Over the years, shortage of funds has resulted in a huge deficit in government budgets for infrastructure, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Due to the huge costs involved in infrastructure procurement in relation to other competing demands on government spending, it is no longer feasible for governments to bear the entire burden of infrastructural development. This is especially the case in Nigeria, where annual infrastructure deficit is estimated at a massive $8 billion. Moreover, public officials have demonstrated incompetence in making public corporations profitable. Accordingly, Nigeria has adopted the public-private partnership model of infrastructure procurement to allow for the participation of the private sector in the design, funding, construction, management, and operation of public infrastructure. However, Nigeria’s legal framework for managing public-private partnership is not clearly defined, leading to gaps in policy and overlapping laws that make implementation of PPP very difficult. Unsurprisingly, public-private partnership in Nigeria have, thus far, produced mixed results, thereby raising a need for clear policy guidelines on streamlining overlapping laws to attract, sustain and reward investor interest. In what ways do Nigeria’s legal and policy framework for public-private partnership protect private investors’ funds? This study examines the concept of PPP and its practice in Nigeria, arguing that the regulatory framework be designed or enhanced to protect investors’ assets in public-private partnership projects and ensure they achieve proportional return on investments. Beyond the problem of overlapping laws, the study finds that political interference, weak institutional mechanisms and poor respect for the rule of law and sanctity of contract underlie the ineffectiveness of public-private partnership in Nigeria. Drawing from the public-private partnership experience in South Africa, it recommends holistic strategies for protecting investors’ assets and unlocking the local financial market for sourcing project funding. These strategies are notably the provision of guarantees, making the process less cumbersome, provision of incentives for investors and project companies and ensuring that the host community for public-private partnership projects are involved in the process from inception to operation to get their support.

No description available.

Magister Legum - LLM / Good faith is an open ended concept which refers to fair and honest dealings. The function of this concept is to give expression to the community’s sense of what is fair, just and reasonable. The concept of good faith has and continues to acquire a meaning wider than mere honesty or the absence of subjective bad faith. It is an objective concept that includes other abstract values such as justice, reasonableness, fairness and equity. There is competition between the two underlying values or cornerstones of the law of contract, namely that of sanctity of contract (pacta sunt servanda) and fairness. Y Mupangavanhu holds that ‘it is becoming axiomatic that sanctity of contract and fairness are competing values that need to be balanced by courts’. Differently put, Hutchison holds that: ‘The tension between these competing goals of contract law is quite evident…every time a court enforces an unreasonably harsh contractual provision, a price is paid in terms of the ordinary person’s sense of what justice requires; conversely every time a court allows a party to escape liability under what is thought to be a binding contract, a price is paid in terms of legal and commercial certainty’. Courts are often called upon to assess the abovementioned tension. South African courts have, however, shown reluctance in balancing the competing principles and have instead been opting to uphold the principle of sanctity of contract in the spirit of preserving certainty in the law of contract. Public policy, ubuntu and good faith are all mechanisms that are aimed at achieving fairness in contract law. The apparent preference of the courts to uphold the sanctity of contract above all else, falls short of achieving fairness and reasonableness. Public policy functions as an alternative doctrine of equity, fairness and good faith in contract law. As such, the idea is that a contract that is contrary to public policy is illegal and should not be enforced. Although there is no clear definition of public policy, B Mupangavanhu opines that the ‘doctrine of public policy, while difficult to comprehensively define, can be understood to refer to courts consideration of what is in the interest of society or community when interpreting contracts’. In other words, it represents the legal convictions of the community or the general sense of justice of the community and the values that are held most dear by the society.

