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.

This thesis is the only study there is of the workings of the Financial Ombudsman Service ('FOS') and a comparison between court and FOS attitudes and approaches to insurance cases. A court and the FOS may decide matters differently because the FOS does not have to apply the law strictly, whilst a court does. The author of this thesis has examined the FOS and Financial Services Authority ('FSA') websites, handbooks and other material, and all of the near monthly journals of Ombudsman News ('O.N.') since the FOS began in 2001, analysing it against the law to determine the question of this thesis: whether the FOS should in fact apply the law strictly, and not allow principles of fairness and reasonableness to override the law in the particular circumstances of a case. Should certainty of outcome and of applying law established and modified over hundreds of years be sacrificed to allow the FOS to apply its overriding discretion in the interests of justice in a relatively few cases? Should both insurers and insureds be able to obtain legal advice on their relative positions, without that advice having to mention unpredictable outcomes if the ombudsman chooses not to follow the strict legal position? If the law does not offer the consumer insured enough protection, should the FOS be the forum that does, and if so, does it give enough protection? This study does not look at the decisions of the Insurance Ombudsman Bureau ('IOB') which preceded the FOS. Where a point is not dealt with below, it has not been highlighted in FOS publications to date and it is unclear how relevant IOB decisions on that point will be.

This thesis explores the London Market Excess of Loss Spiral (“LMX Spiral”), a phenomenon based upon excess of loss reinsurance contracts that developed within the London reinsurance market of the 1980s. The unwinding of the LMX Spiral was a key factor in the crisis the Lloyd’s insurance market had to face in the early 1990s. However, whilst the crisis resulted in a wave of litigation in the English courts, there is no legal appraisal of the additional element of risk brought by the LMX Spiral itself. The case law instead focuses on the duties of the underwriters and various agents that fuelled its development. This situation is unsatisfactory for two reasons. Firstly, reinsurance spirals are a potential side-effect of XL reinsurance markets and therefore other spirals may develop in the future. Secondly, this thesis shows that once a reinsurance spiral reaches a certain point, it becomes unsustainable, generating instability within the relevant reinsurance market. This thesis provides a detailed legal appraisal of reinsurance spirals and a new analysis of excess of loss reinsurance contracts. The first part sets out the relevant legal principles and describes the LMX Spiral and its impact; listing, for the first time, the “Spiral Effects” identified through reports and actuarial models. The second part reviews the case law and assesses the legal nature of the excess of loss “Spiral Contracts” at the core of any reinsurance spiral, concluding that the Spiral Effects can distort the Spiral Contracts to the point where they become simple contracts of indemnity. The third part explores the nature of excess of loss reinsurance in light of the review of the Spiral Contracts, submitting that excess of loss reinsurance contracts cover both the liability of the reinsured and the relevant insured peril.

Fraud is always a concern when an insurer issues a policy to an assured. An assured can take out numerous policies and claim indemnity under all the policies, which would result in the assured receiving more than he is entitled to. Is the fear of fraud justifiable and are such exclusions or limitations in insurance contracts preventing recovery where there is other insurance effective? Further, is there sufficient protection for insurers by way of contribution from other insurers. It is beneficial to look at the history and development of the law of insurance, to understand how the law relating to double insurance has developed and the factors the courts may take into account when deciding such issues. The courts in many jurisdictions have tried to deal with the problems which have arisen as a result of such clauses. The courts have also dealt with the question of whether the assured is or should be given any protection when double insurance arises, and if so, whether the insurer has to pay out under the insurance policy. However, where there are rateable proportion clauses with other types of clauses, the solution is not that clear. It is quite common for judges, when dealing with such cases, to conclude that the case before it is not a case of double insurance. In some cases, even though the trial judge may hold that the case before him, on the facts, were sufficient to give rise to double insurance, on appeal, the appeal courts have come to the conclusion that the facts of the case do not give rise to one of double insurance. This clearly shows what a difficult concept double insurance is. This has resulted in the courts not actually being able, even till now, to provide any real solid rules or guidelines on double insurance . Further, even though an assured has taken out insurance with numerous insurers he will not be able to recover more than the loss he has actually suffered. This is the general principle of indemnity. The next problem for an assured is then, from which insurer the assured can seek recovery from. Is there a particular order when seeking recovery or can he recover from whichever insurer he chooses? At the moment, the law on this is also unclear.

CLCA2 is a p53-inducible transmembrane protein that is frequently downregulated in breast cancer. CLCA2 is a 943 amino acid type I transmembrane protein that is cleaved near amino acid 700 to produce a diffusible 100kD product. The N-terminus contains a hydrolase-like domain with well-conserved HEXXH zinc binding amino acid motif that was proposed to cleave the precursor auto-proteolytically. We investigate the auto-proteolysis of CLCA2 precursor. Using membrane extracts or purified protein from CLCA2-transfected cells, we show here that CLCA2 cleavage is catalyzed by zinc and inhibited by metal chelator EDTA. Moreover, an E165Q mutation in the metal binding site abolished processing without affecting stability or trafficking. The mutant could be cleaved by co-transfected wild type CLCA2, showing that the mutation had not caused an un-cleavable conformation and suggesting that it occurs in trans. Wild type CLCA2 was able to cleave CLCA2 E165Q mutant in vitro only after denaturation and renaturation, suggesting that a conformational shift is required for cleavage. The efficiency of cleavage increased steeply with increasing concentration of precursor, consistent with trans proteolysis but not cis or cleavage by another agent. Accordingly, CLCA2 molecules bearing different epitope tags formed a stable complex that could be co-immunoprecipitated. Cleavage appears to be specific within isoforms; CLCA1 was unable to neither cleave CLCA2 nor form a stable complex with it. Furthermore, cleavage causes a conformational shift: an N-terminal antibody that immunoprecipitates the precursor fails to precipitate the N-terminal product unless it is first denatured with ionic detergent. We found that cleavage is enhanced by p53 induction due to DNA damage, implying that the cleavage has functional consequences for stress response. Moreover, we found that HEK and MCF10A cells expressing the E165Q mutant had a higher proliferation rate than cells expressing wild type CLCA2, suggesting that the metalloprotease activity contributes to the anti-proliferative effect of CLCA2. Physiologically, CLCA2 plays an essential role in epithelial differentiation. It is induced during epithelial differentiation in immortalized human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC), and its knockdown causes epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). To determine how CLCA2 promotes epithelial differentiation, we searched for interactors using membrane dihybrid screening. We discovered a strong interaction with Epithelial V-like Antigen 1 (EVA1) and confirmed by co-immunoprecipitation. Like CLCA2, EVA1 is a type I transmembrane protein that is regulated by p53 family. EVA1 resembles tight junction proteins called Junctional Adhesion Molecules (JAMs) by structure but we found by confocal analysis that EVA1 is localized the lateral interface at cell-cell junctions. Analysis of transcriptional profiles revealed that EVA1 is frequently downregulated in breast tumors and breast cancer cell lines, especially those of mesenchymal phenotype, and upregulated during epithelial differentiation. Like CLCA2, knockdown of EVA1 resulted in rapid EMT in immortalized HMEC. The interacting domains were delimited by deletion analysis, revealing that both the proteins interact via their transmembrane segments (TMS). The interaction was specific, as other transmembrane proteins did not interact with CLCA2 or EVA1. We also found that CLCA2 binds to ZO-1 and beta-catenin at its c-terminus but EVA1 does not. Interestingly, we found that EVA1 does interact with ZO-1 in the presence of CLCA2, indicating that these three form a complex at the cell-cell junctions that allows stabilization of belt-like adherens junctions (AJ). On the other hand CLCA2 may also stabilize adherens junctions by sequestering beta-catenin at the cell-cell junctions. These results indicate that CLCA2 plays a key role in maintaining epithelial differentiation via multiple ways. Either by binding to beta-catenin or forming a complex with EVA1 and ZO-1, it plays a pivotal role in maintaining epithelial differentiation. This explains the downregulation of both CLCA2 and EVA1 during tumor progression.

The end of World War II was the beginning of an era of promises being made for the protection of human rights. Since then, the international community has established a variety of legal instruments that aim to achieve this protection. These legal instruments at the international level provide certain standards for states to fulfil, such as the right to a fair trial and prohibition of arbitrary detention. Despite the growing international human rights network including several official and non-official actors, non-compliance with international protection standards by states is still a serious challenge within the system. The ever-enlarging literature on international law compliance theories persistently seeks to find ways to overcome this problem. Immigration detention of children, one of the human rights issues on which the international network has provided guidance to states, has been practiced by Turkish and British immigration authorities for a considerable period of time. This practice has been justified on the grounds of efficient immigration control. Nevertheless, these two countries recently took legislative steps towards compliance with international human rights standards regarding immigration detention of minors. This research investigated these processes in Turkey and the UK to find out whether there were any actors that influenced the decision to change legislation by applying a selected compliance theory that focuses on socialisation between various actors such as courts and international monitoring bodies and the state. It was clear that these two very different countries reached the same conclusions via distinct routes, in reference to different reasons and motivations. While the theory’s predictive value showed only limited success in the UK’s case due to its reliance on socialisation and international law, it had high explanatory power for Turkey’s case. Nonetheless, it still demonstrated the importance of identifying actors capable of influencing decisionmaking of states to further strengthen the system of protection of human rights.

