"This study attempts to provide a picture of how parliaments have been contributing to the protection of human rights and democracy and how the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) can draw lessons from the different mechanisms adopted by these parliaments. This study consists of five chapters. The first chapter sets out the problem that this study aims to address and reviews existing studies that have touched upon the issue. The second chapter discusses the dynamics that lead to the establishment of the continental parliament by putting it in the context of continental efforts towards better human rights protection and democratic consolidation. It also discusses the objectives of the parliament and particularly its human rights and democartic mandate. The third chapter sets out a framework for analysis. This is done by examining how parliaments have been dealing with issues of human rights and democracy with particular focus on the European Parliament (EP). This chapter looks at the different structures and mechanisms that the parliaments have employed towards this end but also tries to look further into the powers and compositions of parliaments that [have] enabled them to use such mechanisms and effectively engage in the promotion of human rights and democracy. The fourth chapter discusses in detail the powers, functions and their implications on how PAP promotes human rights and democracy. The activities so far carried out, institutional mechanisms adopted and the potential role it could have and mechanisms it could employ by taking lessons from the design, internal workings, and mechanisms discussed in the previous chapter is provided. Finally the relevant conclusions will be made with recommendations on the way forward for the continental institution in terms of organisation, composition, structures and mechanisms it could adopt towards promotion of human rights and democracy." -- Introduction. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Social networks have very quickly become a popular channel for politicians to communicate information to their constituents. The thesis deals with the question, if the social network communication affects the election results. It also monitors the activity of selected candidates for the post of MEP before the elections in 2019. Their posts on Facebook and Twitter are then analyzed to find a possible relationship between the activity of candidates on social networks in the period from April 23rd to May 23rd, 2019 and the outcome of the European elections. At the same time, it also fact-checks the candidates' practical statements.

En s’appuyant sur les ressources de la science politique et du droit public, cette thèse se donne pour objectif de comprendre le rôle de la seconde chambre française. À dessein, elle tend à considérer combien ce dernier est fonction de sa légitimité. Ce travail ne se donnera donc pas pour but de répondre à la question de la légitimité du Sénat, mais de comprendre comment l’appréciation de cette dernière par l’institution le conduit à interpréter les normes qui lui sont applicables. Le jugement subjectif que l’institution sénatoriale porte sur sa légitimité doit ainsi être envisagé comme une variable explicative des divergences entre le droit et son application. S’appuyant sur une approche institutionnaliste, ce travail analysera la légitimité comme contrainte et comme liberté de définition du rôle et d’interprétation des normes. Contrainte, l’institution l’est, car elle oblige le Sénat à se conformer à ce qu’elle juge être l’interprétation légitime de son rôle. Libre, le Sénat le demeure, car il reste juge et arbitre de ces contraintes à condition de savoir emprunter les chemins balisés par le droit. Dès lors, il convient de repenser la légitimité institutionnelle comme structure de contrainte de la décision permettant d’expliquer l’interprétation de la norme et l’équilibre du système politique. / Based on political science and public law resources, this thesis aims at understanding the role of the French Second Chamber. It considers how this role could be a function of its legitimacy. This work is not, therefore, intended to address the question of the Senate legitimacy, but to understand how the institution's appraisal about this legitimacy leads it to interpret the norms which are applicable to it. The subjective judgment that the senatorial institution focuses on its legitimacy must thus be considered as an explanatory variable of the discrepancies between the law and its application, especially during critical junctures. Relying on an institutionalist approach, this work will analyze legitimacy as a constraint and as a freedom to define a role and to interpret norms. The institution is, in fact, forced since it obliges the Senate to comply with what it considers to be the legitimate interpretation of its role. In fact, the Senate stays free since it remains judge and mediator of these constraints provided that it follows the path dependency marked by history and law. Therefore, it is important to reconsider the institutional legitimacy as a straining structure of the decision allowing to explain the interpretation of the norms and the equilibrium of the political system.

The purpose of this dissertation is to demonstrate how the London Corresponding Society, during the last decade of the 18th Century, sought Parliamentary reform that would end the system of government controlled and corrupted by the rich English landholding gentry.

This study investigates minilateral partnerships, also referred to as regional cooperations, with the purpose of identifying whether these types of partnerships may be perceived as cohesive political grouping in the EP and if such cooperations influence the way in which MEPs debate and vote. The study uses a combined qualitative and quantitative method to study the behaviour of MEPs from the Visegrad Group when debating and voting on migration and asylum policy, during the Eight European Parliament. The thesis argues that the studied subject, i.e., the Visegrad Group, and the discussed issue i.e., migration and asylum policy, jointly generate a most likely case allowing for a reasonable degree of generalization. The study finds that the Visegrad Group is a politically incohesive group during the beginning of the studied time period, but that its cohesion notes a substantial increase towards its end. Despite the increase, the consistency of the Visegrad Group MEPs debating and voting as a group is found to be below the average cohesion of the European party groups. The study further confirms earlier research stating that national consideration and party politics remains the two strongest determinants of MEP debating and voting behaviour. The thesis concludes that the influence of minilateralism on MEPs is insignificant.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how different versions of sovereignty manifestthemselves in the central founding documents relating to the Sámi parliament in bothNorway and Sweden. This analysis of the different approaches to sovereignty could beused to give an explanation to the differences between the Sámi parliaments in Norwayand Sweden. The research questions of this thesis were: Within central foundingdocuments can one see different versions of sovereignty between Sweden and Norway?What differences can one observe between the countries in relation to ideas regardinginternal and external sovereignty? To answer these questions, different theories ofsovereignty were presented and evaluated. This thesis used content analysis with adeductive approach and the primary materials that were analysed were the founding legaldocuments and law propositions to the Sámi parliaments. The major finding of this thesispaper were that Norway and Sweden were observably different when it came to theirversions of sovereignty, in conclusion Sweden had a stricter adherence to internalsovereignty and Norway was exceedingly more orthodox and put more effort into theirexternal sovereignty.

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