This project examines mystical discourse in medieval India and medieval England as a site for the construction of new images of women and the feminine. I study the poems of three women mystics from western India, Muktabai (c. 1279-1297), Janabai (c. 1270-1350) and Bahinabai (c. 1628-1700) in conjunction with the prose accounts of the two most celebrated women mystics of late medieval England, Julian of Norwich (c. 1343-after 1413) and Margery Kempe (c. 1373-after 1438). My principal areas of inquiry are: self-authorizing strategies, conceptions of divinity, and the treatment of the domestic. I find that the three Hindu mystics deploy a single figure, the guru, as their primary source of spiritual authority. In contrast, the self-authorization of Julian and Margery is more diffuse, for the two mystics record testimony from a variety of sources, including Christ himself, to prove their spiritual credentials. The texts under scrutiny offer variously gendered models of the divine; three of the five mystics show preference for a feminized god. Julian and Bahinabai invest their deities with physical and mental attributes that were labelled feminine, such as feeding and nurturing. However, both women accept God’s sexed body as fundamentally male. Janabai is the most innovative of the mystics in her gendering of the divine; her deity Vitthal’s sexed body can be either male or female, although (s)he typically undertakes chores that were the province of women. Janabai is not the only mystic to attempt a reconciliation of the domestic and the spiritual. As narrated in the Booke, Christ expresses willingness to help Margery with her baby, although the text is silent about whether this offer was accepted or not. In addition, Margery undertakes domestic tasks for God and his family, thus investing them with a new dignity. My study demonstrates that as the mystics address questions of women’s relationship with the divine, they go beyond binary frameworks, positing fluid boundaries between male and female, body and spirit, and mundane and spiritual. Thus, these texts can be harnessed to engage creatively with the model of inclusive feminine spirituality expounded by feminist thinker Luce Irigaray, particularly in Between East and West (2002). / text

Trisdešimtųjų kartos poetų Martinaičio ir Juškaičio kūrybos semantinį ir idėjinį įprasminimą padeda suprasti šventumo topikos horizontas. Šventumo prasmių sklaida jų poezijoje atliepia individualiai ir tuo pačiu bendrai suvokto šventumo poetinę paradigmą. Šventumo apraiškas aktualizuojantys poetiniai motyvai, įvaizdžiai, gyvenimo modeliai reprezentuoja religinę ir filosofinę senosios valstietiškos kultūros tradiciją bei jos hermeneutinę situaciją modernaus poetinio diskurso kontekste. Šventojo laiko, kraštovaizdžio, dieviškos esmės suvokimo bruožai tampa parankia semantine ir idėjine orientacija, leidžiančia atskleisti Martinaičio ir Juškaičio vertybines prasmes jų gyvenimo ir kūrybos tradicijoje. Šio darbo objektas – dviejų XX amžiaus 30-ųjų kartos poetų (J. Juškaičio ir M.Martinaičio) kūryba šventumo topikos kontekste. Minėtų poetų kūryboje šventumo topika išryškėja kaip individualų kūrybinį braižą implikuojanti prasmė ir tuo pačiu bendrą šventumo suvokimą to meto istoriniame kontekste išryškinanti vertybė. Šio darbo tiriamoji problema – kaip sakralybės nuvertinimo ir socialinių kataklizmų metu gimusioje poezijoje kuriama moderni šventumo prasmė, kokie panašūs ir skirtingi archetipai išryškėja perkuriant krikščioniškas ir indoeuropietiškas šventumo paradigmos prasmes. / The horizon of sanctity topics helps to perceive semantic and ideological implication of the poets Martinaitis and Juškaitis of the generation of thirties. The dispersion of sanctity meanings in their poetry is appealing individually and at the same time helps to conceive the poetical paradigm of sanctity. The motives, which actualize the manifestations of sanctity, images and life models, represent religious and philosophical tradition of the old peasantry culture and its hermeutic situation in the context of modern poetical discourse. The features of sacred conception, landscape and divine essence become a handy semantic and ideological orientation, which allows revealing valuable senses of Martinaitis and Juškaitis in the tradition of their life and creation. The object of the present work is creation of 2 generation poets of thirties of XX century (J.Juškaitis and M.Martinaitis) in the context of sanctity topics. The topics of the mentioned poets’ sanctity reveals itself as the sense, which implies the individual creational script and the value, which at the same time highlights the general conception of sanctity in the historical context. The research problem of the present work is how in the poetry, born during sanctity depreciation and social cataclysms, the sense of sanctity is created, what similar and different archetypes are revealed by recreating the senses of Christian and indo-European sanctity paradigm.

