In a democracy it is the citizens who choose their leaders. Through elections, the people constitute government to preside over public affairs. However, in several African countries the quality of the elections has been vitiated by fraud, incompetence, unequal playing field and violence. Part of the problem is historical. Within the first decade of attaining independence in the 1950s and 1960s, many African regimes rapidly descended into autocracy and many countries formally recognised one-party regimes. Despite many one-party regimes having been abolished after the democratisation wave of the late 1980s and early 1990s, challenges of holding free and fair elections persist. Several elections held since this democratic wave were generally not considered by independent observers as free and fair. Indeed Africa has become well known for flawed elections, such as was the case in the 2007 elections in Kenya, the 2008 elections in Zimbabwe and the 2010 elections in Ivory Coast. Due to the stifled democratic climate, where even elections had a predetermined outcome, coups became a common and regular method of showing discontent or removing government. While the phenomenon of problematic elections is going on, at the continental level, Africa seems to be making renewed commitment towards democratic governance. With the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU) through the adoption of the Constitutive Act of the African Union in 2000, the AU, inter alia, committed to promoting “democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance” and seems determined to depart from the legacy of poor governance. It is in view of the foregoing background that this research sought to investigate the challenges the judiciary in Africa has faced in adjudicating presidential election disputes. And, in light of the growing trend towards establishing common African democratic standards and seeking collective solutions, the research also sought to explore the viability of establishing a continental supranational mechanism for resolving disputed presidential elections through adjudication. / Public, Constitutional and International Law / LLD

This thesis focuses on how well indicators of judicial ideology and institutional constraints predict whether a judge will vote to increase abortion access. I develop a model that evaluates a judge's decision in an abortion case in light of ideological factors measured at the time of a judge's nomination to the bench and legal and institutional constraints at the time a judge decides a case. I analyze abortion cases from all of the U.S. Federal District Courts from 1973-2004. Unlike previous studies, which demonstrate that the president and the home state senators are the best predictors of judicial ideology, I find that the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time of the judge's nomination is the only statistically significant ideological indicator. Also, contrary to conventional wisdom, Supreme Court precedent (a legal constraint) is also a significant predictor of judicial voting behavior in abortion cases.

<p>Предмет докторске дисертације је рад два ванредна суда &ndash; Чрезвичајног суда над бунтовницима (1839) и Преког суда формираног поводом Катанске буне (1844). Први је формиран пошто је пропала Јованова буна, коју је подстакао кнез Милош Обреновић (1815&ndash;1839, 1858&ndash;1860) с циљем да ослаби утицај својих противника у Државном савету и васпостави своју апсолутну власт. Формирању Чрезвичајног суда претходила је истрага против осумњичених за учешће у буни, коју су водиле чак четири истражне комисије. Оне су током свог рада користила следећа доказна средства: признања окривљених, суочења окривљених, сведоке, суочења окривљених и сведока и писане исправе. Чрезвичајни суд почео је са радом 25. јула 1839. И он је спровео доказни поступак, у којем су коришћена мање-више иста доказна средства. Пошто су изведени докази, Чрезвичајни суд је приступио доношењу пресуда. Мање важни окривљени су или ослобођени кривице или осуђени на благе казне, док су они за које је Чрезвичајни суд устанио да су били покретачи и организатори буне осуђени на вишегодишње казне лишења слободе. Мање важни осуђени помиловани су још за време рада Чрезвичајног суда, да би недуго након тога уследило и помиловање важнијих осуђеника.