Public participation in environmental matters is widely acknowledged as having the potential to improve environmental governance and public wellbeing significantly. Hence, the concept of public participation, in terms of public access to environmental information and decision-making processes, has been a recurring theme in international environmental law for decades, with several instruments calling on states to guarantee the concept in their laws and practices effectively. However, even though Nigeria has ratified and committed itself to many of such international regimes, the country is still widely known for its extensive and increasing environmental pollution, and their consequential harm to public wellbeing. This situation raises serious questions about the value and adequacy of Nigeria's laws and practices on public access to environmental information and decision-making processes, in terms of whether they meet international legal standards to which Nigeria aspires or is committed, as well as reasonably allow for effective public participation. In this light, this thesis assesses primarily the value and adequacy of Nigeria's laws on public participation in environmental matters (mainly, the recent 2011 Freedom of Information Act and the 1992 Environmental Impact Assessment Act) and their implementation. This assessment is largely done against the backdrop of what is considered international best practice on the subject-matter as generally reflected in UNECE's Aarhus Convention. Although Nigeria is not a party to the Aarhus Convention, it is argued that the Convention, broadly reflective of Nigeria's international environmental law commitments, is legally and politically relevant to her. This comparative analysis will reveal areas where Nigerian laws and practices align with, probably go beyond, as well as fall short of best practice. This will also enable recommendations for law-reform to be made (in consideration of relevant socio-economic and political factors in Nigeria) in order to better ensure the practical realisation of the ideals of environmental public participation and that Nigeria is in compliance with its international commitments.

This study explores the different approaches that could be adopted in designing meaningful sentencing guidelines for Uganda. The study argues that the primary function of sentencing guidelines is to enable a public articulation of meaningful consistency. The study also argues that sentencing guidelines modelled on a limiting retributivism model offer the most appropriate liberal approach to achieving meaningful consistency in sentencing. The primary aim of the study is to offer an integrated set of proposals for the improvement of Uganda's sentencing guidelines and statutory sentencing framework. This is accomplished by means of a literature review and empirical analysis of guideline systems in selected common law jurisdictions as well as an analysis of Uganda's first set of voluntary sentencing guidelines. The insights drawn from the literature review and experiences in other jurisdictions assist in identifying theoretical and normative weaknesses in Uganda's sentencing guidelines and in finding an integrated set of proposals for their improvement. The study specifically focuses on how some structural features of a sentencing guideline can be designed to articulate meaningful consistency in sentencing including: the guidelines' binding nature, scaling offence seriousness, sentencing ranges, aggravating and mitigating factors, departures, the role of previous convictions and discounts for multiple offence sentencing. The recommendations made in the study are particularly intended for a Ugandan context, although the set of proposals can also find application in any jurisdiction seeking to develop sentencing guidelines. The study offers an immediate practical guide to policy makers in Uganda and will be of great and particular interest to the judicial system in Uganda.

The theology of the land must start in the Garden of Eden. Eden is a sanctuary, a covenanted land, and a royal garden. Eden is proto-land, and Adam is proto-Israel. Starting in Eden underlines the universal dimension of the land promise and its conditionality. It also elevates ethical behaviour above the gift. The theology of the land in the OT reflects these Edenic themes: holiness, covenant, and kingdom. First, the holiness of the land depends on the presence of God in the land, and on the holiness of its dwellers; there is no permanent holy place in the OT. Secondly, the land is a gift under treaty; the goal of the gift is establishing an ideal covenantal community that witnesses to other nations in other lands. Thirdly, the land is the sphere of God’s reign on earth through his vicegerent. The vicegerent brings justice and peace to the land. God remains the ultimate king in the land. The original promise to Israel is a promise of universal dominion. After the exile, the prophets spoke of a time in which the land would become an ideal place. This ideal land is, effectively, Eden restored. The restoration of the land ultimately points forward to the restoration of the earth. The land in the OT underlines the social dimension to redemption. Yet, importantly, Israel’s faith can survive without the land. The Jesus-event is the starting place for the theology of the land in the NT. Jesus restored Israel and fulfilled the promises of the OT, including the land. He embodied the holy presence of God on earth, kept the covenant on behalf of Israel, and brought the reign of God on earth. He inherited the land, and in him Jews and Gentile are its true heirs. This radical new fulfilment, brought about by the Jesus-event, dramatically changed the meaning of the land and nullified the old promises in their old articulation. The NT points forward to a time of consummation when the whole earth will become an ideal place or a redeemed land. The land has thus been universalized in Christ. Universalization does not mean the ‘spiritualization’ or ‘heavenization’. Instead, the theology of the land of Israel – modified in the Jesus-event – is a paradigm for Christian communities living in other lands. The theology of the land thus underlines the social and territorial dimensions of redemption. It also highlights the goodness of creation, and has many practical implications for the ongoing mission and practice of the Church throughout the world.

