No description available.

In maritime law, there are two special regimes for maritime claims, namely maritime liens and limitation of liability for maritime claims. Each of the regimes provides the maritime claimant or the liable person some special rights. It appears that the legal principles underlying maritime liens and limitation of liability are not related, however, they are interconnected in that both of them seek to strike a proper balance in the encouragement of shipping on the one hand and the effective prosecution of maritime claims on the other hand. Historically speaking, maritime liens and limitation of liability are related in that both of them reflect the impact of the personification of ships. Under this doctrine, a ship is personified to be regarded as a distinct entity with a capacity to contract and to commit torts. However, after their own development, the two regimes currently have different emphases and opposed purposes. The purpose of maritime liens is to protect the maritime claimant with regard to the fact that ships are highly mobile and can flee the jurisdiction of the court, coupled with the additional fact that their owners could continue to incur liabilities to the detriment of existing creditors. Limitation of liability for maritime claims is more shipowner friendly. Limitation of liability allows shipowners or other persons related to ship operation to limit their liability for damage, loss or injury caused through their acts. This thesis studies whether maritime liens and limitation of liability for maritime claims can be reconciled with each other under English law and Chinese law. The thesis revisits the relationship between the two regimes and analyses the problems arising from their inconsistences in both jurisdictions as well as in relevant international conventions. This thesis has raised questions that have not been considered before. These questions include: (a) What is the relationship between maritime liens and limitation of liability for maritime claims? (b) What are the conflicts between maritime liens and limitation of liability for maritime claims? (c) What is the effect of so-called 'conflict clauses'? (d) How should maritime liens be reconciled under English law and Chinese law? The answers provided by this research to the above questions are as follows: (1) The relationship between maritime liens and limitation of liability for maritime claims lies in the personification of ship. Therefore, such a relationship is broken under the tonnage limitation system which does not rely on the personification theory. (2) Because of the opposed policy consideration and the overlap of the two regimes, the regime of limitation of liability apparently prevents maritime liens' operation. (3) The conflict clauses have their effect of depriving the application of maritime liens in the limitation proceedings. However, none of these clauses provided an all-around solution to the conflicts. (4) Legislation reform is required in order to resolve conflicts between maritime liens and limitation of liability under Chinese law; whereas Reconciling maritime liens and limitation of liability for maritime claims under English law can be achieved by wider application of case law. The law is stated as of 12 March 2015.

The city centre has diminished in importance as a retail and leisure destination due to increased competition, especially from out-of-town developments. It suffers from the disadvantages of inaccessibility and less competitive pricing. Additional to this, it is possible that the city centre is being avoided due to a fear of crime. This thesis recognises that a fear of criminal victimisation, along with a fear of intimidation has a detrimental influence on the vitality, and consequent viability of the city centre. The research takes the form of a broad contextual review of the problem. To date, this has not been undertaken for a U. K. city. The city of Swansea provides the main focus of an applied geographical study. A comparison is developed between the actual incidence of crime, as recorded by the Police, and the fear of crime within the city centre. Consequently, the survey takes on two distinct forms. Firstly, an analysis of crime records is undertaken, identifying vehicle crime, and theft from shops as principal concerns. Additionally, violent crime is recognised as a problem of the evening economy. The second part of the study takes the form of a household questionnaire survey. This identifies the use of the city centre, and the extent to which fear of crime is recognised as an issue. A geography of perceived anxiety, regarding personal safety and car crime, is constructed for both the daytime and night environments. 'Hot spots' of fear are identified at the retail periphery and at pedestrian subways. During the evening, anxieties are accentuated at concentrations of public house and night club activity. The findings of both parts of the survey are drawn together, with implications considered in terms of planning and design. As the thesis is a review of the problem, areas of possible further research are also identified.

