This thesis addresses the question how best to interpret the exceptions to the equality in employment principle afforded in Great Britain to religious employers. There is significant ambiguity surrounding the application of these exceptions, aggravated by a paucity of case law and a divergence in understanding as to the relative significance of job function, context and organisational ethos. The exceptions lack any clear foundational principle and therefore norms to guide their interpretation are urgently needed. The thesis begins by seeking a modern justification for safeguarding the autonomy of religious groups in an era that may be characterised by a decline in the ‘religiosity’ of the British public and an increase in the influence of human rights and equality narratives. Such a justification is located in the human dignity and autonomy rationale for religious freedom. Against this background, I argue that, by applying a particular understanding of freedom of association to their interpretation, the exceptions could helpfully be regarded as permitting discrimination to preserve an employer’s ethos for the benefit of members of a religious group. At present, the significance of employer ethos is underdeveloped in the jurisprudence on the exceptions. A purposive approach which treats the exceptions as derogations from the equality principle, justified by freedom of religious association, could encourage a deeper insight of employers’ needs and an assessment of claims on the exceptions in the context of the interests protected by rights of association. Fuller engagement with balancing religious association and equality rights could be achieved through recognising that the exceptions derive from qualified rights and through requiring employers to act proportionately. Including the concept of ‘accommodation’ in the proportionality analysis could, moreover, assist with fostering an environment in which due regard is given to the dignity interests affected by discrimination. My argument is informed by comparative study of the equivalent law in Canada and the USA. Attention is drawn to the ambiguity in the British employment exceptions by consideration of the equivalent US and Canadian models. Whereas in these models, church and state relations and freedom of association, respectively, have been recognised as significant, the introduction of the British employment exceptions has been influenced by a patchwork of factors. My argument is further informed by a series of interviews with religious employers, which revealed mixed opinions on the exceptions and offered a valuable insight into the importance of ethos to employment practices and relationships.

Directors’ duties of care and loyalty and their enforcement by derivative action, are important elements in the company law system. Such mechanisms are introduced to ensure that directors are subject to a satisfactory level of accountability and control while managing a company. This research employed the comparative law approach to identifying problems in, and to proposing reform for, the Saudi Arabian law of directors’ duty to act with care and in good faith in the company’s general interests, and to avoid conflicts of interest, with particular focus on the corporate opportunities and self-dealing transactions and the Saudi law of derivative actions. The main objective of this study was to propose a reform of Saudi law of directors’ duties and of derivative actions. By using the company law of the United Kingdom (UK) as benchmark, this study evaluates the clarity, certainty and accessibility of Saudi law and identifies weaknesses and deficiencies. The feasibility of transplanting selective legal ideas and rules from the UK company law to its Saudi counterpart in order to develop a framework for legal reform in Saudi Arabia is examined. The argument here is that the Saudi law of directors’ duties of care and loyalty and derivative actions suffers from serious deficiencies, despite the introduction of the new Companies Law of 2015. While the new Saudi Corporate Governance Regulations 2017 have tackled some issues in the areas of directors’ duties, there is still room for improvement. The uncertainty in the law of directors’ duties and enforcement is sufficient in itself to justify the reform of law. Moreover, the limits of other legal and non-legal mechanisms of accountability in the Saudi context suggest that alternative mechanisms would not adequately ensure the accountability of directors. Throughout the examination of the feasibility of reform by way of legal transplantation, the study takes into account that the UK legal model is only transferable if it can be adapted to fit within the institutional structure and legal environment in Saudi Arabia. This is necessary to ensure proper reception of foreign rules by the new environment of the host country. The finding is that transferability of most UK legal models and rules is feasible. Throughout this consideration of a reform agenda for the Saudi law of directors’ duties and derivative actions, the research has been guided by a policy that requires striking a balance between the need to increase directors’ accountability and the need to protect the directors’ exercise of their managerial authority.

The social sciences are often thought to be inferior to the natural sciences because they do not have laws. Bohman writes that “the social sciences have never achieved much in the way of predictive general laws—the hallmark of naturalistic knowledge—and so have often been denied the honorific status of ‘sciences’” (1994, pg. vii). Philosophers have suggested a number of reasons for the dearth of laws in the social sciences, including the frequent use of ceteris paribus conditions in the social sciences, reflexivity, and the use of ‘odd’ concepts. This thesis argues that the scarcity of laws in the social sciences is primarily due to the concepts that social scientists often work with. These concepts are described as Nomadic and are characterised by disagreement about what can reasonably be included within the scope of a concept. The second half of the thesis explores the implications of this analysis. It argues firstly, that counterfactual analysis is problematic when using Nomadic concepts. Secondly, it argues that taking an intentional perspective on behaviour often involves the use of Nomadic concepts so, if social scientists do hope to formulate laws, then they are more likely to succeed if they focus on behaviour that is not intentional.

