The purpose of this doctoral research is to critically evaluate the public participation principle in environmental decision-making. Public participation is widely regarded as forming part of the corpus of international environmental law and has been recognised globally by the full breadth of legal doctrine from constitutional provisions, European Directives to human rights treaties. Proponents of the participation concept consider it to be a praised tool of environmental democracy which draws upon the principle’s underlying theoretical origins which are rooted in participative democratic theory. Participation is largely seen as an inherently good thing- but this status has not been subject to sufficient academic interrogation, this research will explore whether it is an appropriate tool for meeting the objectives claimed. Proponents of participation, of which there are many, can appeal to three distinct justifications for participation: first, that it is good for government because it can be applied to ensure administrative expedience; further that it is a process that confers democratic legitimacy, encouraging active citizenry; and finally that it can lead to better environmental decisions. In order to make a rigorous and original contribution to the literature in this field, the discussion is framed around an innovative conceptual analytical framework drawing on the justifications for participatory decision-making indicated by the 1969 Skeffington Report: People and Planning. This research interrogates the validity of the justifications by examining the experience of participation for all the major interests; the State, society and the environment. It does so with reference to the extended case study of the 2003 GM Nation public debate.

This study sought to explore ‘National Human Rights Action Plans’ (NHRAP), as a largely under-researched area, from theoretical, doctrinal and empirical perspectives. At the theoretical level, by arguing that the realisation of human rights is the means and ends of development, this study laid a conceptual foundation for NHRAPs and set the stage for drawing a link between human rights-based development and NHRAPs. At the doctrinal level, by conducting a textual analysis of all the nine core human rights conventions, general comments, reports and concluding observations, this investigation showed that each of these conventions places upon states parties an immediate obligation to adopt a NHRAP which must be geared towards realising human rights. At the empirical level, the method of investigation was based on a cross-case study design to explore general problems across existing plans and a focused-case study design to assess the effectiveness of NHRAPs in practice. The cross-case analysis of thirty nine countries’ NHRAPs identified, at least, fourteen significant problems in the ‘pre-phase’ and the four phases of planning. This cross-case analysis also explored three important root causes of the problems, including the lack of political will, lack of stakeholder awareness and the traditional concept of planning upon which NHRAPs are based. Among others, it suggests a strategic shift towards the modern concept of planning which is theory-laden, multi-level and evidence-based. For the focused-case study, Australia, which is the world-leader in the formulation of such plans, was selected. The focused-case study of three Australia’s NHRAPs which was informed by four sources of data i.e. a new online survey among experts, an in-depth interview and secondary data, both qualitative and quantitative, provided clear lessons for future practices. It likewise revealed that overall, Australia’s NHRAPs have been slightly effective in realising human rights but the effectiveness of the current plan, which is close to the modern concept of planning, compared with the first two, has improved, particularly in the areas of women’s rights and children’s rights. Together, this study showed that a NHRAP, if properly designed and implemented in line with the modern concept of planning and supported by political will can pave the way for human rights-based development. Otherwise, adopting a NHRAP, by itself, would be more like window dressing rather than an effective roadmap to development.

This thesis explores the Europeanisation of contract law through a critical analysis of the European Community's internal market programme of contract law harmonisation. This is a broad theme which raises topical and complex issues. The thesis first examines the pre-existing contractual backdrop in Europe through an Anglo/French comparative study on the rules for non-performance of contractual obligations. The analysis reveals how seemingly technical rules of contract law are underpinned by deeply embedded socio-economic, philosophical and historical values, unique to each jurisdiction. Recognition of the richness of contractual heritage and the gulf that separates each jurisdiction is a first indicator of the considerable obstacles for harmonisation. Nevertheless, the Community’s programme of contract law proceeds with optimism, pinning much on the ability to achieve harmonisation through sector-specific regulation and the drafting of common rules. The pitfalls of this approach are illustrated primarily through a study of the implementation of the EC Sales Directive into the contractual fabrics of English and French law. Fragmentation is found to ensue. Yet, the subsequent evolution of the EC programme, from sector-specific regulation towards more systematic and broader regulation – possibly even a codal instrument – is also revealed to be limited in its harmonising ability. Here, the thesis emphasises how the European contract law programme must embrace the post-national, multi-level architecture in which it operates. The co-existence of multiple sites of private law, and the interlocking and complex nature of interaction between each layer of governance, suggest that pluralism and diversity are here to stay. This indicates a more radical understanding of Europeanisation and has ramifications for the EC contract law programme. Internal market harmonising goals must be recalibrated and balanced alongside the preservation of diversity, in a coordinated framework of mutual learning. This is the charm and challenge of the Europeanisation of contract law.

The theme of ‘business in conflict’ has become a ‘hot topic’ and the subject of many academic and policy publications. The trend in this literature is to conclude that ‘corporations have (or should have) obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law’ and that ‘corporations must be held to account’ through law, for example for ‘complicity in international crimes’. With this thesis, I aim to present a counterpoint to this literature. Employing dialectics as methodology and a theoretical frame based on Pashukanis’ commodity form theory of law, I investigate the progeny and role of law as sine qua non of capitalism. I establish that capitalism’s main motor, the corporation, was developed as a legal concept to congeal relations of production and minimise risk-exposure of the capitalists. Moreover, the corporation served as an instrument of imperialism and the global dissemination of capitalist law. Post WWII international criminal law (ICL) was developed ostensibly as an accountability mechanism. I show that it was used, contrary to early indications, to conceal rather than address the economic causes and imperialist nature of the war, so as to enable the continuation or rehabilitation of trade relations. ICL has been institutionalized over subsequent years and has continued to immunize economic actors from prosecution, including in the ICTR and ICTY. Yet, ICL’s strong appeal has led ‘cause lawyers’ to seek corporate accountability in ICL, largely unsuccessfully. Combined with (legalized) ‘corporate social responsibility’, ‘corporate accountability’ discourse risks becoming an instrument of legitimization for the liberal capitalist enterprise. Especially, including the corporation as a subject of ICL would complete its reification and ideological identity as a political citizen exercising legitimate authority within ‘global governance’. In conclusion, while emancipation from corporate violence cannot be achieved through law, its promise lies in countersystemic activism and, with that, human emancipation.

Protecting children’s development is a key principle of international children’s rights law. However, while the meanings of children’s development are a central concern of disciplines such as psychology, sociology, neurology and pedagogy, so far there has been no systematic analysis of the meaning of the child’s legal right to development. This thesis remedies this significant gap in our knowledge by establishing the foundations for analysing the child’s right to development, as protected by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Interpreting the child’s right to development first requires unpacking the meaning of the term ‘children’s development’. In international children’s rights law, the thesis argues that the meaning of this term derives from the concept of children as ‘human becomings’. The focal point of this concept is the protection of children’s socio-psychological development and caring for their future, as adults. Consequently, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides a broad protection for eight segments of children’s development, on top of protecting children’s overall right to development. Based on an analysis of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s jurisprudence between the years 1993 and 2010, the thesis concludes that the Committee interprets the Convention in a way that subjugated most of the Convention’s rights to protect children’s socio-psychological development, while overlooking the formulation of ‘development’ as a human right. Based on literature on childhood studies, children’s rights theory, children’s development, the Capability Approach, archival research of the drafting process of the Convention, the jurisprudence of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, and interviews with members of the UN Committee, the thesis challenges this absorption of ‘children’s development’ into legal terms, and suggests a new framework for analysis. This framework accommodates a hybrid conception of childhood, a respect for children’s agency, recognition of the importance of the process of maturation (‘development’) as well as its outcome, and a cross-disciplinary understanding of ‘development’. Under the suggested framework, the child’s right to development is interpreted as a composite right that aims to ensure the child’s abilities to fulfill her or his human potential to the maximum during childhood and adulthood alike.

My thesis presents comprehensive proposals for a system of ecological governance. The objective of governance would be to alleviate the threats to ecosystem health that anthropogenic interference gives rise to. I argue that it is necessary to reduce ecological stresses generated by human activities in view of the profound uncertainty over how these combine to undermine the functionality of ecosystems. I also argue that, from an ethical perspective, the healthy functioning of ecosystems should be regarded as being of supervening value for human well-being, and, accordingly, that it should be prioritised in decision making over economic and social goals. I propose legal and institutional structures that are designed both to reflect the supervening valuation of ecosystem health and to secure progressive reductions in ecological impacts. I consider how visions of an ecological transition might be formed through instituting a proactive policy-making process. I then go on to explore how these visions might be given practical effect. I argue that the state must take the lead in advancing ecological objectives and consider the capacities that it would need to possess and the relationships that it should have with other actors in governance. I propose a framework for ecological planning that would give legal structure to these relationships and lay down the goals and principles to be observed by participants in decision-making. In addition, I consider the potential for deliberative participatory institutions to promote the change in peoples’ values that would be necessary if an ecological transition is to enjoy public support. I conclude by examining the importance of an improved understanding of ecosystem behaviour for enhanced ecological protection, and consider the role of law in driving the production of the requisite information.

