This thesis is concerned with the legal shortcomings flowing from Manchester City Council v Pinnock.1 Following Pinnock tenants of local authorities may have the proportionality of a possession order considered by the court in light of art.8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998. However, there are questions outstanding from Pinnock. Firstly, there has been a failure within the courts to appreciate the importance of the home to the individual, their family, and society in general. Secondly, domestic courts have not provided adequate reasons for limiting art.8 to proceedings involving a local authority. Thirdly, the nature of proportionality within possession proceedings has been poorly conceived thereby marginalising art.8’s effects. This thesis draws support from philosophical and sociological literature to illustrate the deep connection a person feels towards their home. These connections exist irrespective of ownership yet it is these non-legal interests which are often overlooked by the courts. It is argued here that art.8 may protect these non-legal interests. Further, this thesis questions why art.8’s protection ought to be limited to proceedings involving a public sector landlord. The thesis provides an overview of the competing theories concerning horizontal effect and their related shortcomings. The work of Alexy is used to argue that horizontal effect is a singular phenomenon thereby making art.8 applicable in private proceedings. The public/private divide is then critiqued to demonstrate the theoretical viability of horizontal effect where a person’s home is at risk. The final strand of this thesis is concerned with how the competing interests of landlords and tenants may be adjudged. To this end a structured proportionality model is developed to replace the general proportionality exercise utilised by the courts following Pinnock. This proportionality model is then applied to existing case law to demonstrate its viability and context sensitivity.

This thesis is concerned with the conflict of laws surrounding marriage validity, with a particular focus on essential validity. At present in England, there is a multitude of choice of law rules available to the courts when determining the applicable law, and no way of knowing which will be applied. Consequently, it is difficult for a couple to know whether their marriage is valid, and complications eschew from this. In addition to any emotional impact a finding of invalidity might have, there is the potential for significant legal consequences. With these embryonic legal ramifications in mind, this thesis seeks to create optimal choice of law rules that are both appropriate, and provide certainty. In doing so, support is drawn from various literary sources to promulgate a dépeçage based interest analysis approach. This means that rules are selected for each of the incapacities, taking into account the relevant policy objectives they raise, making the optimal choice of law rules policy sensitive in nature. Furthermore, a new and original choice of law rule; the continued recognised relationship theory is proposed. With much of the literature pre-dating the legal developments surrounding same-sex relationships in England, this thesis goes on to seminally include the determination of the applicable law in same-sex relationships. This is particularly important given the inconsistencies surrounding same-sex relationships; it is an area ripe for conflict disputes, making a set choice of law rule vital if certainty is to be achieved across the marriage validity spectrum. Finally, as a result of increased migration, this thesis extends beyond the borders of England, and encompasses the EU and the US, with the aim of evaluating how certainty might be continued as couples cross state borders. To this end, harmonisation of the choice of law rules proposed herein are propounded across these jurisdictions.

The thesis examines the complex nature of dissent and discontent across three Confederate states during the Civil War —South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. Drawing on a range of sources, including post-war claims for compensation, women’s letters to the Confederate authorities and newspaper accounts of bread riots across the South, it broadens our understanding of the varied and often conservative nature of much Confederate dissent and discontent. Critically, the research distinguishes between southerners, who often asserted their loyalty to the Confederacy, but were profoundly unhappy with the impact of the war on their families, and other southerners implacably opposed to the Confederacy or completely indifferent to its calls on their allegiance. In the Confederate South, dissent was not the same as discontent and discontent did not always indicate disloyalty. The focus of the research is on ordinary white southerners and the meaning that dissent and discontent had for them. Through a re-reading of women’s letters and a detailed analysis of the southern bread riots, the research reappraises the meaning of women’s protest and challenges the current scholarship viewing such protests and petitioning as a political awakening of poor white women seeking new entitlements from the state. Using Southern Claims Commission records, the dissertation also reconsiders the meaning of southern unionism, suggesting that such attachments were often highly subjective and essentially cultural in nature. Many southerners, including both men and women, may have shared a self-proclaimed attachment to the Union but understood the meaning of that loyalty in very different ways. Whilst dissenting southern unionists and women bread rioters may make unfamiliar bedfellows, together they illustrate the complicated but essentially conservative nature of much Confederate dissent and discontent often seeking the restoration of older and more stable arrangements in the face of the disruption of secession and the war.

