Etant donnée la capacité limitée de la majorité des pays en développement à mobiliser des ressources domestiques suffisantes notamment à travers la taxation, le financement extérieur du développement s’est avéré essentiel pour soutenir des programmes d’investissement publics visant à construire un capital public dans les infrastructures, la santé ou l’éducation. Ainsi, au nom du développement, les gouvernements, les institutions internationales et les citoyens des pays industrialisés se sont accordés sur le fait qu’un transfert de capitaux vers les pays en développement serait nécessaire pour les aider à financer leur développement. Les principaux flux extérieurs de capitaux pour le financement du développement sont composés de l’aide au développement, des investissements directs étrangers et des transferts de migrants (travailleurs étrangers) vers leur pays d’origine. L’impact macroéconomique de ces flux extérieurs de capitaux pour le développement est un sujet de controverse entre les économistes. L’espoir et la frustration, entourant ces flux de financement du développement étant donné leur importance en termes de croissance et de réduction de la pauvreté, ont généré une importante littérature en sciences économiques avec des recommandations de politiques économiques opposées. De manière générale, cette thèse porte sur l’efficacité de l’aide et des autres flux extérieurs de capitaux à promouvoir le développement dans les pays du SUD. Nous proposons dans cette optique une vision transversale de la question d’efficacité du financement extérieur du développement en regroupant au sein d’une même analyse les trois acteurs principaux liés à ce débat : Les pays récipiendaires, les pays donateurs et l’architecture de l’aide, et les économistes - responsables des recommandations de politiques auprès des décideurs.La première partie de cette thèse emploie la méta-analyse pour effectuer une « autopsie » du processus de recherche en analysant les études empiriques effectuées sur l’efficacité des flux externes de capitaux pour le financement du développement, afin de mettre en évidence les limites à l’origine de l’hétérogénéité des résultats obtenus par les économistes et donc les insuffisances des recommandations de politiques économiques issues de leurs travaux.La deuxième partie s’intéresse à l’influence des pays émergents dans l’architecture de l’aide au développement et leur incidence sur la qualité de l’allocation de l’aide et le comportement budgétaire des pays à faibles revenus recevant cette aide. Enfin dans la troisième partie de notre analyse nous présentons de nouvelles évidences empiriques sur l’impact des flux capitaux extérieurs et autres mesures pour le développement. Nous nous attaquons ici à l’une des difficultés majeures des actions en faveur du développement : L’évaluation d’impact des programmes et politiques mis en place. Nous proposons dans ce cadre une méthodologie d’évaluation d’impact macroéconomique que nous appliquons à l’initiative « Pays Moins Avancés » dont nous mesurons l’incidence sur la croissance et la vulnérabilité macroéconomique des pays ayant bénéficié de ce programme sur les trente dernières années.Cette coupe transversale de l’efficacité du financement du développement permet d’aborder cette problématique sous une perspective unique et intuitive. / Given the limited ability of many of these countries to raise domestic resources through taxation, external finance is essential to support a multi-year public investment program aimed at developing public capital in infrastructure, health, and education. Thus, governments, aid agencies, and citizens from industrialized countries have often transfer capital flows to those countries to help them follow a sustainable growth and finance their development. The most external financial resources for development included foreign aid, foreign direct investment and workers' remittances. The effectiveness of these external flows to sustain development has long been a hotly contested subject among economists. Hope and frustration surrounding the development finance flows and their ability to promote growth and reduce poverty, generated an important literature with conflicting policies recommendations.The broad subject of this thesis is whether foreign aid and the other External Capital Flows are effective in promoting development. We propose a transversal analysis of the effectiveness of external development financing developed around the three groups concerned by this debate: the recipients, the aid architecture and the actors of development, and the researchers - whose results influence policymakers actions. The first part uses meta-analysis methodology to draw a literature review on external development finance flows with a particular interest on the research processes follow by the empirical studies, in order to explain the conflicting results in the empirical studies. The underlying idea of meta-analysis is to subtract the empirical evidences from authors' characteristics, econometric or methodological choices, to sum up the effective knowledge from existing works. The second part focuses on recent evolutions in aid architecture with the increasing influence of emerging donors. This part of the thesis analyzes the impact of non-DAC donors’ aid allocation on government fiscal choices in recipient countries and on traditional donors' aid allocation.The third part of the thesis proposes new evidences of the impact of external capital flows for development and international measures for development. First, we propose an analysis of the link between development financing and business cycles fluctuations in developing countries. We conclude the thesis by addressing one of the major difficulties in the development assistance, that is assessing the impact of different policies and programs designed to support the less developed countries. We evaluate the impact of Least Developed Country (LDC) status on economic growth and the vulnerability to economic shocks.

