There is general consensus that mercenarism is and should remain prohibited. The difficulty that has arisen is firstly one of defining the exact nature of mercenarism, and more specifically what actions constitute mercenary actions. A further difficulty arises in that much of the legislation intended to outlaw mercenarism is impacting on the legal activity of private military and security contractors, who fall short of the definitional requirements of mercenarism. The two groups being so closely linked that they are often mistakenly conflated . There is currently a need to develop a response to the private military security industry, which is better suited to effectively regulate their activities, whilst also effectively criminalising the activities of those who actions amount to mercenarism. The dissertation therefore sets about analysing how these two distinct sectors: mercenaries and private military security companies, are regulated at an international and domestic level. It then uses the lessons learnt from these regulator attempts, and the various policy considerations which countries have to make, to propose a way forward in creating an effective regulatory system for mercenaries and private military companies at an international and domestic level. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

This thesis investigates whether different public accountability forums interact with one another when they oversee the same decision maker. It contributes to the larger study of how decision makers are held to account in constitutional democracies where the simultaneous operation of multiple accountability relationships has become routine. Looking beyond the dominant assumption that multiple forums autonomously assess a decision maker's accountability against different and diverging standards, I aim to understand whether forums can influence the standards against which other forums evaluate the same decision maker. I draw on political and normative understandings of public accountability to answer one central question: do different public accountability forums interact with one another in a way that influences the scope of what a decision maker is obliged to account for and the normative standards against which that account is evaluated? Answering this research question involves examining the mechanisms by which interactions might occur and the motivations of actors to interact. I begin by critically reviewing the literature on multiple accountabilities, arguing that existing approaches can only partially explain how public accountability is constructed in multiple accountability regimes. I argue the focus on typologies of accountability emphasise the attributes of individual forums and overlook the broader dynamics of the accountability regime. I then develop an analytical framework to examine how the interactions between different forums, and other actors, might reshape the accountability dialogue. This framework is used to analyse the case of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in Australia (2008-2012). By presenting a contextSrich analysis of interactions between forums, and other actors, I find that multiple forums act in concert with one another and other actors to contest and then reshape the standards against which the two decision makers are evaluated. The thesis concludes by discussing the implications of recognising accountability interactions for understanding multiple accountability regimes.

In 1965, amid antagonism between capital-importing and capital-exporting states over investment protection, the World Bank created ICSID. ICSID facilitates the resolution of disputes between foreign investors and states. Since major initiatives to create investment rules have failed within the UN and OECD, ICSID is the only successful attempt to create a multilateral, inter-state organization dedicated to investment. This thesis probes the intellectual, political, and economic forces behind the creation and early development of ICSID. This study combines archival work, oral histories, and interviews with econometric work. On this basis, it illuminates how ICSID's creators-mainly staff in the World Bank's Legal Department-adapted their ideas to suit the charged political context. When disseminating the idea of ICSID to states, they relied on ambiguity, expertise, and incrementalism. These three characteristics constitute an approach to organization building that I term "modest multilateralism" since the World Bank's President praised ICSID as "a modest proposal." By illustrating how this approach operated in ICSID's case, I generate insights that are applicable to other international organizations. ICSID's creation differs from the expectations of institutionalist IR theory in important ways. First, there was little state leadership, and ICSID's founding Convention is devoid of substance-it merely outlines a procedure. In this way, it takes the idea of ambiguity to its extreme. Second, ICSID's founders took steps to shield the organization from the politics of investment protection: they asked states to send legal experts, not elected representatives, and avoided deliberative debate. Third, ICSID's design was explicitly evolutionary. ICSID can operate alongside changing substantive rules-multilateral, bilateral, or domestic. Finally, contrary to previous accounts, in this thesis the ICSID Secretariat emerges as a dynamic agent. The Secretariat actively pursued ratifications and advance consents to investor-state arbitration. The creation of ICSID fostered a community of practice, which subsequently redefined international investment law through treaty making and arbitral practice.

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L’histoire du développement a été marquée par deux grandes révolutions. La révolution néolithique a fait passer l’humanité d’une économie paléolithique organisée autour de la chasse, de la pêche et de la cueillette à une économie néolithique basée sur l’agriculture et l’élevage. Cette première révolution planétaire est caractérisée par le passage d’un mode de vie nomade à un mode de vie sédentaire; lui-même conduisant à terme à la naissance des premières civilisations de l’Antiquité. La révolution industrielle, deuxième révolution planétaire, constitue une seconde rupture. Cette révolution se caractérise par le passage d'une société à dominance agraire à une société à dominance industrielle et urbaine.Dans un contexte de crise globale, qui s’apprécie notamment à l’aune de l’échec patent desOMD, nous posons l’hypothèse d’une troisième révolution planétaire en devenir dont l’ampleur pourrait être comparable aux deux précédentes. Depuis la révolution industrielle, lemonde a connu une croissance économique et démographique sans précédent; entraînant certes des progrès notoires, mais aussi un accroissement exponentiel de son empreinteécologique. À travers l’étude des principaux paradigmes contemporains du développement,nous avons décidé de revisiter prospectivement le modèle onusien. Au carrefour des divers modèles nationaux, l’ONU constitue, nous semble-t-il, le lieu le plus approprié pour aborder cette question. Enfin, dans la mesure où derrière la présente crise globale se cache une crise écologique profonde, nous considérons que le prochain paradigme qui émergera sera, pour les raisons que nous exposons, le fruit d’une dialectique entre les modèles anthropocentriste et biocentriste. / The history of development was marked by two great revolutions. The Neolithic revolution has seen humanity passed of an economy organized around Paleolithic hunting, fishing andgathering to a Neolithic economy based mainly on agriculture and livestock. The first planetary revolution is characterized by the transition from a nomadic to a sedentary lifestyle;himself eventually leading to the birth of the first civilizations of antiquity. The Industrialrevolution, the second planetary revolution, is a second major break in development history.This revolution is essentially characterized by the transition from a predominantly agrariansociety to a predominantly industrial and urban.Against a backdrop of global crisis, including appreciating in terms of the obvious failure ofthe MDGs, we hypothesize a third planetary revolution with a magnitude that could becomparable to the previous two. Since the beginning of industrial revolution, the world hasexperienced an economic and population growth unprecedented, certainly at the origin ofsignificant progress, but also an exponential increase of its ecological footprint. Through thestudy of major contemporary paradigms of development, we prospectively decided to revisitthe UN model and framework. At the crossroads of different national models, the UN is themost appropriate place to address this issue. Finally, since behind this global crisis lies aprofound ecological crisis, we believe that the next paradigm that will emerge, for reasonsthat are set, is going to be the result of a dialectic between anthropocentric models, on onehand, and biocentric models, on the other hand.

Soft law is a common feature of international governance, occupying a grey zone between the realms of politics and law. The multifaceted concept can refer to vague provisions or norms generally, but is most useful when defined as international instruments adopted in a non-binding form. Whilst the advantages and appeal of soft law have been widely studied, with its effects explored in both International Relations (IR) and International Law (IL) scholarship, states' behaviour on commitment to soft law per se has remained underexplored. It is often assumed that its non-binding status upon adoption makes commitment to soft law a relatively inconsequential endeavor, at least in comparison to hard law. In this thesis, incorporating insights from public international law into rationalist IR approaches, I argue that soft law instruments can have important effects over time and bring substantial costs for states to bear. This is particularly the case for soft law instruments 'hardening' through domestic law, treaties or customary international law, increasing the sovereignty and implementation costs attached to commitment. I further argue that those potential costs of soft law are taken into account by states when making decisions on commitment. Depending on the importance and likelihood of the costs foreseen, states can craft their commitment to mitigate these costs or block them from arising. Empirical evidence for the place of the costs of soft law in states' decision-making on commitment is offered through an in-depth case study of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, with a focus on the opposition it faced upon adoption - an unusual occurrence for a UN declaration in the field of human rights. Recognizing the potential costs of soft law and their impact on state commitment helps to bridge theory and practice regarding the creation of non-binding instruments and sheds light on challenges raised by the use of soft law by states and non-state actors at the frontiers of international law-making.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Este trabalho objetiva analisar diversos aspectos do Direito Internacional Público em matéria de recursos hídricos de água doce superficiais e subterrâneos. Geração de energia, abastecimento, pesca, navegação, lazer, agricultura e indústria, são múltiplos os usos que os seres humanos fazem da água doce, mas antes disso a água é essencial para manutenção de todo e qualquer tipo de vida na Terra. São complexas e passíveis de várias análises as relações entre os Estados e as relações que se concretizam no interior dos Estados com objetivo de utilizar, controlar e preservar as fontes de água doce, a que se pretende fazer é uma análise jurídica, inserida no contexto político de expansão do capitalismo liberal. Pretende-se identificar e analisar normas jurídicas produzidas no âmbito internacional multilateral, considerando a sua forma, conteúdo e possíveis efeitos: na resolução de conflitos entre os Estados pelo controle e utilização da água doce, no estabelecimento de parâmetros para solução da crise ambiental e na superação dos problemas de acesso à água. Na primeira parte do trabalho, são identificadas as normas de Direito Internacional Público atinentes à matéria, descrevendo-se, primeiramente, a evolução histórica do Direito Internacional Fluvial até os estudos da doutrina de Direito Internacional e a Convenção de Nova York de 1997. O capítulo segundo objetiva apresentar o tema da água doce no contexto de surgimento do Direito Internacional do Meio Ambiente, de realização de conferências e criação de fóruns internacionais para a questão da água e do desenvolvimento de um direito humano à água. O capítulo terceiro propõe-se a ingressar na incipiente questão da regulamentação dos usos das águas subterrâneas, analisando os trabalhos da Comissão de Direito Internacional da Organização das Nações Unidas que culminaram com a adoção de uma Resolução sobre o Direito dos Aquíferos Transfronteiriços por parte da Assembleia Geral daquela organização. A segunda parte do trabalho objetiva analisar a aplicação das regras e princípios ensaiados nos textos de Direito Internacional aos casos concretos, confrontando-as com as soluções propostas em casos paradigmáticos de conflitos pela água, como o caso Gabcikovo-Nagymaros e o caso das Papeleras, envolvendo Argentina e Uruguai, ambos julgados pela Corte Internacional de Justiça. Na segunda parte do trabalho, também é analisado o caso do aquífero Guarani, um sistema de aquíferos interligados que se estende sob os subsolos de Argentina, Brasil, Paraguai e Uruguai, que em agosto de 2010 foi objeto de um tratado internacional assinado no âmbito do Mercosul. Por fim, a pesquisa objetiva desenvolver ideias e explicações para a existência (ou não) e a efetividade (ou a falta dela) das normas de Direito Internacional sobre recursos hídricos, considerando o conceito de soberania estatal que ora é o bode expiatório para a falta de assinaturas nos tratados ou de votos em declarações, ora é o próprio fundamento para a adoção de compromissos por parte dos Estados. Conclui-se tentando responder as seguintes questões: Existe Direito Internacional da água doce? São as normas de Direito Internacional efetivas? Para que servem essas normas de Direito Internacional, além da afirmação de sua própria existência como metas a serem atingidas? / This thesis examines different aspects of Public International Law related to ground freshwater and surface freshwater resources. There is a variety of freshwater utilization: water power, water supply, fishing, navigation, leisure, agriculture, industry. However we should remember that water is essential to keep all beings of nature alive. Relationships between countries and inside each country related to the use, regulation and preservation of freshwater are complex and multifaceted. This work intends to discuss the juridical aspects of these questions in a political context of liberal capitalist expansion. This work intends to identify and analyze juridical rules created in a multilateral international sphere, considering their content and possible effects (a) in the conflict resolution between countries for the control and utilization of freshwater, (b) in the establishment of parameters to deal with the environmental crisis and (c) in the resolution of water access problem. First, the work identifies the rules of Public International Law related to this subject, describing the history of the Fluvial International Law, the studies about International Law doctrine and the Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (1997). The second chapter presents the discussion of freshwater in the context of the creation of the International Law of the Enviroment, the realization of conferences and the creation of international forums to discuss water and the development of a human right to water. The third chapter introduces the incipient discussion of the regulation of groundwater utilization. This chapter analyses the works of the UN International Law Comission wich resulted in the UN General Assembly Resolution on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers. The second part of the thesis analyses the application of rules and principles described in the International Law texts in the real cases, confronting them with the solutions proposed in paradigmal water conflict cases, as for instance Gabcikovo-Nagymaros and Papeleras, occurred in Argentina and Uruguay. Both cases have been judged by the International Court of Justice. The case of the Guarani Aquifer a system of aquifers interconnected, located beneath the surface of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay is also examined. This aquifer was the object of an international treaty signed for Mercosul countries in August of 2010. Finally, the thesis tries to develop ideas and explanations about the existence (or not) and the effectiveness (or its lack) of the rules of International Law of water resources, considering the concept of state sovereignty, which sometimes is a scapegoat for the lack of signatures in the treaties and votes in declarations. Other times it allows nation states to embrace responsibilities. The conclusion ventures a response about the following questions: Is there an International Law about freshwater? Are the rules of International Law effective? Why do we need International Law rules beyond the simple assertion of their existence as objectives to be attained?

