This thesis seeks to explore and map the public domain, conceived as an area free from the constraints of law and contract, in relation to information on open, publicly accessible websites. The existing rich literature concerning the ‘public domain’ focuses largely on the impact of the intellectual property regime. By adopting a novel conceptualisation of the public domain as freedom from law and contract, the thesis offers a broader perspective on freedoms and limitations on the use of information. While the existing ‘public domain’ literature does address the possibility for freedoms in relation to the use of information to be narrowed by contract, it focuses on the second order question of enforceability of terms. The first order question concerning the implications of the rules of contract formation is not thoroughly explored, a lack that this thesis seeks to address. The thesis relies on the contract law requirement of exchange to tease out both aspects of the public domain, that is, freedom from law and contract. In the process it addresses a significant gap in case law and literature, namely, the character of the benefit conferred by the website on the user. Relying on insights derived from the ruling of the European Court of Justice in Svensson the thesis offers a novel conceptualisation of the benefit and the mechanism of its conferral in order to explore the contractual significance of the exchange. The thesis suggests that the scope of the public domain is periled on the characterisation of the website’s response to the user’s request for content. It presents a contrasting account of the public domain according to two different characterisations of the website’s response, offering reasons to prefer the account of the public domain that best preserves freedom to look.

This thesis critically examines structures of police accountability, in particular the introduction and operation of Police and Crime Commissioners [PCCs]. The first chapter begins by identifying accountability as the very bedrock of policing. Accountability is then defined before examining its key facets, why a suitable structure is imperative and how accountability carries the burden of securing police legitimacy. The second and third chapters highlight how the system of police developed while identifying critical ‘turning points’ in police accountability. The fourth chapter explores the present structure and model of police accountability. This chapter also examines reports which highlight potential teething problems and imperfections. The fifth chapter outlines the methodology for the qualitative study involving elite research interviews with senior stakeholders in policing at a regional and national level, including relevant persons in Government. The sixth chapter analyses this data and argues that whilst PCCs may lead to efficiency gains, there are important questions about the quality of accountability. Additionally, the accountability of Chief Constables is contended to vary considerably and in practice likely frustrated by the ‘one to one’ accountability relationship between Chief Constable and PCC. Police accountability is also identified as possibly over dependent on this relationship. Moreover, PCCs are argued to lack accountability between elections. The seventh chapter contends that using elections to achieve democratic police accountability is fraught with difficulties and potentially carries significant risks for policing. Additionally, the PCCs power to remove Chief Constables is argued to cause two possibly corrosive impacts on policing and police accountability. This power is also identified as a mechanism of disempowerment which may in practice lead to Chief Constables being displaced by PCCs. Concluding, the present structure and model of police accountability is argued to be risky, maybe defective and possibly unsuitable for police accountability and policing in the longer term.

Vulnerable and/or intimidated court users are able to give evidence with the assistance of special measures. This thesis examines the role of equality in the provision of such measures to those giving evidence in Crown Court trials. I adopt Keith Hawkins’ conceptual framework of surround, field and frames to analyse the multitude of factors relevant to understanding its role. The standard of equality I invoke is that which underpinned the initial development of special measures for non-defendant witnesses. This is used to assess whether the law remains committed to equal treatment despite the unequal provision of special measures between vulnerable and/or intimidated defendant and non-defendant witnesses. Furthermore, using findings from interviews undertaken with 18 criminal practitioners, I consider the role that the principle of equality appears to play in the use of special measures. I conclude that the principle of equality is not consistently upheld in the provision of special measures in law and practice. Barriers to its more prominent role include the way, and the socio-political context in which, special measures law developed; the legal field in which they are invoked; and the way that criminal practitioners appear to frame decisions about their use.

This is the first in-depth empirical research into the UK “innocence movement,” which refers to the establishment of innocence projects (IPs) across the UK. IPs are university clinics in which students investigate cases of alleged miscarriages of justice. The Innocence Network UK (INUK) was founded in 2004 and assisted in the development of thirty-six IPs across the UK. This thesis utilised empirical methods undertaking semi-structured interviews with past and present leaders of IPs and other criminal appeal units. It provides three original insights into the UK innocence movement. First, it explored the distinctive model of IPs offered in the core literature and identified several underlying tensions within it. However, the research found the majority of sampled IPs did not conform to this model. Thus for heuristic purposes, and to examine the contrasting aims and objectives of criminal appeal clinics, the thesis sets out two ideal types and uses the evidence from interviews to place the sampled projects along a continuum between these. This section illustrated that the tensions within the literature model of IPs resulted in the sampled projects either evolving away from this approach, or not adopting it in the first place. Secondly, the thesis asks whether the innocence movement can be seen to follow a “rise and fall” trajectory, as the initial expansion of INUK was followed by its closure and the demise of several IPs. Instead, it is argued that the movement is better understood as having undergone a reconfiguration, and that the future landscape for miscarriage of justice work looks likely to be very different from that portrayed in the literature. Finally, the thesis adapts Luhmann’s Social Systems theory as a theoretical framework for examining the evolution of the UK innocence movement. The analysis concludes that this can provide theoretical insights into why the original aims and objectives of IPs were not realised. Insight is also drawn from Nobles and Schiff and their account of systems theory, which is used to further explore the tensions within the IP concept. The thesis conclusion reflects on the findings and offers suggestions for future research opportunities in these areas of legal education and analysis.