<br />Катанска буна, догађај који је представљао повод за формирање другог ванредног суда, представља неуспели покушај присталица династије Обреновић да оборе устваобранитељски режим, одиграо се између 22. и 25. септембра 1844. Против неких од заробљених бунтовника истрагу су водили Тома Вучић Перишић, командант војске упућене да угуши побуну, и Стеван Новаковић, судија шабачког окружног суда. Истражни поступак, и то против свих окривљених водио је и сам Преки суд. Сем доказних средстава наведених у излагању о Чрезвичајном суду, у истрази коју је водио Преки суд употребљавано је и јемство представника власти за окривљене. Организатори и предводници буне осуђени су на смрт, они који су знали за буну пре њеног избијања, а то нису пријавили властима, на доживотну робију, лица која су се придружила бунтовницима на казне лишења слободе у различитом трајању, а они који су искористили метеж настао побуном за крађе на телесне казне или затвор од две године. У току 1845. и 1846. један број осуђених ослобођен је даљег издржавања казне, а неким осуђеницима казне су ублажене. Међутим, већина осуђених наставила је да издржава казне по слову пресуда Преког суда.<br />Разлог због којег је Преки суд био строжи него Чрезвичајни суд лежи у политичким околностима у којима су они деловали. Противници кнеза Милоша 1839. нису имали подршку у народу и због тога нису смели строгим кажњавањем да одвраћају потенцијалне присталице од себе. С друге стране, 1844. није постојала реална опасност од повратка Обреновића на српски престо. То је омогућило уставобранитељској власти да много строже казни покушај обреновићевске реакције.</p> / <p>Predmet doktorske disertacije je rad dva vanredna suda &ndash; Črezvičajnog suda nad buntovnicima (1839) i Prekog suda formiranog povodom Katanske bune (1844). Prvi je formiran pošto je propala Jovanova buna, koju je podstakao knez Miloš Obrenović (1815&ndash;1839, 1858&ndash;1860) s ciljem da oslabi uticaj svojih protivnika u Državnom savetu i vaspostavi svoju apsolutnu vlast. Formiranju Črezvičajnog suda prethodila je istraga protiv osumnjičenih za učešće u buni, koju su vodile čak četiri istražne komisije. One su tokom svog rada koristila sledeća dokazna sredstva: priznanja okrivljenih, suočenja okrivljenih, svedoke, suočenja okrivljenih i svedoka i pisane isprave. Črezvičajni sud počeo je sa radom 25. jula 1839. I on je sproveo dokazni postupak, u kojem su korišćena manje-više ista dokazna sredstva. Pošto su izvedeni dokazi, Črezvičajni sud je pristupio donošenju presuda. Manje važni okrivljeni su ili oslobođeni krivice ili osuđeni na blage kazne, dok su oni za koje je Črezvičajni sud ustanio da su bili pokretači i organizatori bune osuđeni na višegodišnje kazne lišenja slobode. Manje važni osuđeni pomilovani su još za vreme rada Črezvičajnog suda, da bi nedugo nakon toga usledilo i pomilovanje važnijih osuđenika.<br />Katanska buna, događaj koji je predstavljao povod za formiranje drugog vanrednog suda, predstavlja neuspeli pokušaj pristalica dinastije Obrenović da obore ustvaobraniteljski režim, odigrao se između 22. i 25. septembra 1844. Protiv nekih od zarobljenih buntovnika istragu su vodili Toma Vučić Perišić, komandant vojske upućene da uguši pobunu, i Stevan Novaković, sudija šabačkog okružnog suda. Istražni postupak, i to protiv svih okrivljenih vodio je i sam Preki sud. Sem dokaznih sredstava navedenih u izlaganju o Črezvičajnom sudu, u istrazi koju je vodio Preki sud upotrebljavano je i jemstvo predstavnika vlasti za okrivljene. Organizatori i predvodnici bune osuđeni su na smrt, oni koji su znali za bunu pre njenog izbijanja, a to nisu prijavili vlastima, na doživotnu robiju, lica koja su se pridružila buntovnicima na kazne lišenja slobode u različitom trajanju, a oni koji su iskoristili metež nastao pobunom za krađe na telesne kazne ili zatvor od dve godine. U toku 1845. i 1846. jedan broj osuđenih oslobođen je daljeg izdržavanja kazne, a nekim osuđenicima kazne su ublažene. Međutim, većina osuđenih nastavila je da izdržava kazne po slovu presuda Prekog suda.<br />Razlog zbog kojeg je Preki sud bio stroži nego Črezvičajni sud leži u političkim okolnostima u kojima su oni delovali. Protivnici kneza Miloša 1839. nisu imali podršku u narodu i zbog toga nisu smeli strogim kažnjavanjem da odvraćaju potencijalne pristalice od sebe. S druge strane, 1844. nije postojala realna opasnost od povratka Obrenovića na srpski presto. To je omogućilo ustavobraniteljskoj vlasti da mnogo strože kazni pokušaj obrenovićevske reakcije.