L’intérêt principal de l’analyse du cadre des investissements miniers et pétroliers chinois en Afrique est la détermination du chantier juridique résultant de la cohabitation de deux cultures juridiques en vue de l’émergence d’une lex mercatoria dans les investissements sino-africains. Elle comprend deux parties principales. D’abord, l’étude se penche sur l’origine des fonds chinois investis sur le continent africain qui sont les fonds souverains. La problématique des fonds souverains est celle de savoir s’il s’agit d’instruments politiques ou financiers. Néanmoins, cette inquiétude ne freine pas la force opérationnelle grandissante des fonds souverains chinois sur le continent africain. Rentrant dans l’encadrement et le contenu du contrat proprement dit, l’analyse des figures contractuelles usitées dans l’industrie pétrolière et minière sino-africaine séparément dans les contextes chinois et africains révèle l’inadéquation des contrats et de la législation africaine aux besoins économiques et technologiques du continent. En outre, l’examen particulier des clauses de choix de la loi applicable et de règlement des différends dans les contextes chinois et africain permet de soulever quelques options possibles pour le contexte sino-africain. Ensuite, l’analyse se penche sur les mécanismes mis en place pour favoriser les investissements chinois miniers et pétroliers sur le continent africain avant de relever les conséquences dans les domaines sociaux et environnementaux desdits investissements. Il ressort donc que des avantages fiscaux et douaniers sont mis en place en faveur des investissements chinois en Afrique ainsi que des traités bilatéraux signés entre la Chine et de nombreux pays africains. Cependant, sur le plan social, l’on s’interroge sur la place accordée à la lutte contre la corruption et la promotion de la transparence dans l’industrie extractive africaine avec ses relations avec la Chine. L’on constate également que l’absence de transfert de technologie influe négativement sur le développement économique et technologique, la concurrence et l’emploi local du pays hôte. De même, la protection de l’environnement dans le contexte sino-africain semble être reléguée au dernier plan. L’environnement africain court donc le risque de connaître une crise comme celle de la chine causée par l’industrialisation du pays. La société civile nous apparaît donc au regard de ces effets peu glorieux des investissements chinois en Afrique dans les domaines miniers et pétroliers comme une troisième partie de cette relation qui devra être la médiatrice ou régulatrice entre les deux autres. / The main objective of this analysis is to determine the juridical patterns of the Chinese and African legal cultures cohabitations, in order to pursue a Chinese-African lex mercatoria. The survey of Chinese mines and oil investments in Africa will be done in two principal parts. First, the study goes over the origin of the Chinese funds invested in Africa. Sovereign wealth funds in general causes questioning concerning their real purpose: are they financial or political instruments? Nevertheless, it is still obvious that this questioning does not stop Chinese sovereign wealth funds to continue to expand all over Africa. Also, going into the contracts and the legislation itself, the analysis of the contractual figures used in the mining and oil extractive industry individually in the Chinese and African context reveals the African contracts and legislation is not adequate to the continent’s economical and technological needs. Continuing into the particular analysis of the applicable law and the arbitration clauses in the Chinese and African context individually, it was possible to outpoint some options to the Chinese-African context. Secondly, the survey points out the mechanisms enabling Chinese investment into Africa and the consequences of these investments in the economical, social and environmental context. It was then pointed out that fiscal and customs mechanisms and also bilateral investment treaties signed in between China and numerous African countries favors Chinese investments in Africa. Still, the main social impact reveals some interrogations concerning the fight against corruption and promotion of transparency in Africa. Is the Chinese partnership considerate of this aspect? Moreover, the lack of technology transfer gets to negatively influence local competition and employment as well as economical and technological development. Also, environmental protection in the Chinese-African context seems to me sent far behind. Therefore, the African environment risks to face an environmental crisis just like China did because of the country’s industrialization. Civil society here, considering these less attractive impacts of Chinese investment in oil and mining sectors in Africa, appears to be a very useful third party with the role of mediation and regulation between the two others.

