This study examines the criminal liability that may be incurred by participants in contact sports for violence that results in injury to a fellow participant. For these purposes, I concentrate on boxing, rugby and soccer; sports that involve a level of physicality that risks, and regularly causes, injury. The violence that is intrinsic to their practice is in some senses archetypically criminal, and yet, that self-same violence is also constitutive of sports that are perceived to have enormous personal, social and cultural value, and which have been declared by the House of Lords to amount to ‘lawful activities’. A formal account of the criminal law of sports violence posits the consent of the participants as the primary determinant of the imposition of liability for acts of violence committed during the course of contact sports. In this thesis, I examine this formal account and propose that the substance of the lawfulness of sports violence needs to be understood in terms of its socio-historical development, and the sophisticated rule-systems and pluralistic regulatory backdrop against which modern sports operate. This thesis contributes a new understanding of the offences that pertain to sports violence, and the normative role and doctrinal function of the participants’ consent, in order to understand the way in which the criminal law accommodates violent sports practices. The thesis also suggests new ideas in relation to the ‘playing culture’ of sport and its relationship to the criminal law, and the role of prosecutorial discretion in effectively shaping the lawfulness of ‘legitimate sport’.

This thesis explores social workers’ practice and understanding of support for the exercise of legal capacity in adult safeguarding. The impetus for this study was the ‘revolution’ of article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which questioned fundamental and long-held legal positions on the rights of people with mental impairments to make decisions about their lives. This shift is a fundamental one, but there is very little existing empirical evidence of how such a revolutionary change in legal frameworks might actually work in practice, and what the challenges may be. Thus, this thesis aimed to empirically examine existing practice, to explore what the baseline of understanding was, and the difficulties that social workers encountered in using support mechanisms. An ethnographic approach was taken, with participant observation of an adult safeguarding team over a 17 week period, followed by interviews with 7 of the social workers who had been closely observed. The importance of this study is that the focus of the debate on article 12 has been on restoring legal capacity to individuals who had previously been denied it on the basis of their lack of mental capacity. While this is important, and is discussed in this thesis, the empirical work that forms the basis of this study demonstrates that denial of legal capacity affects a much wider group. In this context, ‘support’ may be less about supporting decisions in the particular instance, but rather supporting the individual to effect the decision that they have made, or to continue to be able to make decisions in the future. Using a theoretical framework of relational autonomy and universal vulnerability, the analysis shows that social workers the individual framing of mental capacity in the law means that they struggle accommodate the possibility of support for that mental capacity from a third party. Adults who have mental capacity but are considered ‘vulnerable’ are also significantly disempowered in the safeguarding framework. The social workers see the concept of mental capacity as overly limiting, and that vulnerable adults who are not captured by the Mental Capacity Act 2005 may still lack what this thesis terms ‘relational capacity’. A link made between vulnerability and a lack of relational capacity results in individuals being disempowered, kept as ‘objects to be organised’, rather than agentive subjects. The conclusion of this thesis is that the potential for undue influence in the exercise of support under article 12 is very possible. The data shows that we must consider carefully how we respond to this, building a universally enabling environment, rather than one which reduces agency and legal capacity.

This thesis critically examines the claim that ‘family’ is at the heart of the contemporary inquest system, analysing the impact of this putative change on the construction of kinship, death and the legal. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, it engages with socio-legal and cultural analyses of death; family and kinship scholarship; and critical legal scholarship on death and the state. In doing so it reveals the richness of the inquest as an area of law which has hitherto attracted relatively little attention but which merits extended exploration. Drawing on historical and jurisprudential materials in the first section, it provides an analysis of the changing historical form of the inquest, and argues that legislative and judicial reconfiguration of the inquest process since 2003 has fundamentally changed the nature of the system, most importantly in relation to the engagement of family prior to a final hearing. It argues that this engagement of the family affects the jurisdiction and form of an individual inquest, and developing this analysis, it explores a series of interviews undertaken with Coroners and officers in England. This empirical work deepens the earlier analysis, drawing insights from reflections on a set of vignettes which trouble the edges of ideas of family; emphasising the ways in which images of family and kinship are conceptualised and materialised through the unfolding of an individual inquest. The central argument is that ‘family’ is a negotiated and constitutive feature of the inquest system; charged with overseeing dignity in a bureaucratic process, making substantive and transparent that which may be otherwise impenetrable and formal, and simultaneously determining the edges of the private and intimate. The thesis contends that an emphasis on meaningful connections to the deceased leads to a fluid construction of kinship, and a reimagination of the politics of both death and family. It argues that the inquest system, without narratives of kinship and connection, risks existing in a solely technocratic form in which ‘disinterested decision-makers using objective, rationalist and universalised forms of knowledge justify decisions that are communicated in an expert language’ (Morgan 2006, 246), and the family bring a ‘tacit expertise that underpins shared experiences, values, symbols, identities and understandings, [providing] the tenor or texture of debate [that] transmits and generates a community because of its capacity to defy routinisation and the explicit codes of expert knowledge’ (Morgan 2006, 259). Working through the inquest process and unpicking these contrasting forms of expertise, this thesis reveals the way in which an individual inquest is constructed through an endeavour to combine contrasting tensions; to blend a contingent, contextual, participative and meaningful process with the ceremony of a mini state funeral (Davis et al 2002), the collection of statistical information, and the setting of standards to prevent future deaths.