</p> / <p>The subject of this doctoral dissertation are two irregular courts &ndash; Irregular Court for Rebels (1839) and Martial Court formed on the occasion of Katanska Rebellion (1844). The first of these two courts was formed after Jovan&rsquo;s rebellion, incited by Prince Milo&scaron; Obrenović (1815&ndash;1839, 1858&ndash;1860) with the goal of weakening the authority of his opponents in State Council and renewal of the ruler&rsquo;s absolute power, had been quenched. Antecedent of the Irregular Court&rsquo;s establishment, four investigation boards had undertaken the investigation against the persons suspected of participation in Jovan&rsquo;s Rebellion. In the course of the inquiry the boards produced following evidence: suspects&rsquo; confessions, confrontations of suspects, witnesses, confrontations of suspects with witnesses and documentary evidence. Irregular Court commenced its work on July 25th 1839. This institution also performed production of evidence, during which more or less above-cited sorts of evidence were produced. After the evidence had been shown, Irregular Court turned to deliberation. Less important suspects were either acquitted or sentenced to mild punishments, as those who Irregular Court found organizers and instigators of Jovan&rsquo;s Rebellion are condemned to multiyear prison sentences. The convicts of less significance were pardoned while Irregular Court&rsquo;s activity was still in progress. Not long after, more important convicts were granted pardon as well. Katane (Hussars)&rsquo;s Rebellion, the event that occasioned the formation of the second irregular court, represents an unsuccessful attempt of Obrenović dynasty&#39;s followers to overthrow Constitution-Defenders&#39; regime. The inquiry against some of the suspects was conducted by Toma Vučić Peri&scaron;ić, the commander of the troops sent to put down Katane&#39;s Rebellion, and Stevan Novaković, a judge of &Scaron;abac District Court. Martial Court also carried out investigations, of which all suspects were subjects. Besides evidence mentioned in previous paragraph, vouchments for a suspects&#39; moral integrity and rightful political attitude, given by the representatives of local authorities, were also used in the proceedings led by Martial Court. The organizers and instigators of Katane&#39;s Rebellion were sentenced to death, the persons who knew that the rebellion would break out and did not report it to the authorities were condemned to perpetual forced labor, the individuals who joined the rebells were sentenced to prison whose duration varied. The people who used Rebellion-provoked tumultation to commit thefts and burgalries were, according to verdicts of Court Martial, to undertake corporal punishments or two-year prison. In 1845 and 1846 a certain number of convicts was pardonned, as some sentences were mitigated. Nevertheless, most of them were not granted pardon.<br />The reason of Martial Court&#39;s greater harshness in comparison with Irregular Court lies in political circumstances in which the two institutions worked. Prince Milo&scaron;&rsquo;opponents were not favorite among the people. Therefore they did not want to even more deteriorate their low popularity by admitting Irregular Court to pronounce severe punishments. On the other hand, in 1844 Obrenovićs&rsquo; partisans were not serious threat to Constitution-Defenders regime. It enabled power-holders to punish an attempt of Obrenović&rsquo;s reaction more severely.</p>

Les juges et consuls : que sont-ils ? Qui représentent-ils ? Qui sont-ils ? L’analyse d’une affaire survenue à Angers, au-delà d’une querelle de préséance, pose en réalité cette question d’état relative à leur définition et donc à leur importance dans la ville. Si l’arrêt intervenu en 1736 les reconnaît comme députés de la juridiction consulaire, le débat est sans cesse relancé, notamment lors de l’application de la réforme Laverdy. Car, élus par leurs pairs, pour une charge initialement annuelle, pour rendre la justice de l’ordre des marchands au nom du roi, ils sont concomitamment les mandataires d’une compagnie coutumière des anciens, qui se prétend de justice, d’un corps des marchands, sorte de fédération des différents ‘corps des marchands de’ dont les membres sont éligibles au consulat, et dans les grandes villes d’une « corporation des négociants libres ». En effet, les « ayant passé par les charges » s’instituent membres de droit du conseil d’administration de ce corps des marchands, tout en s’en estimant distincts car encore revêtus de la dignité de la judicature, et ce rôle ne leur est contesté que par les gardes de certaines communautés unies dont ils sont par ailleurs également issus en grande partie. Cette représentation multiple