In the first paper, the effects of trade openness and conflict risk on income inequality are investigated. I obtain that the effect of trade openness on inequality depends on the level of conflict risk. More precisely, there exists a threshold effect: trade openness worsens income inequality in countries where the risk of internal and external conflicts is high. Moreover, I find that countries with higher risk of conflicts are more unequal, and that more ethnically diverse countries increase income inequality. Finally, I obtain that democratic regimes decrease inequality. In the second paper, we analyze the general-equilibrium consequences of property right enforcement in the natural resource sector. Assuming that exclusion requires both private and public enforcement efforts, we compare states that differ by their ability to provide protection services. This ability is referred to as state capacity. We obtain that public protection services can effectively act as either substitutes or complements to private enforcement, and this strongly depends on state capacity. Under low state capacity, an increase in state protection services leads to a drop in national income as labor is drawn away from the directly productive activities. The opposite holds for high-capacity states. As a result, public protection services have an ambiguous effect on national income even though they can unambiguously increase resource rents. In the third paper, we argue that the right to hold dual citizenship can generate important social and economic benefits beyond its political dimension. We assemble a large panel dataset on dual citizenship. We find that in developing countries, dual citizenship recognition increases remittance inflows by US$1.19 billion, GDP and household consumption, and improves child survival. In developed countries, however, dual citizenship recognition decreases remittance inflows by US$1.44 billion, but increases FDI by US$828 billion, raises household consumption, gross capital formation and trade, and provides incentives for skilled workers to move to other countries.

La création du GATT en 1947 par les pays occidentaux a consacré un nouvel ordre commercial international. Son but consistait à faciliter les échanges commerciaux et poursuivre le développement économique. Pour cela, la réglementation du GATT visait surtout à l'application d'une politique commerciale qui consiste à démanteler les obstacles aux échanges, proscrire toute discrimination commerciale entre les pays membres et entre les marchandises importées et les marchandises locales. En ce sens l'article 1er du GATT de 1947 (devenu OMC en 1995) pose le principe cardinal du traitement de la nation la plus favorisée, c'est-à-dire un traitement égal à tous les pays participant au GATT. Mais l'arrivée des nouveaux pays indépendants dans les années 1960 a changé la nature juridique du GATT parce qu'au point de vue économique il y avait trop de disparités entre les pays. Il y a eu donc la nécessité de tenir compte de la réalité économique de ces pays, de faire en sorte qu'ils puissent rattraper le retard dans le processus de développement, et de pouvoir aussi équilibrer les échanges commerciaux. L'adoption en 1964 de la Partie IV du GATT, intitulée commerce et développement, consacre la non réciprocité commerciale en faveur des pays en développement, et officialise par la même occasion une dualité des normes parce que les deux catégories de parties contractantes appliquent différemment les principes du Gatt. Il devient alors pertinent d'étudier cette asymétrie juridique qui devait compenser l'inégalité de développement des pays insuffisamment développés. Selon le credo des libéraux de l'époque, les PED peuvent se développer économiquement par des échanges commerciaux. Mais, en dépit des traitements préférentiels qui sont accordés aux pays en développement, ils n'arrivent pas à se développer, leur balance commerciale est déficitaire, leur productivité est faible. En faisant une étude globale sur la situation des pays en développement, nous traiterons en particulier le cas du Niger et du Bénin. Cette recherche sert: d'abord à voir les effets du libéralisme économique sur les pays économiquement faibles, ensuite susciter l'intérêt à étudier le développement économique des pays en dehors d'une dualité des normes qui n'apporte pas de résultats escomptés. / The creation of GATT in 1947 by western countries has set a new international order trade that would facilitate trade exchanges and moves forward economic development around the world. For that reasbn GATT regulations aimed above aIl at the application of a trade policy that consists of getting rid of the hindrances to the exchanges, and proscribe discriminatory trade exchanges between countries and imported and exported local merchandizes. Indeed article 1 in GATT regulations in 1947 (became WTO in 1995) poses the cardinal mIe of treatment of the nation which is more privileged, that is an equal treatment for aIl countries that are members of GATT. But the arrivaI of the new independent countries III 1960 has changed the juridical nature of GATT because economically the gap was too huge between the countries. So it is important to take into account the economic reality of the poor countries to set a strategic policy that will help them out. With that policy they will be able to catch up with the new era of development and trade exchanges around the world will be fair. The adoption in 1964 of the Part 4 of GATT regulations entitled trade and development favours the non-reciprocity trade to developing countriesand makes official at the same occasion a duality of norms because the two categories of members put into the application the mIes ofGATT differently. This research aims at studying this asymmetrical politic that would compensate the inequality of the development of poor countries, and would also provide them an economic development by the means of trade exchanges. ln spite of the preferential treatments given to the developing countries, theyare not yet making any progress because their trade balance is deficient, and their productivity is worthless. In doing a broader research on the situation of developing countries, we will focus particularly on the situations of Niger and Benin. This research would serve first to analyse the effects of the economic liberalism on the poor countries; secondly create the interest to study the economic development of the countries out of the asymmetrical politic that do not bring any attempted results. / "Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des Études supérieures En vue de l'obtention du grade de Maîtrise en droit des affaires (LL.M.)"

In the first paper, the effects of trade openness and conflict risk on income inequality are investigated. I obtain that the effect of trade openness on inequality depends on the level of conflict risk. More precisely, there exists a threshold effect: trade openness worsens income inequality in countries where the risk of internal and external conflicts is high. Moreover, I find that countries with higher risk of conflicts are more unequal, and that more ethnically diverse countries increase income inequality. Finally, I obtain that democratic regimes decrease inequality. In the second paper, we analyze the general-equilibrium consequences of property right enforcement in the natural resource sector. Assuming that exclusion requires both private and public enforcement efforts, we compare states that differ by their ability to provide protection services. This ability is referred to as state capacity. We obtain that public protection services can effectively act as either substitutes or complements to private enforcement, and this strongly depends on state capacity. Under low state capacity, an increase in state protection services leads to a drop in national income as labor is drawn away from the directly productive activities. The opposite holds for high-capacity states. As a result, public protection services have an ambiguous effect on national income even though they can unambiguously increase resource rents. In the third paper, we argue that the right to hold dual citizenship can generate important social and economic benefits beyond its political dimension. We assemble a large panel dataset on dual citizenship. We find that in developing countries, dual citizenship recognition increases remittance inflows by US$1.19 billion, GDP and household consumption, and improves child survival. In developed countries, however, dual citizenship recognition decreases remittance inflows by US$1.44 billion, but increases FDI by US$828 billion, raises household consumption, gross capital formation and trade, and provides incentives for skilled workers to move to other countries.

No abstract available. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

La dialectique entre contrats d’Etat et développement durable existe, malgré une antinomie apparente. Elle s’appuie sur une interaction particulière qui s’est construite depuis l’origine, à travers les contrats d’Etat, instruments conventionnels singuliers et autour des nécessités politiques et économiques de l’époque, avec en toile de fond l’impératif de développement.Face aux évolutions sociales successives et l’absence d’arsenal juridique adapté, les contratsd’Etat se sont développés de façon spécifique entre dépendance, indépendance,interdépendance, hétéronomie et autonomie. En droit international des affaires, c’estprécisément à partir du contrat conçu comme un instrument normatif singulier et à travers sesinteractions avec le contexte extracontractuel au sein duquel il est amené à opérer quel’existence d’un droit du développement durable en matière de contrats d’Etat doit êtrefondée. Cela nécessite une autre vision du droit, sans cesse renouvelée et davantageappropriée aux réalités de notre siècle. / Common discussion points between sustainable development and State contracts exist, despite many visible contradictions. They are based on a particular interaction, built up from the beginning through State contracts, which are highly specific agreements and around political and economic necessities of the time, with the notion of development merely as a requirement in the background. Confronted with successive social changes and the lack of an appropriate judicial framework, State contracts developed in a particular way between dependence, independence, interdependence, heteronomy and autonomy. In international business law, the existence of a sustainable development law related to State contracts must be based precisely on contracts, seen as instruments able to set norms, and must benefit from contracts’interactions with a non-contractual environment. That requires another vision of law, constantly renewed and more adapted to current realities.

