In 2011, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) produced and released a documentary film entitled “Sexual Violence and the Triumph of Justice.” The documentary available on the Tribunal website is the first film produced by the Tribunal in a series of documentaries arranged thematically and geographically. In declaring a triumph of justice and by highlighting the work of feminist lawyers and judges, the official narrative seeks to reassure the international community that progress is being made in holding individuals responsible for gender crimes. The availability of the online streaming of proceedings, documentary production and visual archives allow for greater visibility of the Tribunal, including its work on sexual violence. However, these visual resources also mask what occurs off screen. My thesis problematises this official progressive narrative by turning to fictional filmic narratives about sexual violence perpetrated during the Bosnian conflict. By bringing together the literature on gender crimes and the embryonic research on film and war crimes trials, I argue through a case study of the ICTY that fictional films can show us what the law is refusing or unable to make visible.

This thesis seeks to explain the meaning and function of conscience in commercial law doctrine. It argues that the idea of conscience in law bears its ordinary meaning. When the courts use the language of conscience, they are simply expressing a moral judgement about whether, e.g. the defendant’s behaviour or a particular state of affairs conforms to the commonly held standards of right and wrong to which we all have access and of which we are all expected to be aware. The thesis argues further that the language of conscience has a discernible but very limited function in commercial law doctrine. It helps us to understand that in recognising and enforcing obligations, equity is giving effect to moral obligations, and that it will not do so unless the individual on whom the obligation is to be imposed has knowledge of the relevant facts. However, beyond this, the language of conscience has little, if any, explanatory force. For example, it tells us nothing about the moral principles underpinning particular doctrines, nor does it tell us what or how much an individual must know before it will be reasonable to treat her as subject to an obligation. In fact, the courts’ tendency to invoke the language of conscience and unconscionability without regard to the limits of its explanatory power means that a number of important doctrinal questions remain perpetually unanswered and sometimes obscured. Therefore, the thesis concludes that the courts should not continue to use the language of conscience without paying much greater attention to what it can and cannot explain.

This dissertation is concerned with how societies in transition respond to past violation by focusing on how Ethiopia has dealt with gross violations committed during the repressive regime of a military junta called the Dergue – meaning Committee. It is widely believed that transitional justice processes play a significant transformative role in societies in transition. Based on a case study of the process and impact of prosecution of Dergue officials and their affiliates, this dissertation demonstrates that transitional criminal justice processes may not necessarily transform a society to a new social and political identity that essentially departs from a repressive past. The study discusses and analyzes the theory of transitional justice emphasizing the discourses on the meaning and significance of the main components of transitional justice – justice, truth, reparation and reconciliation – and relates these discourses to the Ethiopian experience. The study is qualitative, employing both primary data (primarily in-depth interview), and secondary data including literature (on Ethiopian history, law and politics), laws both national and international, court cases, and various reports including those of courts and the prosecution office. In the Ethiopian context, the arguments in support of prosecution resonate with the general theoretical arguments that it is necessary to render justice, establish rule of law, ensure accountability, serve as deterrence, and generally serve as a foundation for a new political and social identity. However, whether prosecution or prosecution alone was an appropriate response in the Ethiopian context is a contested issue. Secondly, the legal framework for prosecution and its implementation are also problematic. Thus, this study shows the problematic nature of transitional justice processes as carried out in Ethiopian social and political context in terms of both bringing closure to the past and playing a transformative role, and thereby showing the complex and contested nature of transitional justice itself.

This thesis is intended to deal with the crime of International Maritime Fraud a comparative study between the Iraqi and English law. The scheme of the thesis is as follows. Introduction and four parts, part one is an overview of Maritime Fraud and outlines the definition, reasons and features and classification of Maritime Fraud. Part two deals with the types of frauds and the modus operandi, with illustrative examples of each type of fraud. Part three of this study deals with the analysis of Maritime Fraud under criminal law in Iraqi and English law. Part four examines the jurisdiction over Maritime Fraud in Iraqi and English law, and in some International Conventions related to some international crimes. A review of findings, and recommendations for change, are contained in the conclusion.