On the 29th of June 2007, the representatives of the Government of Uganda (GoU) and the representatives of the Lord's Resistance Army/Movement rebels (LRA/M) signed an Agreement on Reconciliation and Accountability (AAR). The AAR provided for the use of both International Criminal Law (ICL) and Traditional Justice Mechanisms (TJMs) as part of the framework on accountability and reconciliation due to the conflict in Northern Uganda. Since warrants of arrest had already been issued against the top leaders of the LRA/M prior to the signing of this AAR, a rift arose between those who supported the ICC and those who supported the AAR. The former group argued that the AAR was promoting impunity while the latter group viewed the AAR as a vehicle for a sustainable post conflict transition. This project argues that a critical legal pluralist interpretive framework (CLP) for implementing Agenda Item III of the Juba peace accord is more responsive to the complexities of Uganda's history and politics than the interpretive frameworks of mainstream international criminal law (ICL) or traditional legal pluralism (TLP). In adopting a CLP interpretive framework, critics of the AAR will be able to see that the AAR is not promoting impunity.

By critically assessing the discourse, intent and teleology of the United Nations Charter when the text of the instrument was being finalised in 1945, this thesis argues that the majority of the world's states gathered at the UN Conference on International Organisation in San Francisco were aware of the fact that the core provisions of the treaty were being dictated by the five permanent members of the Security Council. Nevertheless, these states accepted the Charter in its current form in return for the promise of a more democratic UN in the future. This qualified acceptance was manifested in Article 109 of the Charter and, more specifically, in that article's paragraph 3, which provided for a facilitated Charter review in ten years' time. Recognising that globalisation has outpaced fragmented state-centric global governance, and that world-wide threats in areas such as the violation of human rights, climate change, armed conflicts, and the use of conventional and nuclear weapons continue to exist, this thesis argues that elusive global governance and its instrument of international law are, in the absence of a global government, ill-equipped to deal effectively with these borderless problems. Bridging the governmental gap, however, the UN Security Council, with its monopoly on the use of force in order to maintain "peace and security" under Chapter VII of the Charter, has demonstrated erratic and unplanned competencies. In fact, in the past 25 years, the Council has deployed its auto-interpreted expanded powers in the diverse areas of court-making, law-making, defining criminality and sanctioning non-state actors as criminals. It has even involved itself in the settlement of tort claims, awarding damages to individuals and corporations. The Council has, in effect, emerged at the apex of the legal order and has shown its capacity to legislate globally. The founders, when drafting the Charter, were aware of the democratic and legitimacy deficiencies of the Council and, in order to redress them, and to apply the experiences learned during the UN's first years of operation, provided for a revisions process, including the holding of a Charter review conference, as enshrined in Article 109. Why the UN has never in its 70-year history held such a review conference, and whether paragraph 3 of Article 109-neglected by researchers and politicians-is still in force, are at the core of this thesis's analysis. It will be argued that, if such a review conference is convened now, it would most likely trigger the process of UN constitutionalisation, and thus help transform the UN, so it can ultimately fulfil the objectives set out in the Charter's preamble-including guaranteeing and the protecting the fundamental rights of "we the peoples".

The corpus of the duty to prevent genocide was partially circumscribed for the first time in a court of law in the 2007 Bosnian Genocide case. In that case, the International Court of Justice adopted the due diligence standard to define the scope of the duty to prevent genocide. This standard provides that if a State has the capacity to effectively influence genocidal actors and the knowledge that there exists a serious risk that genocide may occur, then that State must do everything within its power - everything within the means available to it - to prevent the genocide from occurring. While the Court's holding in the Bosnian Genocide case was an important step in the normative development of the duty to prevent genocide, the Court nevertheless neglected to expound the full extent of the scope of the due diligence standard. For instance, the Court's holding did not address whom among the several States of the international order must act, and how such States once identified must act when the duty to prevent genocide is triggered. This dissertation attempts to do so. First, it provides an overview of the obligations laid out it in the Genocide Convention, and expounds the significance of the due diligence standard in the prevention of genocide. Second, it identifies the central role to be played in genocide prevention by the five permanent members of the Security Council (the P5), which, as the 'great powers' of the international order, have the greatest capacity to not only effectively influence genocidal actors but also to remain informed about imminent or ongoing genocides. Third, it explores the manner in and the extent to which the P5 must act within and without the Security Council when faced with an imminent genocide, as dictated by the due diligence standard. Finally, it analyzes the standing of the duty to prevent genocide under customary international law and dispels, through a conflict of norms analysis, any doubts arising from possible conflicting obligations held by the P5 under the UN Charter, in favor of their ultimate duty to prevent the occurrence of genocidal acts. Ultimately, the findings described in this dissertation have significant consequences for not only the duty to prevent genocide, but also the responsibility to protect doctrine, the responsibility not to veto initiative, and the prohibition of the use of force in general. They go beyond the soft spoken political commitments to protect national, ethnic, racial, or religious groups from what has been considered 'the crime of crimes', to flesh-out the self-standing legal value of the duty to prevent genocide, and the consequences thereof to the international community at large. As a result, Everything Within Their Power: The P5's Duty to Prevent Genocide will be of particular interest to scholars and students of international law and international relations.

