The thesis consists of two parts. Part I investigates the interactive nature of the relationship between financial intermediation and economic growth. The main theoretical results are: a) financial intermediaries emerging as a consequence of agents' maximising behaviour at some critical level of economic development could have a negative impact on economic growth; b) the growth impact of financial institutions, i.e. financial intermediaries and stock markets, changes positively along the process of economic development; c) excessive financial intermediation might occur as a consequence of economic development; d) the co-evolution of credit markets, where financial intermediaries operate, and stock markets does not imply complementariness between the two elements of the financial sector; e) the emergence of a stock market might have an immediate detrimental effect on growth; f) the growth impact of the overall financial sector depends crucially upon the complementarity/substitutability relationship between stock markets and credit markets as sources of external finance. Part II, consists of two models which can be thought of as extensions of the material presented in Part 1. In the first, the impact of financial deepening in the context of a growth model where growth is driven by human capital accumulation is analysed. The result of this model is that, since financial transactions and training are substitutes as devices for intertemporal substitution of consumption, the availability of a technology for financial transactions might induce a negative growth effect. The second model deals with interregional trade in financial services. The outcome of this model is that, because of asymmetries in the incentives to trade in deposits and loans, free trade might have detrimental consequences for the regions whose financial sector is less efficient since local investment can be crowded out. The thesis establishes those propositions by theoretical reasoning and appropriate formal proofs.

The general objective of this study is to lay out the bases for an assessment of the impact of foreign and local investment on indigenous people in East Africa. For this purpose it will explore the current and systematic practice of violations of human rights as against the obligation of states to promote and to protect human rights and to guarantee effective remedies for victims in cases where those rights have been violated under the international human rights law jurisprudence in an African context. Reveals how State sponsored investments in Maasai traditional land, particularly creation of national parks, game reserves and game controlled areas have changed the way of life of the Maasai as a “people” aggravating their marginalization. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Dr Lorite Alejandro of the Department of Law, American University - Cairo Egypt. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM