Alternative Dispute Resolution was developed as an alternative to the traditional dispute resolution mechanism, litigation, which had become costly, time-consuming, did not give the parties control over the outcome of their disputes and was generally cumbersome. ADR refers to a variety of techniques for resolving disputes without resort to litigation in the courts. The concept behind the introduction of ADR methods was, inter alia, to reduce the delays and costs associated with litigation; to introduce relatively less formal methods of dispute resolution; to introduce consensual problem solving and empower individuals by enabling them to control the outcome of their dispute and develop dispute resolution mechanisms that would preserve personal and business relationships. ADR processes were thus intended to produce better outcomes all round. From the time ADR appeared on the scene, its usage has gained international recognition with both common law and civil law countries following the trend. Being faced with similar problems associated with litigation, Zambia has followed the trend and adopted some ADR mechanisms. Most commonly used ADR mechanisms in Zambia are mediation/conciliation, arbitration and negotiation. The legal and institutional frameworks for ADR in Zambia are firmly in place. It is thus, not far fetched to predict a successful future for ADR in which it will enjoy the support of the major stakeholders and play a vital role in justice delivery in Zambia. This thesis has a section on the conceptual framework for ADR and discusses the development of ADR internationally and some processes in use. It examines selected institutions of justice delivery in Zambia with a view to evaluating their operations and contribution to justice delivery in Zambia. It traces the development of institutions of justice delivery in Zambia from colonial times up to the present and assesses their performance. ADR processes currently in use in Zambia are critically examined and their shortcomings reviewed. The legal and institutional frameworks for ADR and the role they play of providing the supporting structure for ADR in the country are evaluated. Future prospects for ADR are indicated and recommendations for successful implementation of ADR in Zambia are given. / Jurisprudence / LL.D.

Les stratégies de volatilité ont connu un rapide essor suite à la crise financière de 2008. Or, les récentes performances catastrophiques de ces instruments indiciels ont remis en question leurs contributions en couverture de portefeuille. Mes travaux de thèse visent à repenser, réinventer la philosophie des stratégies de volatilité. Au travers d'une analyse empirique préliminaire reposant sur la théorie de l'utilité espérée, le chapitre 1 dresse le diagnostic des stratégies traditionnelles de volatilité basées sur la couverture de long-terme par la réplication passive de la volatilité implicite. Il montre que, bien que ce type de couverture bat la couverture traditionnelle, elle s'avère inappropriée pour des investisseurs peu averses au risque.Le chapitre 2 ouvre la voie à une nouvelle génération de stratégies de volatilité, actives, optionnelles et basées sur l'investissement factoriel. En effet, notre décomposition analytique et empirique du smile de volatilité implicite en primes de risque implicites, distinctes et investissables permet de monétiser de manière active le portage de risques d'ordres supérieurs. Ces primes de risques mesurent l'écart de valorisation entre les distributions neutres au risque et les distributions physiques.Enfin, le chapitre 3 compare notre approche investissement factoriel avec les stratégies de volatilité employées par les hedge funds. Notre essai montre que nos stratégies de primes de risque d'assurance sont des déterminants importants dans la performance des hedge funds, tant en analyse temporelle que cross-sectionnelle. Ainsi, nous mettons en évidence dans quelle mesure l'alpha provient en réalité de la vente de stratégies d'assurance contre le risque extrême. / Volatility strategies have flourished since the Great Financial Crisis in 2008. Nevertheless, the recent catastrophic performance of such exchange-traded products has put into question their contributions for portfolio hedging and diversification. My thesis work aims to rethink and reinvent the philosophy of volatility strategies.From a preliminary empirical study based on the expected utility theory, Chapter 1 makes a diagnostic of traditional volatility strategies, based on buy-and-hold investments and passive replication of implied volatility. It exhibits that, although such portfolio hedging significantly outperforms traditional hedging, it appears strongly inappropriate for risk-loving investors.Chapter 2 paves the way for a new generation of volatility strategies, active, option-based and factor-based investing. Indeed, our both analytical and empirical decomposition of implied volatility smiles into a combination of implied risk premia, distinct and tradeable, enables to harvest actively the compensation for bearing higher-order risks. These insurance risk premia measure the pricing discrepanciesbetween the risk-neutral and the physical probability distributions.Finally, Chapter 3 compares our factor-based investing approach to the strategies usually employed in the hedge fund universe. Our essay clearly evidences that our tail risk premia strategies are incremental determinants in the hedge fund performance, in both the time-series and the cross-section of returns. Hence, we exhibit to what extent hedge fund alpha actually arises from selling crash insurance strategies against tail risks.

Dans ce travail de thèse, un aperçu général sur les systèmes PON est présenté et sont étudiés les mécanismes et classification PON existants. Après, nous introduisons notre première contribution qui est un algorithme d'allocation dynamique de bande passante pour EPON. Cet algorithme proposé est désigné comme «hcDBA». Par la suite, une amélioration de l'algorithme de hcDBA avec mécanisme de prédiction précoce est présentée. Notre simulation montre bien que notre algorithme hcDBA est performant comparé aux mécanismes existants en termes de taux de perte de paquets et de délai d’accès. Dans notre seconde contribution, nous sommes intéressés au problème de consommation d’énergie qui est un sujet d’actualité dans les réseaux de télécommunication. Les études montrent aujourd’hui que les réseaux d'accès constituent une partie remarquable de la consommation totale d'énergie dans les réseaux de télécommunication. Les organisations ITU-T et IEEE ont publié la recommandation pour la conversation de l'énergie pour les réseaux PONs. Bien que, la consommation totale d'énergie des nœuds ONU est plus importantes que d'autres équipements dans le réseau d'accès fixe, les normes et la plupart des travaux de recherches ont porté sur les économies d'énergie du côté de ONU. Dans cette thèse, nous sommes concentrés sur une méthode d'efficacité énergétique basée sur la conservation de l'énergie du côté de l’OLT. La méthode proposée permet d’économiser de l'énergie en déplaçant dynamiquement des cartes d’OLT en mode de sommeil profond en fonction des charges de trafic entrant et sortant / In this thesis, general overview about PON systems is presented and existing PON mechanisms and classification are investigated. After, a novel dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithm for EPON is introduced. This proposed algorithm is named as “Half Cycling Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation-hcDBA” by the inspiration of its half cycling processing mode. Later, an improvement of hcDBA algorithm with early prediction mechanism is presented. As a result statement of the study, hcDBA algorithm performs better than existing mechanism in terms of packet loss ratio and access delays. Beside, simulation traffic behavior of EPON’s upstream channel has been investigated in order to support the decision of selecting suitable traffic generator in further studies. Energy conversation is one of the hot topics in telecommunication networks. Access networks constitute remarkable portion of the total energy consumption in telecommunication networks. ITU-T and IEEE organizations published recommendation for energy conversation in PONs. While, total energy consumption of ONUs is more than other equipment in fix access network the standards and most of the researches focused on saving energy at ONU side. In this thesis I focused on an energy efficiency method based on energy conversation on OLT side. The proposed method save energy by dynamically moving OLT cards to deep sleep mode according to the incoming and outgoing traffic loads