In this study of the nineteenth-century German-Jewish philosopher Hermann Cohen, I argue that Cohen’s revision of Kantian ethics and moral theology is permeated with concepts drawn from and logically contoured by his interpretation of Maimonidean rationalism and Jewish sources, more generally. Through an idealizing hermeneutic, Cohen normativizes certain philosophical problems in post-Kantian philosophy and addresses them under the title of "pantheism" and "positivism". Between both pantheism and positivism, Cohen’s idealism presents a middle path, which I describe as "prophetic idealism", or a philosophy of time and ideality that interprets history, law, and ethical normativity as future-oriented. In other words, "prophecy" intimates a methodological role for temporality in practical philosophy and introduces a new meaning for legality in ethics. Cohen therefore offers a philosophy of Judaism, as a philosophy of religion, by normativizing the idea of prophecy and making it a conceptual model for reason-giving, agency, legal norms and ethical action. By focusing upon the critique of both pantheism and positivism, this dissertation therefore argues that Cohen’s negotiations of nineteenth-century philosophical problems introduces a normative role for Judaism as a public philosophy and the argument concludes by suggesting that Cohen’s philosophy of Judaism is instructive for contemporary public philosophy.

In this study of the nineteenth-century German-Jewish philosopher Hermann Cohen, I argue that Cohen’s revision of Kantian ethics and moral theology is permeated with concepts drawn from and logically contoured by his interpretation of Maimonidean rationalism and Jewish sources, more generally. Through an idealizing hermeneutic, Cohen normativizes certain philosophical problems in post-Kantian philosophy and addresses them under the title of "pantheism" and "positivism". Between both pantheism and positivism, Cohen’s idealism presents a middle path, which I describe as "prophetic idealism", or a philosophy of time and ideality that interprets history, law, and ethical normativity as future-oriented. In other words, "prophecy" intimates a methodological role for temporality in practical philosophy and introduces a new meaning for legality in ethics. Cohen therefore offers a philosophy of Judaism, as a philosophy of religion, by normativizing the idea of prophecy and making it a conceptual model for reason-giving, agency, legal norms and ethical action. By focusing upon the critique of both pantheism and positivism, this dissertation therefore argues that Cohen’s negotiations of nineteenth-century philosophical problems introduces a normative role for Judaism as a public philosophy and the argument concludes by suggesting that Cohen’s philosophy of Judaism is instructive for contemporary public philosophy.

Le vieillissement de la population est un phénomène démographique auquel est confronté le Québec. Dans ce contexte, la protection des personnes inaptes et vulnérables, prendra de plus en plus d'importance au cours des prochaines années. Ces personnes doivent bénéficier d'une protection adéquate lors de l'ouverture d'un régime de protection à leur égard. Considérant que l'ouverture d'un régime de protection au majeur inapte est toujours le résultat d'une décision judiciaire, le greffier de la Cour supérieure du Québec a un rôle fondamental à jouer à l'occasion dans le processus judiciaire. À titre d'officier de justice, il a compétence pour prononcer le jugement d'ouverture du régime de protection. Par conséquent, le présent mémoire consiste à vérifier si les majeurs inaptes sont bien protégés par le rôle et les pouvoirs de l'officier de justice. Pour ce faire, le sujet à l'étude a fait l'objet d'une double approche. Dans un premier temps, le cadre juridique à l'intérieur duquel le greffier doit exécuter ses fonctions sera étudié. Dans un deuxième temps, les résultats et l'analyse d'une enquête empirique auprès des greffiers de la Cour supérieure du Québec seront exposés. Cette démarche permet une approche comparative entre la théorie et la pratique en la matière et permet de constater qu'il peut y avoir un écart entre les deux. / Aging population is a phenomenon faced by Quebec. In this context, the protection of incapacitated and vulnerable individuals will be increasingly important in the coming years and they should benefit adequate protection from the institution of protective supervision. Considering that the institution of protective supervision is always the result of a court order, the clerk of the Superior Court of Quebec has a fundamental role to play during the judicial process. The judicial officer has jurisdiction to pronounce the judgment of institution of protective supervision. The following study will attempt to verify whether the proven inapt persons are well protected under the actual system whereby the judicial officer has the function and the powers to decide. To do this, a two way analysis will be used. First, the legal framework within which the clerk shall perform its functions will be studied and second, the results and analysis of an empirical survey of clerks of the Superior Court of Quebec will be discussed. This approach should reveal the existing gap between theory and practice.