The study develops a framework for improving corporate governance mechanisms in Libya that takes into account its specific environment of weak formal enforcement and its corporate ownership structure, which is based on concentrated state ownership. The central goal of the research is to establish an adequate protection system for minority shareholders that can contribute to the development of an efficient and healthy commercial environment in Libya. To do so, the study examines the current solution for dealing with the conflict of interests between shareholders adopted by Libyan law under art 159 of Libyan Economic Activity Act (LEAA 2010): the minority shareholders’ actions. Using a social and economic analysis and a black letter approach, this study presents a novel analytical framework that formulates an appropriate solution for controlling conflict of interests between shareholders in Libya. To that end, the study addresses the following questions: how effective is the current mechanism for dealing with the conflict of interest between shareholders in Libya? What are the economic and social implications of the different proposed approaches? What elements determine which approach is preferable in Libya? And, finally, what are the challenges that the proposed law reform may face? To answer these questions, firstly, it is necessary to consider the general framework of corporate governance in Libya, examine the country’s current position as an economy in the early stages of transformation and analyse the potential impact of this transformation on corporate governance. Following this, I locate the dimensions of the conflict of interest problem between the minority and majority shareholders in Libya through analysing literature of corporate governance with regard to the minority-majority shareholder problem and applying it to the case of Libya. After that, I examine the efficacy of the current mechanism available in Libyan law (minority shareholders actions) as a solution for dealing with the conflict of interests between the minority shareholders and the majority shareholders in Libyan companies. However, the current approach is not appropriate for Libya for several reasons that relate to either the efficiency of the approach itself or its application and enforcement in Libya. After examining other possible solutions (e.g. a prohibition strategy), I propose the self-enforcing model as the most appropriate solution since it contributes to companies being able raise capital from investors, and it also lowers the number of conflict of interest transactions and makes a company’s transactions more efficient. Finally, the self-enforcing model does away with the need for external monitoring. However, this is not the end of the story; adopting such a model will inevitably lead to some potential risks (such as the risk that the minority shareholders may abuse their rights), which will require the formulation and adoption of new and specific strategies of corporate governance that are appropriate to Libya.

Proportionality is used by the UK Courts when reviewing the Convention-compatibility of the activities of the other branches of government. There are two related problems with the current analysis of proportionality. First, there has been a heavy emphasis on the division of constitutional space between the judiciary and the other branches of government. This focus on spatial conceptions of institutional responsibility has distracted attention from the structure of the relationship between proportionality and deference. The second problem is that there has been insufficient attention paid to the manner in which the test is affected by the distinctions between the different governmental institutions which can be judicially reviewed under the HRA. The individual stages of proportionality are based on certain premises about the institution being reviewed. This needs to be explicit if a sophisticated understanding of proportionality is to be developed. I plan to overcome these two problems by setting out a structural, institutionally sensitive model of proportionality and deference. The model is structural in that it takes account of the operation of deference within the process of proportionality. The model is institutionally sensitive in that it takes account of the differences between the institutions which the courts can review under the HRA. The model is based on the work of Alexy, but adapted for the UK context and developed to make it institutionally sensitive. I trace the operation of this structural model through three institution-specific case studies in order to establish its relevance in the UK. The case studies concern administrative decision-making in immigration cases, rule-making in criminal justice cases and judgments concerning both administrative decisions and legislation in housing cases. This diverse range of subject matter provides the basis for proving the applicability of the structural, institutionally sensitive model, which overcomes the two related problems with the existing analysis.

The mediation of the balance between vigilance and restraint is a fundamental feature of judicial review of administrative action in the Anglo-Commonwealth. This balance is realised through the modulation of the depth of scrutiny when reviewing the decisions of ministers, public bodies and officials. While variability is ubiquitous, it takes different shapes and forms. In this thesis I identify the main approaches employed in judicial review in England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand over the last 50 years or so: (a) scope of review, based on an array of formalistic categories which determine whether judicial intervention is permissible; (b) grounds of review, based on a simplified and generalised set of grounds of intervention; (c) intensity of review, based on explicit calibration of the depth of scrutiny taking into account a series of constitutional, institutional and functional factors; and (d) contextual review, based on an unstructured (and sometimes instinctive) overall judgement about whether to intervene according to the circumstances of the case. This thesis has three dimensions. In the doctrinal dimension, I isolate the four schemata from the case law throughout the Anglo-Commonwealth. Professor Stanley de Smith’s acclaimed judicial review textbook – particularly its changing language and format – is used to provide structure for the study. In the conceptual dimension, I identify the conceptual foundations of the schemata, exposing their commonality and differences. I use the scholarly debate about the constitutional underpinnings of judicial review to provide insight into the justifications advanced for the different approaches. In the normative dimension, I evaluate the virtues of the different schemata. The qualities of the different approaches are drawn out, using Fuller’s ruleof-law-based criteria to guide the assessment of efficacy. Overall, the grounds and intensity of review schemata generally display the most virtue when measured against these criteria.