Résumé Le cadre théorique de la contingence structurelle associe généralement « contexte, structure et performance » (Burns et Stalker, 1961; Woodward, 1965; Lawrence et Lorsch, 1967 ; Mintzberg, 1979).Le besoin de tester cette théorie dans l’environnement d’un pays sous développé (PSD) nous a conduit, dans cette recherche, à l’utilisation d’un cadre réduit basé uniquement sur des liens entre la technologie (remplacée par TI) et la structure (Galbraith, 1972 ; Lacrampe, 1974 ; Leifer, 1988). Notre cadre théorique s’appuie sur les approches managériales, économiques et organisationnelles des TI et de l’EDI (Leavitt, 1968 ; Scott Morton, 1991). Il utilise la théorie contingente de la gestion comptable (Otley, 1980; Chapman, 1997) et des systèmes d’information comptable AIS (Sutton, 1995; Maudlin et Ruchala, 1999; Baldwin et alii, 2000; Dunk, 2001) comme domaine d’opérationnalisation (système d’information fonctionnel). Ce travail commence par la constitution d’une boîte à outils contenant toutes les notions de base à utiliser (théories organisationnelles, TI - technologies de l'information, réseaux informatiques et EDI – échange des données informatisées), conformément aux principes fondateurs du MIS basés sur trois disciplines : Computer, Management et Organization Sciences (Culman et Swanson, 1986). La grille de lecture de la littérature est inspirée par la taxonomie de Urbaczenski, Jessup and Wheeler (2002) qui propose quatre catégories de recherche : économique, organisationnelle, technique et autre. Cette revue de la littérature permettra de proposer un modèle de recherche d’impact des TI et de l’EDI basé sur le cadre de référence structuro - fonctionnaliste et élaboré selon les principes de la théorie des systèmes. Le modèle de recherche utilise une structure causale conçue suivant l’impératif technologique (Markus et Robey, 1988). Il vise à expliquer l'impact organisationnel des TI à travers la stratégie (Porter et Millar, 1985; Wiseman, 1985 ; Palvia, Palvia et Zigli, 1990) sur la conception des MIS / AIS et des structures organisationnelles dans les entreprises d’un pays sous développé (PSD). Ce modèle d’impact organisationnel teste les hypothèses proposées, à partir des données d’une observation longitudinale (1970 à 2002) de quatorze (14) entreprises de la République Démocratique du Congo. Les entreprises échantillonnées de façon non probabiliste en deux catégories sont observées à travers l'introduction de l'EDI dans le système d’information comptable. Les tests de structure des données et de fonctionnement du modèle établissent l’impact des TI sur les structures organisationnelles et parfois sur les systèmes d’information, mais avec des nuances d’atténuation et de contribution suivant la nature de l’environnement ou l’usage de la stratégie. La conclusion de cette étude propose un processus d’apprentissage aux managers congolais pour éviter les dysfonctionnements organisationnels lors de l’adoption d’une nouvelle TI. Elle pose aussi le problème de validité des structures causales utilisées dans les recherches pour analyser l’impact organisationnel des TI. Abstract EDI adoption’s analysis in Congolese firms : an organizational structure impact of IT This research aims to identify the impact of IT (information technology) on organizational structure transformation in the firms of an under developed country. The framework of the contingency theory generally associates "context, structure and performance" (Burns and Stalker, 1961; Woodward, 1965; Lawrence and Lorsch, 1967; Mintzberg, 1979). The model of impact of TI and EDI suggested by this research uses a reduced framework only based on links between technology (replaced by IT) and structure (Galbraith, 1972; Lacrampe, 1974; Leifer, 1988). Based on the original paradigm of MIS, our theoretical framework uses managerial, economic and organizational approaches of IT and EDI (Leavitt, 1968; Scott Morton, 1991). It uses the contingent theory of accounting management (Otley, 1980; Chapman, 1997) and of accounting information systems (AIS - Sutton, 1995; Maudlin and Ruchala, 1999; Baldwin and alii, 2000; Dunk, 2001) as empirical field (functional information system). This workshop begins with the constitution of a toolbox containing all basic concepts to use (organization theories, IT - information technologies, computer networks and EDI – electronic data interchange), in accordance with the original MIS paradigm founded on three disciplines: Computer, Management and Organization Sciences (Culman and Swanson, 1986, p. 298). Then, we draw a theoretical framework of analysis which begins with a literature review inspired by Urbaczenski, Jessup and Wheeler’s taxonomy (2002). This literature review will allow to proposing a research model of IT and EDI designed according to the functionalist framework and system theory principles. The model of research uses a causal structure conceived according to the technological imperative (Markus and Robey, 1988). It aims at explaining the organizational impact of IT through the strategy (Porter and Millar, 1985; Wiseman, 1985; Palvia, Palvia and Zigli, 1990) on the design of MIS / AIS and the organizational structures in the companies of an under developed country (UDC). This study tests the hypotheses of the organizational impact‘s model suggested, basing from the data of a longitudinal observation (1970 to 2002) of fourteen (14) Congolese firms. The companies sampled by convenience in two layers are observed through the introduction of EDI into the accounting information system. The tests of data structure and of operating model performed on the introduction of accounting EDI, confirm the impact of IT on the organizational structures and sometimes on the information systems - IS. That with nuances of attenuation and contribution according to the nature of the environment or the use of the strategy. The conclusion of this study proposes a process of training to the congolese managers to avoid the organizational dysfunctions during the adoption of new IT. It poses also the problem of validity of the causal structures used in research to analyze the organizational impact of IT.