Le déroulement du commerce électronique sur un marché global suscite de nombreux questionnements juridiques. D'une part, le droit est conçu à l'échelle nationale en fonction d'un milieu social tributaire de son histoire et de sa culture et d'autre part, le commerce électronique global présente des caractéristiques très singulières : dématérialisation, ubiquité et dimension transfrontalière. Or, une telle confrontation est susceptible de menacer la sécurité juridique des parties dans leurs transactions commerciales en ligne mais aussi la confiance nécessaire à leur développement. Les territoires nationaux, en limitant le pouvoir d’action effectif des États, pose un problème d’échelle : réglementer un phénomène global confronté à des souverainetés territoriales multiples. L’encadrement normatif du commerce électronique global se développe désormais, en partie, à un niveau extra étatique, confirmant l’érosion du monopole des États dans la régulation des rapports juridiques globalisés. La normativité devient le résultat d’un jeu normatif ouvert non seulement quant aux acteurs de la régulation, mais également quant à la qualification des normes impliquées dans cette régulation. Prenant la mesure de la complexité croissante de la normativité, les États interviennent pour tenter de concilier les pratiques nouvelles avec la règle de droit dans une logique de définition des règles du jeu et d’harmonisation du comportement des acteurs économiques. Les systèmes de droit nationaux apprennent à interagir avec des normes multiples de sources différentes. Cette évolution reflète l’articulation des dynamiques de mutation de la normativité avec le phénomène de globalisation du commerce électronique. / The roll out of e-commerce on a global market gives rise to a number of legal questions. On one hand, the law is conceived on a national scale based on the social context, which itself is dependent on its history and culture, and on the other hand, global e-commerce has very unique characteristics: dematerialization, ubiquity and a cross-border dimension. Such a confrontation is likely to jeopardize the legal security of parties in their online commercial transactions, in addition to the trust necessary for their development. National territories, by limiting the effective State power, present a scale issue: regulating a global phenomenon confronted by multiple territorial sovereignties. The normative framework of global e-commerce is now starting to develop, partly, at the non-state level confirming the erosion of States monopoly in the regulation of the global legal relations. Normativity becomes the result of a normative game, open not only as for regulation actors, but even as for the qualification of the norms involved in this regulation. With regard to the growing complexity of normativity, States intervene in order to attempt to reconcile new practices with the rule of law, while aiming to define the playing fields and to harmonize the behaviour of the economic players. National law systems are learning to interact with multiple norms from different sources. This evolution reflects the articulation of changes in normativity dynamic with the phenomenon of e-commerce globalization.