The objective of this dissertation is to explore the meanings, significance, and functions of sacred space developed in the Hebrew Bible. A wide range of categories, models, and geographical forms of biblical sacred space will be presented: the cosmos, Mt. Zion, the Land of Israel, Jerusalem, the Temple, the Tabernacle, sanctuaries and sacred sites, the high places, and the micro-scales of cultic installations, such as the Ark, altars, sacred poles, and sacred pillars. From a biblical point of view, the two realms of the sacred and the profane co-exist. The sanctity of a place can be restricted and intensified to a certain zone of space or micro-scales of cultic installations. It can also be extended to a wider scope of space, such as the entire sanctuary, the entire city, the entire land, or the cosmos. These models of sacred space used in the biblical texts reflect the manifestation of the specific worldview that is governed by the concept of holiness and the particular concepts of God associated with the notions of divine dwelling presence, divine glory, and divine rest. The Israelite model of sacred space emphasized in a particular biblical text can also represent related transformations of the functions, meanings, and significance of the concepts of sacred space. For instance, the establishment of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem signifies the transformation of the legitimate place of worship in ancient Israelite religion, from a dynamic model to a permanent, static one. Its meanings, significance, and functions are now contingent upon the fixed location in Jerusalem. This dissertation provides evidence of the plurality of meanings, significance, and functions of the concepts of sacred space in the Hebrew Bible. This exploration of the biblical concepts of sacred space includes a discussion of various issues: defining forms, sources of sanctity, rules of access and boundaries, and contexts and uses of biblical sacred space. The exploration also includes consideration of the distinctive intentions of various biblical writers and their perspectives on geographical and spatial realities.

Cette étude propose l’analyse de la figure et des mécanismes de l’imposture dans l’oeuvre romanesque deGeorges Bernanos, dans son lien de contradiction ontologique et d’imitation factice avec la figure et lephénomène de la sainteté. Elle est conduite en trois axes. Le premier tente de dégager ce qui, dans sonitinéraire personnel, a déterminé Bernanos à faire de ces deux thèmes à la fois solidaires et contradictoiresun sujet de roman récurrent, sinon obsédant. Le second prolonge l’étude biographique par un commentairesur la genèse de l’oeuvre en lien intrinsèque avec les deux figures, autrement dit, sur l’élaborationprogressive des deux thèmes, telle qu’elle se dégage des premiers travaux d’écriture et d’inventionromanesques. Le troisième axe se penche plus manifestement sur la réalité et les mécanismes del’imposture, tels que les dévoilent les personnages bernanosiens, particulièrement celui de Mouchette dontle parcours dans Sous le soleil de Satan est typique, annonçant et préfigurant les autres parcoursd’imposteurs de l’oeuvre (particulièrement ceux de l’abbé Cénabre, du faux curé de Mégère et de M.Ouine), puis celui du diable lui-même, menteur et père du mensonge selon le verset de l’Evangile auquelle romancier se réfère, et dont la figuration dans son premier roman représente ce qui constitue finalement,à ses yeux, la seule imposture totale, surnaturelle. / This study offers an analysis of the fraud figure and mechanism in Georges Bernanos’ fiction as it islinked in both contradictory and imitative way with sanctity figure and phenomenon. It is handled by threeaxes. The first axe tries to highlight the reason why, through his personal career, Bernanos decides to usethese two themes, both interdependent and opposed, as a recurring if not obsessive fiction subject. Thesecond axe stretches the biography by a comment on the genesis of his works, essentially linked to the twofigures, in other words, on the development of these two themes, as it appears in his first written worksand fictions. The third axe favours fraud reality and mechanism as Bernanos characters may reveal, mostdistinctively Mouchette, whose path in Sous le soleil de Satan is characteristically announcing the otherimpostors’ paths : in particular those of Abbé Cénabre, the fake priest of Mégère and M. Ouine. Then, thepath of the devil himself, liar and father of lies, following the Gospel verse, which the author is referringto, and whose representation in his first fiction, appears to be the only total supernatural imposture.