In 2001 the Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health (‘Doha Declaration’), affirmed the right of member states of the World Trade Organisation (‘WTO’) to interpret and implement the TRIPS Agreement as supportive of the protection of public health and, in particular, access to medicines. While initially well-received, consternation soon arose over the interpretation of a specific paragraph in the Doha Declaration dealing with compulsory licensing. After a further two years of deliberation, the WTO Decision on the Interpretation of Paragraph 6 (‘Paragraph-6 Decision’) was announced in August 2003 specifying when countries can import drugs produced elsewhere under compulsory licence. With one third of the world's population is still denied access to essential medicines - a figure which rises to over 50 per cent in Asia and Africa - the problems facing the public health community are two-fold. The first is the capacity of developing countries (‘DCs’) actually to use the flexibilities afforded under the TRIPS Agreement, the Doha Declaration, and the Paragraph- 6 Decision amid stark inequalities in health resources and the world trading system as a whole. These include provisions for compulsory licensing, parallel importation, and addressing imbalances in research and development (‘R&D’). The pending ratification of the Paragraph-6 Decision, from an interim solution to a permanent amendment, is accompanied by considerable uncertainty: will the protections be accessible under the system currently proposed? The second problem concerns the undermining of the above hard-won flexibilities by provisions adopted under various bilateral and regional trade agreements. Known as ‘TRIPS-plus’- or ‘WTO-plus’- measures, the level of intellectual property rights (‘IPRs’) rights protection being negotiated and even adopted under other trade agreements are more restrictive as regards public health protection. These two sources of concern have led to an increase in rather than a lessening of tensions between the public health and trade policy communities. The thesis opens with a brief analysis of the interplay between patents and medicines. This includes an overview of the human rights framework and the right of access to medicines as a manifestation of human rights. The historical development of the TRIPS Agreement, its legitimacy, and the effect of the introduction of patents for pharmaceuticals are critically analysed. The terms of the Doha Declaration as it relates to public health, the Paragraph-6 Decision and its system, the December 2005 Amendment, and the progress made to date on the public health protections available under the TRIPS Agreement are reviewed and discussed in detail. The thesis describes how, despite these important clarifications, concerns as to the capacity of DCs to implement specific measures persist. This thesis further addresses the development of compulsory licensing in India and South Africa, and the legal framework for compulsory licensing in these countries. The role of competition law and constraints faced by DCs in implementing the flexibilities offered by the TRIPS Agreement and Doha Declaration are considered before turning to the threat posed by TRIPS-plus measures and calls for their critical reassessment. The thesis considers the role of the Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG), the WHO Commission on IPRs, Innovation and Public Health (CIPIH), Patent Pools, and international and multilateral donors in access to medicines. The thesis concludes by reviewing potential ways forward to ensure that access to medicines by the poor living in DCs is secured in all trade agreements. / Mercantile Law / LL.D.