An important yet often neglected and largely unknown story in Christian-Muslim relations is the connections, functions and roles of Church of the East monasteries in the early Abbasid period of the ninth century. These monasteries had already existed in pre-Islam Arabia and were written about by Muslims in the following centuries. The thesis argues that monastic mission activities took place in the early and middle ninth century under Muslim rule with a similarity to prior centuries. It also argues that these activities focused on the Muslim context around them in Mesopotamia, differing from other scholarly work on the subject. One of these works is by William G Young, who describes his perception of the lack of witness to Muslims as a ‘puzzle’ that still needs more evidence. Contributing four more pieces to the 'puzzle' in this thesis, a more nuanced and comprehensive picture emerges. An original contribution of the thesis is in its investigation from primary sources of both faith perspectives whether mission activities were able to be sustained both in Mesopotamia and to the east in the early Abbasid context. What this mission may have meant and involved for both the Church of the East and Muslims will also be explored from these sources. Occurring both in Christian and Muslim imaginations as well as in reality, these encounters centred in the monasteries were written about in both Christian and Muslim sources providing resources for sustenance of Church activities in the early Abbasid period. The thesis also investigates the importance of monasteries like Beit Abhe and the leadership of Patriarch Timothy for those activities, including the nature of an expansion east to places like Angamali in Malabar as well as China. The interaction between the involvement in Mesopotamia and to the east will be examined more closely than in other studies. Involvement to the east will be reflected on in how that affected the 'image' of the Church in its homeland and relationship with the Abbasids as well. Whether these monastic activities were sustained in the early ninth century is important because it offers the story of a period when the Church in Asia lived without political power yet had a history of previous involvement in witness. A similar context is still relevant in several ‘contact zones’ of the world today, where Christians struggle to understand what mission means in their context of living as minorities under Muslim role and at times are facing existential issues of survival. Through this examination of the sources a further way of engagement is reflected on based in the nature of mission while living in difficult environments. The role of a Church subject to Muslim rule yet engaged in mission and learning activities within and beyond the regions of that rule provides a different historical paradigm than usually envisioned. The Church of the East monastery in its presence and encounter is analyzed in this thesis as a blend of a ‘contact zone’ and ‘conflict zone’ in Christian-Muslim relations of the early ninth century. Mission in this thesis is defined in these two dimensions of presence and encounter for a purpose of witness to the Christian faith, particularly from a monastic framework. Training for mission of the monks will be explored as part of the dimension of presence, focused in the monastic context.

This thesis examines the theology and practice of the sharing of possessions, including food, in community in the New Testament. A significant proportion of the New Testament addresses questions around money, possessions and sharing, and provides a range of examples of ways of sharing possessions. This thesis looks at six diverse examples of sharing possessions in the New Testament, from the Gospels, Acts, and the Pauline literature. It considers each example in its social context and then compares it to other examples of sharing in the surrounding cultures to find similarities and differences between the example and surrounding practice and thought. It then examines the comparisons to see whether there are ways in which Christians developed sharing possessions that were consistently similar to or different from surrounding practice. The thesis highlights a number of common characteristics across the New Testament examples of how Christians shared possessions. In the New Testament examples, sharing: is practical and responsive; is based on communal identity; includes people from different backgrounds and various ways of contributing; is voluntary and yet includes assumptions; is both individual and communal; often responds to need; and includes eating together. This thesis analyses similarities and differences between each example and its comparators. It also identifies ways that Christians were consistently distinctive from the surrounding culture in how they shared possessions, as well as areas where Christians were similar to, and may have been influenced by the surrounding practices. The consistent distinctives include: subverting patronage expectations; greater social diversity; more flexibility; a greater emphasis on the voluntary nature of contributing; each person being involved in giving; more frequent eating together; and stronger intra-community relational bonds. This thesis demonstrates a possible approach for examining areas where there is a diverse witness within the New Testament texts.