Using critical theory, feminist studies, interdisciplinary social science literature and a microcomparison of legislation from the UK and Mexico, including their international and regional sources, this thesis argues that there is no adequate analysis of the legal dimensions associated with the cultural aspects of discrimination such as demeaning stereotypical representation in the media. This is in spite of the fact that various social science disciplines; international instruments; media selfregulatory codes and indeed the targets of such practices through the organised civil society working against discrimination, have pointed out that demeaning and stereotypical images and messages can cause a harm and be discriminatory. Arguing that discrimination overall operates at interacting and overlapping levels; structural, institutional and personal levels as well as the cultural, the thesis is built on both the need for and potential of anti-discrimination law to protect targeted groups against ‘the printed and audiovisual production and reproduction of images and messages that use demeaning stereotypes, ridicule and denigrate people on the grounds of their belonging to a disadvantaged group’. The thesis proposes and explores the use of the analytical tool, ‘Discrimination through Expressive Means’ (DEM) as a vehicle with which to address and redress what it argues constitutes this form of discrimination. The comparison between Mexico and the UK is functional because both jurisdictions encounter and have addressed DEM although they have not recognised it as such. It is also profitable because these two jurisdictions have developed different ways of understanding and responding to the same harm which allows for an exploration of their respective underpinnings, advantages and disadvantages. The research provides elements with which to begin a theoretical analysis of the harm created through DEM and develops general principles useful for recognising DEM as a justiciable harm in order that bad speech may be combated with more speech.

Although the contribution of international civil aviation to climate change seems small (with a global share of just 3.5 percent of emissions of CO2), the projected growth in air traffic means that it is highly significant. There is thus an urgent need to explore legal regulations for limiting and/or reducing the adverse impacts of aircraft emissions on the environment. This thesis examines the progress which has been made on international aviation emissions abatement and provides an analysis of the reasons for delay. It concludes that the contribution of aviation to climate change is a multi-scalar problem and as such neither conventional top-down international legal regimes, nor any single regulatory instrument can solve it. The research question for this thesis is how to break the deadlock of conventional legal approaches and overcome the barriers to international aviation greenhouse gas emissions abatement. New governance theory provides the theory within which the future of aviation emissions regulation has been explored. Drawing on the scholarly literature on new governance, this thesis argues for a multi-scalar regulatory architecture which simultaneously engages multi-level governance, and a multi-party and multi-instrument approach to the problem. First, multi-level governance includes an international sectoral target on reducing aviation emissions, national efforts in allocating and implementing reduction targets on aircraft operators, and regional cooperation in between, as well as sub-state level governance although this is not a feature of this thesis. Second, a multi-party approach requires efforts from both public and private actors (international organisations such as the UNFCCC and ICAO, nation states, the airline industry and IATA). Finally, a combined use of multiple regulatory instruments (conventional command and control type mechanisms and multiple market-based instruments) should be included. The failure of the UNFCCC to regulate international aviation emissions means that the problem has remained largely unaddressed. Recognizing climate change as a multi-scalar problem that needs multi-scalar regulatory approaches would allow the international aviation emission problem to move beyond the deadlock of conventional inter-state approaches.

The thesis analyses economic regulation primarily through the lenses of institutions, finance and public law. In terms of positive analysis, it focuses on post-privatisation developments in the UK. The first chapter sets out the framework of analysis. Traditional models to study economic regulation are critically assessed. It is argued that these frameworks make only partial assessments of regulation under simplified assumptions. However, it is possible to find complementarities that may serve as fundamentals for further study. Chapter II proposes to broaden the theoretical framework of analysis in three directions, with the aim of providing guidance on how to structure regulatory design in an interdisciplinary context. The third chapter deals with financial implications of regulation. The case of regulation of the capital structure of utilities firms and the regulatory assessment of the cost of capital is specifically studied in order to exemplify the control of risks under regulatory practice. In the fourth chapter the argument is extended to the analysis of the role of the State in infrastructure industries and the significant function that risk plays in economic regulation. It is argued that regulators should control focus their analysis on risk control and the avoidance of the provision of State guarantees as much as possible. Finally, chapter V looks at the role of the courts and the judicial scrutiny of sector-specific economic regulators’ decisions. Since the introduction of specialisation, judicial scrutiny is having an ever-increasing influence on substantive regulatory decisions in the UK. Despite this, some flaws in the regulatory design are highlighted, along with proposals to overcome them. The thesis concludes with some implications for policy design and the analysis of economic regulation.

Within the global phenomenon of the (re)emergence of religion into issues of public debate, one of the most salient issues confronting contemporary Muslim societies is how to relate the legal and political heritage that developed in pre-modern Islamic polities to the political order of the modern states in which Muslims now live. This study seeks to develop a framework for addressing this issue by drawing upon two sources. The first is an interpretative understanding of the history of Muslim contexts emphasising, in particular, the diversity of views about what Islam mandates that have always been a part of Muslim experience and the distinction between political and religio-legal authority that developed in practice in these environments. The second source is a variety of contemporary liberal theory which this study develops and calls ‘justice as discourse’. The central argument is that liberal theory, and justice as discourse in particular, though it may have emerged in a different social and cultural milieu, can be normatively useful in Muslim contexts for relating, religion, law, state and society. It is argued first, that Muslim contexts are facing issues similar to those out of which liberal theory emerged. Additionally, it is argued that both Muslim contexts and liberal theory are dynamic and continually developing and that this shared dynamism means that there may be space for convergence of the two. Just as Muslim contexts have developed historically (and continue to develop today) the same is the case with the requisites of liberal theory and this may allow for liberal choices to be made in a manner that is not a renunciation of Muslim heritage.