to health and humane standards of detention' connecting the Works, cognisant of the myriad of distinct and intersectional vulnerabilities and equality rights of all detainees who are wholly reliant on the State to 'respect, protect and fulfil' their health (and basic human) rights. A holistic definition of health is adopted beyond the basic right to access free non-discriminatory healthcare equivalent to that available in the community; and encompasses broader dimensions of environmental health relating to humane treatment and accommodation standards. A preamble to the chosen socio-legal approach is presented in this Introduction, followed by a human rights mapping exercise of the Works underpinned by the health in detention conceptual (and legal) framework of 'respect, protect and fulfil.' The mapping is cognisant of the equalising parameters of the ambitious Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 in order to identify areas for detention reform and various actions and solutions to ensure rule of law is upheld and ultimately advance human rights (including right to health) in detention spaces. Firstly it presents the argument to uphold right to health in its broadest sense by working towards improving environmental, occupational and infrastructural standards of detention beyond COVID-19 timeframes. Secondly it encourages State reconsideration and appreciation of the contextual, intersectional and evolving nature of vulnerability of those deprived of their liberty beyond age, gender, indigenous descent, minority group membership and extreme poverty and recommends to include concepts of health vulnerability cognisant of ill-health and risk to health in closed spaces. The Portfolio as a whole illustrates how collectively and individually each Work advocates for policy, practice and legislative reforms to better respect, protect and fulfil the health rights of all deprived of their liberty globally, regionally and domestically.

Nigeria is a country with vast conventional and non-conventional energy resources including renewable energies for example. However, it still faces significant energy poverty and challenges thus, affecting the socio-economic growth and development of the country. The energy access and poverty challenges are manifested through the country's inability to utilise its energy resources adequately and efficiently for the betterment of its people. For over five decades, since the discovery of hydrocarbon in commercial quantity, the country has consistently struggled with poor energy access and poverty despite the vast energy resources available at its disposal. One could argue that for a country with huge deposits of energy resources, no Nigerian should be energy poor. Among the reasons for the long-running energy challenges is the nature of its institutional, legal, policy and regulatory frameworks applicable in the energy sector. To a large extent, the shortcomings in the frameworks continue to exacerbate the energy access and poverty challenges, particularly through various injustices manifesting in the country's energy systems. Thus, this research examines the extent to which the concept of 'energy justice' and the principles derived from it could be used to resolve Nigeria's energy access and poverty challenges. It considers how proposed energy justice 'imperatives' drawn from the concept could inform policymakers as well as decision-makers in their quest to resolve the challenges, including the articulation of providing just energy systems. This research demonstrates how the energy justice concept could provide new and specific approaches to achieving long-term solutions to energy access and poverty challenges underpinned by justice concerns in Nigeria.

The thesis examines who can and should benefit from the right to reasonable accommodation under the European Convention on Human Rights ("the Convention"). Reasonable accommodation is often presented as a concept characteristic for disability or religion. The thesis challenges this framing, arguing that it is an inherent requirement of the right to substantive equality for all. The ensuing doctrinal analysis demonstrates that the European Court of Human Rights ("the Court") implicitly uses reasonable accommodation as such, covering a wide range of grounds, including gender and gender identity, race and ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or age. However, the Court's covert approach makes the relevant standards untransparent and, at times, inconsistent. The thesis demonstrates how to make the Court's approach to selecting the target group of reasonable accommodation more consistent. It relies on the Court's two-tiered grounds doctrine that covers a wide range of grounds but offers specific protection to some. This approach is adjusted to reasonable accommodation, distinguishing two sets of grounds: open grounds for an unintended, constructed disadvantage linked with status; and suspect grounds, often defined by vulnerability. A wide range of people can thus demand to be reasonably accommodated as part of their right to equality under the Convention. However, the Court should review the claims of those complaining about the denial of reasonable accommodation on suspect grounds and vulnerability with more stringency.

It is a commonly held assumption in the academic literature that the security and defence partnership between the UK and the EU, historically, was a bad one. Furthermore, at present, there exists no post-Brexit agreement between the UK and the EU on security and defence. It appears to be the current UK government's view that a post-Brexit partnership with the EU is not needed and that the UK's security and defence interests can be better served by forming alliances elsewhere. By analysing the relationship between the UK and the EU in security and defence in years leading up to Brexit, this thesis explores whether this commonly held assumption about the UK and EU's partnership is true or whether in fact the partnership was much more valuable. In turn, this thesis will also explore whether a post-Brexit security and defence partnership is worth pursuing and, if so, what that partnership could look like. This thesis hopes to shed new light on the UK and EU's past security and defence relationship to help better inform any future negotiations on any post-Brexit security and defence partnership.

In the digital age, the media paradigm is changing. New technology and social media have become essential tools for individual media users to gather and disseminate information. Users' content without the filter of traditional media outlets and editing processes may cause more harm to another's privacy than traditional media. Despite the vast research on privacy invasions in the traditional media context, there is little analysis of whether privacy torts can offer an appropriate response to privacy concerns in light of the individual media users. This thesis therefore employs comparative law and doctrinal analysis to explore the suitability and sufficiency of English and Thai torts in protecting privacy and private information in this case. The multiple case study is constructed and categorised by a typology approach. Six categories of cases are subsequently established; privacy in a public place, the protection of private information and the nature of information, privacy and a public figure, social media as a medium of dissemination, privacy on social media and modern newsgathering and intrusions. By using this mixed approach, the strengths and weaknesses of English and Thai law are identified. The key findings suggest that the English tort of misuse of private information (MOPI) has advantages for safeguarding privacy and private information over the Thai tort. Furthermore, it is feasible to solve repetitive problems of the Thai tort in privacy cases, such as the unclear scope of privacy rights and difficulties of the actual damage. Consequently, the tort of MOPI is proposed as a possible new legal model for Thailand. Recommendations for implementation by legislators are given. In this regard, some drawbacks of the English tort are also addressed. This new legal model could possibly enhance privacy protection while maintaining a proportionate balance with freedom of expression. Underlining the differences between freedom of expression and media freedom, the balance between an individual's privacy and freedom of expression across new media is illustrated. The thesis provides an original comparative analysis of the English and Thai torts, contributing to law reform for Thailand. Moreover, it bridges privacy perceptions from the English and Thai jurisdictions, increasing the theoretical understanding of privacy.

This thesis develops a content-independent, non-evaluative and non-individualist account of the normativity of law. In distinction from the action-centred questions of the moral obligation to obey the law and the legal obligation, this thesis views the question of the normativity of law as a normative reasoning-centred relationship between an individual and a given legal rule. It asks, when one confronts a given legal rule in the way of determining her course of action, in what terms she can come to a normative judgement that the guidance of that legal rule possesses or lacks normative force. In pursuit of an answer, the thesis takes a stand against the generally established case for individual reasons on the strength of two legal-conceptual arguments which stand in one's way of establishing her normative relationship with a legal rule in reference to her individual reasons, namely that each legal rule addresses a certain formal social group and, second, that it functions on the general mode of operation. Instead, the thesis makes a legal-conceptual case in favour of intersubjective-recognitive reasons by drawing on the accounts of intersubjective recognition by G.W.F. Hegel and Axel Honneth. Further, the thesis sets a connection between the puzzles of the normativity of law and freedom and argues that the intersubjective-recognitive reasons as the only conceptually appropriate reasons referable in one's normative relationship with a legal rule should lead us to reconceptualize the idea of freedom viable under the governance of legal rules in Hegelian, relational terms. Additionally, the thesis develops two derivative concepts out of the intersubjective-recognitive reasoning, the ontological decentralization of individuals in relation to each other in the context of a social group and the construal of one's subjectivity in a social group as social subjectivity.

