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Intellectual property rights (IPR) has become one of the most debated issues, particularly in recent years due to its relevance and importance in the intellectual, economic and industrial fields. It is widely accepted that the protection of IPR plays a crucial role in intellectual and technological developments as well as research and development (R&D) activities. Turkey has been a party to several international treaties and conventions in terms of protection of IPR. While IPR legislations can be traced back to the Ottoman Empire time; the proactive developments with regard to IPR issues were initially expedited within the process of the Customs Union in 1995 and then with the commencement of the European Union (EU) accession negotiations in 2005. Intellectual Property (IP) law is one of the chapters that has to be adopted in accordance with the EU legislations. Therefore, harmonisation of IP law has an important function for Turkey in the EU accession process, but also is a requirement. In addition to the importance of legislative developments, enforcement of IPR is also essential in terms of preventing piracy and counterfeiting. Therefore, this research aims to explore the enforcement of IPR in Turkey in the EU accession process by focusing on the perceptions of the main enforcers, namely police officers dedicated to deal with IPR-related crimes. In fulfilling the identified aim, apart from the secondary sources such as documents presented in the negotiations with the EU, a questionnaire schedule was administered with the police officers with the objective of gathering primary data. After exploring and analysing various issues related to IPR crimes and its enforcement, the research explores the challenges encountered by the police officers dealing with IPR crimes and then indicates the precautions and recommendations for an effective enforcement system in the fight such crimes. The main findings of the research indicate that, as perceived by the participants, the fight against IPR crimes should be carried out by specialised IPR units, as anti-piracy commissions are not working satisfactorily; and a single organisation should be established in order to deal with both copyright and industrial property rights. In addition, it is perceived by the majority of the respondents that legislative and administrative measures should be considered in order to overcome the problems related to IPR challenges, and there is a connection between IPR criminals and organised crime groups. Furthermore, the findings suggest that IPR education can be added to the curriculum at schools. While the Turkish police have made considerable developments with regard to the protection of IPR issues both in administrative and enforcement aspects, the research indicates that there are further issues to be tackled to bring about a more efficient and effective IPR enforcement system in Turkey.

This thesis argues for legal responses to rape that better recognise and are more responsive to the diversity of harms that victim-survivors suffer. Securing justice for rape victim-survivors has been high on feminists’ agendas since the 1970s. Justice is typically assumed to equate to punishing the perpetrators of rape, and as the criminal justice system all too often fails to achieve this goal it is deemed to be unjust. However, some feminists are beginning to challenge this assumption, and to consider whether justice could be achieved through other methods. While some have begun to explore unconventional legal responses to rape, there has been little discussion of these responses and the meanings of justice for victim-survivors. As such, this thesis explores what constitutes justice from the perspective of victim-survivors, and, in light of this, evaluates the criminal justice system and the unconventional responses of restorative justice and tort law. It questions whether these unconventional responses can offer good means and ends to justice in themselves, and uses them as different perspectives from which to reconsider the criminal justice response to rape. To these ends, the thesis analyses a restorative justice conference which addressed sexual violence – adding to the little empirical research in this area – and explores the small body of case law in which victim-survivors have brought a civil claim in trespass to the person for rape, which has, thus far, been paid little academic attention. Suggestions are made as to how the criminal law, restorative justice and tort law could be improved to enhance justice for victim-survivors. It is argued that different legal responses should be increasingly utilised in addition, or as an alternative to, the criminal law, and that the criminal justice system should be more responsive to the diversity of harms of rape to secure justice for victim-survivors.

