The purpose of this work is to detect a pattern: the concordance of Ethics and Aesthetics, Poetics and Politics in the most influential American thinker of the nineteenth century. It is an attempt to trace a basic concept of the Emersonian transcendentalist doctrine, its development, its philosophical meaning and practical implications. Emerson’s thought is analyzed genetically in search of the generating paradigm, or the set of axioms from which his aesthetic ideas as well as his political reasoning are derived. Such a basic structure, or point of convergence, is sought in the emergence of Emerson’s idea of universal laws that repeat themselves on all levels of reality. A general introduction is given in Part One, where the crisis in Emerson’s life is seen as representing and foreshadowing the deeper existential crisis of modern man. In Part 2 we follow the increasingly skeptical theologian’s turn to science, where he tries to secure a safe secular foundation for ethical good and right and to solve the problem of evil. Part 3 shows how Emerson’s conception of the laws of nature and ethics is applied in his political philosophy. In Part 4, Emerson’s ideas of the arts are seen as corresponding to his views of nature, morality, and individuality. Finally, in Part 5, the ancient and classical nature of Concord philosophy is brought into focus. The book concludes with a short summary.

La réforme et l’harmonisation du droit des sûretés mobilières sont à l’ordre du jour de plusieurs organisations internationales, car il est admis qu’un régime de sûretés efficient favorise l’accès au crédit à de faibles coûts. L’harmonisation de ce droit comporte deux volets. D’une part, dans l’Occident industrialisé, les efforts d’harmonisation vont de la réforme des droits internes à l’établissement de régimes spéciaux relativement à des biens spécifiques (principalement les biens mobiles de grande valeur, tels les aéronefs, le matériel ferroviaire roulant et les satellites, et les biens incorporels, comprenant les créances, valeurs mobilières, actifs financiers et titres intermédiés). Ces efforts d’harmonisation démontrent que d’un point de vue systémique, malgré quelques différences notables, les régimes nord-américains et européens sont fondés sur des principes similaires et atteignent des résultats comparables. En résulte l’émergence d’un ordre juridique transnational en droit des sûretés mobilières, fondé sur les principes de la primauté de l’individu et la reconnaissance du droit de propriété de l’individu dans ses biens, mis en œuvre grâce à l’État de droit. D’autre part, les institutions financières internationales encouragent l’établissement de régimes de sûretés dans les pays en voie de développement qui obéissent aux mêmes critères que ceux de l’Occident, en insistant sur les réformes institutionnelles et juridiques visant l’établissement d’une bonne gouvernance et l’État de droit. Cependant, une transposition des régimes occidentaux ne peut se faire sans heurts dans les pays en voie de développement, notamment pour des raisons socio-culturelles et politiques. Lorsque les principes de la primauté de l’individu, de la propriété individuelle et de l’État de droit ne sont pas reconnus dans un pays donné, la réforme et l’harmonisation du droit des sûretés s’en trouvent compromis. La démonstration de l’état d’avancement de la réforme et de l’harmonisation du droit des sûretés dans les pays occidentaux industrialisés est faite grâce à une comparaison du Uniform Commercial Code, du Code civil du Québec, des Personal Property Security Acts des provinces canadiennes de common law, des principes des droits français et anglais, de l’influence du droit communautaire sur les pays membres de l’Union Européenne. Sont analysés, aussi, dans cette optique, les principaux instruments de l’harmonisation du droit émanant des organisations internationales. Par ailleurs, deux études de cas relatifs à la réforme du crédit foncier en Égypte et à la réforme de l’urbanisme et de l’habitat en République démocratique du Congo, viennent étayer les difficultés que rencontrent les institutions internationales, telles la Banque mondiale et l’ACDI, dans le cadre de projets de réformes visant la bonne gouvernance et l’instauration d’un véritable État de droit, en partie à cause d’un pluralisme des ordres juridiques de ces pays. / The reform and harmonization of secured transactions on movable (or personal) property is fostered by international organizations, on the assumption that an efficient regime of secured transactions will give access to affordable credit to a large number of persons and corporations. Such reform and harmonization process can be explained according to its two main features. Firstly, in Western and developped countries, the focus is on endeavours to harmonize the various regimes internally and to establish special regimes with respect to specific assets (for instance, high value mobile equipment, such as aircrafts, rolling stock or satellites, on the one hand, or incorporeal property, including securities, financial assets or security entitlements, on the other hand). Even though some differences remains from a systemic point of view, north american and european regimes are based on similar principles and achieve comparable results. It is therefore possible to see the emergence of a transnational legal order in the law of secured transactions, based on individuals and the enforcement of their rights of ownership, ascertained by the Rule of Law principle. Secondly, international financial institutions are encouraging the implementation of secured transactions regimes in developing countries along the same criteria as those used in Western developed countries, in the context of institutional and legal reforms under governance and rule of law projects. However, Western regimes must be adapted and customized before they are transplanted into a developing country. Indeed, for socio-cultural and political reasons, it is not possible to establish the same kind of regime therein. When individual rights and freedoms, including the right of ownership and the Rule of Law, are not recognized, the reform and harmonization of secured transactions is not likely to happen. The status of advancement of the reform and harmonization of secured transactions in the developed world is illustrated by a comparison between the Uniform Commercial Code, the Civil Code of Québec, the Personal Property Security Acts of canadian common law provinces, the applicable principles under both French and English Law, and the influence of European Law on its member states. An analysis of the main harmonization instruments proposed by international organizations is also conducted. Finally, the pitfalls of governance and rule of law reform projects are well described by two case studies. The first one deals with real estate and mortgage law reforms in Egypt, with a goal to encourage affordable access to housing; the second one is about urban planing and housing reforms in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The existence of a multiplicity of legal orders in these countries explains the difficulties encountered in such reform processes.

