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This thesis argues that there is an identifiable and distinct body of law, administrative regulations, and institutional structures on state enterprise governance, anti-corruption and public sector ethics emerging in the Commonwealth Caribbean. The law and administrative structures are still developing, but they are sufficiently well developed to be recognised as distinct regimes. These emerging regimes are based on the common law, UK legislation that have been received in the region, and several contemporary legislative and administrative initiatives, many of which have been provoked by international and inter-American developments. The Commonwealth Caribbean anticorruption project can usefully be assessed from the perspectives of agency cost and moral hazard that are essential, but too little explored, features of the agency relationship. The first chapter introduces the thesis, sets out the theoretical statement, explains why the Commonwealth Caribbean anticorruption regimes are suitable objects of study, and investigates the definitions of corruption. Chapter 2 discusses the theory that drives the assumptions of this thesis. It presents the reconstructed theory of corruption that is useful in the analysis of corruption. Chapter 3 sets out the existing state of knowledge on corruption, examines the literature on corruption, including the contribution to the subject by Caribbean scholars. Chapter 4 discusses the international developments and the legal regimes on anticorruption in the region, including the common law rules on bribery and misconduct in public office, the tort of misfeasance in public office, judicial misconduct, anticorruption legislation, and the constitutional implications. Chapter 5 deals with anticorruption strategies and the new institutional framework. Special emphasis is placed on the Contractors-General in Belize and Jamaica as an emerging and unique anticorruption agency. Chapter 6 represents the conclusion of the study.

The purpose of this Thesis is to study corporate governance and its regulation in the aftermath of the scandals that have taken place in the United States and in Europe during the last few years. Corporate governance is a vibrant and constantly changing area of law and the adoption of a regulatory framework must be carried out with both an institutional and dynamic approach. Following the wave of scandals and collapses, corporate governance has topped every agenda and has become one of the most discussed topics worldwide. The focus so far has been placed just on the rules, while the role of ethics has been significantly undermined. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was the American response to the voices asking for strict rules and severe penalties. The European Union has adopted a more cautious and liberal approach, choosing the path of harmonisation and convergence. The Action Plan represents the roadmap for the future, but it is still not clear what exactly the form of corporate regulation in the European Union will be in the following years. This Thesis explores the recent reforms and provides some thoughts on the nature of the regulatory response that the EU needs to adopt, in order to provide a protective shield against fraud and mismanagement. Self-regulation proved to be insufficient, while regulatory competition and reflexive harmonization are examined as alternative choices. Rules and regulations are important, but do not suffice to solve all corporate governance problems and prevent corporate scandals. No corporate governance reform will be successful unless ethics do become an integral part of modern business strategy, creating a ethical corporate culture, and if all the actors involved do not change their philosophy regarding how they make business.

The significance of the consumer’s role in society has been a focus of discussion since the first quarter of the twentieth century. The improved communications and technology that appeared in the second half of the twentieth century, and coincided with the emergence of new supranational structures of European government, have influenced a transformation of the state and the market. Where the consumer of political science was readily transformed into the notional consumer citizen, the once distinct legal doctrines of private and public law conspired to complicate attempts to accommodate the conflated entity. The transformation taking place in the state and the market has brought with it multiple identities for the consumer that have been acknowledged in law, and an opening up of the distinct national citizenship spaces in EU Member States. This thesis argues that a limited and theoretical notion of the consumer citizen can now be accommodated, particularly as a consequence of the economic and technological forces of globalisation that have resulted in an acceleration of the commodification of public services. In reality, numerous barriers can be identified that turn the concept of the consumer citizen into a more relevant, if aspirational, notion of a consumer citizenship practice defined by consumer behaviours. This thesis discusses the normative influences that shape these behaviours and argues that the platforms and channels necessary for an effective consumer citizenship practice, capable of policy and market shaping, is developing with the encouragement of the EU institutions. These normative influences are located in the enforcement and empowerment aspects of consumer protection; state, civil society and market sources of consumer information; individual and structural aspects of capability; and the individualistic and solidaristic aspects of motivation. They are presented as a hierarchy of normative influences and applied in an illustrative case study of the energy sector.

The thesis focuses on European corporate insolvency law by reference to the laws as developed of three different jurisdictions, namely France, Greece and the United Kingdom. The thesis is aimed at providing an analysis of the insolvency laws of the three jurisdictions, while the main focus is on the corporate rescue mechanisms that are available in the three jurisdictions. Although the thesis provides an overview of the historical background of the insolvency law regime in each of the three jurisdictions, it, particularly, focuses on reforms introduced within the last decade, namely from the early 2000s. The key concern of this research is to provide an account of the similarities of and differences between the French, Greek and the United Kingdom’s insolvency laws and with the use of comparative law to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each system and to assess the effectiveness of the reforms recently introduced in each jurisdiction. Although the thesis acknowledges the evolution of convergence between the insolvency law regimes of the three jurisdictions, it does not aspire to propose substantive harmonisation of cross-border insolvency. Furthermore, the thesis offers a conceptual analysis of the legal concept of corporate rescue, and identifies the underlying factors in relation to the insolvency and rescue laws of the three jurisdictions, such as their social, political and legal cultures. Additionally, the thesis provides an analysis of the role of certain key ‘actors’ which are affecting the outcome of rescue proceedings, such as the management of a distressed company, the courts, insolvency practitioners and creditors. The consideration of such contextual factors enables one not only to identify and understand the differences between the rescue laws of each jurisdiction but also to assess the influence of the insolvency laws of other jurisdictions, such as the United States, on the shaping of a corporate rescue culture in the three European states. By way of consideration of the wider European context the thesis also discusses the European Regulation on Insolvency Proceedings. This Regulation is of note as an indicator of European Union policy, which has been to harmonise conflict of laws procedures but to leave the member states to develop for themselves insolvency procedures that they consider to be most suitable.

