La protection internationale des investissements étrangers dans la Communauté Économique des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (CEDEAO) suppose d’établir la compétence de celle-ci à assurer une sécurisation des biens des opérateurs économiques ressortissants d’Etats tiers dans son espace. Ainsi, il a été démontré que, par le biais de ses instruments de réalisation de l’intégration régionale, cette organisation communautaire pourrait être amenée à assurer une sécurisation des investissements étrangers. Mais, quoique fusse grande la volonté de la CEDEAO d’assumer une telle fonction, l’analyse démontre qu’elle présente certaines insuffisances qui sont intrinsèquement liées à la différence de nature entre le droit communautaire et le droit conventionnel des investissements. Face à ce constat, il urgeait de trouver d’autres instruments supplétifs, voire complémentaires dans la protection communautaire des investissements étrangers. Ces dits instruments ont été localisés dans le droit international général, tant à travers ses règles substantielles que ses mécanismes procéduraux. Cependant, si la protection que procure le droit de la CEDEAO sur les biens des investisseurs étrangers a été jugée inefficace, celle du droit international, en revanche, semble excessive au point d’être préjudiciable aux Etats hôtes, si tant qu’elle nécessite un nivellement. À l’examen, l’observateur pourrait avoir la sensation qu’il existe un bras de fer entre le droit international et le droit communautaire dans la sécurisation des biens des opérateurs économiques étrangers. Cet observateur constatera ensuite que le droit de la protection des étrangers entre dans une nouvelle ère. En effet, longtemps limitée dans le cadre bilatéral entre Etat d’origine et Etat d’accueil de l’investissement, la problématique de la sécurisation des investissements étrangers a acquis une telle acuité dans la vie économique des entités étatiques qu’elle tend à devenir une affaire de communauté. Il se rendra, enfin, surtout compte que, si le droit conventionnel des investissements a pour visée la protection des étrangers, il peut, à certains égards, constituer un stimulant à la bonne gouvernance. / The international protection of foreign Investments within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) requires establishing the competence of the latter to ensure the security of the property of economic operators who are nationals of third States in its area. Thus, it has been shown that through its instruments for achieving regional integration, this community organization could be led to ensure the security of foreign investments. But, although ECOWAS’s willingness to assume such a function is great, the analysis shows that it has certain shortcomings which are intrinsically linked to the difference in nature between Community law and the Conventional law of investment. In this view, it was urgent to find other supplementary and even complementary instruments in the community protection of foreign investments within the community. These instruments have been localized in General International Law both through its substantive rules as in its procedural mechanics. However, while the protection afforded by ECOWAS law to the properties of foreign investors has been found to be ineffective, that of the international law, on the other hand, seems excessive to the point of being detrimental to host States, as long as it requires leveling. On examination, the observer might have the feeling that there is a tug of war between International law and Community law in securing the assets of foreign economic operators. This observer will then note that the law of the protection of foreigners enters a new era. Indeed, for a long time limited in the bilateral framework between the State of origin and the host States of the investment, the issue of securing foreign investments has acquired such acuity in the economic life of the State entities that it is tends to become a community affair. Finally, i twill be appreciated that, while the purpose of conventional investment law is the protection of foreigners, it may, in some respects, be a stimulus to good governance.

[pt] Esta dissertação de mestrado, ao longo de quatro capítulos, busca demonstrar como a Amazônia foi impactada e transformada por projetos de integração regional que, por meio do protagonismo do Estado brasileiro, se processou tanto na dimensão nacional quanto na internacional. O resultado foi a integração completa de toda região amazônica aos imperativos, preceitos, demandas e interesses do capitalismo global. Procuramos também sustentar a premissa teórica que globalização e capitalismo global são sinônimos e que sua expansão depende da atuação direta do Estado para se realizar no território, tornando-se uma forte variável para a definição das características gerais de uma região. / [en] This MSc dissertation, through four chapters, sought to demonstrate how the Amazon was impacted and transformed by projects of regional integration that, through the protagonism of the Brazilian State, was processed both in the domestic and international dimension. The outcome was the complete integration of all Amazon region to the imperatives, assumptions, demands and interests of global capitalism. We also sought to sustain the theoretical assumption that globalization and global capitalism are synonym and that their expansion depends on the direct agency of the State to be a territorialized reality.

