During the 1990's, medical euthanasia and "physician assisted suicide" became controversial. The latter was variously criminalized, decriminalized and legalized. This dissertation analyses some of the factors leading to changes in de jure and de facto criminal law. With special reference to the 1990s criminal trials of Dr. Jack Kevorkian (a retired pathologist who became a self-styled "Dr. Death"), it considers the creation and implementation of criminal law regarding medically hastened death in Michigan. I examine the social roles of chief prosecutors, judges, juries, family members of the decedents, and the media. This method of analysis presents a unique opportunity to study key players and how they may have influenced (or been influenced by) the court processes during the emergence of an important issue in a specific jurisdiction. The longitudinal study focuses upon one defendant in one locale, but also examines different statutes and cases. Thus, it becomes possible to scrutinize alternative legal theories of the prosecutions of the cases, along with the development of law in the books and law in action. Anchoring this study is Kevorkian's 1999 trial culminating in a conviction for euthanasia murder and related drug delivery charges. A landmark was a tape-recording of the consensual euthanasia, which Kevorkian made for broadcast on national television, and whose use by the media, the prosecution, and by Kevorkian, proved highly revealing. In short, the thesis supplies a detailed empirical and analytic examination of critical legal, social and political issues in the public response to physician assisted suicide and medical euthanasia. One principal conclusion is that in those Kevorkian cases in which the politics of death and the emerging assisted suicide debate were factors, the result was acquittal by juries. In sharp contrast, when the trial was limited to the elements of the crime, and eliminated questions of patient suffering and the families, the prosecution obtained a conviction.

This thesis examines the life of James Stansfeld, (1820-1898), and in particular his contribution to the political reform of the Contagious Diseases Acts (CDAs) in England and in India. Stansfeld was a Liberal MP from a Unitarian (non-conformist) background who represented his native borough of Halifax during the Gladstone era. From the early 1870s onwards, eschewing high cabinet office, Stansfeld was a major force in the Commons parliamentary debates about the CDAs and their Indian equivalent. His political strategies included the building up and sustaining of popular support for repeal whilst simultaneously supporting repeal in the political arena. The thesis maps Stansfeld’s complex and radical arguments about women’s rights, particularly those of prostitutes, and his advocacy of, and practical support for, repeal of the CDAs both in England and India. It presents new archival research on Stansfeld and other materials relating to the Contagious Diseases Acts and their rescindment. The archival materials are read alongside nineteenth-century published sources including memoirs, political writings and newspaper articles, and analysed in dialogue with scholarship on nineteenth-century sexual debates in England and India. By focusing on James Stansfeld’s advocacy of the repeal effort in England, and his role in the subsequent shift of the debate to British India, then, the thesis adds new research on the complex issues at stake in debates about the repeal of the CDAs and Indian CDAs, and it considers what these debates tell us about the role of female sexuality in nineteenth-century political debates in England and the Indian empire.

The thesis addresses how effectively or otherwise litigation and NHS complaints procedures redress ‘harm’ suffered by patients through treatment under the NHS. I argue that patients’ entitlement to redress within the NHS is founded on corrective justice principles, requiring one who harms another without justification to indemnify the individual harmed. Entitlement is finite because the NHS is a communal enterprise with limited resources explicitly expected to be shared throughout the population. Accordingly, distributive justice must apply to monetary compensation. For my purposes, harm includes significant adverse events, even where the requirements for actionable negligence necessary to mount successful legal action are not met. The emphasis is on patients’ access to justice, with account also taken of the toll on doctors under the present system. I explore what patients seek from redress and the possible forms compensation may take. Litigation, curtailed by withdrawal of public funding, can only offer damages for loss. Complaints procedures theoretically offer, inter alia, explanations, apologies and undertakings to repair. Careful consideration of both systems reveals that in their present unconnected form, insufficient congruence obtains between what aggrieved patients with complex needs require and what they receive. Lack of open disclosure of adverse events perpetuates power differentials between parties and adversely affects patients’ abilities to seek appropriate redress. Analysis of constraints on disclosure highlights the nuanced communication that is necessary and the fears of legal ramifications which apologies engender. After discussing apology- protection legislation in other common law countries, I argue for the role that full apologies can play in explanation, communication and undertakings to repair, particularly in addressing intangible loss. I also argue that in a universal health service, non-pecuniary losses should not be monetarily compensated because they are uncommodifiable and because of distributive justice demands. The thesis concludes with reflection on the prerequisites for a just and effective redress system.