This thesis investigates the life histories of Crown Court clerks between 1972 and 2015, and has uncovered unheard testimonies of the lived world of law. Drawing on 21 oral history interviews, it is posited that the Crown Court clerk was a pivotal player in the legal system during this period and their contribution to the performance of law has been largely neglected. Though they did not enjoy the economic, social and cultural capital of judges and barristers, or play a central role in the construction and determination of legal issues in hearings, they were chiefly responsible for the smooth functioning of the courtroom, and were constantly working to maintain order and facilitate the flow of proceedings. Court clerks can be characterised as stage managers of the courtroom drama in the sense that the onus was upon them to ensure that all the various props and parties were assembled in the courtroom at the right time, and to direct defendants, witnesses and jurors as to where and when to sit, stand, and what to say at the appropriate moment. Moreover, this thesis asserts that alongside judges and barristers, court clerks were active agents in the perpetuation of traditional practices through their use of official and formal codes of dress, speech and behaviour, and can be perceived as custodians of continuity. This finding is particularly interesting in light of scholarly accounts that have identified a period of radical change to the administration of justice following the founding of the new Courts Service in 1972. It is contended that Crown court clerks were not merely complicit in, but strongly supported a highly ritualised performance of justice. In so doing, they contributed towards upholding the authority and legitimacy of the criminal justice system in ways that have been largely unacknowledged.

This thesis examines the means by which corruption sustains itself in the relationship between business and the tax system. It is predicated on a desire to understand the possibility of sheltering the relationship from corruption and other similar societal challenges. It relies on the intuition that certain structural elements of this relationship permit the infiltration and sustenance of corruption. With the aid of both qualitative and quantitative data obtained from empirical research in Nigeria, it constructs a model that exposes these structural elements. This thesis argues that a ‘two-way relationship’ between businesses and the tax system not only exists but is anchored in the interaction between the actors (businesses, tax policymakers, tax law-makers, tax administrators and tax arbiters) that represent both institutions. It explores four mechanisms (‘access’, ‘awareness’, ‘distortion’ and ‘inaction’) that affect the interaction and consequently the relationship between business and the tax system. It also addresses the difficulty in defining corruption by adopting a process definition of this phenomenon. In this definition, the tag ‘corruption’ applies where an act or state of affairs and the gain derived therefrom breach the expectations of the legal, economic, political or moral dimension of a given society. This thesis then argues that corruption sustains itself in the two-way relationship by exploiting a ‘power gap’ between the actual and institutional powers of actors in the said relationship. It defines the ‘institutional power of actors’ as that which accords with the institutional limits of their social setting. An actor’s ‘actual power’, in contrast, refers to that which the actor may exercise in any given circumstance. This power gap is potentially increased or decreased by the levels of the four mechanisms in the relationship. Therefore, any real effort to tackle corruption in the relationship between businesses and the tax system must seek to address these four mechanisms in a manner that limits the power gap and opportunities for corruption. The concept of the power gap and its four mechanisms is a novel approach to understanding and tackling corruption. It aspires to support the design of tax systems with the capacity to adequately balance competing interests, especially in countries where corruption is endemic.

Since the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) came into existence in 1948 (then later formed the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1994 at a conference of 123 countries), many economic blocs in the world have been established and it is the aspiration of many States to participate in a regional integration for a variety of different reasons such as language, religion, geography and increasing trade. One of the best examples of wide-ranging and advanced economic integration is the European Union (EU) which has established a Customs Union as well as an Internal Market. An advanced stage of Monetary Union (a Single Currency) has been adopted in the majority of its Member States. Of the many other examples of economic integration regulated by GATT, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) may be considered as the best example of advanced regional integration in the Arab world as it has set up a Customs Union, a Common Market and there is a Monetary Union agreement among the majority of its Member States. On the basis of the foregoing, the thesis is a comparative analysis of the customs laws and practices of the GCC and of the EU. The comparison focuses on the nature and extent of the competences of the functionally equivalent institutions of these two organisations in relation to the implementation of the customs union and how and to what extent they are exercised – in order to evaluate the GCC system in particular and to suggest potential improvements. The thesis also explores the main obstacles that have faced the full implementation of the GCC customs union, including non-compliance by some of the GCC Member States with the agreed common commercial policy, with a view to providing suggestions and possible solutions for these obstacles. The thesis analyses whether the GCC has explicit or implicit international legal personality to act on behalf of its Member States at international level on issues related to the common commercial policy – as compared with the legal situation of the EU, pre- and post-Lisbon Treaty, by examining negotiation of the agreement between the GCC and the EU. The thesis also discusses the rules of international law related to conflict between treaties, in particular the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969, in order to provide possible solutions for third party agreements which may conflict with GCC law.