est clairement assumée dans un jeu de pouvoir avec la ville, notamment en raison d’une compétence partagée du service public économique. Ils évoquent l’édit de Cremieu pour s’imposer de droit dans les assemblées générales de la cité et pour s’autonomiser de liens originels ; par ailleurs, ils sont souvent membres de droit des chambres particulières de commerce et jouent un rôle non négligeable dans la désignation des députés du commerce. Défenseurs naturels du commerce, ils veillent à ce que les marchands, le plus souvent des membres de leur compagnie, soient élus au sein des différentes institutions de la ville. Issus d’une sanior pars différente selon les villes et évoluant selon un mouvement de pas chassé, ils veillent à ce que la survivance de la dignité de la judicature efface les qualités personnelles selon le principe intangible de l’ordre de la matricule. La désignation des membres de leur compagnie suit une logique’ d’oligarchisation’, parfois subie, maintenue par une parfaite maîtrise du processus électoral. Un noyau dur est formé par certains anciens bénéficiant d’un cumul des charges à la fois en interne et de manière essaimée, posant la question de la multi-appartenance et des conflits d’intérêts. / Judges of the “juridictions consulaires”: what are they? Who do they represent? Who are they? A case occurred in Angers, beyond a quarrel over precedence, pose actually the question of their state and social and legal importance in the city. If the judgment reached in 1736 recognizes them as members of a jurisdiction, the debate is constantly revived, especially during the Laverdy reform. In fact, elected by their peers, initially for annual responsibility to render justice, they are simultaneously representatives of a customary former company that aspires to be of justice, of a united corporation of various “merchants of… communities” whose members are eligible for the Court, and in major cities of a “free trading community”. Indeed, “having passed through the charges” are established ex officio members of the board of these institutions, while considering themselves different because still dressed in the dignity of the judicature. This role is disputed to them by some unified communities guards. This multiple representation is clearly assumed in a power game with local authorities, mainly because of a shared competence of public economic service. They evoke the edit of Cremieu to impose themselves in the general assemblies of the city and to empower original links; moreover, they are often ex officio members in the “chambers of commerce” and they play a significant role in the appointment of the “députés du commerce”. Natural defenders of the business, they ensure that the merchants, most often members of their company, are elected in the various local institutions. Stemming from a different sanior pars according to cities and evolving to a movement of “pas chassés”, they ensure that their survival dignity of judicature erases the personal qualities according to the inviolable principle of the order of the roll. The elections of the members of their companies follow a logic of “oligarchisation”, sometimes suffered, maintained by a perfect control of the electoral process. A core is formed by some formers enjoying simultaneously loads, both internally and in a spray-out way, raising the question of multi-membership and conflicts of interests.

The purpose of the project is to develop and evaluate a writing unit that could be used to teach adult students in a drug court program. The project is based on theories behind narrative therapy, its use in the treatment of persons with addiction problems, and how the reframing of students' own life stories through writing can bring about change. By using writing prompts as both therapeutic and educational tools, the author hoped to improve the students' life-coping skills and their writing abilities. The unit consists of paragraph writing, essay writing, reflective writing that focused on past events, and using computers to compose and format texts. The author evaluated a preliminary draft of the unit by submitting it to four education professionals with a questionnaire. Data was also collected from the author's students by means of surveys, interviews, and writing samples. Feedback from the professionals and the students guided the revision of the unit. The questionnaire, survey, and interview questions used in the project and the preliminary and final revised drafts of the teaching unit are included.