This research paper addresses the issue whether cryptocurrencies are protected investments under  bilateral investment treaties (BITs). Through BITs a host state has a responsibility to protect the investments of the nationals of the other contracting state to the treaty. This governing relationship however may introduce several requirements for an investment to comply with, such as territorial links, the use of language under BITs compliance requirements. With this, cryptocurrencies being a new of age asset class may find several future hurdles in qualifying as an investment under BITs. Especially with the on-going confusion on an international scale in regulating and defining cryptocurrencies.  In determining the afore-mentioned requirements, this research paper first identified a cryptocurrency and a comparison was first made in regards to money. Then, the research paper proceeded in comparing a cryptocurrency with the characteristics of digital assets. Followed by a general approach to the meaning of investment and an analysis to the definition of investment through past approaches taken by arbitral tribunals. Therefore, finally leading in deciding whether cryptocurrencies will qualify as an investment under BITs.

This thesis models trade flows between countries as a function of several variables, including those representing membership in multilateral trade agreements (MTAs). The objective of this research is to evaluate the impact of trade policies, trading costs, trade agreements and other demographic characteristics on exports of food and agriculture products. More specifically, the paper uses a gravity model augmented with three sets of dummy variables to estimate the impact of 13 trade arrangements on intra-bloc and extra-bloc trade. Results indicate that several MTAs enhance intra-bloc trading at the expense of non-members while others have been successful at increasing both intra-bloc trade and trade with the rest of the world. Findings further suggest that several arrangements had no significant effect on member trading and that a few have effectively reduced trade for members.

<p>Previous research has analyzed a range of domestic stakeholders that make national governments’ commitments to international human rights treaties credible, including independent judiciary, legislative veto players, political opposition groups, and non-governmental organizations. But how does the power dynamics within the government affect state compliance with human rights treaties? In this study, I focus on the effect of the central-local governmental structure. My focus on the central-local governmental relations builds on the basic understanding that international human rights norms need to pass through domestic political and administrative processes before they can be implemented on the ground. I argue that a decentralized state in which local authorities enjoy more discretion in local matters is less likely to comply with human rights treaties because decentralization (1) hinders the top-down diffusion of human rights norms between different governmental tiers, (2) creates a great number of local agents that are not subject to pressure from the international society, and (3) enables the central government to deflect international criticism by shifting blame for human rights abuses to local officials. To test my theoretical expectation, I use a mixed methods approach to analyze variation at both the national and subnational levels. I first conduct cross-national analyses of the impact of governmental decentralization on state compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the United Nations Convention Against Torture. I then use qualitative and quantitative methods to conduct subnational analyses of China and US compliance with international human rights treaties. Complementary streams of quantitative and qualitative evidence from cross-national and within-country analyses suggest that higher levels of decentralization reduce state compliance with international human rights treaties. A practical implication of my research is that failing to hold local authorities accountable creates a mismatch between promoting political accountability and advancing human rights.</p>

This thesis puts the European Union’s (EU) normative power in a historical context and combines it with EU’s development of social goals and measures surrounding the turn of the twenty-first century. This provides social normative power to be central phenomenon. The development of EU’s social normative power is analyzed through its founding Treaties. It shows how this development leads to the construction of the European Constitution in the beginning of the twenty-first century. This treaty got rejected by the Netherlands through a national referendum, but was reused almost in its entirety in the Lisbon Treaty only a few years later. Since the development of social normative power and these controversial events have taken place in the same period, the connection between the two is examined. This is done by focusing on the national debate in the Netherlands during the period of the European Constitution and the Lisbon Treaty through newspaper articles that were published at that time. It is researched how social normative power influenced Dutch national debate during the indicated period. This research will show that EU’s social normative power made the lack of democratic capacity of the EU more visible for Dutch citizens and that it contributed to a negative attitude towards the EU.

The aim of the Master thesis Liberal intergovernmentalism: The role of small states in the European integration process is to test the applicability of the theory of Liberal intergovernmentalism to cases of small Member States of the European integration. Furthermore, the thesis aims to clarify the role of this states in the evolution of the European integrative cooperation. In order to reach the research objectives, the thesis uses case studies of Belgium and the Netherlands and it examines their motives and behaviour during the negotiation of treaties of the European primary legislation. The thesis is divided into chapters based on a chronological succession. Each chapter describes a time period before one of the treaties of the primary legislation, from the foundation of the European Economic Community until the signing of the Treaty of Amsterdam. The chapters deal with the motivation of small states for new negotiations and their claims in concrete areas of diplomacy. These claims are further compared with results of the negotiations in the context of the significance of the arranged agenda. The final part of the thesis compares the negotiating power of small and large Member States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, taking into account the most significant issues of the agenda. The...