To the everyday man or woman on the street, the term 'vacant possession' raises its head most noticeably in the residential sphere, with many everyday people buying and selling property and being obliged to give, or entitled to receive, vacant possession. Furthermore, the term is by no means limited to a 'lay' usage: a wide range of business and professional people use the expression 'vacant possession' on a daily basis, and the term is in the lexicography of judges, conveyancers, litigators, surveyors, estate agents, commentators and others connected to property, including property owning landlords and tenants. All these stakeholders make use of the term in a formal and professional sense, and with reference to legal transactions for which vacant possession is an essential element. Although it is an everyday term that is used by many, a common feature of these usages of the term is a lack of attention to what it actually means. For example, estate agents, who invariably use the term in their advertising particulars, seem able to distinguish between 'full vacant possession', 'immediate vacant possession' or 'complete vacant possession', with ostensibly no real justification as to how the prefacing adjective in each case adds anything to the message that they are seeking to convey to prospective purchasers, as to what they can expect to obtain on completion. Lawyers talk about 'giving VP on completion', but few documents ever actually define what vacant possession means with a capitalised 'V' and 'P'. Furthermore, the courts have made decisions as to whether vacant possession was or was not given in a particular instance, but rarely found it necessary to explain what the term actually meant, or sought to explicitly apply an understanding of the concept to the facts of any particular case. Indeed, behind the familiarity of this common expression, lie years of uncertainty, misunderstanding and general neglect of the development of a sound and coherent theoretical model of vacant possession. There is very little case law and even less judicial guidance available. In 1988, and in two editions of the Conveyancer and Property Lawyer, Charles Harpum wrote what probably remains the most insightful learned article on the subject, but since then the concept appears to have warranted very little scholarly or practitioner attention. This thesis explores the concept of vacant possession and its meaning. Expounding the inconsistent evolution and development of the concept, the thesis explains the constituent elements of the concept of vacant possession, along with the practical manifestation of the term in everyday property cases. In doing so, it highlights the difficulties that lawyers, surveyors, judges and other third parties face on a day-to-day basis when seeking to interpret the nature, scope and extent of the obligation. Further, to link this work to wider theoretical debate in literature pertaining to possession, the thesis draws on other common property law concepts, those of actual occupation and adverse possession; such a discussion helps to explain why the inherently infra-jural concept of vacant possession cannot be 'tied down' to a precise legal definition or formulation. In conclusion, and to facilitate understanding and usage of the term, the thesis draws on the analysis undertaken to promulgate a working articulation of the concept, and considers other provisions that can ameliorate the remedial entitlements for an injured party in the event of a breach of the obligation. These may go some way to assist all those who will encounter the concept in future legal transactions.

Islamic inheritance system is usually explained within the conceptual and mechanistic framework of faraid, bequest and gift (hibah). In Islam, there is no limitation on the transfers of wealth during the lifetime, but the disposal of estates upon the death is strictly subject to faraid and bequest rules. The salient feature of faraid implies that inheritance is subject to pre-determined quantum of shares of the eligible heirs. Bequest, on the other hand, is limited up to one-third of the estates value and only allowed to be given to the non-heirs. Considering Islamic estate planning and Islamic inheritance system within the same framework renders a new dimension as part of the Islamic economics and finance that calls an urgent investigation. Making a wasiyyah (will) is the most crucial part of such a system. In referring to the conflict of laws in defining the meaning and contents of wasiyyah, this study, however, selected wasiyyah which carries the meaning of a will and, secondly, bequest as the main concepts to research in this debate. The main aim of this research, thus, is to explore the perception of Malaysian Muslims towards wasiyyah and bequest from financial planning and economics points of view within the Islamic estate planning framework. Wasiyyah, hence, was analysed in terms of the Malaysian Muslims’ awareness and practice. Bequest, was examined in terms of their attitudes to leaving a bequest based on the life-cycle, altruism and dynasty bequest models with integration of the Islamic theory of wealth. This research further aims at analysing the perception of the wasiyyah writing providers with the objective of locating their opinions on various related issues. In responding to the research questions, primary data were collected through questionnaire with a sample of Malaysian Muslims to identify the demand side related issues, while semi-structured interview schedule used to assemble data from wasiyyah writing providers representing the supply side of the practice. In analysing the data, multiple analysis techniques were employed. In investigating the wasiyyah related issues, descriptive statistics, mean value and chi-square were used. Findings imply that the awareness level of wasiyyah was low reflecting their inadequate exposure of the wasiyyah ruling, professional means of wasiyyah writing and the importance of wasiyyah in estate planning. Thus, wasiyyah practice was a minority activity. Other findings reflect making a wasiyyah by means of traditional methods either handwritten by themselves or verbal wasiyyah were common practices, but, Malaysian people have gradually accepted the professional means of making a wasiyyah especially with ARB due to its credibility and its status as a government institution. Several factors were identified to be significant to the wasiyyah practice namely age, employment status, monthly income, amount of inheritance received previously, health status, having children, having adopted children, having grandchildren, knowledge, institutional factor and inheritance law. Other findings show that mass media were the main sources of their knowledge and to increase their awareness. The study also found that there was a conflict of interest in wasiyyah writing providers in terms of increasing awareness, educating people and profit maximization. They also differed in their perception on the ability of wasiyyah alone solving the estate problem comprehensively and showing their concerns over the manipulation of several estate planning instruments to avoid faraid. Investigation on the attitudes to leaving a bequest using multinomial logit model implies that such attitudes were influenced by several factors namely age, ethnicity, education, having grandchildren, employment status, monthly income, total assets value, importance of bequest, religiosity and inheritance law. Bequest motives were also examined by cross checking the findings from the types of bequest, verbatim responses and results obtained from the multinomial logit. To sum up, life-cycle, altruism and dynasty model co-existed in their bequest making with some of them observed the Islamic theory of wealth. Other additional finding shows that people did not utilize the bequest allocation especially those who had non-Muslim family members.