L'objet de ce mémoire est de présenter le travail effectué au cours de cette thèse qui était de caractériser électriquement et de modéliser le transport électrique de trois architectures de transistors MOS pour des filières 50nm et en deçà : CMOS Si à oxyde ultrafin, nMOS Si:C et pMOS SiGe. Afin d'étudier les effets de canaux courts sur ces dispositifs nous avons proposé et/ou optimisé plusieurs procédures d'extraction de paramètres ainsi que plusieurs modèles physiques analytiques décrivant le comportement des principaux paramètres électriques de ce type de transistors aux longueurs de grille décananométriques. Ainsi, une méthode expérimentale complète et un modèle pour la partition du courant de grille ont été validés pour les transistors à oxyde ultrafin. Une optimisation de la méthode Split C-V pour les canaux courts a été validée donnant de précieux renseignements sur la mobilité des transistors MOS ultracourts. Un modèle a été validé pour le bruit 1/f des transistors à canal enterré SiGe sub-0,1μm. Toutes ces méthodes nous ont permis de montrer que les transistors à oxyde ultrafins gardaient de très bonne propriétés de transport électrique jusqu'à 30nm de longueur de grille, que les nMOS Si:C était une alternative fiable au fort dopage canal pour contrôler les effets de canaux courts des nMOS sub-0,1μm et que les pMOS SiGe avaient un niveau de bruit 1/f plus faible en forte inversion même aux longueurs de grille décanamométriques

Prendre en compte l'aspect sémantique des données textuelles lors de la tâche de classification s'est imposé comme un réel défi ces dix dernières années. Cette difficulté vient s'ajouter au fait que la plupart des données disponibles sur les réseaux sociaux sont des textes courts, ce qui a notamment pour conséquence de rendre les méthodes basées sur la représentation "bag of words" peu efficientes. L'approche proposée dans ce projet de recherche est différente des approches proposées dans les travaux antérieurs sur l'enrichissement des messages courts et ce pour trois raisons. Tout d'abord, nous n'utilisons pas des bases de connaissances externes comme Wikipedia parce que généralement les messages courts qui sont traités par l'entreprise proveniennent des domaines spécifiques. Deuxièment, les données à traiter ne sont pas utilisées pour la constitution de ressources à cause du fonctionnement de l'outil. Troisièment, à notre connaissance il n'existe pas des travaux d'une part qui exploitent des données structurées comme celles de l'entreprise pour constituer des ressources sémantiques, et d'autre part qui mesurent l'impact de l'enrichissement sur un système interactif de regroupement de flux de textes. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons la création de ressources permettant d'enrichir les messages courts afin d'améliorer la performance de l'outil du regroupement sémantique de l'entreprise Succeed Together. Ce dernier implémente des méthodes de classification supervisée et non supervisée. Pour constituer ces ressources, nous utilisons des techniques de fouille de données séquentielles. / Taking into account the semantic aspect of the textual data during the classification task has become a real challenge in the last ten years. This difficulty is in addition to the fact that most of the data available on social networks are short texts, which in particular results in making methods based on the "bag of words" representation inefficient. The approach proposed in this research project is different from the approaches proposed in previous work on the enrichment of short messages for three reasons. First, we do not use external knowledge like Wikipedia because typically short messages that are processed by the company come from specific domains. Secondly, the data to be processed are not used for the creation of resources because of the operation of the tool. Thirdly, to our knowledge there is no work on the one hand, which uses structured data such as the company's data to constitute semantic resources, and on the other hand, which measure the impact of enrichment on a system Interactive grouping of text flows. In this thesis, we propose the creation of resources enabling to enrich the short messages in order to improve the performance of the tool of the semantic grouping of the company Succeed Together. The tool implements supervised and unsupervised classification methods. To build these resources, we use sequential data mining techniques.

Submitted by Pedro Mizukami (pedro.mizukami@fgv.br) on 2011-01-05T18:04:47Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DMPPJ - RICARDO TORRES HERMANN.pdf: 1590905 bytes, checksum: 11f290b6ab97f7ec2a4f21474fa7e7c8 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Pedro Mizukami(pedro.mizukami@fgv.br) on 2011-01-05T19:17:49Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DMPPJ - RICARDO TORRES HERMANN.pdf: 1590905 bytes, checksum: 11f290b6ab97f7ec2a4f21474fa7e7c8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-01-06T12:26:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DMPPJ - RICARDO TORRES HERMANN.pdf: 1590905 bytes, checksum: 11f290b6ab97f7ec2a4f21474fa7e7c8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / This thesis demonstrates that the Small Claims Courts have the calling for the resolution of individual conflicts. It notes, based on case study that, however, these courts are faced with a lot of collective demands which are jeopardizing the functioning of these legal channels. Thus, it is proposed to reflect what are the appropriate measures to deal with this problem. It notes that the use of the Public Civil Action (similar to Class Action) is still incipient in the country,  especially  in  the  case  of  homogeneous  individual  rights  ('direitos  individuais  homogêneos'). As a result, the paper points out the need to encourage the protection of such collective rights and how the class actions can absorb the individual actions that continue to be  proposed  on  those  issues.  