Within the Surinamese jurisdiction the Constitution grants women the right to health and imposes a legal duty on the state to facilitate the realization of this right. Also treaty law, in particular, the ICESCR article 12 and the CEDAW article 12 grant women the right to the highest attainable standard of health and the right to non-discriminatory access to healthcare. But due to the criminal law applicable to abortion women lack non-discriminatory access to reproductive healthcare and therefore do not enjoy the highest attainable standard of pregnancy related health. Despite its decision not to enforce the abortion prohibiting criminal laws, Suriname remains in a state of failure to comply with its legal duties as imposed by the Constitution and treaty law. This, due to the state’s reluctance to repeal the criminal laws on abortion and its failure to enact effective health regulations to facilitate women in need of an abortion.

Within the Surinamese jurisdiction the Constitution grants women the right to health and imposes a legal duty on the state to facilitate the realization of this right. Also treaty law, in particular, the ICESCR article 12 and the CEDAW article 12 grant women the right to the highest attainable standard of health and the right to non-discriminatory access to healthcare. But due to the criminal law applicable to abortion women lack non-discriminatory access to reproductive healthcare and therefore do not enjoy the highest attainable standard of pregnancy related health. Despite its decision not to enforce the abortion prohibiting criminal laws, Suriname remains in a state of failure to comply with its legal duties as imposed by the Constitution and treaty law. This, due to the state’s reluctance to repeal the criminal laws on abortion and its failure to enact effective health regulations to facilitate women in need of an abortion.

The impact of the law on the lives of homeless people in Queensland has, to date, remained largely unexplored by legal academics and researchers. This is despite the fact that homeless people experience a number of legal difficulties that seriously affect their lives. This thesis by published papers aims to make a significant and original contribution to filling this gap in the research evidence by presenting the results of analyses of the legal, theoretical and practical issues that arise in the context of homeless persons' interactions with the legal system in Queensland. Most notably, it is comprised of three pieces of empirical research which identify those areas of law that impact most on homeless people in Queensland and explore the consequences of the operation of these laws on their lives. In sum, this thesis examines the extent of the law's influence on the lives of homeless people in Queensland, and finds that the consequences of the law's operation on homeless people in Queensland are serious. The thesis first examines the effect on Queensland's homeless people of laws which regulate behaviour conducted in public space. The criminal offences of vagrancy, begging and public nuisance are analysed; their historical origins, the reasons for their retention on modern statute books, and arguments in favour of their repeal are discussed. The impact of 'public space law' on homeless people in Queensland is also explored through a survey of 30 homeless people residing in inner-city Brisbane. This part of the thesis concludes that public space law in Queensland results in breaches of homeless persons' human rights, as well as the contravention of rule of law principles. The thesis then explores the impact of the law on homeless persons' experiences of citizenship. Empirical research and theoretical analysis demonstrate that the application of various laws, particularly public space laws, social security laws and electoral laws, encroaches on homeless persons' citizenship rights. The thesis then reports on the results of a unique survey of Queensland's homelessness service providers. This survey is the most extensive piece of empirical research ever conducted on the extent to which various laws impact on homeless people. Respondents were asked to indicate which areas of law impact most adversely on their homeless clients. Based on the research findings outlined above, the hypothesis was that criminal law issues, particularly public space offences, would be proven to impact particularly adversely on homeless people in Queensland. Somewhat unexpectedly, the findings of the survey indicated that fines law, debt law and family law difficulties are those legal difficulties most often encountered by homeless people in Queensland. Difficulties produced by criminal laws, social security laws and electoral laws, while still generally relevant, rated less highly. However, the survey did demonstrate that experiences differ between sub-groups within the homeless population, for example Indigenous homeless people were reported to be most affected by criminal law issues, while young homeless people were reported to be most affected by social security law issues. Together, the five papers which comprise this thesis make an original and substantial contribution to knowledge by identifying empirically for the first time the various laws that have a significant impact on the lives of homeless people in Queensland, and analysing the consequences of this in terms of their effect on homeless persons' citizenship rights, human rights and rule of law entitlements.