This thesis is an interdisciplinary exploration of the role of the jury in the criminal trial in which I draw together three areas: law - specifically jury research; education - specifically Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy; and interactive theatre arts – specifically Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed. My vision is to develop a process which integrates the jury as meaningful participants in the trial and, to realise that, I have used the practical devices for communication in the work of Freire and Boal. My work is conceptual and so the ideas put forward in the thesis are meant to be read as ideological visions rather than proposals which are based on empirical research. First, by mapping out the current research into juror understanding I make the claim that, as it currently stands, the jury do not participate in the criminal trial. Second, by using Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy as a catalyst, I begin to assess the issues of communication through a critical pedagogical lens which results in my opinion that there is a real need to focus more on how we communicate rather than persistently focusing on what is being communicated in a criminal trial. Finally, having developed heightened awareness of the need for being receptive to the methods of our communication I develop more practical solutions for integrated participation by looking to Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed in particular the use of his Joker as facilitator of communication. By the end of the thesis I have reimagined trial by jury, moving from a structure which has little or no room for jury participation to one which recognises the potential of the juror as an autonomous, thinking, human being, capable of his task, and which treats him, not as a subsidiary but rather as an integral part of the process. In doing that I challenge the fundamental validating factor so often associated with trial by jury: the belief that jurors actually participate in the trial. My research has dual benefits: first by using the methods developed by Freire and Boal I have expanded the boundaries in research techniques thus allowing us to come closer to the jury and, I argue, to understand them at a more genuinely nuanced level. Second, my research offers real tools for jurors to use, tools for communication through participation which allow them to gain clarification, when they feel they require it, as the trial is in progress. Ultimately, as I communicate my arguments, I hope that the reader can appreciate the shift from presence to participation as I reimagine the role of the jury in the criminal trial.

The modern public sector equality duties (PSEDs) have been described as positive duties, ground-breaking and transformative. Described in these terms because the pseds partly addressed limitations in anti-discrimination laws by placing designated public bodies, and others exercising public functions, under a legal obligation to proactively consider various equality aims. The duties were introduced in England, Scotland and Wales between 2001 and 2011. This thesis investigates the Race Equality Duty, the Disability Equality Duty and related provisions in the Public Sector Equality Duty. It provides an interdisciplinary, socio-legal analysis of these pseds by investigating two interrelated research questions: 1) Have the race and disability equality duties been effective positive legal duties and legal public accountability tools? 2) Does Scheingold’s theory of the Politics of Rights add to our understanding of the constraints on the potential impact of positive legal duties in advancing equality? This study makes a unique contribution to the literature by analysing: the justiciability of the pseds and their effectiveness as legal tools to hold public bodies to account; the outcomes of substantive race and disability public sector equality duties (pseds) judicial review judgments; and the significance of the roles played by cause lawyers, community activism and legal empowerment in extending the race and disability pseds’ reach and impact. The unique contribution made to the literature is augmented by the inclusion in this thesis of a socio-political analysis of the impact on these pseds of major changes in the UK’s anti-discrimination framework, equality laws and developments in relation to immigration, community cohesion, integration and austerity over the last fifty years.

The social and environmental responsibility of corporations is a subject that continues to ignite public passions. No wonder, given the regular reminders of the kinds of trouble that irresponsible business practice can get society in! The persistence of corporate social responsibility in this context has proved controversial. A strategy for managing the social and environmental responsibility of business that relies on self-regulation, CSR is a concept that strikes an uncomfortable chord with the already high levels of corporate autonomy. Yet, there seems to be no shifting from CSR. The activist shopping, of which it boasts, has ingratiated itself with democratic politics and, as such, seems set to remain. Everyone today agrees on the need for business to be more responsible. CSR is an important part of how this responsibility is managed and organised today. This thesis analyses this entrenchment of CSR in terms of what it describes as ‘the double play.’ Markets first make demands on people, time and resources, in order to secure productivity and profitability. They then make a second play to service the social and environmental fall-out of this first drive for marketisation. CSR takes place on this second play, deploying market incentives and techniques to the remedy of market generated problems. Corporations participate, drawn to the security accorded their autonomy. They see in CSR a chance to right wrongs created in earlier cycles of exchange, without the risks created by external interference. The public engage where, as the ultimate source of economic demand, they feel the responsibility for everything that goes on in the market. They try to ‘shop better’ on the second wave, to instil recovery and prevent the rematerialisation of harm. This thesis problematises CSR and the double play. It does so in a series of critical provocations directed at CSR informed by the philosophy of Jean Baudrillard. It discusses CSR’s capacity to politically disempower public participants, by drawing their energies into a perpetual cycle of economic imperialism and exchange. It discusses the difficulty CSR creates, in terms of raising conflict with business actors, and the tendency for the system to leave inert, or exposed and abandoned, those that try. Finally, the thesis pushes up against an ultimatum in CSR – ‘buy, or people perish!’ – through which the market is able to indefinitely extend and regenerate itself. The thesis argues for the disengagement of this ultimatum. For only when social and environmental concern is not held hostage to the market can the political ambition, which is somewhere present in all of this, be realised.