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.

A popular metaphor used by judges and journalists, the ‘chilling effect’ is used to describe the undesirable deterrence of legitimate free expression, although it is widely and loosely interpreted and rarely interrogated through methodical empirical research. This research examines the perceived chilling effect on freedom of expression in relation to defamation and privacy law and digital journalistic practice in England and Wales, over a five year period (2008-13). It examines media law in practice through interviews with legal specialists in defamation and privacy, close monitoring of online content, examination of court and policy documents, and surveys among journalists and online writers, and considers how decisions to publish or abandon stories are made in the contemporary networked news environment. The thesis finds that lawyers play an under-recognised but pivotal social role in the editorial gatekeeping process, enabling as well as restricting publication. Their absence in ill-resourced environments has a paradoxically constraining and liberating effect: a lack of legal advice and knowledge may lead to unnecessary censorship of particular stories, but at the same time small-scale operations without legal support and training may be less reactive to potential libel and privacy risks. Despite a popular perception of runaway privacy law, the findings indicate that libel was still a predominant concern for research participants and generated more threats and claims. The impact of defamation and privacy law on journalism, which is implied by the chilling effect metaphor, cannot be understood in isolation and a socio-legal approach based on empirical evidence is required to more fully expose the two-way interaction between law and journalism. Editorial decisions are subject to a complex web of competing factors; the collective or individual avoidance of stories can only be explained by looking at legal influences in their social context. In this way, hyperlocal bloggers may steer clear of particular topics for fear of social implications in local communities and national journalists can neglect stories as a result of organisational commercial pressures, or because such stories would damage their access to sources. The chilling effect descriptor is generally used to help direct policy and decisions that enhance freedom of expression in the public interest but debate is severely hampered by the lack of systematic research and data collection, as this thesis will show. Given the social complexity and ambiguity around perceived chilling effects, the thesis argues that this exercise would be informed by more detailed monitoring and analysis of specific contributory factors, such as individuals’ access to legal resources, legal knowledge and experience of direct or indirect threats of legal action. A more precise understanding of these elements in their wider social context would help the design of proportionate legal dispute mechanisms and the development of public legal education initiatives.

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 thesis addresses the question whether there is a basis for active assisted dying to fall within the protection of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). With desperate individuals addressing the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in order to be granted a right to die, but being denied it, the right to life is turned into a de facto duty to live. An evaluation of the concepts of dignity and autonomy will highlight the need for a right to die, to counterbalance the right to life. Seeing dignity as a subjective element means that a dignified life can only be evaluated by the person living it. If therefore a dignified death is believed to be one brought about with assistance before natural death would occur, this should not be dismissed based on a general idea of how and when people should best die. Believing in a right to a dignified life asks for a right to die in dignity. Seeing autonomy as a relational concept, meaning that for a truly autonomous life we are dependent on others and society as a whole, stresses the need for a legalisation of assisted dying. The thesis analyses the ECtHR’s approach towards assisted dying and what factors prevent it from adopting a more forthright approach towards a right to die. Based on a lack of consensus among the Member States, the Court relies on the margin of appreciation and shies away from taking a stand. While seeing that dying is a part of life and consequently falls within the ambit of Article 8, the protection of private and family life, nonetheless Article 2, the right to life, acts as a barrier to any claim for a right to die, which arguably turns the right to life in a duty to live. Looking at the legal situation in England and Germany highlights the difficulty in reaching a European consensus on assisted dying. Actively assisting someone in dying, who is unable to commit suicide unaided, is a criminal offence in both countries. However, there are significant differences between the two jurisdictions. In England, assisting someone in committing suicide is prohibited under Section 2 of the Suicide Act 1961, whereas in Germany it is in theory legally possible. Yet, in England, assistants can hope to avoid prosecution based on the Director of Public Prosecution’s guidelines of 2009, whilst in Germany assistants face prosecution based on other legal provisions like the Narcotics Act. While Germany moves towards a criminalisation of assistance in suicide offered for a fee (commercial assisted suicide), in England, debates on Bills focus on attempts to legalise some categories of assisted dying. The comparison suggests that a European consensus is not likely to be achieved in the near future. The thesis concludes that based on dignity and autonomy the national approaches towards assisted dying should be revised and legalisation should be considered. This is necessary so that the ECtHR can counterbalance the right to life with a right to die.