Par l’arrêt Pla et Puncernau contre Andorre du 13 juillet 2004, la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme a fait une entrée remarquée dans le contrôle de l’interprétation des actes juridiques privés. Tenante d’une conception réaliste du droit, elle a élaboré des Principes européens d’interprétation qui sont autant d’obligations qui pèsent sur le juge national. La CJUE partage en grande partie ces principes, mais possède ses particularités et hésite encore à s’aligner sur le contrôle du juge de Strasbourg. Le juge français est quant à lui confronté à des directives d’interprétation qui sont de simples conseils, tandis que la Cour de cassation se refuse à opérer un autre contrôle que celui de la dénaturation. Dès lors, elle n’est pas en mesure de redresser les fautes commises par les juges du fond notamment, et encourt le risque d’engager la responsabilité de l’Etat français devant la Cour EDH. Si la Cour de cassation a entamé une réflexion sur la façon de rendre la justice en coordination avec les cours européennes, la modification du système herméneutique français se heurte à de nombreux obstacles révélateurs de la conception traditionnelle du droit français des obligations. / With the case of Pla and Puncernau versus Andorra on 13 July 2004, the European Court of Human Rights has made a dramatic entrance in the supervision of the interpretation of private contracts. Defending a realist conception of law, it developed European Principles of interpretation, which are obligations for national courts. The CJEU largely shares these principles, but has its particularities and it is still reluctant to align with the Strasbourg Court’s supervision. The French judge is itself faced with interpretive guidelines that are simple advice, while the Court of Cassation refused to operate another supervision than the denaturation. Therefore, it is not able to correct the errors committed by the trial judges in particular, and takes the risk to commit a violation of the European law. If the Supreme Court considers by now how to deliver justice in coordination with the European courts, changing the French hermeneutic system faces many obstacles revealing the traditional conception of French law of obligations.

Constitutionalizaton of Law’s different areas is a phenomenon gradually more ingrained in our cultural and legal framework. Maybe the best demonstration is the increasingly prominent role of the Constitutional Court (TC) – Constitution’s Supreme Interpreter – in defining and redefining concepts, rights and legal principles touching a range of subjects, from TaxLaw to Human Rights. This is relevant to understand the Law and its current effects whether it is valued positively or negatively. / La constitucionalización de las distintas áreas del Derecho es un fenómeno cada vez más arraigado en nuestra cultura y contexto jurídicos. Tal vez la forma más evidente en que se haya manifestado sea el creciente protagonismo del Tribunal Constitucional (TC), supremo intérprete de la Constitución, en la significación y resignificación de conceptos, derechos y principios jurídicos que, a través de sus sentencias, han afectado desde el derecho tributario hasta los derechos humanos. Sea que esto se valore positiva o negativamente, su relevancia para comprender el derecho y sus efectos en la actualidad es innegable.

