Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-78). / Social security is an expression of social solidarity and an attempt to curb the ills of exclusion and poverty. The welfare state was premised on this very ideal of social solidarity. As a result of the changed and changing times, the welfare state which has now come to be known as social security is under siege by several forces unique to individual states. For this reason, social security is an area of rich diversity and the challenges facing social security are not homogenous. Whereas for rich and industrialized countries social security is very meaningful, for most of Sub Saharan Africa it is an abstract and relatively novel concept. The Universal Declaration for the Rights of man, to which every country should aspire and to which most, if not all, constitutions are modeled provides for the right to social security. Whereas the declaration implies that social security is an inalienable right, the definition of social security or 'western notion of social security' adopted by most countries with a semblance of social security eliminates the vast majority of people namely; those in the informal sector, the poor and those in the rural areas. Studies of social security advance the theory-that the conventional definition of social security is not adequate for the African continent because formal social security schemes were introduced in Africa during the colonial era as a response to the social security needs of expatriate white workers. In Uganda, formal social security caters for less than 20 per cent of the population leaving the rest to harness any other means possible to maintain subsistence and a level of sanity. The needs envisaged by traditional formal social security are not the needs an ordinary Ugandan today faces. As a result of this disparity, there has been and there continues to be out cries to reform a system that government has been reluctant to change much because of the multi-faceted and overwhelming social demands. The cliché that 'a drowning man clutches at a straw' could not be put better: Africans do not give up; we simply make the most of what we have.

The rise of Cyberspace/the internet has opened a new source for legal issues. Beside issues of contract, tort, free speech, fundamental rights, privacy and anonymity, crime and security, intellectual property, governance and regulation, procedural issues are of predominant interest. This is because procedural law is the "last link" the chain in the exercise of state power. It follows that location-oriented, territory-oriented and sovereignty-oriented aspects play an important role in procedural provisions. Especially those aspects, however, seem to be most challenged by Cyberspace because of a new phenomenon: delocalisation.

The principle of party autonomy is widely accepted in the practice of international commercial arbitration. However, it still encounters certain limitations in its applications, especially for the fact that the demands of natural justice and the public good cannot be neglected by the parties. The various states in the international system have and operate peculiar systems of mandatory rules and public policies, which tend to impart significantly on the arbitral procedure, thereby creating a situation of discordance of outcomes of arbitration in different countries. For this reason, this writer intends to examine ways by which the various procedural laws can actually be harmonised. This thesis shall therefore focus on the discordances and confusion that often arise in the interacion of the various laws that may be applicable to the arbitral process in International commercial arbitration, as well as ways of achieving a harmonisation of these laws.

This thesis explains that the development of the law of the carriage of goods by sea has led to the appearance of the Hague, Hague-Visby and Hamburg Rules. The existence of these different conventions plainly contributes to the breakdown of uniformity. The thesis, nevertheless, argues that international uniformity is still valuable since it reduces the legal costs significantly. However, many conflicts arise among the various countries in interpreting these conventions. Such conflicts lead to uncertainty and unpredictability, and in consequence, to the increase of legal costs. In proving the latter, the thesis examines and evaluates the conflicts of interpretations of these conventions brought on by containerisation. The thesis proves the inadequacy of various propositions on the question of how to avoid such conflicts. It argues, however, that the failure to consider foreign decisions is a significant factor of having such conflicts. In proving the latter, the thesis provides a comparative study in evaluating various courts' decisions that relate to containerisation. The thesis, however, evaluates different measures to achieve international uniform interpretations. Most of these measures are not completely satisfactory solutions to such achievement. Accordingly, the thesis examines the obstacles that may face the applicability of comparative law in practice, and the capability of avoiding these obstacles. The thesis also offers various observations in relation to how the national courts shall consider comparative law. The key point is that the divergence that characterised the interpretation of the existing conventions will reappear unless there is some obligation on national courts to consider and apply comparative law. The thesis therefore proposes that any future convention relating to the law of carriage of goods by sea shall specify that the national courts of every contracting state shall refer to the decisions of the other contracting states when dealing with questions of interpretation.

The Cape Town Convention and the Aircraft Protocol came into force on 1st March 2006. To date, the Convention has seventy-four States Parties, the Aircraft Protocol sixty-eight States Parties, and together they can be regarded as one of the most successful recent commercial law treaties. The Convention's overriding object is to offer creditors the highest possible protection in the form of an effective, speedy and strong legal remedial framework for the international enforcement of creditors rights in the event of the debtor's default or insolvency. The underlying rationale is that this will lead to significant reductions in borrowings costs for lenders to the advantage of all interested stakeholders in the aircraft sector. However, without effective implementation of the remedial system of the Convention and the Aircraft Protocol, it is difficult for financiers to have confidence that they are able to defend their legal rights effectively. This thesis investigates the structure and contents of the Convention's remedial system in a chronological order, but it does not purport to be a comprehensive and systematic monograph on the Convention's remedies as already done by the Convention's Official Commentary. It consists of four parts each of which investigates a particular core aspect of the implementation and operation of the Convention's remedial system in practice. In particular, it investigates the Convention's declaration system, and its procedural, substantive and insolvency remedies to ensure an effective and comprehensive protection of creditors in aircraft finance. In doing so, it identifies critical lessons for the implementation of the treaty in civil and common law jurisdictions.