This article sheds light on the indirect influence exercised by the Inquisition on the process of beatification of the «servant of God» Nicolas de Ayllon. Through the analysis of his hagiography, written by the Jesuit Bernardo Sartolo, this article will highlight the importance that this literary genre had in the process of establishing his reputation for sanctity. Furthermore, this article examines how the intervention of the Holy Office, which questioned the hagiography and the main witness of the process, Maria Jacinta de Montoya, cast many doubt son the image of the sanctity of Nicolas. The examination led to the discrediting of his reputation as a candidate for sainthood and the suspension of the process. / Este artículo explica la influencia indirecta que la Inquisición ejerció en el proceso de beatificación de Nicolás de Ayllón, el «siervo de Dios». Por medio del análisis de su hagiografía, escrita por el jesuita Bernardo Sartolo, se conocerá la importancia que dicho género tuvo dentro del proceso de consolidación de la fama de santidad de Ayllón. Asimismo, se estudiará cómo la intervención que el Santo Oficio ejerció sobre la hagiografía y la principal testigo del proceso, María Jacinta de Montoya, generó una serie de cuestionamientos en la imagen de santidad de Nicolás, lo cual derivó en un desprestigio a su reputación como candidato a santo y la suspensión del proceso que buscaba exaltarlo a los altares.

This paper describes how everyday muslims with no formal (or weak) affiliation to sufi brotherhoods in Upper Egypt practice and relate to sufism as a grand scheme or larger islamic tradition. The thesis highlights the importance of islamic sainthood in everyday religion, whereby the saintly dead are regarded as acting intermediaries between the divine and the worldly realms. Saints, holy people and blessed places are given agency through divine blessings, thus allowing villagers to partake in a larger islamic tradition through the mediation of– or cult connected to saints. This paper intends to demonstrate that an islamic concept of sanctity in muslim environments does not only exist historically, but is central to the contemporary religious landscape of Upper Egypt.

Cette thèse tente de répondre à deux questions principales : qui est le saint pour Péguy, et qu’est-ce que le saint, chez Péguy, fait au monde. Dans la première partie la réflexion est axée sur les saints (reconnus comme tels par l’Église), par, ainsi que les « saints » (selon un procédé de mise en relief littéraire, propre à Péguy) qui apparaissent dans les œuvres de Péguy. Nous tâchons d’y répondre à la question : qui est saint chez Péguy, qu’est-ce qui, selon cet auteur, fait d’un homme un saint, un Juste ? Péguy parle de figures d’exemplarité et réfléchit sur ses formes possibles : l’héroïsme, la sainteté, le génie. Il a sa propre liste de vertus (ce qui fait d’un homme un saint) qui sont parfois différentes des vertus traditionnellement attribuées aux saints catholiques. L’impact de son cheminement vers la foi sur sa philosophie de l’histoire mène Péguy vers un questionnement sur la sainteté même. C’est pourquoi la deuxième partie de cette thèse cherche la réponse à la question : que fait le saint au monde, dans le monde, pour le monde, comment le saint chez Péguy change le monde ? Il s’agit en somme de cerner le rôle de la sainteté dans le monde, y compris en tant que concept éthique revisité. Nous nous penchons aussi sur le ou les rôles que Péguy attribue au saint dans la société : solitaire parce que différent des autres humains, solidaire parce qu’agissant dans ce monde dans lequel il poursuit l’œuvre de l’Incarnation / The thesis aims at answering two main questions: Who is a saint from the point of view of Péguy. What does a saint do in the world.In the first part, the author approaches a set of questions: who is a saint? what makes a person saint or just for Péguy? To answer this, the author analyses the examples of saints in the works of Péguy, considering not only the saints recognised by church, but equally saints, specific to Péguy.Péguy portray saints as models for imitation, and he examines a diversity of forms these models could take: a saint, a hero, a genius. These «saint» created by Péguy possess a number of «virtues», sometimes radically different to those traditionally attributed to saints which makes them saint from the point of view of Péguy. Since the saint for Péguy is presented in direct connection with the world he lives in, the second part of the thesis answers the questions: what does a saint does in the world, for the the world, with the world. How a saint’s activity changes the world? In this part of the thesis, we approach the definition of the role of the sanctity in the world as imagined by Péguy. Péguy attributes two roles to a saint in the society: solitude and solidarity. A saint is lonely, because he is different from other human beings, but at the same time, a saint is united with the world in acting in the world in order to convey the incarnation, the embodiment of God in this world.For Péguy sanctity reveals itself as the new ethics instrumental in the construction of a new, harmonious city, which Péguy tries to build throughout his writings. This new ethics is supposed to revolutionise the current world, changing both morale and social paradigms