This dissertation explores two sets of questions. The first focuses on the development of military drones and the use of this technology for distinctly settler colonial purposes. The second focuses on the challenges posed by lethal drones to the legal and normative framework of warfare. In doing so, this dissertation deals not only with the challenges that drones pose to specific humanitarian regulations but, more fundamentally, with the destabilisation of key categories of warfare, including the concept of war itself. This dissertation starts with the following premise: Settler colonialists are persecuted collectives who suffered from persecution, mainly in Europe, so they were looking for a oneway ticket out of their state of origin. However, their dreams of a new homeland were shattered when they realised that their destinations were already populated. Consequently, they committed horrible crimes, including genocide, ethnic cleansing and transfer. Unlike traditional colonialists, settlers have been primarily concerned with taking over indigenous land - and maintaining independent sovereignty over the acquired territory. This dissertation seeks to show that a peculiar combination of settler colonialism, militarism, and technical ingenuity led Israeli engineers to develop drones and turn their country into the world's leading weapon exporter. With over two million people, Gaza has become a human laboratory where new, ever more destructive weapons are tested and sold worldwide for profit. This dissertation also seeks to articulate the paradox that drones, initially endorsed as a 'safer' technology reducing risks to innocent civilians, have, in most cases, been fatally harmful to non-combatants. Moreover, they have destabilised the legal categories of warfare, ushering in an era of perpetual and endless conflict on an unprecedented global scale, creating a permanent dread for millions of people, controlled, harassed, and suppressed by settler colonial and imperial powers.

The Rome Statute system of justice is built on the key principle of complementarity. This requires States Parties and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to function together in their shared objective to end impunity for core international crimes while being mindful of their impact on victims. This thesis analyzed the ICC's complementarity, and victim jurisprudence using doctrinal research method. It found that although victims' provisions dot the core legal texts of the Court, admissibility criteria which regulate complementarity do not expressly include consideration of victims' interests. Victims' ability to participate in complementarity proceedings are restricted, and their interests do not feature as strong elements in complementarity decisions. No study has suggested a policy and structural blueprint for a complementarity mechanism in the interests of victims. This thesis makes an original contribution to the field of international criminal justice in two ways. First, it proposes a reinterpretative framework for the introduction of victims' elements into admissibility determinations, in the form of victim-oriented qualified deference, i.e. (1) extra time awarded to states who show an element of willingness, to develop justice approaches which benefit victims, (2) facilitation of capacity building (3) the use of a Memorandum of Understanding between the ICC, concerned States, and cooperation partners, negotiated in consultation with victims, and (4) monitoring of state's compliance. Secondly, the thesis is the first study to propose a design for an inclusive, neutral, and independent ICC complementarity division which can better accommodate victims in the process. The thesis's proposals are tested by applying them to existing ICC situations originating from UNSC referrals, States Parties referrals, and proprio motu situations. The result shows that making the complementarity regime and process more attuned with victims' needs and interests brings the Rome Statute system one step closer to achieving victim-oriented justice.

EU competition law uses the term 'undertaking' to designate the economic operators concerned by its mandates, regardless of their ownership and legal form. The notion seeks to place economic players as such, and not a legal entity, as addressees of competition rules. This dissertation examines the legal consequences of this perspective. A first chapter explores its origin and underlying logic, looking at the theories that, in various areas of law, have challenged the role of the legal entity as sole possessor of rights and duties, such as the lifting of the veil, enterprise theories and single entity doctrines. The second reviews the evolution of the notion of undertaking in the jurisprudence of the CJEU and identifies the tensions and contradictions that this remarkable process has confronted in the way. A third chapter dissects economic entities and seeks to define its boundaries, an exercise that exposes some contradictions. The following chapter looks at the uses that have been made of the 'entity' limb of the notion (this is, the idea that many legal persons may be treated as one): theories of parental and subsidiary liability, calculation of fines, exemption from the prohibition in Article 101 TFEU, succession of undertakings, and merger control. Chapter 5 looks at the 'economic activity' requirement, which has served to date to carve out an exception to the scope of competition rules for State activities, and discusses the recent declaration in Sumal that 'conglomerate' groups of companies pursuing different activities may contain several economic units. Chapter 6 examines the continued relevance of legal entities and the resulting dual enforcement model whereby an economic and a legal entity perspective coexist in the application of competition rules. A last chapter concludes. The discussion is based on a careful examination of the judgments of the CJEU. The result is a detailed description of a historic process where EU competition law is breaking new ground to ensure appropriate accountability of economic players, a process rife with contradictions that attest to the unfinished nature of the task.

Pre-recorded cross-examination offers unprecedented opportunities to focus on and regulate the treatment and questioning of intimidated complainants in sex offence cases. In this thesis, I investigate the application of s. 28 and related measures to adult complainants defined as "intimidated witnesses" under YJCEA 1999, s. 17(4). Methods comprised eight months court observation in s. 28 and non-s. 28 sex offence cases, including six months observing the extension of the s. 28 pilot to intimidated complainants and interviewing barristers working on those cases. Key findings include that the s. 28 pilot for intimidated complainants was hampered by a lack of planning, guidance and a clear rationale: intimidated complainants were perceived as less deserving of s. 28 and related measures compared to 'vulnerable' witnesses. Though cross examination of intimidated complainants tended to be slower and calmer at s. 28 hearings, compared to trial, adherence to best practice varied because barristers considered that training, guidance and toolkits on cross-examining 'vulnerable' witnesses did not apply to intimidated complainants. Importantly, procedural safeguards associated with the success of s. 28 for 'vulnerable' witnesses, such as Ground Rules Hearings and written questions, were hollowed out or deemed unnecessary by judges and barristers in intimidated s. 28 cases. Lastly, observations of sex offence trials reveal that pre-recorded testimony disrupted traditional understandings of adversarial trial and assumptions about how evidence should be presented in s. 28 cases. My research suggests an urgent need to review intimidated complainants' procedural status under the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999, and that detailed guidance is also required to develop the application of s. 28 and related measures in sex offence cases. More consistency in standards of defence advocacy, the exercise of case management powers, and the audio-visual quality of pre-recorded evidence is called for in sex offence cases.