The shortage of water as a resource is a threat to which both Ethiopia and England are exposed. This vulnerability of the countries necessitates the question of whether existing management systems for water resources will promote the sustainability of such resources. With growing natural resource insecurity over the last fifty years, the tragedy of the commons and the integrated water resources management (IWRM) approach are at the forefront. This study evaluates the tragedy of the commons and the IWRM approach to identify key features of effective water resource management (WRM) systems. The study also assesses the effectiveness of English and Ethiopian systems by reference to their salient features, to explore the extent to which the major facets of an effective system are reflected within the countries water policies and laws. The evaluation demonstrates that in the case study countries, some such factors have already been reflected within their water policies and laws. From the overall review of each countries' water policies, it may be argued that the contemporary policies that are in place generally accommodate some of the main attributes of an effective management system for water resources if they are accompanied by proper water laws, implementation strategies and institutional remits that are designed to promote water security. However, while some key features of an effective WRM system can already be seen in the case study countries' water laws, the initiatives which have been taken are limited and varied. Particularly, in Ethiopian WRM systems, the progress made to incorporate the main elements into binding law were slow. Even if some features have been reflected within the water laws of both jurisdictions, theirs scope is limited and incomprehensive. Moreover, their implementations are weak and incomplete in both jurisdictions. This study demonstrates that there has not been much deviation from the 'traditional' way of managing water resources.

The thesis investigates whether the treatment by the criminal justice system of children who kill in England, starting with the commencement of the police investigation into their crime and ending with the completion of their trial and sentencing processes, has differed over time and if so, the reasons for these differences. It does so by placing a special focus on the adoption of four different concepts of the child, which it develops using the extensive literature available. It carries out its analysis through the exploration of five case studies of children who killed between 1800 and 2000, including the notorious 1993 case of the killing of James Bulger. The thesis draws associations between the approach of different elements of the criminal justice system towards these children and the four concepts of the child and examines their movement over time. It also conducts a comparative analysis with the approaches of the press, public reaction and politicians towards these children, by drawing equivalent associations and observing how they evolve over time. Simultaneously, it observes particular features of the different fields in order to determine their influence over those associations. The thesis concludes that the treatment of these children by the criminal justice system was associated with the various concepts of the child to different degrees over time, though the changes and movements have been to a large extent gradual, unemotional and informed. It also argues that during the late 20th century the approaches of the press, politicians and the public became more erratic and emotional and hence came to deviate substantially from the approach of the criminal justice system. The politicisation of crime, the intense competitiveness of the press and the growing involvement and reactions of the public in matters of juvenile crime, which constituted changes in the three fields during the 1990s, are believed to be instrumental in this divergence. Its findings constitute a platform on which a framework for reform of the treatment within the criminal justice system of children who kill can be founded in the future.

The thesis will examine the extent to which China’s Anti-monopoly Law effectively controls the anti-competitive practices of patent owners when exercising their patent rights. The relationship between intellectual property law and competition law is no longer contradictory but has evolved into a convergent and compatible one. The two bodies of law share the same goals to promote competition, encourage innovation and enhance consumer welfare in different ways. Therefore, it is appropriate and reasonable to apply competition law to regulate the exercise of intellectual property rights in certain circumstances. Given the specificity of patent rights and the legal and economic circumstances of China, the scope of the thesis will be limited to anti-competitive practices of patent owners when exercising their patent rights. The research demonstrates the necessity and importance for China to apply its own Antimonopoly Law to address anti-competitive exercise of patent rights. However, China’s Anti-monopoly Law came into effect in 2008 and it seems not to work as effectively as it was expected in regulating such conduct. Despite great achievements, there are still deficiencies and uncertainty influencing the effective and efficient competition enforcement in the anti-competitive exercise of patent rights. The problems not only arise from China’s internal competition enforcement system but also arise from the lack of clear guidance from the competition enforcement authorities. Facing the challenging competition concerns in the 21st century, there are no effective measures available in China. It is not clear in what circumstances the failure to disclose patent interest in the standard setting process can result in antitrust liabilities and to what extent China’s Anti-monopoly Law should intervene. It is also uncertain how to keep a balance between the protection of patent rights and the maintenance of market competition when considering the seeking of injunctions before national courts by the owners of standard essential patents or the reverse payment patent settlement agreements. Therefore, the thesis aims to provide some solutions to these problems to facilitate and improve the effective application of China’s Anti-monopoly Law to the exercise of patent rights. The proposals made in this thesis will be based on the valuable EU and US enforcement experience and case law but give significant consideration to the legal and economic context in China. The Law is stated as at 6 June 2018.

No description available.