The major concern of this thesis is about the current professional standard of care under Saudi Arabian medical law, regarding doctors’ duty to disclose information and risks to competent adult patients about a proposed medical treatment. Additionally, the thesis has highlighted other legal deficiencies that occur as a result of applying the professional standard in Saudi Arabia and considered how reforms can be introduced, based on English law experience in a way that is in harmony with Islamic Sharia. The thesis has undertaken a novel approach by critically studying and comparing the current practice in Saudi Arabian medical law to the comparative English law approach. The reason for this is to provide a comprehensive legal literature review based on the extremely well- developed English law experiences in the same matters. Realising the significance of the principle of the respect for autonomy, the thesis has placed a noticeable emphasis on this principle by arguing that considering and respecting autonomy would lead the law to protect the patient’s autonomy and self-determination in a medical context. The thesis has argued that both Western and Islamic Sharia medical ethics have considered the notion of the respect for patients’ autonomy, but that consideration has been approached differently, as the thesis has shown. Further, the thesis has critically discussed how the English law standard of care has been developed in the last three decades, in order to move from the professional standard of care to a new standard that protects patients’ autonomy and self-determination. These developments and years of experience have provided sufficient arguments and supports for the thesis’s motion to recommend and suggest that Saudi Arabian medical law departs from the professional standard and adopts the prudent patient standard to protect patients’ autonomy in compliance with Islamic Sharia. In addition to proposing a legal formula for the prudent patient standard that can be adopted by Saudi Arabian medical law, this thesis has also proposed other formulas as solutions for other legal deficiencies, based on English law experience and in accordance with Islamic Sharia.

Shareholder protection has been a focal point of the Greek legislator's agenda for years. Despite a series of reforms towards the direction of shareholder empowerment, the adequacy of the existing framework remains questionable. The thesis conveys the argument that the remedies for maladministration under Greek company law remain dysfunctional and need to be reformed in order to establish an effective and competitive legal framework for shareholder protection. It is argued that such initiatives are important in order to boost investor confidence and provide an effective monitoring mechanism of corporate governance. In order to assess whether and to what extent the Greek shareholder law attains these objectives, it is examined on a comparative basis with jurisdictions which recently reformed their shareholder law; namely the United Kingdom and Germany. The thesis analyses the imperfections of Greek law. The latter is devoid of a genuine derivative action and the existing functionally equivalent mechanism is unsuitable to overcome the challenges of shareholder litigation. The relevant law is exclusionary and rather biased against individual shareholders. It deters meritorious litigation and does little to ensure that proceedings do not run contrary to the company’s interests. Much of corporate misfeasance escapes the scope and content of the existing provisions and, effectively, corporate wrongdoing is left uncompensated for and undeterred. Furthermore, the broader legal framework cannot compensate for the absence of an appropriate mechanism to enforce directors’ duties and pursue corporate claims via shareholder-initiated litigation. However, the examination of the strategies followed by the UK and Germany provides useful insights for the way forward. The rationale for and the experience from the recently introduced provisions thereto are invaluable in the thesis’ attempt to construct and propose a modern and functioning model of derivative actions for Greece.

This dissertation examines the symbiotic relationship between intellectual property (“IP”) law and cultural heritage law, with an emphasis on intangible cultural heritage (“ICH”). These two fields of law have historically operated in relative isolation from each other, but the overlap of subject matter and practical effect of implementation is evident; the actual creative and traditional practices by individuals and communities are the subject matter of both fields. The central thrust of the research is to locate the effects of these two legal fields and to inform policy, research, and legislation when this previously under-considered effect and influence exists. This is accomplished through case studies of ICH and statutory intervention in three countries with diverse ICH: tartan in Scotland; cultural tourism and branding in Ireland, and the Welsh language and eisteddfodau in Wales. These countries were selected as they 1) are geographically proximate, 2) have shared cultural history, 3) are or were recently in a union legal structure with partially devolved governance powers, and 4) are ‘knowledge-based’ economies with strong IP laws. This selection facilitates the dissertation’s original contributions to research, which include highlighting the influence of ICH on IP law and how IP shapes ICH. This interaction challenges the domestic and international differential legal treatment between developed, Global North countries as IP- and knowledge-producing and developing and Global South countries as ICH- and culture-producing. Theoretical patterns emerged from the case studies: namely, first- and second-wave adoption, which is complementary to Hobsbawm and Ranger’s invented traditions; and ‘tangification’, which identifies the process through which ICH becomes IP in a modern legal framework and highlights the risks to ICH integrity as well as the over-extension of IP law. Each of these contributions support the assertion that properly managing risk to and safeguarding ICH, which provides social and economic benefits, can also help to ensure that IP law is functioning in a manner reflecting its jurisprudential underpinnings, facilitating longevity and enforceability of the law.