The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, 1980 ("CISG") creates a uniform law for the international sale of goods. However, textual uniformity is a necessary but insufficient step towards achieving substantive legal uniformity, since the formulation and enactment of a uniform legal text carries no guarantee of its subsequent uniform application in practice. This thesis therefore considers different approaches to the interpretation of CISG and evaluates their appropriateness for uniform international trade law, before advancing an interpretative approach based on the concept of internationality and generally acknowledged principles of commercial law, such as the UNIDROIT Principles. The analysis offered by the present writer is based on the examination of the nature, scope and function of Article 7 CISG, which expressly prescribes the direction that CISG's interpretation and application should follow and whose own interpretation will determine, to a large degree, the ultimate fate of CISG as a truly uniform code. Owing to its unique nature and limitations, it is necessary that CISG exist on top of a legal order that can provide doctrinal support and solutions to practical problems - such as gap-filling - in order to guarantee CISG's functional continuity and development without offending its values of internationality, uniformity and good faith, as expressed in Article 7(1) CISG and analysed in this thesis. It is the opinion of the present writer that CISG is, and must remain, a self-contained body of rules, independent of and distinct from the different domestic laws. Supported by analysis of the existing doctrine, as well as by case law, this thesis argues that the necessary legal backdrop for CISG's existence and application can be provided by general principles of international commercial law, such as those exemplified by the UNIDROIT Principles, which will, if adopted, render the textual reference in Article 7(2) CISG to private international law redundant - a positive step towards uniformity. The recourse to rules of private international law in the interpretation of CISG, even as a last resort, would represent regression into doctrinal fragmentation and practical uncertainty. The relevant textual reference in Article 7(2) CISG to such a method is the regrettable result of diplomatic drafting compromises and should remain inactive, since its activation would reverse the progress achieved by the world wide adoption of CISG as a uniform body of international sales law.

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the limitation of participation of developing countries in the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). Under the DSB, there are many cases that present the limiting of developing countries on some significant ways. This thesis discusses the most significant limiting factors reported and practiced by developing countries in the DSB. Developing countries have a lack of financial and legal resources and ability to impose the DSB rulings on procedural of the DSU. Also, there are a number of significant procedural reforms that the DSU dispute settlement system must consider. This thesis discusses these legal and financial obstacles for developing countries under the DSB. This thesis mentions the most significant potential solutions for tackling the constraints of developing country participation in WTO dispute settlement proceedings. Those solutions try to make the WTO system more workable for developing countries in settling disputes. In addition, it tries to demonstrate the significance of reforming the DSU. Also, it tries to improve developing country use of the WTO DSB. Therefore, it recommends that the proposals appearing in this thesis should be used in actual practice by establishing them in the DSB.

The thesis examines mode of trial decisions in magistrates’ courts within the context of a theoretical framework that views courtroom interaction as multifaceted and complex. The history of the mode of trial decision has seen an extension of summary jurisdiction; for reasons of cost and efficiency successive reforms have aimed at reducing the number of cases that are committed to the Crown Court. It is thought that inappropriate cases are being committed to the Crown Court, yet the magistrates’ court is criticised for providing poor quality justice. This thesis therefore examines the dynamics of the mode of trial decision in order to understand how the process operates. The theoretical framework examines different influences upon social interactions; psychobiography, the courtroom setting, the dynamics of interactions and wider social structures that frame behaviour. This is conducted through an examination of the narrative (re)production practices of courtroom professionals. The thesis find that legal considerations dominate the mode of trial process with local legal cultures deeply influencing the decision. However, where discretion remains, sociological influences can be ascertained as impacting upon behaviour. For instance, the treatment of domestic violence cases show how institutional and professional concerns enter the mode of trial decision; prosecutors, utilising the ability to control information that comes before the court, minimise the impact of cases so as to persuade the magistrates to retain jurisdiction. Additionally, the legal narratives (re)produced in the courtroom highlight a number of considerations for the nature of law. Law, when taking defendant’s, witnesses’ and complainant’s stories, translates these into narratives that are appropriate for the legal process. As a result, the voices of the participants are lost in the courtroom narrative.