This thesis is an enquiry into the character and discourse of contemporary populism, the content of the populist constitutional project, as well as the institutional reaction or response, by judicial actors, to this very project - including the view that courts can act as democracy-enhancing institutional decelerators. In doing so, it uses a rarely-employed lens, that of spatiotemporality - namely, the conjunction of space and time. Its main contributions are twofold. First, the thesis contributes to the development of a theoretical framework that helps re-conceptualize contemporary populism as a serious and relatively coherent constitutional theory, and more specifically through the prism of spatiotemporality. Through its promise to re-establish a new form of democratic representation based on spatial proximity, authenticity and temporal efficiency, contemporary populism attempts, this thesis argues, to reorganize and redraw the spatiotemporal contours of liberal democracy. Second, this thesis brings nuance to the common view in the liberal-constitutionalist academic literature according to which courts have a key role to play in defending constitutionalism and constitutional liberal democracy, particularly against populist actors and their distrust of intermediaries and institutions. Through a contextual analysis of three case studies, the thesis suggests a differential impact of the tensions between populism and constitutionalism. The first case study, on Armenia in the aftermath of the 2018 "Velvet Revolution," indicates a possible positive relationship between the two. The second, which focuses on Ecuador during the presidency of Rafael Correa (2007-2017), points to a more negative relationship. Finally, the third case study, on the United Kingdom (UK) in the period that followed the 2016 UK European Union membership ("Brexit") referendum, suggests a rather mixed relationship between populism and constitutionalism. In specific institutional terms - and in relation to the judiciary, in particular - the three case studies highlight the various responses that courts have had to populism. More specifically, the thesis shows that courts, in the right circumstances, can indeed stabilize the system of constitutional governance against populist constitutional impatience and its spatiotemporal focus on proximity and speed. However, it also shows that, in other contexts, the judiciary can obstruct democratic reforms (rather than stabilize the system of constitutional governance), particularly in the context of a transition from an entrenched semi-authoritarian (or hybrid) regime to a constitutional liberal democracy; or even accelerate the populist flow of time by becoming active agents of illiberalism and (or) executive consolidation at the service of an impatient and increasingly authoritarian government.

The juvenile justice law in India emphasises rehabilitation and reintegration of children who have committed an offence. In practice, however, juvenile justice seems to serve primarily deterrent and punitive functions. This contrast indicates the need to consider reform. In recent decades, many countries have adopted a restorative justice (RJ) approach to youth justice. RJ envisages a relatively informal process where the main parties involved, namely, the offender, the victim and the community, have an opportunity to be active participants. It promises a less punitive, reparative and reintegrative response to crime. All this makes RJ potentially relevant to juvenile justice in India. Yet, there is little research on whether it might be desirable and feasible to introduce RJoriented interventions with offending children. This qualitative study makes an original contribution to the existing literature by investigating the need for and possibilities of RJ initiatives as a potential means of reform in the Indian juvenile justice system. It also explores whether it might be useful to draw any lessons from RJ-inspired referral orders in England and Wales. It is based on 89 semi-structured interviews with an array of policymakers, practitioners, opinionmakers and experts in India. The respondents offered a range of new insights into both the current workings of juvenile justice and into the prospects for progressive change. The rigorous analysis of their accounts of operations in policing, adjudication and correction establishes the need for wide-ranging reforms. The majority thought that RJ, or elements of it, hold great promise and found prospective policy learning from abroad useful, with important qualifications. They identified potential means for institutionalising RJ and highlighted the role of actors seen as key to the process. The findings also reveal that there are significant barriers to RJ and reform might prove difficult. While there is much in RJ that might be beneficial, the study argues for caution against some of its latent dangers in the Indian context.

This thesis examines the role that human rights play in fostering and justifying penality. The more human rights have become the global language of justice, the more they have lent themselves to, and 'accelerated', the use of penal solutions around the world. This phenomenon has entailed the creation of international criminal tribunals, the institution of criminal proceedings against hum an rights violators and the introduction of new human rights based offences. The embrace of penality by human rights has also occurred at the level of discourse. In particular, the twin assumptions that effective human rights protection requires criminal accountability and that impunity causes further human rights violations have become essential parts of the ways we generally think and speak about human rights. The thesis investigates whether, how and why human rights have become triggers of expanded penality. It not only considers changes in legislation and judgments but focuses especially on its legal and political discursive formations. To this end, it adopts a socio legal perspective that gives priority to discourse analysis, a method inspired by the work of Michel Foucault. The research draws upon a transnational approach to legal problems and takes human trafficking and torture as its case studies. In this context, it recovers the contemporary and historical assumptions that sustain, and lie behind, the deployment of penal means to protect and promote human rights. The central argument is that, within dominant human rights discourses, penality assumes a necessary function in preserving the moral authority of human rights. However, in recruiting penality in their moral crusade against ab uses, dominant human rights discourses make the confirmation and reinforcement of human rights norms dependent on penality and, I would argue, also on the inequality, prejudice and violence that penality inevitably produces. Dominant human rights discourse s may try to humanise the state's penal powers, but the practice of penality, made a moral obligation, ultimately represents impulses and drives that outrun their humanisation.

The central aim of Economic and Social Rights (ESR) is to address the essential needs of people. ESR are vital to ensure that people are protected from deprivation and poverty. Therefore, this thesis designs a cooperation model, both at the domestic and international levels, as a means for States to realise the ESR of their citizens. It locates and develops this model in the context of Nigeria. To do this, the thesis provides an understanding of the role of law and legal institutions in enhancing the practical realisation of ESR, through three major lines of inquiry. First, the thesis investigates the debate in Nigeria on whether ESR are justiciable and takes a position that they are. Contrary to popular views, ESR are not absolutely non-justiciable in Nigeria. There is a plethora of domestic and international laws which provide a normative grounding for the justiciability of ESR in Nigeria. The thesis finds that, despite these existing normative frameworks around ESR, the rights are still far from being realised in Nigeria. One of the reasons for this is the Nigerian courts' adoption of traditional adversarial method of adjudication and the failure by political branches to draw on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) normative architecture on international cooperation and assistance. Second, the thesis argues that the traditional models of adjudication of ESR that seek to command and control the government sometimes impede, rather than enhance ESR realisation. Thus, this thesis argues for a more cooperative institutional relationship between courts and political branches to tap into the strengths of each institution, to enhance ESR realisation. Such a cooperative judicial approach towards ESR cases would enhance the practical impact of the rights. This thesis argues that receiving the cooperation and collaboration of the political branches would make the enforcement of judicial decisions more forceful, as the branches would receive the decisions as an outcome of an institutional dialogue and collaboration, rather than as imposed decisions. Third, the thesis argues for an effective deployment of international cooperation and assistance to herald a de facto realisation of ESR. The realisation of ESR can be resource intensive and without international cooperation and assistance, the realisation will always be outside the reach of Nigeria. This thesis explores the role of a legal duty of cooperation, within the international human rights law regime, between developed and developing countries to protect ESR in Nigeria. Therefore, the thesis argues for a better commitment, on the part of developed countries and international institutions such as the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), to international cooperation. This commitment to cooperation should not come in the form of some charity, but as a legally binding obligation on developed countries in favour of developing countries. Drawing on several normative instruments such as the ICESCR, the thesis adopts a Third World Approach to International Law (TWAIL) to argue that, under the international human rights law regime, the developed countries have a duty to help the developing countries in meeting the ESR needs of the developing countries' citizens, in terms of provision of economic, financial, and technical cooperation and assistance as well as deployment of influence in international institutions' decision-making processes.