Assisted Reproductive Technology has, in the last 40 years, raised numerous ethical questions. One of these ethical questions has been whether or not children born as a result of Assisted Reproductive Technology treatments may be harmed as a consequence of being brought into existence in this way. Harm caused to children is quite rightly a serious concern for society and society expects the State to intervene to protect children from parents who pose a significant risk to their children. Towards this end section 13(5) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 requires licensed infertility treatment clinics to ‘take into account the welfare of the child who may be born as a result of treatment’ when considering whether or not to provide a woman with treatment services. This thesis will argue that section 13(5) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 should be amended as it is acts as nothing more than an arbitrary and unjustified infringement on an individual’s right to reproductive liberty; is an ineffectual means of promoting the welfare of the child who may be born as a result of treatment; is philosophically incoherent; and is inconsistent with the law as applied in so-called ‘wrongful life’ cases. The argument that section 13(5) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 should be amended will be grounded upon the contention that an individual’s right to reproductive liberty should be accorded particular respect. This thesis will argue for a right to reproductive liberty which encompasses a negative right of the individual to be free from unjustified interference by the State when making reproductive choices. The pervasive influence of the child welfare principle as applied in the context of decisions directly impacting upon them has, it will be argued, played a significant part in the inclusion and retention of section 13(5) within the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. This thesis will examine the way in which the child welfare principle as applied to children has grown in influence and how an unquestioning adherence to this worthy principle has led to an incongruous version of it being applied at the pre-conception stage. While the State have a solid mandate to protect the welfare of children this thesis will argue that that mandate cannot realistically be extended to apply to future children, when to refuse an individual access to Assisted Reproductive Technology has the effect of preventing the child whose welfare is to be taken into account from being brought into existence in the first place.

This thesis examines the extent to which the criminal law is a suitable tool for the regulation of the sexual behaviour of ‘older children’ and identifies the most appropriate approach for that involvement to take. The research takes place in the context of the current approach in Scotland, whereby all consensual sexual intercourse and oro-genital sexual activity between two ‘older children’, defined as those aged 13 to 15, is criminalised under section 37 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009. The nature of this legislation is described in detail in Part One of the thesis, and then contextualised against the relatively widespread occurrence of these activities amongst older children and the very limited number of prosecutions under the provision in practice. The question of whether, on balance, the current approach is appropriate is addressed over Parts Two and Three of the thesis. In making this assessment, the thesis integrates relevant public health research and aspects of research into adolescent psychology and neurological development, with the principles that should normatively inform criminalisation decisions and doctrinal legal discussions. Overall, it is argued that, while there are good public policy reasons to encourage older children to delay engaging in sexual intercourse and oro-genital sexual activity, the current blanket approach taken by the criminal law in Scotland is overly broad. Part Four of the thesis makes an extensive comparative analysis of the legal approaches taken to consensual adolescent sexual intercourse in other common law jurisdictions, to identify possible approaches that Scotland might follow in preference to the current law. These approaches are drawn upon to advocate a more refined approach in the substantive law in Scotland that criminalises consensual sexual intercourse and oro-genital sexual activity involving older children only where there is a substantial age difference between the participants or where there is otherwise evidence of exploitation. The thesis argues that the refined approach would safeguard adolescents against exploitation without automatically criminalising significant numbers of adolescents for their consensual sexual behaviour.

It is an axiom of the conflict of laws that one state will not enforce the revenue, penal, or ‘other public’ laws of another. This thesis shall criticise this position, arguing that these exclusionary principles should be replaced with a general principle of enforceability, subject to the control of public policy. It shall begin by sketching the general landscape of the exclusion of foreign law in Anglo-Scots international private law. Thereafter, a detailed account shall be given – for each of the revenue, penal, and ‘other public’ law rules – of the historical development of those exclusions, and their present scope of operation. This exposition provides a foundation for a critical examination of those rules.