It  concludes  that  individual  homogeneous  rights  ('direitos  individuais homogêneos') can be considered typical collective rights (broadly) and should be protected by the Class Action. This study establishes that it is necessary to include a legal provision to give only to Public Civil Action Courts the competence to conduct concurrent individual and collective disputes, avoiding that they be proposed in the Small Claims Courts, because it’s not possible to use their own mechanisms of Public Civil Actions in these courts. It also indicates the importance of establishing the absolute competence of Small Claims Courts as a way of defining their appropriate expertise and formulate directions for handling the demands of mass, whether they are of collective or individual nature. / A presente dissertação visa demonstrar que os Juizados Especiais Cíveis apresentam vocação para resolução de conflitos individuais. Verifica, com base em estudo de caso, que apesar disso, defrontam-se esses juizados com uma grande quantidade de demandas coletivas as quais vêm comprometendo o bom funcionamento dessas vias jurisdicionais. Assim, propõe-se a refletir quais as medidas adequadas para o enfrentamento desse problema. Constata que a utilização do processo coletivo ainda é incipiente no país, especialmente no que se refere aos direitos individuais homogêneos. Em virtude disso, aponta a necessidade de se incentivar a tutela de tais direitos coletivos e de que maneira podem os processos coletivos absorver as ações individuais que continuam a ingressar sobre essas mesmas questões. Conclui que os direitos individuais homogêneos podem ser considerados típicos direitos coletivos (lato sensu), devendo ser tutelados no juízo comum. Estabelece ainda que é necessário fazer constar disposição legal que atribua exclusivamente ao juízo comum a tramitação concomitante de litígios individuais e coletivos, evitando que ingressem nos Juizados Especiais Cíveis, por não ser neles possível recorrer aos mecanismos próprios do Processo Coletivo. Indica também a importância de se instituir a competência absoluta como forma de definição da competência adequada desses Juizados Especiais Cíveis e formula um roteiro para o tratamento das demandas de massa, seja as de natureza coletiva, seja as de índole individual.

The role of Deterrence and Retribution in sentencing in South African Courts Since the early history of the existence of humanity punishment has been meted out to transgressors of the laws of society. Informal sanctions, including ostracism are imposed by members of society for social transgressions. Formal punishment is imposed by courts through a system of criminal justice. This dissertation deals with the concept of punishment. It considers the significance of the theories of punishment in the sentencing process with particular reference to deterrence and retribution, the philosophical rationale for their use and thus their role in sentencing. In this study the historical evolution of retribution is traced and the recognition accorded particularly to retribution and deterrence as well as reformation and prevention as penal objectives at various periods in history is examined. Case law has been cited to determine their recognition by judicial practice in criminal courts. The study also reflects on the criminal justice system's clients' perceptions on sentencing. / Criminal and Procedural Law / LL.M.

In a democracy it is the citizens who choose their leaders. Through elections, the people constitute government to preside over public affairs. However, in several African countries the quality of the elections has been vitiated by fraud, incompetence, unequal playing field and violence. Part of the problem is historical. Within the first decade of attaining independence in the 1950s and 1960s, many African regimes rapidly descended into autocracy and many countries formally recognised one-party regimes. Despite many one-party regimes having been abolished after the democratisation wave of the late 1980s and early 1990s, challenges of holding free and fair elections persist. Several elections held since this democratic wave were generally not considered by independent observers as free and fair. Indeed Africa has become well known for flawed elections, such as was the case in the 2007 elections in Kenya, the 2008 elections in Zimbabwe and the 2010 elections in Ivory Coast. Due to the stifled democratic climate, where even elections had a predetermined outcome, coups became a common and regular method of showing discontent or removing government. While the phenomenon of problematic elections is going on, at the continental level, Africa seems to be making renewed commitment towards democratic governance. With the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU) through the adoption of the Constitutive Act of the African Union in 2000, the AU, inter alia, committed to promoting “democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance” and seems determined to depart from the legacy of poor governance. It is in view of the foregoing background that this research sought to investigate the challenges the judiciary in Africa has faced in adjudicating presidential election disputes. And, in light of the growing trend towards establishing common African democratic standards and seeking collective solutions, the research also sought to explore the viability of establishing a continental supranational mechanism for resolving disputed presidential elections through adjudication. / Public, Constitutional and International Law / LL. D.