Against the background of the global demographic shift towards an aging workforce and its impacts on the labour market and the economy in industrialized societies, this dissertation pinpoints six salient challenges for future litigation and policy-making in the area of labour and employment discrimination law. These include the global tendency towards abolishing mandatory retirement and increasing the eligibility age for pension benefits; legislative age-based distinctions; cost as a justification for age discrimination; performance appraisals of senior workers; and the duty to accommodate senior workers. At the core of each challenge lies a normative question regarding our conception of senior workers’ right to age equality, its importance and relative weight compared with other rights and interests. The aim of this dissertation is therefore to critically review the current understanding of this right and its moral and economic underpinning. Most notably, the dissertation contends that the prevailing conception of equality assessment (the Complete Lives Approach to equality), according to which equality should be assessed based on a comparison of the total share of resources obtained by individuals over a lifetime, has substantial implications for age discrimination discourse. As it uncovers the numerous difficulties with the complete lives approach, the dissertation develops an alternative: the Dignified Lives Approach to equality, according to which an individual should be treated with equal concern and respect, at any particular time and regardless of any comparison. The dissertation then articulates five essential principles founded in Dworkin’s notion of equal concern and respect: the principle of individual assessment, the principle of equal influence, the principle of sufficiency, the principle of social inclusion, and the principle of autonomy. When one of these principles is not respected at any particular time, a wrong is done, and the right to equality is violated. Next, the dissertation elucidates when and why unequal treatment of senior workers based on age does not respect each of these five principles and therefore constitutes unjust age discrimination. It demonstrates that senior workers’ right to age equality is a fundamental human right. Finally, it examines the above-mentioned challenges through the lens of the new Dignified Lives approach.

Against the background of the global demographic shift towards an aging workforce and its impacts on the labour market and the economy in industrialized societies, this dissertation pinpoints six salient challenges for future litigation and policy-making in the area of labour and employment discrimination law. These include the global tendency towards abolishing mandatory retirement and increasing the eligibility age for pension benefits; legislative age-based distinctions; cost as a justification for age discrimination; performance appraisals of senior workers; and the duty to accommodate senior workers. At the core of each challenge lies a normative question regarding our conception of senior workers’ right to age equality, its importance and relative weight compared with other rights and interests. The aim of this dissertation is therefore to critically review the current understanding of this right and its moral and economic underpinning. Most notably, the dissertation contends that the prevailing conception of equality assessment (the Complete Lives Approach to equality), according to which equality should be assessed based on a comparison of the total share of resources obtained by individuals over a lifetime, has substantial implications for age discrimination discourse. As it uncovers the numerous difficulties with the complete lives approach, the dissertation develops an alternative: the Dignified Lives Approach to equality, according to which an individual should be treated with equal concern and respect, at any particular time and regardless of any comparison. The dissertation then articulates five essential principles founded in Dworkin’s notion of equal concern and respect: the principle of individual assessment, the principle of equal influence, the principle of sufficiency, the principle of social inclusion, and the principle of autonomy. When one of these principles is not respected at any particular time, a wrong is done, and the right to equality is violated. Next, the dissertation elucidates when and why unequal treatment of senior workers based on age does not respect each of these five principles and therefore constitutes unjust age discrimination. It demonstrates that senior workers’ right to age equality is a fundamental human right. Finally, it examines the above-mentioned challenges through the lens of the new Dignified Lives approach.

The first rule of writing is an important one: writers should not plagiarize; what they write should be their own. It is taken for granted. But who made the rule? Why? And how is it enforced? This dissertation traces the history of proprietary authorship from the earliest distinctions between imitation and misappropriation in the humanist schoolroom, through the first recorded uses in English of the Latin legal term plagiary (kidnapper) as a metaphor for literary misappropriation, to an inchoate conception of literary property among a coterie of writers in early modern England. It argues that the recognition of literary misappropriation emerged as a result of the instrumental reading habits of early humanist scholars and that the subsequent distinction between authors and plagiarists depended more upon the maturity of the writer than has been previously recognized. Accusations of plagiarism were a means of discrediting a rival, although in this capacity their import also depended largely upon one’s perspective. In the absence of established trade customs, writers had to subscribe to the proprieties of the institutions with which they were affiliated. They were deemed plagiarists only when their actions were found to be out of place. These proprieties not only informed early modern definitions of plagiarism; they also helped define the perimeters of proprietary authorship. Authors who wished to make a fair profit from labours in print had to conform to the regulations of the Stationer’s Company, just as authors who maintained a proprietary interest in their manuscripts had to draw upon legal rhetoric, such as plagiary, in the absence of a legally recognized notion of authorial property. With new information technologies expanding the boundaries of proprietary authorship everyday, the proprieties according to which these boundaries were first defined should help teachers and researchers not only better to understand the nature of Renaissance authorship but also to equip their students for the future.