This thesis develops a counter-analysis of emergence and development of the European Union (EU) immigration and asylum law system using Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL). It sheds an alternative perspective on the EU's positioning as a global actor in these fields and the role of using a 'crisis' frame in 2015 for the most recent developments of this policy area. This thesis argues that, although migration to the EU in 2015 was framed by policy actors, non-governmental actors and scholars as a 'crisis' due to high numbers of migrants arriving or applying for international protection, and migrants' deaths at sea, it did not constitute a genuine crisis. Rather what we observe in 2015 is the use of a crisis frame to characterise Third World migration to Europe as a situation of humanitarian and security emergency. The crisis frame used in 2015 has enabled the EU to activate a crisis decision-making mode, which typically includes the use of exceptional and security-driven measures, the othering of causes and responsibilities, the exclusion of migrants considered as a danger or in danger, and the adoption of emergency measures bypassing normal procedures and with little consideration for human rights guarantees. Yet, analysing the EU migration and asylum policy before 2015, this thesis reveals that many of the features associated to the moment of rupture brought by a crisis frame actually existed prior to the 'crisis'. Since the early days of the common migration and asylum policy, key tendencies appeared including the use of informal cooperation, the constant association of migration and asylum matters with criminal and security considerations, the focus on controlling and excluding unwanted migrants with little consideration for their human rights and the progressive development of externalisation policies. The analysis of policy agenda and legal developments from 2015 onwards shows the continuity and furtherance of existing patterns. Rather than any discontinuity suggested by the crisis frame, the EU asylum and migration law system after 2015 focused on furthering Third World migrants' othering and exclusion, expanding its influence and domination over third countries to increase their role in controlling unwanted migration and intensifying the use of informal cooperation frameworks. Analysing EU migration and asylum law and policy from a crisis-driven perspective appears therefore limited as it does not enable to fully seize the underpinnings of this policy area. That is why, this thesis argues that a critical reading is needed. Using Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), this thesis offers a redescription of the EU asylum and migration law system which reveals the EU's racialised conception of Third World migrants justifying its focus on returns and containment measures. A TWAIL reading of EU cooperation with third countries shows that by allocating responsibility to deal with migrants and migration to others, the EU maintains its supremacy over its Third World partners. Finally, taking a TWAIL lens to analyse the EU's approach to Third World migrants and countries replicates a form of civilising mission.

The mutual agreement procedure (MAP) needs improvement to address the tsunami of international tax disputes expected in the international tax regime (ITR) over the next decades. Using the dispute resolution system under the law of the sea regime as a benchmark, this thesis submits a proposal to restructure the MAP system for improving dispute resolution in the ITR. This comparative analysis is premised on certain geopolitical similarities that underpin both international regimes and comparative institutional analysis grounds the theoretical framework. The proposed reform expands the MAP system by introducing three new mechanisms to form a comprehensive legal framework for addressing all tax treaty-related disputes. It recommends specific consensus-building techniques to facilitate the implementation of the proposal across the G20/OECD inclusive framework (IF) through consensus in both the developed and developing worlds.

Human rights, community development, and commercial development have the potential to be mutually reinforcing at the international, state, and local levels. Stakeholders' approaches to human rights in commercial development contexts are key to unlocking this potential. This thesis analyses commercial energy projects in Bangladesh, Kenya, and Canada, in order to discover how relationships between stakeholders may affect a state's ability to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights obligations. The analysis pays special attention to stakeholders that are most likely to have their rights violated (indigenous and local communities), and stakeholders that tend to abuse human rights in the name of commercial development (corporate developers and the state). Drawing from the case studies, this thesis proposes a tripartite taxonomy of approaches to human rights and development in commercial contexts. This taxonomy describes stakeholder dispositions and actions that have the potential to lead to compatible or conflicting relationships. The third approach within the taxonomy, a Development Based Approach to Human Rights, is a new contribution to the field, proposing human rights fulfillment as a primary objective for all stakeholders in commercial development projects. This thesis comes to the conclusion that compatible stakeholder relations that utilise this approach in commercial contexts, tend to bring about the respect, protection, and fulfillment of human rights alongside community and commercial development.

Security is a term that fits easily in any context. It has become common to talk about security regarding terrorism, migration and, more recently, the Covid-19 pandemic. Food security, health security and environmental security have also become widespread expressions. More generally, any occurrence likely to have an adverse impact on people's lives can be framed as 'threat to security'. While security has gained increasing popularity in recent years, the consensus around human rights has been relentlessly eroded. Security is often invoked to undermine the human rights discourse. The logic of balancing rights and security, firmly entrenched also in International Human Rights Law, expresses the mainstream idea that rights can, and often should, be restricted to enhance security. Disturbingly, such an erosion has happened as a result of a term, 'security', the meaning of which appears difficult to pin down. States have no interest in defining security, because a vague notion of security allows them to invoke the term in a broader set of circumstances. The more security means everything, the more it means nothing. As a result, the state power to restrict rights in the name of security is greater when it can rely on an expansive and undefined concept of security. Against this background, this thesis discusses the issue of whether a legal definition of security could be an instrument to compel states to produce a legally meaningful invocation of security. Since an unrestrained power to invoke security damages human rights, a legal definition of the term is allegedly a tool to clarify in which circumstances a state can lawfully rely on the term and, conversely, in which circumstances is abusing the term. Drawing from linguistics, semiotics and critical language studies, the thesis will show that a definition of security in law would not be able to constrain the state power to invoke the concept. Defining security would not prevent states from exploiting a definition in order to construct their security narratives, and to manipulate and distort any proposed definition to pursue their security aims. Thus, a legal definition of security might contribute to enhancing power, rather than to constraining it. For this reason, the thesis will challenge, more fundamentally, the necessity of the concept of security in the current legal and political lexicon. It will demonstrate that security should not be defined, re-understood or re-conceptualised, but instead it should be rejected in its entirety. At a conceptual level, there is no justifiable reason for which states should employ the security frame to tackle threats, rather than mobilise the protective regime provided by the human rights frame. States' preference for security rather than rights is the product of a strategic choice: by seeing threats through the security lens, states seek to escape the power-constraining features characterising the human rights frame, namely: legalisation, compliance pull and drive towards equality. Even though human rights, like security, have also a power-enhancing strand, they are much better equipped to constrain state power (and to protect individuals from the risk of an arbitrary exercise of state power) than any reformulation of security (for example, as 'human security' or 'right to security') has been capable of doing to date. The argument against security is an argument pro rights. Rejecting security means liberating the legal and political vocabulary from the logic of a perpetual conflict between rights and security, as well as from inexplicable and generic synergies between them. Importantly, to reject security means to deprive states of a concept that is invoked to weaken human rights, rather than to reinforce them. Without security, it will be possible to re-focus on human rights, in order to better understand their virtues and embrace their enduring contradictions.