This work discusses the extent to which the standards of corporate governance in Saudi Arabia correlate to international standards. In order to answer this question the analytical study looks at corporate governance standards in the United Kingdom and the United States. It also looks at the concept of wealth preservation in Islamic Sharia, in addition to the concept of corporate governance in Islamic Sharia from the perspective of modern Sharia specialists. The study also deals with the way in which the European Union deals with corporate governance issues among EU member nations. The study concludes that although corporate governance measures in Saudi Arabia are being implemented, they can still go further to reach international standards. The study closes by emphasizing the role of the Capital Market Authority in advancing corporate governance in Saudi Arabia and makes suggestions and recommendations aimed at improvement of these standards and the creation of an attractive investment environment for the Saudi capital market.

Free mining or customary mining laws were known in certain lead mining areas of England and Wales, in the Stannaries (Devon and Cornwall), in the iron-ore and coal mines of the Forest of Dean, and in the quarries of Dean and Purbeck. They give the miner, essentially, the right to enter upon another's land without permission and extract the mineral ore, paying no rent to the landowner but a royalty to the mineral lord, normally the Crown. It is suggested that these customs originated in Romano-British times as they resemble in some ways the Hadrianic Aljustrel Laws of Spain. They were already in force when confirmed by Royal charter in the Stannaries and by a Quo Waranto enquiry in Derbyshire in the thirteenth century. The customs in Dean may have originated from a lost Royal grant in the early fourteenth century. In Alston they are known from the reign of Henry II, and in Mendip the four Lords Royal seem to have derived rights from royal grant about the same time. In Flintshire, Denbighshire and the Yorkshire Dales the customs are similar to Derbyshire. In the Middle Ages the Crown favoured free mining customs as they protected part-time miners from their manorial lords while actually mining, and helped to provide a source of skilled men for military purposes. Free mining areas developed a legal structure of courts and legislative bodies based on a specialist jury. The Stannary Parliament even obtained a right to review Westminster statutes. After Tudor times the Crown lost interest in protecting customary mining, and the institution declined. Legislative bodies in the Stannaries, Dean and the Mendips closed in the eighteenth century, though free mining itself continued in the Stannaries, Derbyshire and Dean. Today a few free miners are active in Dean, though in theory the customs are still in force in Derbyshire, and tin 'bounding' is still possible in Cornwall.

One of the trends in the twentieth century international law-making is the proliferation of legal norms that recognise economic and social rights. Among the landmark developments in this process was the enactment of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989. This Convention declares universal rights of every child and has been ratified by virtually all states including the developing countries. This raises the issue as to whether and how the economic and social rights of children can be implemented in the developing world. One approach to this issue is to explore how the concept of international cooperation in the protection of economic and social rights has been applied to determine and assign external obligations to states parties to the UN Charter. This study examines the scope of obligations and responsibility for the fulfilment of children’s social and economic rights under international law. It argues that in addition to the domestic/vertical obligations of states’ parties to regimes of human rights law, international law on the protection and promotion of the social and economic rights of children as recently interpreted and applied by states parties entrenches binding external/diagonal obligations of states to support global fulfilment of these rights. Besides recognising their external diagonal obligations, states have adopted legal instruments assigning duties to non-state actors to contribute to the universal fulfilment of children’s social and economic rights. The present study interrogates these developments and explores how the emerging jurisprudence on states’ extra-territorial obligations regarding children’s social and economic rights and the responsibilities of non-state actors can be further mainstreamed in the legal discourse on international protection of economic and social rights.

This thesis examines the extent to which European Union (EU) law and policy reflect an approach to disability consistent with Critical Disability Theory (CDT). Before examining the four policy areas selected for study, the thesis identifies the antecedents of CDT in critical social theory and Critical Legal Studies and then develops its parameters. CDT centres disability, adopts a social model of disability, interprets concepts of equality and rights in ways which promote social inclusion and identifies disabled people as primary actors in the production of knowledge about disability and the development of progressive disability policy. The fundamental elements of EU disability policy are identified and assessed against CDT’s approach to disability. That policy, based on a social model of disability and the active participation of disabled people in the formulation and implementation of disability policy, is expressed in language which is quite consistent with CDT. The first area of EU law and policy examined is the prohibition against discrimination based on disability. The promise and limitation of the Employment Equality Directive and the proposed directive related to the provision of goods and services are considered in light of inherent limitations in EU law arising from its liberal conception of rights, the competencies of the EU and exceptions and exemptions in the directives themselves. The three other areas of EU law and policy examined against CDT are the European Social Fund, transport policy and the social inclusion Open Method of Coordination. These policy areas provide examples of the variety of policy instruments which are utilised by the EU to advance its disability policy. The thesis reveals the different elements of CDT which are reflected to different degrees in each of these policy areas and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of EU policy to transform the social condition of disabled people.

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