The first rule of writing is an important one: writers should not plagiarize; what they write should be their own. It is taken for granted. But who made the rule? Why? And how is it enforced? This dissertation traces the history of proprietary authorship from the earliest distinctions between imitation and misappropriation in the humanist schoolroom, through the first recorded uses in English of the Latin legal term plagiary (kidnapper) as a metaphor for literary misappropriation, to an inchoate conception of literary property among a coterie of writers in early modern England. It argues that the recognition of literary misappropriation emerged as a result of the instrumental reading habits of early humanist scholars and that the subsequent distinction between authors and plagiarists depended more upon the maturity of the writer than has been previously recognized. Accusations of plagiarism were a means of discrediting a rival, although in this capacity their import also depended largely upon one’s perspective. In the absence of established trade customs, writers had to subscribe to the proprieties of the institutions with which they were affiliated. They were deemed plagiarists only when their actions were found to be out of place. These proprieties not only informed early modern definitions of plagiarism; they also helped define the perimeters of proprietary authorship. Authors who wished to make a fair profit from labours in print had to conform to the regulations of the Stationer’s Company, just as authors who maintained a proprietary interest in their manuscripts had to draw upon legal rhetoric, such as plagiary, in the absence of a legally recognized notion of authorial property. With new information technologies expanding the boundaries of proprietary authorship everyday, the proprieties according to which these boundaries were first defined should help teachers and researchers not only better to understand the nature of Renaissance authorship but also to equip their students for the future.

Le Canada, l'Australie et l'Union européenne sont des destinations convoitées par des immigrants hautement qualifiés dont le nombre augmente chaque année. La mobilité croissante de ces travailleurs, soutenue par des politiques favorables à leur intégration à l'échelle nationale, pose des défis de grande envergure, alors que celles-ci tentent de conjuguer des objectifs économiques avec le redressement démographique à long terme. La reconnaissance des titres de compétences étrangers (RTCE) figure toujours parmi les principaux défis de cette gestion des flux migratoires, s’imposant dans les processus d'admission aux professions réglementées au Québec comme dans les autres juridictions provinciales, nationales et communautaires. Notre recherche vise à expliciter la corrélation entre le modèle de sélection économique choisi par le Québec particulièrement et la difficile intégration en emploi des nouveaux résidents permanents qualifiés. Nous examinons l’utilité de réformer la procédure administrative de la demande d’immigration en amont pour y inclure une étape obligatoire de RTCE par les organismes réglementaires compétents. Étudiant des dispositifs juridiques en vigueur à cet effet en Australie et en Union européenne, nous cherchons à déterminer si la transposition d'une telle rigueur de sélection est réaliste et souhaitable dans le contexte spécifique québécois. / Canada, Australia and the European Union represent among the most coveted destinations for the vast number of highly-qualified immigrants around the globe. Supported by national policies and initiatives seeking their integration, the increasing mobility of these workers nevertheless poses great challenges, as host countries strive to coordinate economic objectives with long-term demographic supply. The recognition of foreign qualifications consistently figures among the main stakes in the management of these migratory flows, imposing itself in the admission process to regulated professions in Quebec as in other provincial, national and Community jurisdictions. Our research aims at explaining the correlation between the economic selection model chosen specifically by Quebec and the laborious labour market integration efforts on behalf of the newly-arrived qualified immigrants. We examine the viability and usefulness of reforming the pre-migratory administrative procedure in permanent residency applications by including within it a mandatory credential assessment by competent regulatory authorities. Drawing upon legal arrangements to this effect in force in Australia and the European Union, we seek to determine whether the importing of such a rigorous selection process is realistic and desirable for the particular Quebec context.