Despite the general prohibition of using inter-state force imposed by Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter, force has been used under the auspices of self-defence, collective security and humanitarian crises. Such use of force has brought challenges to international law regarding its existence and efficacy. Although no state has denied the validity of such prohibition, many attempts have been made to legitimise use of such force on different grounds, namely exception, expansion and explanation. Unlike Public international law, Islamic law of Nations (Siyar) does not provide for a general prohibition of use of force but recognises circumstances in which such force can be legitimately used. The compatibility of these conflicting provisions of legitimate inter-state use of force offered by these two systems are significant for the prevention of aggressive use of force. The assessment of legitimacy of these conflicting provisions shall reveal where the legitimacy lies - is it in Islamic international law or Public international law or both or none of them? The results of the legitimacy assessment demonstrate that these two systems could sit in plural fashion by complementing each other’s legitimacy-deficits. However, the legitimacy and compatibility of Public international law and Islamic international law significantly depend on the development of an underlying pluralistic legal framework of international law with a healthy dose of legitimacy. Therefore, a comparative analysis of these two systems reveals the extent to which a complementary legal framework could be compatible and legitimate. The comparative analysis of the legitimacy of use of force in Public international law and Islamic international law includes examination of classical and contemporary sources to identify the existing legitimacy deficits of the two systems. The analysis follows on an inquiry into the the compatibility of these potentially two conflicting legal systems to complement each other. In this regard, the research expands on another inquiry into how the existing legitimacy deficits of the two systems could be overcome. Generally, this thesis seeks to address three fundamental and interrelated research questions, namely - (1) To what extent use of force in Public international law and Islamic international law is legitimate? (2) How the legitimacy deficits of Public international law and Islamic international law could be overcome? (3) Whether use of force in Public international law and Islamic international law can be compatible in modern world to secure higher degree of legitimacy?

This thesis is an analysis of the initial responses of the British government to the Holocaust focusing on refugee policy. In particular, it seeks to re-examine the role of anti-Semitism as an influencing factor on government decision-making and argues that current historiography underplays that influence. It will argue that the government's fear of anti-Semitism itself betrayed some anti-Jewish assumptions. These fears were used as a means to counter demands for rescue, as the government wanted to ensure that its immigration policies were unchanged and continued to be exclusionary. The thesis also examines how the leaders of the Anglo-Jewish community responded to, and engaged with, these policies. This study is based on extensive archival research and makes a detailed analysis of both government and private papers including correspondence from Eleanor Rathbone, William Temple, The Board of Deputies of British Jews and Rabbi Schonfeld. Other resources have included newspapers - The Times, The Jewish Chronicle and the Guardian - contemporary accounts in books and magazines, parliamentary speeches as well as material fron the Parliamentary Committee on Refugees. The thesis is arranged into a series of case studies that exemplify the complexity of responses to Nazi anti-Jewish policy but also draw attention to significant continuities in exclusionary thinking. The first chapter considers the Evian Conference and argues that the government only ever intended that the conference should end with no change to its immigration policies. Chapters Two and Three consider the government response to schemes for the rescue of children in France in 1942 and Bulgaria in 1943 and argue that such rescue schemes were little more than a charitable façade. The thesis ends by looking critically at the Bermuda Conference and its aftermath in 1943 and ultimately concludes that the government remit at Bermuda was similar to the Evian Conference: public expression of noble sentiments with no intention of easing the immigration laws or providing assistance to Jewish refugees trapped in Nazi Europe, the approach which defined British government attitudes throughout.

The years between 1818 and 1856 encompass the life of the Church Building Commission, one agency of a determined assertion by the Anglican Church. Under the Commissioners' aegis 82 of the 612 new places of worship were planted in Lancashire. The intention is to analyse the rationale and impact of a remarkable church building project and its role in the Anglican initiative in the county. The thesis is the first detailed local study of the churches' distinctive role, beyond the assessment of their artistic worth. M.H. Port in Six Hundred New Churches (2006) produced the definitive work on the architecture and central administration of "Waterloo Churches". He had less to say on their social and religious importance. In order to explore the rationale, impact and role of the churches, I adopted a case study approach selecting three churches in south central Lancashire, one from each deanery of Manchester Diocese which was created out of Chester Diocese in 1847. These were St George's Chorley (consecrated in 1825), its namesake in Tyldesley (1825) and St Stephen's Tockholes (1833). The sample provided variety in socio-economic and religious contexts but also some similarity, in that all three were townships on a Lancashire denominational frontier. The thesis describes the immense diversity and complexity in causation and motivation behind these churches, but highlighting the presence at local level of a strong belief in reclaiming Protestant Dissenters for the national church. It concludes, in contrast with most previous judgements, that the Commissioners' churches in these townships achieved significant success, albeit in contrasting manner and pace and for different reasons. Their distinctively Gothic architecture was striking and more appropriate to worship than critics have allowed. The financial challenges were not as debilitating as routinely supposed. The changing parochial boundaries around Commissioners' churches were rational and encouraged community building rather than the destruction of identities. The intense commitment of clergy associated with the new churches helped to effect a type of Anglican counter-reformation in Lancashire.

