Thesis (Ph.D.)--Columbia University, [1954?] / Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation explores the process of city planning and construction of the Shanghai International Settlement between 1843 and 1937, where the city grew from a low mud bank to the foremost modern metropolis in China. Modern roads provided the basis and the primary engine for the urban transformation. The study investigates the initial modern street network laid out in the nineteenth century, the jurisdictional and administrative dispute between the Chinese and foreign authorities, the competition and negotiation on the boundaries, and the constant redefinition and reconstruction during the first two decades of the twentieth century. In particular, the study explores the formative process of the three most remarkable urban artifacts in the Settlement, namely, the Bund promenade, Nanjing Road, and the parkways of the garden suburb. Through the investigation of the form, meaning and historical influence of the modern road system, the dissertation argues that the modern road system in the International Settlement was not a copy of any existing “Western model.” Designed by British engineers and city planners, most road schemes were progressive in many important ways to solve the pragmatic, administrative, and financial problems at the time, and to realize a “sanitary, orderly, and profitable” urban enclave in the city. The modification of the road schemes through the prolonged social negotiations made roads the physical embodiment of the desires, ideals, and struggles of various social groups—Chinese and foreigners, locals and outsiders, political elite and businessmen—to design and use the urban space. With the emergence of Chinese nationalism in the early twentieth century, the Western-led city planning was decried by the new generation of Chinese politicians and social reformers, and its ideals and practices, successes and failures were gradually forgotten. Rather than describing the social confrontation between the various parties, the dissertation re-construct the historical narrative of Chinese city planning by considering the Western-led city planning as the first wave of modern city planning in China. This preliminary step toward a modern city which was led by Western city planners had an ambivalent yet profound influence on the following decades of city planning led by the Chinese elite: on the one hand, it successfully defined a progressive image of “Modern City” that all Chinese could easily access; on the other hand, although excluded Chinese from the decision-making process, it also enriched Chinese urban life by creating new amenity and the concept of public spaces which eventually engender a series of social reforms. The study not only highlights the complicated, fragmented and pragmatic nature of municipality in making planning decisions under the process of political, social and spatial struggle, it also reveals the origins and contested meanings of “modern,” “public,” and “beauty” in Chinese context, which remain fluid and disputable. The issues addressed in the study not only clarify the various forces that have shaped Shanghai’s modern built environment but also offer historical insights into the challenges and problems in urban development today. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This dissertation contrasts Hong Kong’s and the International Settlement’s management of malaria and of leprosy from the 1880s through the 1940s. This dissertation has two main objectives. Firstly it examines the historical management of malaria and leprosy within specific geo-political contexts. By focusing on British possessions in coastal China, this project explores the production of colonial medical knowledge within a transnational context, presents new and original analyses of the local history of the disease, and bridges the historiography of the British Empire and that of modern China. Secondly this dissertation contrasts Hong Kong’s and the International Settlement’s management of each of these two diseases. By focusing specifically on these two British possessions in coastal China, this project provides insights into the Imperial conceptualisation and management of Chinese bodies and Chinese environments, sheds light on broader historiographical debates regarding the role of colonial medicine, and complicates modern debates about the nature of colonialism in China.

Le droit international intervient dans un contexte de multiplication des crises constitutionnelles auxquelles les mécanismes internes des gestion des crises, n'arrivent pas à trouver de solution. En effet, les constitutions étant directement la cause des crises que connaissent les États africains, elles se trouvent disqualifiées pour jouer leur rôle de règlement de ces crises et d'apaisement de la vie politique. L'intervention de la communauté internationale dans la gestion des crises constitutionnelles trouve ainsi sa justification. L'implication du droit international dans le règlement des crises constitutionnelles prend la forme une assistance constitutionnelle ou d'une assistance à la mise en œuvre du jeu démocratique. L'intervention du droit international dans le domaine constitutionnel, normalement une compétence réservé aux États, emporte des conséquences sur le contenu des constitutions. Celles-ci désormais, s'alignent sur les standards internationaux de démocratie, de pluralisme politique, d’État de droit et de protection des droits et des libertés fondamentales. L'internationalisation des constitutions en Afrique noire francophone, consécutive au règlement international des crises constitutionnelles, entraîne la formation de nouveaux rapports entre le droit international et le droit constitutionnel. Les constitutions deviennent protectrices des valeurs internationalement reconnues et universalisées, tandis que le droit international s'occupe de gérer non plus seulement les rapports interétatiques mais consacre des normes d'application intraétatique. On assiste ainsi à un renforcement mutuel des deux ordres juridiques. L'efficacité dans la durée du règlement international des crises constitutionnelles en Afrique reste toutefois à améliorer. En effet, les valeurs démocratiques ainsi imposées par le sommet, courent le risque de ne pas correspondre aux aspirations des peuples. Le règlement international se doit de s'appuyer sur les constitutions et de prendre en compte, l'ensemble des mécanismes et techniques institutionnels nationaux, voire traditionnels, de règlement des crises constitutionnelles dans les États d'Afrique noire francophone. / Constitutional law in French speaking African sub-Saharan countries is progressing under pressure from different elements. In fact, more than twenty years of practice of a new constitutionalism in these states, reveals many lacunas and failures that raised up on the continent, in almost every states, numerous constitutional crisis. Being the factor of these crisis, the constitutions have disqualified themselves to provide solution for the crisis. The intervention of the international community to settle these constitutional crisis, through international law is thus justified. The international settlement of constitutionnal crisis is a political mechanism by which the international community come to backup the constitutional practice in a state, in order to help solving the crisis. This intervention of international law in the area of competence reserved for the states, is based on the principle of the agreement of the legitimate public authorities of the state and it borrows some different forms, especially the constitutional assistance and the democratic assistance. As result, the international settlement of constitutional crisis led to an internationalization of the constitutions of the assisted states. The process of internationalization pass by the definition of the political regime of the states, particularly, the promotion of constitutional states and also by the proclamation and protection of individual rights. But the main question remain to determine the efficiency of the intervention of international law in the settlement of constitutional crisis. The practice of constitutional law in French speaking African sub-Saharan countries can take advantage on the international settlement of constitutionnal crisis, to be improved and become a source of national cohesion.