Individual persons are the most influential players in the online digital environment. Regarding their internet activities, these individual players could perform their role as either the original creator, the user, or the subsequent creator of the online digital works. When they are performing different roles, they are protected under different fundamental rights. For example, when online user borrows an online original works of the original creator to create online derivative works, two fundamental rights which are relevant are ‘copyright’ and ‘the right to freedom of expression’. The thesis focus on the rights of these online individual players in these two important aspects: copyright and the right to freedom of expression. Based on the inexplicable conflict between both rights, this thesis fundamentally argues that it is not as what was previously claimed that ‘copyright is the engine of free expression’. On the other hand, it is the other way around that ‘free expression is an engine of copyright’. This is following the logic of the deductive argument based on the evidence that ‘free expression is an engine of creative expression’ and ‘creative expression is an engine of copyright’. The argument above thus supports the importance of creativity in the copyright regime. It is thus certified that under the fundamental concept of copyright there lies a strong concept of system that protects and encourages the prosperity of human’s creativity under the term of authorship. Therefore, the protection of copyright in the digital era should not be directed away from this very fundamental concept. In terms of making online derivative works, this thesis therefore proposed that an exception of copyright infringement should be allowed for unauthorised user in so far as it encourages the prosperity of human’s creativity and does not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author, as certified under Article 9 of the Berne Convention. For this purpose, the thesis finally proposed that it is possible under the fundamental concept of copyright and the internet technology to create a distinction between the act of making adaptation and making publication of the online digital derivative works. This is, at least, to allow unauthorised making adaptation of the online digital works for prosperity of individual’s creativity, without re-publishing of those derivative works online.

En esta exposición revisaremos algunos aspectos de la K-teoría para álgebras de Banach y luego veremos la generalización para álgebras de Fréchet.

This Thesis examines the current public policy and regulatory options likely to influence the future development of the information market. The context is the successful delivery, by digital technology, of the Internet - the precursor to a future broadband network, more popularly known as the `information superhighway'. This advance, which feeds on convergence of the information and communication technologies, will enable text, sound and image to be manipulated, exploited and communicated in digital format across a number of delivery platforms. It has introduced a new phase of intensive policy analysis among administrations intended to lead to the development of national or regional information infrastructure plans, designed ultimately to produce a global framework. A central focus of policy examined by the Thesis is what form the regulatory environment should take to encourage synergy between the public and private sectors in respect of their contributions to the plan. Throughout the work the approaches of the United Kingdom, the European Union and the United States are compared. The core of the Thesis is four papers, located in Chapters 1-4, which have either been published or accepted for publication in 1995/96. The first three will appear in the International Journal of Law and Information Technology (Oxford University Press) and the fourth in the 1995 International Yearbook of Law, Computers & Technology (Carfax). Chapter 1, `A Jurisprudence for Information Technology Law' considers the legal response to `digitization' and what the future holds. Chapter 2, `Public Sector Policy and the Information Superhighway' develops one of the themes from Chapter 1 and considers the public policy dilemmas posed by the information superhighway. Chapter 3, `Public Information Access Policy in the Digital Network Environment assesses the arguments for reform of EU access policy, its implications for the UK and the contribution it will make to the information market. Chapter 4, `A UK National Information Policy for the Electronic Age' reviews the progress of the UK in developing an integrated information policy for the information society. Chapter 5 contains a Conclusion. The author believes the Thesis to be the first sustained public policy analysis of the subject since the digital network first began to enter the public domain in 1993.

Causation is a crucial issue in ascertaining whether certain loss or damage is covered in an insurance policy. Although marine insurance is well-known for investigating the “proximate” cause of loss in order to determine the insurers’ liability, decisions by English courts are far from reconcilable. The problem has been suggested to be the inference of matters of fact, and consequently, causal connection is deemed as a complex and uncertain issue. In the light of incoherency and uncertainty of law in this respect, the value of this research lies in the effort to conceptualize and develop a set of consistent causation rules in the marine insurance context and to explore how perils themselves would affect the formation and application of causation rules. Essentially, the proximate cause in law should not remain as a mere open question of fact. In order to achieve the merits, this dissertation scrutinises the causation theory itself and also the correlations between the perils involved in the policy. Introduction presents the legal problem of causation in marine insurance law and stresses the importance of setting up coherent and certain rules. The research on the pure causation theory consists of two chapters: Chapter One regarding the test of causation, i.e. the doctrine of proximity; and Chapter Two on concurrent causes. The subsequent three chapters concentrate on identifying the cause of loss from the nature and concepts of different marine risks. Chapter Three introduces marine perils and examines how causation rules apply in the case of a few typical insured and uninsured perils; Chapter Four and Chapter Five are concerned with exclusive researches on inherent vice and seaworthiness respectively. Apart from the substantive analysis on causation, burden of proof is addressed in the last chapter. Finally, the Conclusion provides a summary of the issues and the set of causation rules.