金融監理制度影響一國商業銀行經營績效的相關議題，一直受到學者與政府當局的重視，為瞭解亞洲地區銀行業在中央銀行與監理單位不同管理下的利潤效率，找出最適的制度設計，本研究根據Huang、Huang與Liu（2014）提出之隨機共同利潤邊界（stochastic meta-profit frontier），採用兩階段估計法，蒐集中國大陸、香港、印度、日本、韓國、馬來西亞、巴基斯坦、菲律賓、新加坡、斯里蘭卡、泰國以及阿拉伯聯合大公國等十二國商業銀行資料，分成開發中和已開發國家兩個群組，將環境變數納入無效率模型中，進行實證分析，比較不同群組的利潤效率差異，發掘影響效率的主要變數與方向，從而獲得重要政策意涵。 根據實證分析結果，中央銀行介入銀行監理程度越高，商業銀行利潤效率越低；金融監理單位整合程度越高，商業銀行利潤效率越高；中央銀行獨立程度越高，商業銀行利潤效率越低；已開發國家群組的平均技術缺口比率與共同邊界技術效率值皆高於開發中國家群組，符合預期。共同利潤效率最高的是日本，最低的是韓國。平均而言，各國若在共同利潤邊界上從事生產，能提升41.9%至75%的利潤。 / The effects of degrees of financial supervision on performance of commercial banks have long been important issues and drawn much attention to academic researchers and government authorities. This study applies the stochastic meta-profit frontier, recently developed by Huang, Huang, and Liu (2014), to estimate and compare profit efficiencies of commercial banks from 12 Asian countries, i.e., Mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and United Arab Emirates. We divide the sample countries into two groups, i.e., developing and developed countries. This enables us to further investigate the effects of different supervisory systems, enforced by central banks (CB) and supervisory authorities, on commercial banks’ profit efficiencies, as well as to make a suggestion about the optimal supervision regimes in the area. Note that a set of supervisory indices are considered as environmental variables that explain profit inefficiency. Using the two-stage estimation procedure, the empirical results are summarized as follows. First, it is found that bank’s profit efficiency decreases with the increase in a CB’s supervision sectors. Second, the unification of supervisory authority has positive effect on bank’s profit efficiency. Third, the more independent is the CB, the less profit efficient the commercial bank is. Fourth, banks in the group of developed countries are found to have higher technology gap ratios and meta-profit efficiencies than those in the group of developing countries, as expected. Fifth and finally, Japan and South Korea has the highest and the lowest level of meta-profit efficiency, respectively. Evidence is found that if an average commercial bank were adopting the best technology, it can earn roughly 41.9% to 75% more profits than otherwise.

In 2001 the Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health (‘Doha Declaration’), affirmed the right of member states of the World Trade Organisation (‘WTO’) to interpret and implement the TRIPS Agreement as supportive of the protection of public health and, in particular, access to medicines. While initially well-received, consternation soon arose over the interpretation of a specific paragraph in the Doha Declaration dealing with compulsory licensing. After a further two years of deliberation, the WTO Decision on the Interpretation of Paragraph 6 (‘Paragraph-6 Decision’) was announced in August 2003 specifying when countries can import drugs produced elsewhere under compulsory licence. With one third of the world's population is still denied access to essential medicines - a figure which rises to over 50 per cent in Asia and Africa - the problems facing the public health community are two-fold. The first is the capacity of developing countries (‘DCs’) actually to use the flexibilities afforded under the TRIPS Agreement, the Doha Declaration, and the Paragraph- 6 Decision amid stark inequalities in health resources and the world trading system as a whole. These include provisions for compulsory licensing, parallel importation, and addressing imbalances in research and development (‘R&D’). The pending ratification of the Paragraph-6 Decision, from an interim solution to a permanent amendment, is accompanied by considerable uncertainty: will the protections be accessible under the system currently proposed? The second problem concerns the undermining of the above hard-won flexibilities by provisions adopted under various bilateral and regional trade agreements. Known as ‘TRIPS-plus’- or ‘WTO-plus’- measures, the level of intellectual property rights (‘IPRs’) rights protection being negotiated and even adopted under other trade agreements are more restrictive as regards public health protection. These two sources of concern have led to an increase in rather than a lessening of tensions between the public health and trade policy communities. The thesis opens with a brief analysis of the interplay between patents and medicines. This includes an overview of the human rights framework and the right of access to medicines as a manifestation of human rights. The historical development of the TRIPS Agreement, its legitimacy, and the effect of the introduction of patents for pharmaceuticals are critically analysed. The terms of the Doha Declaration as it relates to public health, the Paragraph-6 Decision and its system, the December 2005 Amendment, and the progress made to date on the public health protections available under the TRIPS Agreement are reviewed and discussed in detail. The thesis describes how, despite these important clarifications, concerns as to the capacity of DCs to implement specific measures persist. This thesis further addresses the development of compulsory licensing in India and South Africa, and the legal framework for compulsory licensing in these countries. The role of competition law and constraints faced by DCs in implementing the flexibilities offered by the TRIPS Agreement and Doha Declaration are considered before turning to the threat posed by TRIPS-plus measures and calls for their critical reassessment. The thesis considers the role of the Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG), the WHO Commission on IPRs, Innovation and Public Health (CIPIH), Patent Pools, and international and multilateral donors in access to medicines. The thesis concludes by reviewing potential ways forward to ensure that access to medicines by the poor living in DCs is secured in all trade agreements. / Mercantile Law / LL.D.