In the evolution of international human rights law, the ICCPR and other international instruments impose on State parties human rights obligations regarding the death penalty and prohibition of forced labour. China ratified a series of human rights instruments and is expected to ratify the ICCPR. There remain problems for China what international human rights obligations might mean and how far its practice departs from them. This thesis focuses on harsh punishments relating to such obligations that China might not reserve in order to explore legal consequences of accepting them and assess the relevant Chinese law, its capability of the ratification of the ICCPR. As a member of the United Nations, China should undertake not to embark on a gross violation of any human rights obligations on capital punishment pursuant to customary international law. It also should observe treaty obligations that it accepted regarding capital punishment and forced labour as a party to the CAT, CRC, CERD, GC3, GC4, PAI, PA2, ICESCR, ILO 100, ILO 122 and ILO 182. These treaty standards would not be abused by individual or systematic abuses with precise implementation measures. In China, many aspects of its legislation and practice appear to conform to the requirements of the death penalty and forced labour provided in the ICCPR, to which China has not yet been a party. However, some substantive and procedural guarantees concerned appear to be breached as part of human rights obligations that China should undertake, even if not accepting the ICCPR. In the implementation of these harsh punishments, freedoms from torture and other inhuman treatment are also likely to be violated. These appear to deviate from China’s present official policies concerned and breach its relevant human rights obligations. The relationship between China's present practice and international standards tends to indicate the long course of its human rights progress. It is desirable for Chinese judges to take into account the relevant human rights standards in any sentencing decision at the discretion of them.

This thesis seeks to provide a different perspective to the study of the scope and functioning of the principle of equal treatment on grounds of nationality and movement laid down in Article 18 TFEU and in the Treaty free movement provisions. It examines the scope and functioning of the principle of equal treatment in the context of the determination of the law applicable to a cross-border (or inter-State) relationship. In particular, the question this thesis addresses is whether and, if yes, how the principle of equal treatment affects the choice of the law governing cross-border contractual, non-contractual or other civil law relationships in the European Union. In this respect, it is demonstrated that the principle of equal treatment functions as an additional check on the operation of, on the one hand, the national substantive law applicable pursuant to a national or Union choice-of-law rule or chosen by private parties to a contract and, on the other hand, national and Union choice-of-law rules themselves. The national substantive law governing a cross-border relationship falls within the scope of the principle of equal treatment and is required to comply with it, irrespective of the fact that it is applicable in accordance with a choice-of-law rule or a choice-of-law clause agreed by private parties. Similarly, regardless of their specific nature and objective, national and Union choice-of-law rules also come within the scope of the principle of equal treatment. However, it is emphasised that the functioning of the principle of equal treatment is not comparable to that of a choice-of-law rule. The requirement that only non-discriminatory rules can be applied in the Union under it does not, even indirectly, determine the applicable law in the sense understood from a choice-of-law perspective. This is because, unlike a choice-of-law rule, the principle of equal treatment does not contain even an implicit reference to a particular national law that always applies in light of it.

Institutional shareholder participation has long been considered as vital to good corporate governance in the UK, and increasingly recognized as, at least potentially, an important part of Chinese corporate governance too. But its potential does not yet seem to have been realised. The reasons for that are undoubtedly complex, and this thesis seeks to understand that complexity, and to offer some (modest) proposals to promote greater shareholder engagement. At the core of the thesis’ explanation of shareholder activism is the model it seeks to develop to explore the factors that determine institutional shareholders’ propensity for activism. This model is built up in several stages, running across the whole thesis. The first ‘setup’ stage is composed of a two-step analysis. It first elaborates the collective benefits of activism as a means of achieving managerial accountability. The second step switches to the individual level of analysis, asking whether and when shareholder activism is individually rational i.e. rational for any individual shareholder. The thesis considers two inquires as essential to determine engagement for individual institutional investors: whether the temptation to free-ride that faces an individual shareholder can be overcome and whether a shareholder’s individual benefits from action exceed its individual costs. The model suggests that, in working out the strength of the temptation to free-ride, and the balancing of costs against benefits – much will depend upon the governance or regulatory environment, upon the type of institutional shareholder concerned, and upon the form of activism being undertaken. This thesis adds in as much empirical knowledge as can reasonably be currently gathered about these three variables both for the UK and for China. The application of the model explains the remarkable contrast in respect of the level of institutional shareholder involvement between the UK and China. The small presence of institutional investment and the lack of awareness of the importance of institutional shareholder activism are considered as two of the most relevant contributory factors to the comparatively passive institutional shareholder involvement in China. Moreover, besides working as an explanatory model, identifying those factors which contribute most significantly to the form and level of shareholder activism, the model also allows prescriptions to be developed for improving the environment for shareholder activism primarily (although not exclusively) in China.