This thesis explores the evolution of identity and community within north east Lancashire during a period when the area gained regional and national prominence through its involvement in the cotton industry. It examines how the overarching shared culture of the area could evolve under altering economic conditions, and how expressions of identity fluctuated through the cotton industry’s peak and decline. In effect, it explores how local populations could shape and be shaped by the cotton industry. By focusing on a compact area with diverse settlements, this thesis contributes to the wider understanding of what it was to live in an area dominated by a single industry. The complex legacy that the cotton industry’s decline has had is explored through a range of settlement types, from large town to small village. A key focus is therefore on the role of the locality in ordinary life. By utilizing a case study approach to highlight how conceptions of community and identity varied, this thesis draws together empirical sources with the voices of the people involved, bridging the gap between academic and local histories. It shifts the focus of many previous studies from economic and technical aspects of the cotton industry to one on the communities it dominated. It gives context to the role of the mill within people’s lives, allowing for the distinctive story of certain sites to be studied within the context of the wider region. The thesis considers how a dynamic industry generated a confidence amongst operatives, and how this manifested itself through the area’s development, both in terms of urbanisation and a blossoming of social and leisure opportunities. It then contrasts these developments with how in a declining industry, the very same people reacted in the face of social upheaval, as settlements actively tried to banish the image of ‘cotton towns’.

Expressive theories of punishment incorporate both deontological and consequentialist components. The deontological element claims that punishment expresses the value of both victim and wrongdoer. The consequentialist element claims that punishment restores the victim’s and wrongdoer’s worth. In contemporary literature, however, it is unclear which component is given priority and therefore expressive theories appear ambiguous at best and inconsistent at worst. My thesis argues that expressive theories are cleared up and made consistent through employing a holistic notion of punitive desert. Holism is the view that accurate desert judgments must reference an actually obtaining just distribution of punishment. In my view, the expressive function is feasible only when desert is understood holistically and in this sense expressive theories are committed to giving priority to the deontological component.

Expressive theories of punishment incorporate both deontological and consequentialist components. The deontological element claims that punishment expresses the value of both victim and wrongdoer. The consequentialist element claims that punishment restores the victim’s and wrongdoer’s worth. In contemporary literature, however, it is unclear which component is given priority and therefore expressive theories appear ambiguous at best and inconsistent at worst. My thesis argues that expressive theories are cleared up and made consistent through employing a holistic notion of punitive desert. Holism is the view that accurate desert judgments must reference an actually obtaining just distribution of punishment. In my view, the expressive function is feasible only when desert is understood holistically and in this sense expressive theories are committed to giving priority to the deontological component.

Monetizing gas has now become a high priority issue for many countries. Natural gas is a much cleaner fuel than oil and coal especially for electricity generation. Approximately 40 percent of the world's natural gas reserves remain unusable because of lack of economic technology. Gas produced with oil poses a challenge of being transported and is typically flared or re-injected into the reservoir. These are gas transportation issues we now face. Gas hydrate may be a viable means of capturing, storing and transporting stranded and associated gas. For example, stranded gas in Trinidad could be converted to gas hydrates and transported to the islands of the Caribbean. This study will seek to address some of the limitations from previous studies on transporting natural gas as a hydrate while focusing on small scale transportation of natural gas to the Caribbean Islands. This work proposes a workflow for capturing, storing and transporting gas in the hydrate form, particularly for Caribbean situations where there are infrastructural constraints such as lack of pipelines. The study shows the gas hydrate value chain for transportation of 5 MMscf/d of natural gas from Trinidad to Jamaica. The analysis evaluated the water required for hydrate formation, effect of composition on hydrate formation, the energy balance of the process, the time required for formation, transportation and dissociation and preliminary economics. The overall energy requirement of the process which involves heating, cooling and expansion is about 15-20 percent of the energy of the gas transported in hydrate form. The time estimated for the overall process is 20–30 hrs. The estimated capital cost to capture and transport 5 MMscf/d from Trinidad to Jamaica is about US$ 30 million. The composition of the gas sample can affect the conditions of formation, heating value and the expansion process. In summary, there is great potential for transporting natural gas by gas hydrate on a small scale based on the proposed hydrate work flow. This study did not prove commerciality at this time, however, some of the limitations require further evaluations and these include detailed modeling of the formation time, dissociation time and heat transfer capabilities.