The traditional model of initial training of judges in Spain and in other countries has been focused, and is still focused, on the mechanical digestion of a pile of stereotyped notions related to several legal subjects.This knowledge is presented with no references to specific legal disputes and does not meet at all, neither the profile of modern complex constitutional legal systems consisting of several levels, internally changing and conflicting; nor the practice of those systems. It does correspond, however, the historical model of the Napoleonic judge, who tends to act as a mechanical enforcer of the law and the longa manu of the real power rather than guardian of the citizens’ basic rights. The alternative to this kind of judicial training would be a system of training incorporating a high quality operative knowledge of the positive law actually in force, together with a theoretical-philosophical training in line with the suggestions made by Manuel Sacristán of «a level of exercise of thinking» based on the specific field and activity inherent to that group of legal practitioners. / El modelo tradicional de formación inicial de jueces para el desempeño del rol, en España, pero no solo, se ha cifrado y se cifra en la asimilación mecánica de todo un cúmulo de nociones estereotipadas relativas a las diversas disciplinas. Se trata de un bagaje que, por su carácter desproblematizador, no se ajusta en absoluto al perfil de los modernos ordenamientos constitucionales complejos, dotados de distintos niveles y, con frecuencia, internamente conflictivos y cambiantes; y menos a su práctica.Pero responde, en cambio, al histórico tipo de juez del modelo napoleónico, longa manu del poder en acto más que garante de derechos, tendencial aplicador mecánico. La alternativa a esta clase de formación estaría en otra que incorporase a un buen conocimiento operativo del derecho positivo en su ser actual y realmente vigente, una formación teórico-filosófica en la línea sugerida una vez por Manuel Sacristán, como «un nivel de ejercicio del pensamiento» a partir de y sobre el específico campo temático y de la actividad propia de tal clase de operadores.

The legal historical development of fairness in the South African common law of contract is investigated in the context of the political, social and economic developments of the last four centuries. It emerges that the common law of contract is still dominated by the ideologies of individualism and economic liberalism which were imported from English law during the nineteenth century. Together with the theories of legal positivism and formalism which are closely related to parliamentary sovereignty and the classical rule of law, these ideals were transposed into the common law of contract through the classical model of contract law which emphasises freedom and sanctity of contract and promotes legal certainty. This approach resulted in the negation of the court’s equitable discretion and the limitation of good faith which sustain the social and economic inequalities that were created under colonialism and exacerbated under apartheid rule. In stark contrast, the modern human rights culture grounded in human dignity and aimed at the promotion of substantive equality led to the introduction of modern contract theory in other parts of the world. The introduction of the Constitution as grounded in human dignity and aimed at the achievement of substantive equality has resulted in a sophisticated jurisprudence on human dignity that reflects a harmonisation between its Western conception as based on Kantian dignity and ubuntu which provides an African understanding thereof. In this respect, ubuntu plays an important role in infusing the common law of contract with African values and in promoting substantive equality between contracting parties in line with modern contract theory. It is submitted that this approach to human dignity should result in the development of good faith into a substantive rule of the common law of contract which can be used to set aside an unfair contract term or the unfair enforcement thereof. / Private Law / LL. D.

For the past two decades, statebuilding has been the object of a growing attention from practitioners and scholars alike. ‘International statebuilding’, as its dominant approach or model guiding the practices of national and international actors, has sparked numerous discussions and debates, mostly around its effectiveness (i.e. if it works) and deficiencies (i.e. why it often fails). Surprisingly, little efforts have been made to investigate what international statebuilding, in the multiple ways it is mobilized by various actors, actually produces on the political dynamics of the ‘fragile’ contexts it is supposed to support and reinforce. Using an instrumentation perspective, this dissertation addresses this gap by exploring the relationship between the micro-dynamics of the uses of international statebuilding instruments and the fragility of contexts. This exploration is articulated around five essays and as many angles to this relationship. Using the case of Hamas, Essay I explores the European Union’s (EU) terrorist labelling policy by questioning the nature and modalities of the enlisting process, its use as foreign policy tool and its consequences on its other agendas, especially its international statebuilding efforts in Palestine. Essay II examines a Belgian good governance incentive mechanism and sheds the light on the tension between the claimed apolitical and objective nature of the instrument and the politicization potential embedded in its design and modalities, naturally leading to a convoluted implementation. Essay III analyses the localization dynamics of transitional justice in Burundi and unveils the nature, diversity and rationale behind transitional justice subversion techniques mobilized by national and international actors, which have produced a triple form of injustice. Essay IV widens this scope in Burundi, developing the argument that the authoritarian trend observed in the 2010-2015 period did not only occur against international statebuilding but also through self-reinforcing subversion tactics of its appropriation. Finally, essay V deepens the reflection on appropriation by attempting to build a theory of regime consolidation through international statebuilding subversion tactics. Overall, the incremental theory building reflection of the essays converges towards the assembling of a comprehensive framework of the in-betweens of the normative diffusion of liberal democracy, the inner-workings of its operationalization through the resort to the international statebuilding instrument and the intermediary constraints or objectives of actors not only interfering with its genuine realization but also contributing to its antipode of regime consolidation, conflict dynamics and authoritarianism. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished