When arbitration is conducted online, some inherent, fundamental issues arise which could potentially undermine the enforceability of the final award under the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards of 1958, the “New York Convention” (NYC). The study identifies four key challenges which a winning party seeking the enforcement of an electronic award according to the NYC might face with relation to the enforcement of that award: the validity of electronic arbitration agreements, the enforceability of consumer arbitration agreements concluded online, obstacles arising out of the conduct of the arbitration procedures online and the issue of electronic authentication of the final award. The study first critically analyses the NYC, to identify some key problems in relation to each of the said issues which might compromise or undermine the enforcement of awards rendered in online arbitration; it then makes suggestions as to some possible amendments to the NYC. The study then goes on to consider these issues in the context of the applicable law before the Dubai and DIFC Courts as the enforcement courts, to examine their ability to enforce such an award. The study concludes with several recommendations for both practice and law reform in the jurisdictions discussed, in relation to each issue. The study is original in that it is the first comprehensive analysis of all the said issues, from formation of the arbitration agreement, through various stages of online procedures, to the final enforcement of the award, within the examined jurisdictions. Further, the recommended changes would help to improve the efficiency and reliability of the courts of Dubai and DIFC with regard to the enforceability of an award given via online arbitration. This is a particularly important issue in light of the current and anticipated growth in the prominence of the identified jurisdictions as financial and business centres, the centrality of international arbitration to international business and the fundamental need for confidence in the enforceability of the courts and arbitration awards.

In 1976, the Nigerian Government compulsorily acquired the ancestral lands of Abuja peoples of Nigeria without payment of compensation or resettlement. This is legitimised under Nigerian State laws. Indigenous peoples (IPs) suffer from injustices in relation to land globally. The purpose of this thesis is to find answers to the research questions emanating from this case study. One avenue explored herein in addressing dispossession of IPs’ lands in Africa, is through considering the relevance of international law on their rights. However, there is no universally agreed definition of IPs. In the determination of whether international law provides solutions to the challenges of protecting land rights of Abuja peoples, the existing description of IPs is challenged. The second avenue explored herein, is through a comparative approach to understanding how Kenya has resolved these challenges and how Nigeria should respond to similar challenges. The case study is used to illustrate the need for a viable relationship between State law, IPs’ customary law and international law. The choice of Nigeria is because the case study is in Nigeria. The choice of Kenya as a comparator is because like Nigeria, Kenya is Anglophone with a plural legal system and has recently embarked on law reforms in relation to customary land rights and the place of international law within its legal system. Drawing from theories of legal pluralism and post-colonialism, this doctrinal, case study and comparative enquiry, makes the following original contributions to knowledge. Firstly, the case study is used to argue that international law should expand its description of IPs to include collective of peoples with different cultures. Secondly, it draws from international child rights law to advance the argument that international law on IPs should present them more positively. Finally, the comparative analysis between Nigeria and Kenya on the above subjects has not been made by any known literature at the time of writing.

This collection of eight single-authored papers published between 2008 and 2012, provides detailed and critical insight into land issues in the Pacific island country of the Republic of Vanuatu. Developed largely from conference papers delivered to international audiences, these publications make a novel and significant contribution to the prior knowledge base in a number of ways. Firstly, the research behind these papers has combined physical proximity to the subject matter – through being based in Vanuatu for several years, with access to a range of legal and other materials as well as personal insights, with a broader intellectual expertise in the law of property and trusts as introduced into the region. A combination of doctrinal and empirical research has made it possible to give a specifically focussed law in context and law in practice perspective, while not losing sight of the inter-relationship of law and society. In this way the existing knowledge base founded on anthropological and ethnological studies has been given a further and contemporary, legal dimension. Secondly, the desire to reach a wider audience than the regional or local, has meant that these publications have engaged Vanuatu as a case-study with broader themes, sometimes starting from the local and exploring outwards and sometimes starting from the global and narrowing in on Vanuatu as a concluding focus. While recognising all that makes Vanuatu unique, the contribution that this collection makes is to bring this island study from the particular to the general, in from the margins or as part of a removed and rather isolated area of study, towards the mainstream. Thirdly, these publications articulate land developments at a crucial moment. The first decade of the twenty-first century, has been a time of increased public awareness of land issues in Vanuatu and in the Pacific region more generally, and a time of increased donor intervention in land and law related activities. That this research and the related research that informs it, is integral to this process has been evidenced by cross referencing to some of the work and other indicators of esteem by aid donors, inter-state agencies and other academics. Land remains a site of contestation in Vanuatu. The critical analysis of present issues, against the historical context of colonial rule and its subsequent influence; the introduction of foreign laws and institutions and the continuing importance of unwritten customary law, exposes many of the challenges that are encountered in trying to frame a way forward and engages with controversies surrounding land policy, land law and the management of this most fundamental resource.