This thesis analyzes the doctrines of justification in the Roman Catholic John Henry Newman (1801‐1890) and the Reformed Protestant Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499‐1562), examining their historical contexts and respective works. Recognition of their common concerns, common commitments, different commitments, and different conclusions provide insight into agreements and variences between Roman Catholics and Reformed Protestants in contemporary ecumenical dialogue. We conclude that many of the classic discrepencies between Roman Catholics and Reformed Protestants are not as irreconcilable as they may appear at first glance. We recognize, for example, a common commitment to union with Christ by the Holy Spirit, a union that imparts twofold righteousness by divine initiative. This righteousness grows in an internal habit of grace, producing virtue as it reaches toward holiness. Such works are a necessary part of justification, which pleases God and receives his favor in the form of rewards. Despite this convergence, however, some irreconcilable differences remain. Most fundamental is the question of justification’s formal cause, whether divine forgiveness is ultimately based upon an internal work of the Spirit or the forensic imputation of Christ’s righteousness. There is also the basic difference of how righteousness is appropriated, by means of faith alone through the sacrament of baptism. Finally, there is disagreement over perseverance of faith, whether Christians are eternally secure in their justification. In addition to advancing scholarship on several issues associated with Newman’s and Vermigli’s doctrines of justification and illuminating reasons and attendant circumstances for conversion across the Tiber, the overall conclusions of this study offer a broader range of soteriological possibilities to ecumenical dialogue among Roman Catholics and Protestants by clarifying the common ground to which both traditions may lay claim.

More recently, there has been in some quarters a theological move away from the Penal Substitution model of atonement primarily due to the concerns it raises about God’s character. This is paralleled by a desire to replace it with a less violent approach to soteriology, with the concomitant representation of a less coercive God. This thesis addresses the biblical manifestations of divine violence across both Testaments in order to present God as one for whom violence is an extrinsic, accommodated function. Divine violence is particularly manifested soteriologically, finding its fullest expression, therefore, in the atonement. The Christus Victor Model is offered as the one best able to explicate and accommodate this divine violence. The main atonement models are assessed, revealing how each has sought to engage with, or deny, divine violence. Firstly, God and violence are explored in order to provide an ideological, linguistic and epistemological foundation for understanding what violence is. Biblical examples of violence are then examined including both Testaments along with consideration of the Satan and the demonic realm; showing how God utilises violence in order to overcome these ontological enemies. Various atonement models are then examined, followed by a consideration of metaphor in the context of soteriology and God. Key scholars addressing violence are then assessed, followed by a section on the primacy of the Christus Victor atonement model; it is then presented as the only one which can fully incorporate the concomitant issues of God’s character, divine violence and an actual, evil enemy seeking to confound both God and His purposes. Further, the Christus Victor model is presented as the only one which is ontological, expressing a view of the atonement that both acknowledges God’s incontrovertible use and endorsement of extrinsic violence as well as the need to overcome an actual enemy in the Satan.

This thesis investigates echoic utterances in Malachi with special reference to irony in 1:2-5 and irony and denial in 2:17-3:12. Instances of irony, denial and echo questions in 1:6-14 are also analysed in the process of explaining irony in 1:2-5. The Relevance Theory (RT) of ostensive communication, particularly its notion of echoic metarepresentation provides the methodology. The thesis has five chapters. The first chapter consists of introductory materials, namely background information and a quick review of previous works. Following an overview of key background information, a detailed analysis of the literary form of the book is presented in which the discourse of Malachi is described as a form of diatribe. The review of previous works sketches studies of Malachi and biblical irony. In the second chapter, the RT notion of verbal irony, denial (metalinguistic negation) and echoic questions is discussed following a brief survey of modern accounts of linguistic communication. The rest of the thesis is devoted to the analysis of echoic utterances in Malachi. Chapter three analyses YHWH‘s utterances in Mal 1:2-5 as irony. The chapter begins with a detailed review of previous works on the passage under consideration. The second section examines the passage in the larger discourse context of Mal 1:2-14. The chapter concludes with a summary of major claims. Chapter four investigates YHWH‘s utterances in Mal 3:1 and 3:6-7a following a similar format as chapter three. A detailed review of previous works on the passages is given first. This is followed by a treatment of Mal 3:1 as irony and 3:6-7a as denial. The clause in 3:6b is treated as ironic as well. A summary of major claims and the implication of the claims for reading Mal 2:17-3:12 concludes the chapter. Chapter five consists of conclusion to the thesis.

As a group of migrant workers, overseas domestic workers (‘‘ODWs’’) have been extensively studied in the migration, geography, and sociology disciplines. Legal scholarly publications addressing the shortfalls in the rights of these workers are beginning to catch up. The International Labour Organization (‘‘ILO’’) supports the argument that ODWs are by far the most vulnerable group of migrant workers. In the United Kingdom, the problem faced by ODWs is complicated by the hostile immigration policy and exclusion clauses in the employment law. Despite the ODWs having been exposed to a series of abuses, exploitations, and occupational health and safety hazards like workers in other occupations, they are unduly excluded from the protection and benefits available to those other workers. This thesis used a combined doctrinal and empirical approach to examine failed immigration policies, ambiguities in the employment law, exclusion clauses in the health and safety law and working time regulation, and how the justice system has been failing the ODWs. The research found the UK Government’s refusal to extend some key employment legislations to protect household workers, the non-implementation of major international frameworks that protect domestic workers, and the inseparable link between employment and immigration create hurdles to achieve justice for ODWs. The thesis argues that although ODWs’ personal attributes, such as poor socio-economic background, may constitute a vulnerability risk, ODWs’ experiences are marred by the current visa system that increases their reliance on employers and has significantly tilted the employer-employee power in the employer’s favour, leading to continued abuse, exploitation, injustice, human trafficking, and modern-day slavery. This thesis advocates a review of the policy on ODWs, a re-examination of the strict link between immigration and employment, and a review of the law on employment discrimination. Finally, the thesis found a link between culture, ethnicity, and exploitation; this link needs further study.

Evidence shows that age discrimination in health care is still widespread. At the same time, there has been suggestion, both in the theoretical literature and in the jurisprudence, that age is ‘different’ to other protected characteristics such as sex and race and thus that age discrimination may sometimes be permissible in circumstances in which discrimination on other grounds, such as sex or race, may not. This is chiefly because, it is argued, if a ‘complete life view’ of equality is taken, age discrimination may not produce the same distributive inequalities as does discrimination on other grounds. This thesis responds to these arguments by asking what other – dignity-related - harms, age based distinctions in health care may cause. Dignity is widely agreed to be an important normative foundation for anti-discrimination law and features prominently in judicial and ethical debate on a range of issues in medical law. It is not an easy concept to define, however. There is no legal or theoretical consensus as to its meaning and legal uses of dignity involve appeal to a range of different and sometimes conflicting concepts. Rather than advocating one particular conception of dignity, the thesis identifies the variety of meanings of dignity evident in two contexts of close relevance to the problem at hand - equality law and medical law – and considers the answers to which these different meanings may give rise. The purpose of the discussion is to contribute to a debate as to the approach that courts should take in assessing whether particular instances of age discrimination in health care can be justified. It concludes that, on several conceptions of dignity, age-based distinctions may give rise to dignity harms which cannot be ignored or discounted by taking a complete life view of equality. As a result, courts should tread carefully before adopting a starting point which assumes age to be different and should develop their approach to justification accordingly.