Central banks engage in a multiplicity of activities. Their current roles are historically determined, in that each central bank came into being at a certain stage of its country's development and has exercised its functions consistently with its nation's development objectives. Consequently, central bank functions vary in degree and from place to place. However, despite the different conditions under which they operate, most central banks exhibit a tendency to conform to an almost identical pattern, particularly in respect of those practices and principles developed by the Bank of England, which came to be accepted as traditional central bank functions. This thesis takes up the traditional central bank functions and compares them with the new and expanding roles of central banks in the developing world. The tool for illuminating this review is the important issue of government immunity. As agents of their governments, central banks sometimes breach their contractual obligations and then the issue of immunity comes up. In determining the immunity of foreign states, their agents and instrumentalities, the courts characterize their activities as either private or public acts. This process of characterization has proved difficult in its application to central bank activities. This is because there is no uniform central bank function. Consequently, it is difficult to determine when a central bank is performing a central bank function. The restrictive immunity approach presupposes that central bank functions could easily be characterized as either commercial or central bank functions. However, a contrary view is presented in this thesis. This thesis takes the position that central bank activities are not uniform and therefore cannot be subject to a general theory of restrictive immunity. A comparative approach is adopted in analysing the different evolutionary patterns of central bank development, the scope of protection that central banks enjoy under the current law in sovereign immunity in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and other international conventions. The study ends with an appraisal of the scope of central bank immunity and the problems associated with the characterization process and concludes that in the absence of uniform central bank functions, and an agreement on the proper sphere of governmental activity, the restrictive immunity approach is inadequate for the resolution of central bank immunity issues. Consequently a programme of bilateral treaties is suggested as a better alternative. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

Journalism is widely believed to contribute to responsive governance. But rigorous evidence is scarce. This dissertation explores whether journalism improves government responsiveness, how journalism improves government responsiveness, and the conditions under which journalism is supplied. I focus my research on Tanzania, which has experienced a rapid expansion of local and independent media since 1990, but where systems of political accountability and public service delivery remain limited. In Chapter 1, I evaluate the influence of investigative journalism on government responsiveness using a national-scale randomized controlled trial. I argue that journalism improves responsiveness by strengthening accountability relationships within Tanzania's ruling party bureaucracy. To test the argument, I collaborated with 15 regional radio stations to identify 206 communities experiencing service delivery problems like flooded roads, broken water points, and missing medical supplies. I then randomly assigned half the communities to the treatment group and half the communities to a pure control condition. In treatment communities, journalists investigated the service delivery problem, broadcast their findings on regional radio, and conducted follow up reports several months later. Seven months after the reports were broadcast, independent auditors evaluated the service delivery problem in all 206 communities. I find that treatment communities received higher audit scores on average (coefficient = 0.25 standard deviations, randomization inference p-value = 0.033), amounting to one road or water point repair in every four treated communities. In line with my argument, the reports generated observable responses by un-elected government ministries but not citizens, local government officials, or members of parliament. In Chapter 2, I evaluate two mechanisms by which journalism influences government responsiveness: informing government officials about the preferences of their constituents and motivating officials with the threat of public exposure. I first draw on surveys of 4,200 citizens and 340 leaders across 109 Tanzanian villages to document whether leaders understand, share, and respond to the policy preferences of their constituents. I then examine the effect of two overlapping treatments, each designed to capture a mechanism of journalism's influence. In the ``information'' experiment, I randomly assigned leaders to receive information about the priorities of their constituents. In the ``motivation'' experiment, I randomly assigned leaders to be contacted by journalists planning reports on a specific development issue in the leader's village. To evaluate outcomes, I developed a behavioral measure of the willingness of village leaders to lobby district council officials for development projects on behalf of their constituents. I find mixed evidence for the role of information, strong evidence for the role of motivation, and no evidence for complimentary between the two mechanisms. In Chapter 3, I analyze the supply of local journalism in Tanzania. I combine three original data sets: a comprehensive history of radio station ownership in Tanzania, a national survey of local journalists in Tanzania, and a hand-coded data set of every news story published by local radio stations in Tanzania over a five month period. I show that despite a rapid rise in the number of local and independent media stations in Tanzania and a journalistic culture that is generally supportive of ``watchdog journalism,'' the slant of local news coverage in Tanzania remains overwhelmingly pro-government. The most dramatic bias occurs at stations owned by the government and stations owned by individuals with significant business interests outside the radio station, while the bias at radio stations controlled by individuals affiliated with the ruling party is surprisingly muted. Media market competition is also associated with reduced pro-government bias.

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Thesis (doctoral)--Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-273).

Universiẗat, Diss.-2007--Tübingen, 2006.

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

In 1992, the Americans completed its withdrawal from the Philippines, ending almost a century of U.S. military presence. However, it was soon discovered that the U.S. left behind several contaminated sites at its former military bases in the Philippines due to inadequate hazardous waste management. It appears that the U.S. Department of Defense failed to implement clear and consistent environmental policies at Clark and Subic. The U.S. maintains that it is under no obligation to undertake further cleanup at its former installations inasmuch as the Philippines has waived its right to do so under the basing agreement. It will be argued that the Philippines made no such waiver under the Manglapus-Schultz Agreement. Thus, the U.S. remains responsible under international law for the resulting environmental damage at its former bases. States have the responsibility under customary international law to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other states. A state will be responsible if it breaches this international obligation. It will be argued that the U.S. breached its obligation under international law when activities within its effective control caused significant environmental damage to areas forming part of Philippine territory. Such a breach may also result in the violation of the emerging right to a healthy environment. Existing human rights, such as the right to life and health, right to food and water, right to a safe and healthy working environment and right to information, will be applied from an environmental perspective to determine whether the Filipinos' right to a healthy environment was violated. While a legal claim can be made for the remediation of the environment and compensation of the victims, it will be argued that existing mechanisms for the settlement and adjudication of international claims are inadequate. States are generally reluctant to submit to the jurisdiction of international tribunals and most of these fora do not allow non-state entities to appear before them. Thus, it would be argued that the most promising approach may well be through political and diplomatic means.

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Table of cases: leaves [771]-783 / Bibliography: leaves [784]-795 / 2 v. (xix, 795 leaves) ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Law School, 1988