Analysing the three existing water treaties between Iraq and Turkey from 1946,2009 and 2019, this research aimed to answer the research question: How are thethree water treaties between Iraq and Turkey linguistically formulated in regard tothe theories on water cooperation? This research question was addressed throughapplying Discourse Analysis I in accordance with Gillian Rose’s approach andsupported by an analytical framework containing four stages, built on the theorieson water cooperation and further supported by Galtung's theory on positive peace.Results of the research showed that the water treaties to a very low extent wereformulated in regard to the theories on water cooperation and of nine differentthemes identified in the water treaties, three themes were directly related to thetheories. The 1946 water treaty did through the themes Unification, Commonself-identity & Solidarity succeed in addressing a part of the theories on watercooperation through reaching stage B of the analytical framework. While thewater treaties from 2009 and 2019 both did almost thoroughly fail in formulatingthe treaties in regards to those theories. Additionally the discourses identified inthe treaties did concerne two main topics; threats and risks, and the relationshipand representation of the relationship between Iraq and Turkey.

This thesis explores a recent innovation in First Nations health, the formation of Canada's First provincial-wide First Nations Health Authority (FNHA). Analyzing this service model against Indigenous assertions of a Treaty Right to Health expressed in the Numbered Treaties, I argue that the realizations of the Treaty Right to Health cannot solely be met under neoliberal models of increased Indigenous capacity in health care service administration. I assert that these models of devolution do not enable Treaty First Nations to achieve Indigenous self-determination in accordance with Treaty rights, relationships and responsibilities. The current discourse on First Nations health care only minimally accounts for the Treaty Right to Health, and where it does, it is devoid of Indigenous understandings of a Treaty Right to Health that encompasses access to healthy lands, waters, and livelihood for an achievement of holistic wellness. Mobilizing an Indigenous auto ethnographic approach which accounts for my own embodied positionally, this thesis problematizes the exclusion of holistic visions of health and well-being against settler governments' orientations toward a neoliberalized health care system. This thesis extends a comparative analytical lens to the political mobilizations of Indigenous advocacy bodies in the province of British Columbia, whose efforts under the New Relationship paradigm in Indigenous-state relations has resulted in an unprecedented practice of health care devolution. / Graduate

Ce travail a pour but de faire la synthèse de la notion d'indépendance en Grèce à l'époque classique. Cette notion est étroitement liée à celle des relations internationales dans le monde grec aux Ve et IVe siècles av. J.-C., parce qu'il y existait presque un millier de poleis (cités), dont la plupart de petite taille. Dans ce travail, on se propose d'étudier le terme autonomia, qui désigne une telle indépendance, et selon le cas, le terme eleutheria (liberté), mais l'emploi du mot autonomia est plus juste. Les sources littéraires et historiques, et les documents épigraphiques contemporains apportent des témoignages précieux pour éclairer la notion d'indépendance à cette époque-là.La première partie de la thèse étudie la naissance de la notion d'autonomia au Ve siècle av J.-C. par l'analyse détaillée des sources littéraires (Hérodote, Thucydide, Hippocrate, Sophocle et Cratinos) et des documents épigraphiques. La seconde partie est consacrée à sa progressive définition juridique au cours du IVe siècle av J.-C. Andocide est le premier à associer, du point de vue juridique, l'autonomia aux synthekai, qui désignent souvent les traités internationaux, bilatéraux ou multilatéraux dans les relations internationales. Mais c'est Isocrate qui bâtit la théorie autonomia-synthekai : " L'autonomia des cités est garantie par des synthekai sur le plan intenational". Isocrate développe ses idées sur l'autonomia à chaque fois que la nouvelle paix commune est conclue. Avec le mot horkoi (serments), les synthekai pourraient entrer plus en vigueur en droit international en Grèce ancienne. / This study aims at the synthesis on the notion of independence in classical Greece, considering that there was a close relation between the notion of state-independence and the international relations among the nearly thousand poleis (cities) whose majority were quite small. In this thesis, I use the word autonomia which could mean independence, and we can also use the word eleutheria (freedom) as the case may be, but the word autonomia is more appropriate. So I study the notion of autonomia of the Greek cities during the fifth century BC by the detailed analysis of the literary sources (Herodotus, Thucydides, Hippocrates, Sophocles et Cratinus) and of the historical inscriptions . Secondly, my thesis intends to demonstrate the progressive legal definition of the Greek concept of autonomia during the fourth century BC. Andocides is the first to connect, from the juridical point of view, autonomia with the synthekai, which often signify the bilateral or multilateral treaties in the international relations. But it is Isocrates who constructs the autonomia-synthekai theory : “Autonomia of the cities is guaranteed internationally by the synthekai”. Isocrates develops his ideas on autonomia whenever the common peace is newly concluded. Oaths played an important role in the international treaties, namely in terms of international law in classical Greece.