While the mining industry provides numerous benefits to the society, it also has negative impacts on communities. This thesis will discuss various voluntary policies employed by mining companies and the developmental attempts at legislative changes to enforce mandatory regulations. The primary focus will be on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), in particular Bill C-300, which required “Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas Corporations in Developing Countries”. The Bill had effective key points to ensure that Canadian extractive companies followed human rights and environmental practices while operating overseas. Although the Bill was defeated, it is believed to be critical with respect to CSR. Moreover, Dodd-Frank, the 2010 United States legislation with similar provisions of CSR, will be discussed. The differences in the two will be elaborated to determine why Bill C-300 was rejected and answer whether it would have succeeded had the provisions been drafted similarly to Dodd-Frank.

The 2009 reform of China’s health care system attempts to lower the burden of medical costs and provide universal access to health care. This thesis focuses on a particular access and equity gap within the health care system that faced by internal migrants, and explores the potential value of a legally enforceable and justiciable right to health care in the Chinese context to address such gaps. Despite recent advances in the health care reform, lack of a framework of health care rights could be a limiting factor to current health care initiatives which are falling short of their promises of universality in some way. In the long run, establishment of such framework could be a direction that deserves further research.

Traditional scholarship on corporate law evidences the lack of analysis undertaken to understand the interconnectivity between businesses and the societies in which they operate where , scholarship and case law had favored shareholder primacy. However, an analysis of Section 122 of the Canadian Business Corporations Act (CBCA), reveals that the ambiguous language of director’s duties under the CBCA allows for the courts to continue modernize the law inclusive of stakeholder rights without requiring statutory amendments. Therefore, this thesis argues that courts have the flexibility to interpret that directors are within their duties to balance the rights of both shareholders and stakeholders. In fact, this thesis argues that stakeholder theory is superior to shareholder theory in consideration of law and morality. By concluding that stakeholder theory is the new accepted standard in Canadian Corporate law, this paper offers directors guidance on how to perform their role in accordance with the CBCA.

The Saudi taʿawuni insurance model, despite claiming to be compatible with Islamic transactional rules, in fact violates the prohibition of gharar (risk) through its commercial structure. The study investigates the ways in which gharar (risk) is accommodated in modern insurance models. It argues that the most appropriate solution to comply with the doctrine of gharar, is to de-commercialize the taʿawuni model by adopting the mutual insurance model, which is capable of satisfying the requirements of sharia relating to the prohibition of trading in gharar

Acknowledging a relationship between international human rights and international trade law adds to the legitimacy of economic, social and cultural rights already enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the central institution for international trade law and it has demonstrated a commitment to enhance human rights. This commitment has been realized through WTO efforts to enhance human dignity and eradicate poverty. These WTO efforts ought to be fostered and used to promote human rights. The purpose of this study was two fold – first, demonstrate that a relationship between international trade law and international human rights exists; and second, that this relationship is useful in promoting economic, social and cultural rights. This relationship will be examined through WTO initiatives, case studies and the Accession of the Republic of China in 2001.

Constitutional change is relentless. Today, states jockey with regional associations, international organizations, transnational networks and sub-state authorities to define the scope of legitimate political conduct and establish rival bases for political affiliation. Constitutional theorists must be resolute but they should not be rigid. Especially in such uncertain conditions, theories are best understood not as plans to be implemented but as hypotheses to be tested. Charles Sabel and David Dyzenhaus write separately but share this pragmatic orientation, in which doubt is indispensable and truth is the end of public inquiry. They also share a distinctive belief that constitutionalism serves a moral end: it is the project of cultivating citizens who conceive their political community in terms of the commitments revealed by its practices. Their position, which is well suited for contemporary challenges, warrants elaboration and examination. British Columbia offers an ideal constitutional laboratory for that test. During the 1970s and 1980s, doubts mounted about the legitimacy of the constitutional settlement imposed by the Crown in the westernmost province of Canada. Legal, political and constitutional decisions raised the possibility that aboriginal rights and title survived colonization and Confederation. Since 1990, their existence has been confirmed in a cascade of constitutional experiments. Those initiatives can be distilled into four procedures: litigation, negotiation, consultation and collaboration. Although they have delivered practical benefits to some indigenous peoples, these procedures have not transformed provincial politics into a moral endeavour. The constraints on constitutionalism in British Columbia are both conceptual and institutional. Despite marginal improvements, those constraints endure and constitutionalism remains for now the sporadic pursuit of a small elite. To conceive constitutionalism as a project is to set a sound but exacting standard. Although British Columbia falls short, its failure is informative: the theory is useful.

In recent years, countries across the globe have come to realise the importance of an official corporate governance regime, which provides a platform for market integrity and efficiency, as well as facilitating economic growth. Formulating effective corporate governance measures is a complex task for legislators. The purpose of this paper is to provide an in depth analysis and comparison of the corporate governance legislative frameworks in Australia and Jordan. In 2004, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in conjunction with national and international governmental organisations, finalised a universal set of corporate governance principles. Although non-binding, the OECD Principles 2004 are a serious attempt to strengthen every aspect of corporate governance and, accordingly, have been utilised in this paper as an international benchmark.The ultimate objective of this paper is to formulate a number of detailed and specific recommendations to the Jordanian Government. Jordan’s legislative framework for corporations received a significant shake-up a decade ago when the Jordanian Government began the process of implementing a privatisation program under the guidance of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Despite a number of positive developments since this program was initiated, the Jordanian Government has continually failed to recognise the importance of promoting good corporate governance. There can be no doubt that the Jordanian companies’ legislation is in desperate need of reform. The vast majority of the provisions are ambiguous and lack the necessary detail to regulate the complex sphere of company law. In this writer’s opinion, the relevant authorities in Jordan must act immediately to bring the country’s legislative regime into line with internationally recognised standards and practices. Chapter 1 of the paper sets out an introductory explanation of corporate governance and corporate structure. Chapter 2 provides a brief account of the history of company law in Jordan and a description of the different types of company structures permitted under the relevant Jordanian legislation. Chapter 3 provides a detailed discussion of the corporate governance principles formulated by the OECD. The process began in 1999 and was completed in 2004 after extensive revision and consultation. Chapter 4, the core part of the paper, presents a comparative analysis of the implementation of the OECD principles in Australia and Jordan. Chapter 5 provides an explanation and analysis of two important shareholders’ remedies in the Australian companies’ legislation that do not exist in Jordan. Finally, Chapter 6 provides a summary of analysis and sets out a list of recommendations to the Jordanian Government.

This thesis analyses the consistency of WTO law with international environmental law and general international law in the field of trade and environment. GATT obligations require trade measures to comply with national treatment (Article III) and most –favoured nation treatment (Article I) and to prohibit import and export restrictions (Article XI). GATT exceptions permit measures to protect human, animal or plant life or health (Article XX(b)) and to conserve exhaustible natural resources (Article XX(g). This thesis analyses the consistency of unilateral and multilateral environmental measures with these GATT obligations and exceptions. It argues that the Article XX exceptions should be interpreted according to the proximity of interest between the country using trade restrictions and the environmental problem. It argues further that Article XX should be interpreted in accordance with customary international law regarding sovereign equality, non-intervention and the doctrine of necessity. Applying the principle of sovereign equality to WTO rights, this thesis proposes that WTO provisions be designed and interpreted to compensate for the economic inequality of WTO members in order to ensure equal access to WTO rights. Moreover, the principle of non-intervention should be applied in the WTO context to prohibit economic coercion. Unilateral environmental trade restrictions fail both tests. They use economic coercion to intervene in the internal affairs of sovereign States and are available in practice only to countries with significant market power. However, the doctrine of necessity may be invoked to excuse the non-observance of WTO and other international obligations to permit the use of trade restrictions to address urgent environmental problems with which the enacting country has a jurisdictional nexus.

A state contract is a common mode of entry for foreign direct investment, especially in developing states. It can form the legal basis of the investment relationship between a foreign investor and a host government. But, like any other contract, it cannot stand itself covering all aspects of the legal relationship. The contract thus must belong to a specific legal system or a body of rules or principles which is usually called “applicable law “or “governing law”.Historically, a “concession contract” in the natural resources sector was the predominant form of a state contract and it used to be governed by the domestic law of each host state. However, since the 1950s, international investment arbitrations have abandoned the tradition and advanced a theory subjecting state contracts in the foreign investment sector to an external legal system, ie public international law. One of the bases of the theory of internationalisation was the principle of party autonomy that allows parties to a state contract to select any law of whatever country they like. Then, the 1965 Washington Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (ICSID Convention)1 formally adopted the principle of party autonomy in Article 42 (1) as the primary choice of law rule in disputes arising out a foreign investment contract concluded between a state and a national of another state.The object of this thesis is to prove that the fundamental problems of party autonomy in foreign investment contracts involving considerations of public and private law issues remain unsettled. It explores the main controversies and confusions in the theory of internationalising state contracts, looking at its historical context. It examines the extent of the application of party autonomy in state contracts such as natural resource exploitation contracts and construction of a plant and infrastructure contracts which reflect important economic development policies of developing countries.In considering past and current problems in the field of international investment law, the thesis argues that arbitral tribunals resolving disputes between a state and a foreign private individual should abandon the party autonomy approach because contractual freedom to choose the law of the contract would disregard the objectives which host states normally pursue through economic regulations such as development, environment and human rights concerns of foreign investment. It suggests a consensus-based approach similar to the rule adopted in the Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Certain Rights in Respect of Securities (Hague Securities Convention)2 and which would produce the desired effect. It recommends that the choice of law provisions found in Article 42 of ICSID Convention would need to be either modified or repealed. In doing so, this thesis attempts to contribute to the positive development of international investment law balancing state authority and private property rights.

No description available.