This thesis seeks to understand how tax professionals render professional services. To answer this over-arching question, three sub-questions are examined to explore the knowledge, ethics and identity of the UK tax profession: what is the role of knowledge in shaping the tax profession; how do tax professionals manage ethical dilemmas; and what identities are associated with tax professionals? Using a qualitative methodology, 44 semi-structured interviews were conducted with tax professionals between 2015 and 2016, including tax lawyers, tax accountants, ex-HMRC senior tax professionals and tax consultants. Secondary documentation was also extracted from tax journals, newspapers, government reports and professional guidance literature. This thesis theoretically contributes to extending the theoretical use of Foucault's work by showing how the notion of knowledge/power can be used in order to 'artificially' conceptualise and create the boundaries of an expert community based on their shared knowledge of the tax discipline. In so doing, it examines how expert knowledge and discursive practices shape the boundaries of a community, namely the tax profession. Secondly, using Keith Hoskin's work (2015) this thesis demonstrates how social stigmatisation through the use of discursive practices are at the origin of why tax professionals have had to integrate ethical considerations in response to the discursive formation made on their professionalism. In so doing, this thesis conceptualised how TPs construct their professional self upon the performance, articulation, and appropriation of institutional norms. Empirically, this project develops understanding of the impact and role of tax intermediaries in the UK tax system (OECD, 2008). First, the findings reveal the importance of knowledge in the implementation of tax legislation, and show how tax practitioners have created borders around an invisible and distinctive discipline through expertise in tax knowledge. They highlight that tax intermediaries acquire, share, retain, create and implement tax knowledge through tight networks, and this knowledge is competed for and challenged within the professional networks and by HMRC. Second, the findings emphasise the importance and demonstration of ethics in tax practice and indicate that tax practitioners have adapted their professional ethics to the environment in which they find themselves. This suggests that, across the tax profession, ethical standards are not clearly defined, giving rise to conflicts between professional practices, firms' expectations and personal values. Finally, the findings acknowledge the value of social identity, roles and discourse in the construction of occupational identity within the profession, indicating that social influences have a disciplinary effect on the tax profession. Overall, this empirical study demonstrates the multi-faceted nature of tax practitioners, both as client advocates and representatives of the state, and the crucial role played by the profession in supporting the UK tax system. In this process, it contributes to a developing body of literature on the tax profession by revealing how tax intermediaries shape the development of tax knowledge, the factors influencing tax professionals' ethical decision making, and the social interaction impacting on their identity construction.

This thesis undertakes an extended rereading of Immanuel Kant's 1785 periodical essay, Von der Unrechtmäßigkeit des Büchernachdrucks ('On the Wrongfulness of Reprinting'), that attends closely to the transactions between its material form and rhetorical content. In so doing, this thesis supplements recent attempts in Kantian copyright scholarship to rethink the institution of copyright and its relationship with authors, works, and the public through recourse to the essay's non-proprietary concept of the book and proposed regime of authors' and publishers' rights. Though the law of copyright qua intellectual property pertains to this thesis as a hegemonic institutional form that has enshrined the myth of the proprietary author, it is rather the question of authorship, namely, our cultural and legal understandings of who and what an author is; how the author relates to the book and the realities of literary production; and how such received notions interact with the materiality of the book; that most concerns this thesis. It contributes to accrued cross-disciplinary efforts to so reread the past(s) and present(s) of the author-function as to foreground not just its legal structures of implementation, but also its medial-material matrices. From this perspective, the materialities of authorship, particularly the visual-corporeality of the printed book and its surrounding practices in late-eighteenth-century Germany, hold the key to disclosing the limits of contemporary copyright law, which remains attached to the figure of the author as creator, and first owner, of the literary work even as it is seemingly threatened by such digital practices as the mass digitisation of books. To begin to grasp how our received understandings of authorship and copyright might, and perhaps should, change in digital culture, we revisit a late-eighteenth-century text that indexed its own share of complex interactions between literary actors and technologies no less affected by evolving conditions of literary (re)production. In so moving between these two times of authorship, that in the German Enlightenment and that in contemporary copyright regimes, we engage in a shared practice of so rereading Kant's text and the historical event in which he participated as to better understand and negotiate our present uncertainties.

This thesis explores the experiences of children who were fathered and abandoned by United Nations (UN) peacekeepers during the peacekeeping operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It sheds light on the circumstances of their conception and identifies the implications of those circumstances for their upbringing. Seeking to understand who peacekeeper-fathered children (PKFC) are and how their heritage affects them in leading productive lives, the study presents central themes in their biographies: Father absence, identity challenges, socio-economic hardship, and lack of assistance. Therefore, and through these themes, the thesis contributes to the conceptualisation of their life courses. The United Nations Stabilisation Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) was used as a case study, providing new insights regarding the DRC's long-standing history of conflict-related sexual violence and its impact on survivors for whom such acts can result in pregnancy and childbirth. Fieldwork took place between May and July 2018 in six communities in eastern DRC, where semi-structured interviews, some of them aided by visual methods, were conducted with 35 PKFC and 60 mothers. Grounded in the experiences of these participants, the thesis addresses relational aspects of PKFC's identity that illustrate how their background makes them vulnerable to childhood adversities. In considering how their abandonment clashes with Congolese norms and traditions, the broader socio-political context of peacekeeping missions and its colonial legacy are discussed. In this thesis, I offer two conceptual ways of thinking about PKFC: the first considers PKFC children born of war who suffer from fatherlessness and the related consequences (e.g., low social status and financial insecurity) - requiring solutions that target their well-being on an individual level; the second understands PKFC's neglect to be symbolic for asymmetrical global dependencies and inequalities - requiring solutions that target the failure of peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions to protect local civilians and provide victims of sexual exploitation and abuse with assistance. In combining these two angles, I situate a psychological analysis of identity and well-being within a broader web of cultural and political factors (patriarchal norms, neo-colonial practices, legal and procedural shortcomings) that cause PKFC's rights to be compromised. With implications for academia, policy and practice, this work sets an agenda for how the international community can better respond to the needs of PKFC and improve their situation on a personal, societal, and political level. To illustrate how the lives of PKFC are impacted by challenges arising from their unique heritage, the participants' perspectives are introduced in four research papers, each focusing on a different level of experience and disciplinary examination. Building on this, the thesis critically engages with different academic fields that have active and ongoing conversations regarding conflict-affected children, i.e., psychology, human rights, and development studies. In this way, it encourages more comprehensive, interdisciplinary research and calls for a shift in the way academia approaches global challenges.

The notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) emphasises the way directors manage the companies. It focuses on how a company takes responsibility for its impact on the various stakeholders, extending the corporate purpose beyond the narrow shareholder-primacy framework. This thesis explores how CSR should be regulated from a legal perspective by analysing the current legal framework for CSR in the United Kingdom (UK) and that of India. The reform of directors' duties and disclosure are methods for protecting stakeholders in the two jurisdictions. Disclosure is identified to be crucial but not sufficient to safeguard stakeholders fully. While it creates some level playing field in the UK by giving information to the stakeholders about the company, in India, the lack of enforcement of the reporting requirements and inadequate verification of the information provided by companies lead to a tick-box approach. The implication of the comparative research on the legal framework demonstrates the differences in the approach to regulating CSR. The UK gives flexibility to its directors to manage the affairs of the company. The enlightened-shareholder-value (ESV) approach of the UK Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006) prioritises shareholder's interests over stakeholders. India adopts a pluralist approach but gives importance to the philanthropic approach under section 135 of the Indian Companies Act 2013 (CA 2013), and overall, the framework is prescriptive and more towards hard law. However, in both countries, the substantive duty under section 172(1) of CA 2006 and section 166(2) of CA 2013 gives directors a wide discretion to integrate stakeholder interests without telling them how to do it. Stakeholder interests have been largely marginalised due to the black-box method of decision-making, and therefore, the question arises as to how to secure accountability for stakeholders. This thesis identifies several potential techniques to protect stakeholders. The substantive duty of directors must be implemented through process-based regulation. Stakeholders must be empowered to be able to influence director's decisions. The key legal reform identified is the 'purpose provision', which should also be reflected in the director's incentive plans. The implementation of a broader purpose should be supported by a due diligence process implemented by a mandatory approach. A provision for stakeholder engagement such as Provision 5 of the UK Corporate Governance Code will have a preventive or precautionary effect on the decision-making process, thus, potentially improving the quality of decisions. Such process-focused mechanisms control the factors that contribute to decision-making by establishing a process that incorporates good techniques and incentives in each corporate governance system to protect stakeholders.

In recent years there has been an increase in public awareness about the consequences of concussion, as retired players announce that they are suffering from serious long-term injuries, and questions have been raised about the long-established framework of sports which include actions with a strong potential to cause concussive and sub-concussive events. Despite an increase in literature, both medical and legal, there has a been a lack of clear resolved jurisprudence indicating a potential avenue for players to recover compensation or for those responsible for framing the sports to be held accountable for their action or inaction. This thesis uses existing medical evidence to contend that there is a significant problem with concussive and sub-concussive events in sport, focusing as case studies on Association Football, Rugby Union, and American Football, and argues that there is potential scope for a duty of care to exist on both sporting bodies and employer clubs. In order to make this argument it is necessary to overcome the barrier of such a duty of care in negligence not presently existing, but it is established that new duties of care can be developed, and it is argued that the criteria for such an extension can be satisfied under the existing law. The thesis also confronts a significant hurdle to such an extension, which is the concept that players consent to such risks, particularly at the professional level when they are highly remunerated. This contention is countered at several levels, with the overall argument concluding that consent cannot be appropriate as a defence to a claim in this type of case, where the relevant body failed in their duties.

The aim of this research study was to determine whether the United Kingdom gold, silver, bronze leadership command model (GSB model) can be effectively applied in the State of Qatar. The research focussed on application of the GSB model for the policing and security arrangements for the FIFA World Cup, due to be held in the State of Qatar during 2022. Consideration was also given to the implications of adopting the GSB model beyond this date, as the State of Qatar strives to deliver its National Vision 2030. A significant part of the research examined leadership styles within the Middle East environment and the characteristic culture of the region; both of these have a direct influence on the success or otherwise in adopting a western style leadership command model in the State of Qatar. This analysis and comparison with the United Kingdom provided data to formulate a fully considered response to the research question: 'What are the leadership and cultural challenges in effectively applying the UK gold, silver, bronze leadership command model in the State of Qatar: How can successful transfer take place?' The researcher employed a qualitative research methodology, that led to the identification of five critical success factors: culture, leadership, decision making, partnership working; and training & development. Data was collected and, the findings grouped, using these five key themes to provide a clear structure to manage the large amount of information generated by the study. The research concluded the GSB model can be effectively applied within the State of Qatar, and its potential would be maximised through the implementation of twenty recommendations documented in the thesis. The final recommendation states the State of Qatar should consider establishing a strategic project board, post the FIFA World Cup 2022, to integrate gold, silver and bronze training for all police and security agencies in the State of Qatar, making it a key part of business as usual operations. This formal approach to embedding the GSB model is recommended due to the scale and complexity of the changes required to truly integrate the new way of working. The Prime Minister of the State of Qatar set out his strategic vision, at the start of this project, to create a legacy of leadership command training beyond the FIFA World Cup 2022. Implementation of the twenty recommendations will assist to embed the GSB model within the DNA of the Qatari Police Service, and contribute to the State of Qatar National Vision 2030.

Legal decision makers tend to believe that highly confident witnesses are more accurate than less confident witnesses. Furthermore, research suggests that confidence judgements can provide a useful indicator of the accuracy of witnesses' identification decisions. Yet little research has examined the relationship between eyewitness confidence and accuracy when witnesses recall details about a crime. The experiments in this thesis therefore aimed to examine the factors that influence the relationship between the accuracy of witnesses' memory reports and their confidence in those reports, and to further our understanding of how witnesses make confidence judgements. Part One of this thesis examines several factors that may affect the relationship between confidence and accuracy when witnesses report their memories of a crime. The results of Experiments 1-3 indicate that witnesses' confidence judgements can provide a useful indicator of their memory accuracy regardless of whether they are collected immediately after each response or at the end of the memory test. Experiment 1 also indicates that the confidence-accuracy relationship can remain strong when memory performance is impaired by poor visibility, but Experiment 2 suggests that the relationship between confidence and accuracy breaks down when witnesses are exposed to misinformation. Experiment 4 explores the effect of retention interval and self-rated memory ability on the confidence-accuracy relationship. The results suggest that relatively long retention intervals can impair the confidence-accuracy relationship, but people's perception of their everyday memory ability has little impact on the confidence-accuracy relationship. Part Two examines the confidence-accuracy relationship in the context of cross-examination. The findings suggest that the effect of cross-examination style questions on eyewitness accuracy depends on the question type and eyewitness confidence. Together, the findings presented in this thesis help to refine theories of eyewitness confidence and highlight potential issues for using confidence judgements to assess eyewitness accuracy in real cases.

This thesis identifies and addresses main barriers to compatibility with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (hereafter referred to as the CRPD) for advance planning provisions in England and Wales. The CRPD reimagines current mental capacity and mental health law, focusing on supporting the individual and respecting individual will and preference. Advance planning is one such explicit form of support. There are two potential uses for advance plans under the CRPD. These are to provide documented will and preference to be used when an individual has lost the ability to communicate, and to self-bind some decisions to overrule future will and preference during a mental health experience. The latter is by far the most contested. Despite ratification in 2009, we are yet to see meaningful legislative attempts at CRPD-compatible advance planning in England and Wales. Attempts are stifled by the retention of mental capacity assessments, their reliance on true self conceptions, and the tension between safeguarding vulnerable adults and the CRPD's right to take risks and make mistakes. This thesis outlines these barriers to CRPD-compatibility and asks whether and how these barriers resonate with people who have experience of mental health difference. It also considers how identified barriers may be overcome to achieve greater compatibility while achieving the desired support. People with various mental health differences were invited to provide responses to these questions. 6 focus groups and 6 individual interviews were conducted, involving a total of 25 participants. Participants had a range of first and second-hand mental health experiences, including psychosis, PTSD, bipolar, schizophrenia, personality disorder, OCD, anxiety, depression, memory loss, dementia and Alzheimer's. Main findings provide insight into self with mental health and how this offers a challenge to the true self conception often used to justify advance planning and restrictions to legal capacity. It supports existing research findings demonstrating a desire for self-binding by individuals who experience drastic changes in self and decision making during a mental health experience. Findings also indicate that the nature of mental health and how it impacts self influence participant opinions on self-binding, specifically whether self-binding should be available to all individuals and the scope of decisions an individual could be permitted to self-bind. Currently advance planning works the same for everyone, however these findings suggest a divergent approach may be more appropriate. Findings also indicate support for a non-absolutist adherence to will and preference when this adherence would lead to serious, direct self-harm leading to loss of life. New thinking is explored in relation to advance planning as a potential user-led alternative to mental capacity assessments and a way to opt into state intervention.

This project seeks to excavate and explore the emancipatory potential of rights and rights language. Public international law, and its most powerful normative concept, sovereignty, helped manufacture a distinct brand of freedom and equality in the rollout of international human rights law (IHRL), which, until today, is evidenced by the emergence primarily of breaches of rather than adherence to IHRL. This is a project that descends into rights and rights language. This is not un-trod territory. There are several scholars engaged in similar pursuits, with similar aims. While there will be an assessment of the many rigorous critiques of human rights language and human rights law, this project will not be offering a new intervention into the failures and flaws of human rights. Rather, this investigation is looking to capture genealogical insights and transform rights critique into potential ways forward. This will involve several strategies, but most especially the transformative way rights can be deployed as political claims - it is in the radical re-imagining of rights and their content on which this project is based. Rather than submitting to a regime of legal order that roughly categorises communities and individuals and uses bright lines to demarcate where and when they might assert a certain claim, this project is interested in the gaps between such bright lines, where new subjects and subjectivities are being discursively created, and where there lurks an opportunity to shift cultural, social, and political norms in the protection of the least protected.

This dissertation examines the effects of copyright law on traditional music of the marginalised communities. Traditional music of the marginalised communities has been exploited by music collectors from the dominant group, historically and contemporarily. The exploitation is often justified and legalised by the proposition that traditional music is unprotectable under copyright law, which can be described as a 'hierarchy of protection.' Further, traditional music of the marginalised communities is often perceived as inferior to classical or art music of the dominant groups, which can be described as a 'hierarchy of culture.' This dissertation aims to examine the role of copyright law in the exploitation of traditional music and in shaping the cultural perception or cultural status of traditional music. This is accomplished through a cross analysis of publishing processes and legal treatments of traditional music. Four sub-questions are examined to answer the main research question: 1) whether traditional music can be protected as musical works under three copyright requirements, originality, authorship, and fixation; 2) whether these copyright requirements are socio-cultural neutral or informed by broader industrial and cultural contexts, thus embedding cultural biases towards traditional music; 3) how traditional music was processed in music publishing and what were the relative legal consequences of these processes; 4) whether and how the compound of music publishing and copyright law influences the cultural perception of traditional music. This cross analysis facilitates the dissertation's original contributions, including challenging the view that traditional music is unprotectable under copyright law. Theoretical patterns emerge from analysing the dynamic interaction between the 'hierarchy of protection' and the 'hierarchy of culture.' That is, copyright law has implemented the 'hierarchy of protection' in the legal field, thus constructing and reinforcing the 'hierarchy of culture' in the music field. The contributions underpin the implications of the dissertation: redressing the 'hierarchy' effect is essential for properly protecting traditional music against exploitation, and in the broader sense, for promoting socio-cultural equality between the dominant group and the marginalised communities.

This doctoral thesis examines the legal and jurisprudential developments associated with Article 8 of the ECHR in the immigration context. The primary objective of this thesis is to analyse whether the government has achieved its stated objectives of guiding judicial discretion by enacting primary and secondary legislation. The thesis examines both the domestic jurisprudence and that of the European Court of Human Rights to establish whether the UK's approach coincides with that of the Strasbourg Court. Doctrinal cum contextual research methods were adopted in this thesis. In 2012, the UK government introduced Immigration Rules claiming to be conclusive of the Article 8 proportionality assessment. After extensive judicial interpretations of the rules, courts did not treat the rules alone as conclusive of Article 8's proportionality assessment. The government then introduced primary legislation, inserting Part 5A in the Nationality, Immigration Asylum Act 2002 to guide judicial discretion. These provisions, known as public interest considerations, have been examined at all levels of the judicial hierarchy. The analysis reveals no substantial shift from the jurisprudence predating the 2012 Immigration Rules and the enactment of public interest considerations.

This Thesis discusses whether the future of lay participation has a future in the criminal justice system in England and Wales, paying particular attention to the modalities of trial by jury, magistrates' courts and community justice centres. Whilst many of the criticisms of the involvement of lay persons in the justice system might be merited, such criticisms ignore the legitimacy provided by their involvement, which remains a crucial aspect of public trust and an avenue for citizens to actively engage in political society while exercising official state power. The work of Mirjan Damaska will be used to provide a framework to analyse the impact and importance of trial by jury and lay magistrates from a theoretical foundational perspective. The thesis also engages in a comparative analysis of community justice centre initiatives.

This thesis draws upon the legal interpretations of racial discrimination to analyse the efficacy of the Equality Act 2010 in preventing indirect discrimination of ethnic minorities via dress codes in the workplace. A sociological perspective on race and discrimination demonstrates that the law, by itself, may not be efficient in producing substantive equality. Specifically, the reality of corporate dress codes, through both a legal and sociological perspective, is focused upon to ascertain whether the law has truly paved the way for visible minority expression and the freedom to present oneself in accordance with ethnic, racial, and cultural values. Using a socio-legal approach, the methodology of this thesis includes both a library-based study and a case study of British law firms. The combination of the chosen methodological approaches led to the deduction that whilst British businesses and organizations are seemingly devoted to diversity, there remains an implementation gap; minorities are subjected to dress standards indicative of a bias towards the majoritarian social group. Furthermore, it is asserted, from the analysis of the collated data, that the lack of understanding of race as a social construct, with strong ties to, but not synonymous with, ethnicity has led to a scarcity of visible minority expressions. This is further revealed through the lack of accommodation of ethnic dress and cultural symbolisms in certain professional workplaces. Ethnicity is presented as a legitimate characteristic unique to a group and with established traditions and shared values. It is asserted that ethnic dress is an essential aspect of manifesting ethnic group membership and should therefore be taken into account by corporations when dress policies are enforced. This is because ethnicity falls under the remit of Race in the Equality Act 2010. While it is accepted that employers have a valid interest in how their relevant brand is projected to the public, this thesis contends that the aesthetic goals of employers are not compelling enough to justify prohibiting the authentic manifestation of minority identity through ethnic dress. In addition, through an appraisal of the Equality Act 2010, it is contended that there is a gap in the legal protection offered to ethnic minorities, particularly those who deviate from the stereotypical expectations of their ethnic identity. The lack of relief offered in situations of individualistic, intersectional, or compound discrimination is particularly disadvantageous as an ethnic expression is often influenced by other personal traits. For ethnic dress to be fully accepted in professional settings, the social norms that favour secularity need to be addressed. Information and research are scarce on how official dress codes often clash with the traditional appearance standards of ethnic minorities. This poses a substantial threat to the establishment of substantive equality in the British employment scene and demonstrates that more effort is needed to ensure visible diversity within the workforce. In this regard, greater governance is recommended to regulate corporate dress policies to avoid the subtle coercion of ethnic minority staff into adopting majoritarian appearance norms. This thesis concludes with the assertion that, concerning racial discrimination, sociological interventions are equally as important as legal instruments and that; further research is needed to comprehend how ethnic identity is affected by societal behaviour and normalized stereotypical bias.