This project looks at the experience of being sectioned under the 1983 Mental Health Act for acute psychiatric patients. The view is taken that sectioning in itself is a major intervention and hence should be the subject of research scrutiny. The views of two groups of participants, sectioned and informal inpatients, are compared using a variety of survey techniques including standardised questionnaires, structured interviews and open ended questions. It was found that being sectioned did not have a major impact on patients' experience of hospital treatment or their understandings of mental health issues although the sectioned patients did place less value on the medical aspects of their care and some sectioned patients showed a degree of internality for their health care that was not present in the informal group. Locus of control and transactional analysis were both found to be useful theoretical perspectives from which to examine patients' experiences. In general, the psychiatric patients who participated in the project valued the human contacts they made in hospital far more than their medical treatment. They also tended to attribute the cause of their psychiatric difficulties to non-medically based models of mental health based on childhood experiences, life events, human relationships and stress.

From 1 April 2005, UK law was changed to allow children born through gamete donation to access identifying details of the donor. The decision to abolish donor anonymity was strongly influenced by a discourse that asserted the 'child's right-to-know' their genetic origins. Under the current regulation, if would-be parents want to receive treatment in the UK, they have no option but to use gametes/embryos from identifiable donors. For a majority, this also means that they will be on lengthy waiting lists due to the donor shortage. Interestingly, the voice of would-be parents - those who would be most affected by a contraction in donor supply and would carry the burden of informing children of their origins, should they so choose- were not heard during the donor anonymity debate or thereafter. Adopting a social constructionist approach, this thesis studies removal of donor anonymity as a social problem and examines why would-be parents remained silent during the public debate. There are two major steps taken: first, examining the donor anonymity debate in the public realm through media presentations, and secondly investigating would-be parents' reactions through ethnographic studies: a virtual ethnography study and interviews. The accounts of a sub-group of would-be parents reveal that having a donor-conceived child constitutes a permanent charge of deviance against the family. Many would-be parents were reluctant to raise their voices during the donor anonymity debate because they did not want to be exposed to publicity. Their reluctance to mobilise around pressing claims against the removal of donor anonymity reflects the variety of ways in which they can avoid the impact of this legislation. The thesis concludes by underlining the importance of having an informed public debate about the disclosure policy, and of developing mechanisms to protect both would-be parents' and of developing mechanisms to protect both would-be parents' and donor offspring's interests.

This thesis set out to understand the continued retention and delay in the return of ancient indigenous human remains by museums through an overall examination of the status of ancient indigenous human remains in international law. This thesis focuses on the status of indigenous human remains from a legal perspective critiquing property, cultural property, cultural heritage, intellectual property, Traditional Knowledge (TK) and a human rights approach. This thesis argues that there are three potential explanations for the delay or non-return evident in disputes. This thesis has offered up three possible solutions in a response to the explanations. The explanations are, (i) Ancient indigenous human remains are viewed as property by museums therefore they see themselves as the owners however indigenous peoples see themselves as custodians of their ancestors' human remains; (ii) There is a lack of a clear legal status in international law in relation to ancient indigenous human remains due to their sui generis nature; (iii) Furthermore there is a lack of human rights sensitisation in relation to claims for the return of ancient indigenous human remains. The solutions are, (i) Drawing on Honoré's theory and the metaphor of the bundle of sticks this thesis substitutes the traditional bundle of sticks in the property bundle for an indigenous perspective of the sticks which illuminates the true value of ancient indigenous human remains to indigenous peoples; (ii) After an analysis of the fragmented nature of international law in this area a useful jurisprudential and instrument Toolkit emerges; (iii) Adopting a human rights based approach recognises the necessary implementation of repatriation mechanisms. The approach sensitises the associated claims which run parallel with claims for ancient indigenous human remains. Furthermore a human rights based approach recognises that the cultural property and intellectual property terms in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples can be interpreted with reference to the indigenous context of the Declaration.