A Separação de Poderes tem sido um objeto de estudo constante do Direito Constitucional e das Ciências Políticas ante a sua natureza de organização dos poderes que existem dentro de um estado. Agora é necessária a análise também pelo Direito Internacional Público, uma vez a necessidade de construção de paradigmas aptos a construção do Direito da Integração. A América Latina, com especial atenção ao Brasil e a Argentina, são campos férteis para a análise da separação de poderes que foi majoritariamente adotada por esta região. No estudo da experiência argentina e brasileira é possível ver diversos pontos de convergência fortes o suficiente para a edificação de um modelo a ser utilizado pela integração sub-regional, além, claro, de contar com as semelhanças históricas de sua colonização, independência, influência do modelo de separação de poderes Norte-Americano, os regimes militares e o sensível processo de redemocratização. O Estudo comparado pode fornecer ferramentas capazes de criar um mecanismo de integração sub-regional forte o suficiente para superar as tão frequentes instabilidades do processo de integração. / The separation of powers has been an object of constant study for the Constitutional Law and the Political Sciences before its nature of organization of powers that exist within a state. Now the analysis is also necessary through Public International Law, since theres a need to build paradigms suitable for the construction of Integration Law. Latin America, with special attention to Brazil and Argentina, are fertile grounds for the analysis of the separation of powers, which was mostly adopted by this region. In the study of the Argentinean and the Brazilian experience, it is possible to see several points of convergence that are strong enough to build a model to be used by sub-regional integration, besides of having the historical similarities of their colonization, independence, influence of the North-American model of separation of powers, military regimes and the sensitive process of redemocratization. The comparative study can provide tools capable of creating a sub-regional integration mechanism, strong enough to overcome the so frequent instabilities of the integration process.

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