One of the greatest achievements of the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea was the introduction of the compulsory dispute settlement system into the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) as an integral part (Part XV). The introduction of the compulsory jurisdiction system was due to the shared need for comprehensive and effective dispute settlement mechanisms to prevent discretionary interpretation and application of the Convention. Thus, Part XV of UNCLOS maintains the overall balance and holds the whole structure of the Convention. Recently, the Part XV system of UNCLOS has been at the centre of controversies and debates among academics, which were mostly based on the views that tribunals have vigorously expanded the applicability of compulsory jurisdiction and that contradictions within the case-law have raised an inconsistency problem in interpreting and applying Part XV. However, the current thesis calls such criticisms into question. Instead, this research argues that the judicial findings concerning the compulsory dispute settlement system of UNCLOS can be analysed and assessed through the concept of judicial law-making. Among the different ways of understanding the concept of judicial law-making, this thesis considers that courts and tribunals may create and shift the normative expectations of other subjects of international law through the interpretation of a treaty. International judicial bodies' interpretation of a norm in a treaty may inevitably affect all other states parties to the same treaty because their authority as judicial organs enables them to shape the meaning of the law and to make their decisions a reference point for other subjects of international law. In this regard, this thesis argues that judicial law-making may happen when international judicial bodies interpret the provisions of UNCLOS Part XV to find a way to apply the rules to actual cases. In brief, the present thesis will show what rules Part XV tribunals have created concerning the compulsory dispute settlement procedures of UNCLOS and how this system has developed through the clarification of norms by international adjudication. In this respect, this research will propose a different perspective on the study of the dispute settlement system under UNCLOS and the role of Part XV tribunals.

This thesis seeks to address the limited stakeholders' recognition and protection under the Anglo-Saxon corporate governance model currently practised in Nigeria. The Anglo-Saxon corporate governance model originated from the UK and the US and focuses on profit maximisation for shareholders' benefit at the expense of other stakeholders, such as customers and employees. The thesis argued that the relative success of the Anglo-Saxon model in developed economies, such as the UK, is because of the availability of functional institutions, such as an efficient legal system which includes the state apparatus for making, interpreting and enforcing the law. The UK Anglo Saxon model is dependent on an active external market for corporate control and organised civil societies for its success. Nigeria inherited the UK corporate governance model because of its historical past. Despite the differences in their institutional environments, Nigeria has continued to model its corporate governance framework on that of the UK, despite its inefficient legal system resulting from the systemic corruption across the entire branches and tiers of government. Thus, implementing the UK's corporate governance model in Nigeria has deviated from what theories have envisaged. This is due to Nigeria's institutional environment, evidenced by its weak institutions, such as inadequate legal, regulatory and supervisory systems, insiders' ownership concentration, an underdeveloped capital market and systemic corruption across the entire branches and tiers of government. This has resulted in Nigeria's persistent banking failures because of the weak corporate governance framework, evidenced by inaccurate reporting and non-compliance with regulatory requirements, gross insider abuses resulting in substantial non-performing insider related loans, persistent illiquidity, and poor assets quality. Because of Nigeria's institutional voids, when banks fail, stakeholders, mostly customers and employees, suffer because the current framework does not offer them any protection. Therefore, given Nigeria's challenging institutional context, this thesis proposes an alternative corporate governance framework in the Nigerian banking sector that will promote the recognition of stakeholders and protect stakeholders' interests. The thesis makes original contributions to the existing scholarship in comparative corporate governance and regulation, particularly as it relates to banking regulation and stakeholders.

In the sphere of customary law, an insult to a man and woman's honour must be restored with a corresponding punishment equal to the initial act. However, to prevent the initiation of violent retaliations and protecting their communities from social disorganisation, small-scale communities also established reconciliation processes as an antidote to the deleterious consequences of revenge for securing social order. This also happened on the Island of Crete (Greece), where since the first formation of mountain villages a reconciliation practice known as Sasmos has been used to avoid revenge. Little is known about Sasmos, which so far has attracted scarce academic attention. This study addresses Sasmos and aims to identify and discuss: the factors that have contributed to the existence of Sasmos in contemporary Crete, how locals have prevented the occurrence of vendettas and secured social order through Sasmos. It also examines how Sasmos impacts the lives of the victims, wrongdoers, their families, and the community. A participatory ethnographic approach was adopted to reach the study's aims, according to the needs of the cultural environment and the participants under study, along with their ethical principles. The data was obtained by a combination of in-depth interviews, focus groups and participant observation. The findings show that locals prefer a customary approach to justice. This is due to the antagonism between the Cretan culture and social environment and the Western-derived approaches to justice and order that the Greek state establishes. Above all, by following an original approach, it was found that Sasmos is a sui generis restorative approach to justice which centres around harm repairation, reintegration of the wrongdoer, and reconciliation.

Between the 1970s and the end of the 1990s, the House of Lords and the Court of Appeal attempted to reshape the negligence liability of public authorities in English law in accordance with parallel developments in the growing body of administrative law. The attempt, however, was not successful, and in the last two decades, there is a notable shift back to a principled approach of negligence claims against public authorities. Much like the law shaped during the 19th century, courts are reemphasising the importance of subjecting public entities to the ordinary law of tort. To that end, Dicey's 'idea of legal equality' still serves as the leading principle. As the cornerstone of the English rule of law, Dicey's theory emphasises why public officials cannot escape liability just because of their public roles. However, it does not provide a sufficient reason to avoid imposing liability on a public authority when it negligently performs a specific power that a private individual does not possess. Another theory is needed to complete Dicey and explain why public authorities are subjected to the same ordinary tort law, and how ordinary law should be interpreted when discussing their negligence liability. This thesis aims to fill a current gap in the literature by suggesting a theoretical framework for equal treatment in tort, thus explaining recent trends in the law. It follows Ernest Weinrib's corrective justice theory and Arthur Ripstein's rights-based analysis of tort law and applies them to negligence claims against public authorities. The thesis identifies two key issues that comprise most of the 'hard cases' with regard to the negligence liability of public authorities: first, liability for pure economic loss; and second, a failure to protect another from harm, sometimes referred to as liability for omissions. The thesis then explains how a rights-based theory addresses both topics, focusing mainly on the 'assumption of responsibility' doctrine, while rejecting different policy arguments that are often mentioned in this context by judges and scholars alike.