The decade long complete ban on surrogacy aimed to protect traditional and cultural values in Vietnam. However, in spite of the legal prohibition, the social and cultural pressure to produce offspring often led Vietnamese infertile couples to seek the help of surrogate women in the black market. In 2014, after long parliamentary debates, Vietnamese law makers allowed altruistic surrogacy, opening a new way to parenthood for infertile couples in the country. This research begins with an exploration of the legal and social background within which surrogacy operates in Vietnam. By examining the need for Vietnamese infertile couples to have genetically related children from religious and cultural perspectives, it explains why some couples chose surrogacy and made illegal surrogacy arrangements in spite of implications resulting from the black market. Through an examination of procreative autonomy and the right to procreate, the thesis provides explanations and justifications for the use of surrogacy by infertile couples in Vietnam. It demonstrates that by removing the total ban on surrogacy and allowing altruistic surrogacy, the Vietnamese state enabled its citizens to effectively exercise procreative autonomy and enjoy the right to procreate in their pursuit of family formation and happiness. Despite this progress the thesis identifies flaws in the current law on surrogacy and hence, brings forward proposals for further reforms of the law on surrogacy in Vietnam by referring to resolutions to similar problems under English law. It concludes by making clear recommendations for ways in which the current law can better support procreative autonomy and individual freedom to choose surrogacy as a means of overcoming infertility. This research will be structured into 6 main chapters (plus introduction and conclusion chapters). Chapter 1 provides an overview on the legal system in Vietnam. Chapter 2 examines the social and cultural context for surrogacy in Vietnam. Chapter 3 studies concerns over implications of the black market of surrogacy in Vietnam. Chapter 4 is a study on the right to procreate in the context of surrogacy. Chapter 5 conducts an in-depth analysis of procreative autonomy in the context of surrogacy. Chapter 6 analyses the flaws or imperfections in the current Vietnamese law on surrogacy. The conclusion chapter proposes recommendations for further legal reforms on surrogacy in Vietnam in years to come.

Introduction: The Mental Capacity Act (MCA, 2005) requires health and social care professionals to complete a mental capacity assessment if a patient appears to have difficulty making decisions. This thesis explores current practice variations and professionals’ support needs and describes the development and testing of the Mental Capacity Assessment Support Toolkit (MCAST). Aims: To develop a toolkit to facilitate and improve mental capacity assessment and test the feasibility of its use in healthcare settings. Method: A sequential, mixed methods design was employed. Published research evidence and case law were reviewed. Multidisciplinary healthcare professionals were interviewed about their practice in focus groups. This evidence informed a design specification for the MCAST. User-centred design methods were employed to develop the prototype MCAST. Design modifications were identified from survey, interview and ethnographic data collected during professional, service user and topic expert reviews of prototype iterations. Professionals piloted using the MCAST to assess hospital and intermediate care patients. Document analysis, professional surveys and patient and family carer interviews were used to investigate the MCAST’s usability, acceptability and its effects on compliance with the MCA and professionals’ confidence levels. Results: The reviews and focus group data identified barriers and facilitators to good practice and suggested that current practice varies and professionals require support to improve their assessments, especially for patients with communication disorders. The MCAST was designed to enable professionals to: i) prepare, complete and document capacity assessments; ii) identify and support patients with communication disorders during capacity assessments. Most professional participants reported that the MCAST was easy to use and helped them to assess capacity. The MCAST was considered acceptable and potentially beneficial by all patients and family carers interviewed. Use of the MCAST was associated with improved assessment documentation and increased professional confidence. Conclusion: This study provides new knowledge about capacity assessment, especially in relation to people with communication disorders. The MCAST appears feasible to use in healthcare settings. Further research to refine the prototype and test its effectiveness is warranted.