This thesis argues that the land question in Malawi can be resolved through the emergence of a responsibilized State under people–generated responsibilization. People–generated responsibilization is a holistic, bottom–up approach to tackling asymmetrical access to, and ownership of, land in the country. This, it is suggested, must entail proactive, people–based action for a triangulated approach to land reform involving law, macroeconomic frameworks like poverty reduction strategies, and the adherence to the terms of governing under the Constitution. The broad context of the research is that since the mid–1990s, Malawi has joined the ‘new wave’ of land reform. The new wave takes place amidst the re– conceptualization of ‘development’ in development discourse through a supposedly decentred focus on economic growth. The new donor consensus is that land reform must be more human–centred and foster pro–poor economic growth. It is in this environment that Malawi adopted the National Land Policy in 2002. The Policy is meant to guide the country’s land reform and contribute to sustained economic growth. The new wave is problematic since it perpetuates land reform approaches of the law and development movement whereby land reform becomes land law reform. The ‘customary’ space is subjected to a process of formalization and privatization of the right to property in land ostensibly to boost economic growth. This approach is narrow and undermines the resolution of a land question. Using the Foucauldian ‘idea’ of governmentality, the thesis examines situations and processes that have entrenched the land question in Malawi. There is a multiverse of the parochial interests of the State, the Bretton Woods Institutions, ‘commercial’ farmers, and the land deprived. The narrow focus on land law reform demonstrates the dominance of market as value and entrenches the land question in Malawi.

This thesis consists of a critical edition of the Kit=ab al-istikhr=aj li-ad hk=am al-khar=aj, which is basically a review of the system by which land is taxed in an Islamic society. It covers the legal intricacies concerning this issue, ranging through the period of the early days of Islam to the eighth century Hijrah. The analysis is predominantly based on three manuscripts, obtained from the Uppsala, Paris and Cairo libraries. It is divided into two parts, the former containing the introduction and the latter the text. The introduction again is sub-divided into three chapters: the first giving a general outline of the work and the text, the second dealing with the author, and finally the third being a brief discussion of the khar=aj system. A bibliography of the introduction is included. Also included is a list of the verses of the Qur'=an and narrations from had{=i}th quoted, as well as a list of the books referred to, in the text.

This is essentially a study of social control processes as they relate to juveniles. It takes the form of a case study which focuses on one institution for children under the age of 16 years. The institution in question is part of a wider system which defines itself as welfare oriented and seeking to act only in `the best interests of the child'. It is distinguished from the majority of other institutions in the system in that its remit is to hold children securely, and to that end it has a prison-like physical design. But within the official rhetoric which describes and rationalises the juvenile justice system, the prison aspects of this particular institution are denied; deprivation of liberty is defined as part of an overall caring process and is justified in terms of the child's need for treatment. This particular use of incarceration and its construction in treatment terms provide a stark example of what is seen in this study as a central conflict within the juvenlile justice system. In the course of the study the conflict emerges at an empirical level as a gap between the system's rhetoric and its practice. The sudy is set within a particular historical and conceptual framework which forms the wider theoretical background to describing and understanding the role of official rhetoric which does not describe or reflect practice within the system. Committal and treatment practices associated with the institution are examined using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The resultant demonstrable gap between rhetoric and practice is considered in the light of relevant historical, conceptual and empirical studies.

The growing complexity in working arrangements has made it difficult to target employment legislation effectively. Utilisation of the existing provisions of Community law requires a reorientation of the traditional conceptualisation of gender relations. This is possible through the application of broad principles, as provided for by the Treaty and the general scheme of Community law, to specific circumstances. The Court of Justice occupies a unique institutional position in this respect as the only authority capable of undertaking such a task coherently and consistently. This thesis considers the Court’s reasoning in a group of cases concerning the right to equal treatment of women workers classified as ‘atypical’ on account of their working arrangements. The purpose of the thesis is to uncover the extent to which the Court’s adjudications on cases referred under the Article 234 procedure can be characterised as having a common output amounting to an identifiable jurisprudence on gender relations. In order to accomplish this task, a systematic analysis of a range of cases conforming to certain specified criteria is undertaken through which the Court’s application of certain key principles is examined. The findings reveal inconsistencies in terms of the Court’s theoretical dogma and its conceptualisation of the basic tenets of equality which are not discernible from an assessment of its judgements alone. It is concluded that a reassessment of the relative positions and roles of women and men within contemporary society is required in order to enable a more effective application of the law in this respect, starting with the standardisation of ‘atypical’ working arrangements.