In the sea trade, the traditional paper-based bill of lading has played an important role across the globe for centuries, but with the advent of advanced commercial modes of transportation and communication, the central position of this document is under threat. The importance of the bill of lading still prevails as does the need of the functions that this document served in the past, although in a changed format. In the recent past, the world has witnessed a lot of debate about replacing this traditional paper-based document with an electronic equivalent that exhibits all of its functions and characteristics, both commercial and legal. More specifically, unlike many rival travel documents, such as the Sea Waybill, a bill of lading has two prominent features, that is to say, its negotiability and its acceptability as a document of title in certain legal jurisdictions that are required to be retained in an electronic bill of lading so as to also retain the prominence of this document in the future landscape. This thesis is, however, more concerned about the legal aspects of adopting the electronic bill of lading as a traditional paper-based legal document as well as an effective legal document in the present age. However, the scope of this debate remains primarily focused on the USA and UK jurisdictions. In the course of this thesis, it is observed that, in the past, the bill of lading has been subject to a variety of international regimes, such as The Hague Rules and The Hague-Visby Rules, and presently efforts are being made to arrive at a universal agreement under the umbrella of The Rotterdam Rules, but such an agreement is yet to arrive among the comity of nations. On the other hand, efforts made by the business community to introduce an electronic bill of lading are much louder and more evident. The private efforts, such as the SeaDocs System, CMI Rules, and the BOLERO Project, etc., were, however, received by the fellow business community with both applause as well as suspicion. At the same time, there are a number of concerns voiced by the international business community on the legislative adoptability in national and international jurisdictions and the courts’ approach in adjudicating cases involving electronic transactions and these are making the task of adoption of electronic bill of lading in the sea-based transactions a difficult task. Therefore, in the absence of any formal legal backing from national and international legislations, these attempts could not achieve the desired results. In this thesis, the present situation of the acceptability of electronic transactions in general, and of the electronic bill of lading specifically, has also been discussed with reference to certain national jurisdictions, such as Australia, India, South Korea and China, in order to present comparative perspectives on the preparedness of these nations. On the regional level, the efforts made by the European Union have also been discussed to promote electronic transactions within its jurisdiction. All the discussion, however, leads to the situation where the level of acceptability of electronic bill of lading in the near future is found to be dependent upon the official efforts from the national governments and putting these efforts towards arriving at an agreement on Rotterdam Rules as early as possible. The other area of importance revealed in this thesis is the need for change in juristic approach by the courts while interpreting and adjudicating upon cases involving electronic transactions. On the whole, this thesis has provided a cohesive and systematic review, synthesis and analysis of the history of the bill of lading, its importance as a document of title, and attempts to incorporate its important functions within the fast-paced electronic shipping commerce of today. In such a way it has provided a valuable contribution to the literature by providing a comprehensive resource for jurists, policy-makers and the business community alike, as they work towards adapting the bill of lading so that it might be successfully applied in electronic form.

This thesis is the first detailed and comprehensive research of the history of the 2001 Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment (the 'Convention' or 'CTC') and its protocols. It is submitted that the quality of response to the various challenges of the treaty-making process can serve as a measure of a convention's success, and that the unique characteristics of the CTC make it a prime target for such research. The author identifies and analyses the most problematic issues in the process of development of the Convention and its protocols, including the latest draft protocol on mining, agricultural and construction equipment. This research focuses on the documentary history of the CTC and its Aircraft Protocol (as the only protocol currently in force), relying primarily on the materials published by UNIDROIT and other international organisations, and shows that not all of the challenges found an adequate response in the Convention. Nonetheless, the shortcomings pale in comparison with the Convention's achievements: the CTC has created a highly effective machinery for regulating international interests in mobile assets. The author does not perform empirical ex post analysis of implementation of the Cape Town Convention, but this thesis will form a solid background for such research in the future. This study, apart from its scholarly importance, has clear practical value: its conclusions (including a number of treaty-making lessons originating from this research) can assist governmental officials, representatives of international organisations and legal advisors (both external and internal) participating in the treaty-making process and, it is hoped, will strengthen he attractiveness of conventions as an instrument of harmonising commercial law in the future.