International environmental disputes frequently have characteristics that distinguish them from other kinds of international disputes. Such characteristics of international environmental disputes include the following. Firstly, a dispute may be bilateral, multilateral or hybrid in character. Secondly, international environmental disputes frequently have a multi-dimensional character which includes the complexity of the scientific or technical information associated with a dispute and the complexity of questions relating to social, economic and political choice. Thirdly, international environmental disputes may entail difficulties in identifying the source of the alleged breach of an international environmental obligation. Fourthly, international environmental disputes may involve complex questions of quantifying damages. Lastly, international environmental disputes may involve the interpretation and application of procedural obligations. International environmental obligations of a procedural character. Given the characteristics of international environmental disputes, this thesis aims to study the suitability and effectiveness of the existing third-party mechanisms in settling such disputes. This thesis attempts to find suitable means by examining the nature of each dispute settlement mechanism and making an evaluation in order to find out how each mechanism can provide processes or procedures that correspond to the special characteristics of environmental disputes. With regard to the question of effectiveness, criteria of effectiveness will be established and then each of the mechanisms will be assessed in the light of those criteria. This thesis also proposes some recommendations that would have a chance of being carried out in practice in order to address problems or drawbacks that appear to be an obstacle to the better resolution of international environmental disputes. This thesis shows that judicial means are suitable for deciding bilateral environmental disputes and interpreting and applying procedural obligations. They are not suitable for deciding cases involving multiple parties, multidimensional disputes, quantifying environmental damages or identifying the sources of breach of environmental obligations, except ad hoc arbitration where parties can set up arbitral procedures which suit a specific characteristic of the environmental disputes at issue. Diplomatic means are suitable for deciding bilateral and multilateral disputes, multidimensional disputes but they are not suitable for awarding environmental damages and interpreting and applying procedural obligations. As far as the effectiveness is concerned, this thesis shows that most of the disputes brought before judicial and non-judicial means were settled and the parties complied with the judgments, awards, findings and recommendations. However, in most cases, they have had only a limited impact on the behaviour of the parties in the sense that they were not successful in changing States’ behaviour so discourage future violations and deter the emergence of future disputes. This thesis suggests that all of the dispute settlement mechanisms can be used in a collaborative manner. The fact that the parties decide to litigate in international courts does not mean that the other mechanisms would be excluded. Before or during the course of the judicial proceedings, diplomatic means can always be resorted to. Successful environmental dispute resolution depends partly on the readiness of the parties to end a dispute and partly on the structure of the dispute settlement mechanism. Governments would have to decide what mechanisms could accommodate the unique characteristics of international environmental disputes that are at issue, taking into account all of the considerations discussed in this thesis.

The emergence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) as a serious health concern has prompted an e».1ensive debate in many countries, such as the United States of America (USA), over people's criminal liability for exposing others to HIV. However, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) the issue of the criminalisation of HIV transmission/exposure has not been sufficiently considered. This thesis aims to determine how the criminal law in the UAE should deal with HIV exposure. The thesis argues that criminal law has a role in the context of exposing others to HIV. However, although the consideration of the arguments of opponents of criminalisation in this thesis shows that such arguments do not justify abandoning criminal liability, it reveals that some of these arguments raise valid concerns that need to be taken into account in order to avoid the law being unfair to infected people or counterproductive. This research attempts to determine the appropriate scope of imposing criminal liability so as to avoid the law being unfair or counterproductive. The research argues that imposition of criminal liability for sexually exposing an unsuspecting partner to HIV should neither be contingent on actual transmission, nor on the exposure occurring during high risk sexual activities. The research also argues that an HIV positive test result should not be required on the part of the defendant for being criminally liable for exposing others.