Thesis (L.L.M.)--University of Waikato, 2007. / Title from PDF cover (viewed April 7, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 153-158)

Contemporary Western legal storytelling relies heavily on images and discourses in popular culture to secure meaning and give credibility to certain legal arguments. This thesis focuses on the legal stories told in the trial of a celebrity in Western society. As a system of meaning, the celebrity sign operates on the levels of signification and affect. The ambiguous semiotic power of the celebrity sign forces an examination by the legal audience regarding the "real" nature of the celebrity. Reality and truth are seen to emanate from this private self. Moreover, the affective power of the celebrity sign guarantees that, at times, emotion will dictate how much credibility will be given to particular celebrity legal stories and what stories will be considered plausible by a jury. In the trial of a celebrity "Other" — that is, one of the celebrated few who defies the white male norm -- celebrity legal storytelling looks towards issues of race, class, and gender, in addition to celebrity, in order to secure meaning and effect credibility. The aesthetic acceptance of the celebrity "Other," along with discourses of authenticity in Western society, work to shape what is considered credible and true in a courtroom. These factors place limits on the semiotic and affective power of the celebrity "Other" and, thus, on what celebrity legal stories will be accepted as truth in the courtroom. Looking specifically at the 1949 acquittal of jazz singer, Billie Holiday, and the 1994 acquittal/partial conviction of gangsta rapper, Tupac Shakur, this thesis will demonstrate the ways in which law, culture, race, gender, class, and the celebrity intersect in the Western mass media and how this intersection affects legal process and the trial tactics utilized in the trial of a celebrity "Other."

Contemporary Western legal storytelling relies heavily on images and discourses in popular culture to secure meaning and give credibility to certain legal arguments. This thesis focuses on the legal stories told in the trial of a celebrity in Western society. As a system of meaning, the celebrity sign operates on the levels of signification and affect. The ambiguous semiotic power of the celebrity sign forces an examination by the legal audience regarding the "real" nature of the celebrity. Reality and truth are seen to emanate from this private self. Moreover, the affective power of the celebrity sign guarantees that, at times, emotion will dictate how much credibility will be given to particular celebrity legal stories and what stories will be considered plausible by a jury. In the trial of a celebrity "Other" — that is, one of the celebrated few who defies the white male norm -- celebrity legal storytelling looks towards issues of race, class, and gender, in addition to celebrity, in order to secure meaning and effect credibility. The aesthetic acceptance of the celebrity "Other," along with discourses of authenticity in Western society, work to shape what is considered credible and true in a courtroom. These factors place limits on the semiotic and affective power of the celebrity "Other" and, thus, on what celebrity legal stories will be accepted as truth in the courtroom. Looking specifically at the 1949 acquittal of jazz singer, Billie Holiday, and the 1994 acquittal/partial conviction of gangsta rapper, Tupac Shakur, this thesis will demonstrate the ways in which law, culture, race, gender, class, and the celebrity intersect in the Western mass media and how this intersection affects legal process and the trial tactics utilized in the trial of a celebrity "Other." / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 487-522). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2005. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (M.A. (Political & International Studies)) - Rhodes University, 2009.

This study analyses the relationship between the chieftainship institution and the elected councils in Lesotho. Based on a qualitative case study method the study seeks to understand this relationship in four selected councils in the Maseru district and how this can be nurtured to achieve a consolidated democracy. Contrary to modernists‟ arguments (that indigenous African political institutions, of which the chieftainship is part, are incompatible with liberal democracy since they are, inter alia, hereditary, they compete with their elective counterparts for political power, they threaten the democratic consolidation process, and they are irrelevant to democratising African systems), this study finds that these arguments are misplaced. Instead, chieftainship is not incompatible with liberal democracy per se. It supports the democratisation process (if the governing parties pursue friendly and accommodative policies to it) but uses its political agency in reaction to the policies of ruling parties to protect its survival interests, whether or not this undermines democratic consolidation process. The chieftainship has also acted to defend democracy when the governing party abuses its political power to undermine democratic rule. It performs important functions in the country. Thus, it is still viewed by the country‟s political leadership, academics, civil society, and councillors as legitimate and highly relevant to the Lesotho‟s contemporary political system. Because of the inadequacies of the government policies and the ambiguous chieftainship-councils integration model, which tend to marginalise the chieftainship and threaten its survival, its relationship with the councils was initially characterised by conflict. However, this relationship has improved, due to the innovative actions taken not by the central government, but by the individual Councils and chiefs themselves, thus increasing the prospects for democratic consolidation. I argue for and recommend the adoption in Lesotho of appropriate variants of the mixed government model to integrate the chieftainship with the elected councils, based on the re-contextualised and re-territorialised conception and practice of democracy, which eschews its universalistic EuroAmerican version adopted by the LCD government, but recognises and preserves the chieftainship as an integral part of the Basotho society, the embodiment of its culture, history, national identity and nationhood.

The constant clash of African culture and traditions with human rights continue to militate against the adequate protection of women’s rights. Thus, African women constantly face challenges resulting from restrictions under customary laws of succession and inheritance, witchcraft violence, degrading treatment to widows, domestic violence; women killed by their partners, rape of women and children under all kinds of circumstances. This thesis was prompted by the issues raised in the Bhe case of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. In this landmark judgment, Ngcobo J dealt with the development of customary law, and how it must be approached by the courts in a manner that would have due regard to the rights of women on one hand and, on the other, would also accord customary law of its proper place, purpose and values within the African context. Against this background, the thesis focused on South Africa, Nigeria and Lesotho as excellent models of the broader challenges for women as well as governments; despite certain legislative measures put in place by the latter, the battle continues unabated for the balance of traditions and culture with women’s rights issues. Although South Africa is more progressive in terms of Constitution and practice than Nigeria and Lesotho, a lot still needs to be done particularly in the area of harmonization of laws. Regrettably, in Nigeria and Lesotho respect for the Constitution is superficial and lacks substantive policies that would promote women’s rights. To this extent, the balance of democratic values and promotion of women’s rights issues within the continent lie in women being partners in development rather than unduly suffering under intense burden of culture, tradition and societal stereotypes.

Après 30 ans de réforme économique et juridique, la Chine a enfin adopté sa loi nationale en matière de concurrence: la Loi antimonopole du 30 août 2007, entrée en vigueur le 1er août 2008. Cette thèse porte sur l’effort que le Gouvernement chinois a consacré à réformer le droit de la concurrence pour établir et protéger son économie de marché socialiste afin de permettre aux entreprises nationales et étrangères de participer au jeu de la concurrence sur la base de principes d’égalité, de liberté et de transparence. Dans cette thèse, une étude comparée est menée selon deux dimensions : verticale et horizontale. Dans la dimension verticale, le droit chinois de la concurrence montre une continuité dans le temps de la culture juridique traditionnelle remontant à plus de 2000 ans, tandis qu’horizontalement, il se place dans le sillage du droit de la concurrence de l’Union européenne qui constitue une source inépuisable d’inspiration. La loi antimonopole de la Chine comprend notamment une interdiction des pratiques anticoncurrentielles (l’interdiction des ententes et celle de l’abus de position dominante), un contrôle des concentrations et des monopoles administratifs, des règles institutionnelles et des règles de la responsabilité juridique de l’infraction à la loi. Il est à noter que le périmètre de la réforme du droit de la concurrence en Chine ne se borne pas qu’au droit antitrust au sens propre, elle implique aussi le développement du droit contre la concurrence déloyale et l’évolution de la relation entre le droit de la concurrence et le droit de la propriété intellectuelle. / After 30 years of economic and legal reform, China finally enacted its competition law: the Anti-Monopoly Law of August 30, 2007 which came into force on August 1, 2008. This thesis reviews firstly China’s efforts to reform its legal system of competition in order to establish and to protect the socialist market economy, in which not only the national enterprises but also foreign commercial entities will be able to participate in the game of competition on the Chinese market on the basis of equality on legal status, of freedom to fix prices and of transparency in the market information in the Chinese substantive and procedural legal framework. Secondly, the comparative method used in this thesis touches upon two aspects: the vertical and the horizontal. (The vertical dimension is unfurled in the historical process whereby the Chinese legal system de la concurrence has demonstrated how it is influenced by its traditional legal culture of more than two thousand years, on one hand; and on the other hand, the horizontal comparative study makes it clear that the Chinese competition law follows in the wake of the European Union whose competition legal system is an inexhaustible resource of inspiration for the Chinese antimonopoly law. So, we focus our study on the contents of the Chinese antimonopoly law which include a merger control, the prohibition of anticompetitive practices (the cartel prohibition and the prohibition of abuses of dominance), and the control of anticompetitive behaviors of public authorities, the institutional rules and the rules of legal responsibility in the breach of law. However, the area of Chinese legal reform in the domain of competition is not confined to the antitrust law in its strict sense; it implicates also the enactment of the law for Countering Unfair Competition and the evolution of the relationship between the antitrust law and the intellectual property law. This constitutes our last focus of study.

Tensions between the individual rights and freedoms found in constitutional bills of rights and the traditionally prescribed social roles and positions articulated in African customary law systems have often been characterised as tensions between communitarian and liberal philosophies. In particular, the notion of gender equality, which is often a feature of the protections offered by constitutional bills of rights, is seen to be in direct opposition to the overtly patriarchal character of many African customs and traditions. This thesis looks specifically at polygamy, long and widely considered in the West to be an oppressive practice premised on the assumed inferiority of women. The analysis considers the implications of polygamy in a particular cultural context, that of the Kingdom of Swaziland, where the newly instituted constitution is often seen to be incompatible with many aspects of Swazi customary law. Here, the tension between the constitutional commitment to gender equality and the persistence of polygamy as a seemingly discriminatory cultural practice forms a lens through which to view the debate as a whole. The theoretical analysis is supplemented by empirical research sourced from local media archives and in-depth interviews conducted with twelve Swazi women, both unmarried and married in polygamous relationships. Communitarian and liberal approaches to resolving this tension are compared, contrasted and finally critiqued from a feminist standpoint. The feminist critique of both communitarianism and liberalism implies that neither ideology promises much for women and affirms the relatively recent feminist suggestion that the key to resolving tensions between constitutional and customary law in general, and to uplifting the social/legal status of women in particular lies in the enhancement of women’s democratic participation and the improvement of women’s decision-making powers.