There is enough evidence on how climate change consequences will adversely affect Africa despite the fact that it is the continent that has least contributed to the problem. The international climate change regime recognises Africa's vulnerability to climate change and provides for special treatment under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the UNFCCC). Thus, the international climate change regime presents an opportunity for African countries to adapt and mitigate the consequences of climate change through the UNFCCC mechanism. However, the international climate change legal regime has not been able to adequately assist African countries to address the consequences of climate change under the vulnerability principle. Although the current international climate change regime requires developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, Africa needs to take steps itself to address the problem, because it is most vulnerable to the consequences of climate change. The African Union (AU) could play a great role in ensuring that the international climate change regime addresses the consequences of climate change in the region. This could be done through fostering strong African common positions during international climate change negotiations. A strong common position could strengthen African bargaining power and might result in more funding, capacity building and technology development and transfer for adaptation and mitigation programmes under the UNFCCC-Kyoto Conference of Parties. However, reaching a strong common position requires the cooperation of the AU member states. In this context, African regional integration is an opportunity for the AU to foster such cooperation among member states. The Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community (the Abuja Treaty), the Constitutive Act of the AU and the Protocol on the Relations between the AU and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) prioritise regional economic integration and call for states' cooperation, but the call has not yet been heeded. To realise deep and viable African integration, there must be a well-structured institutional and legal framework that defines the relationship between the AU, the AEC and the RECs. African regional integration is also seen as an avenue whereby the AU can create its own regional climate-change regime. In this regard, the AU's and RECs' normative framework on climate change is examined in order to assess whether it adequately integrates climate change issues. This study finds that although Africa is most vulnerable to the consequences of climate change, the AU's and RECs' normative framework on climate change is weak and inadequate to address the problem. The Framework should integrate climate change issues in order to achieve sustainable development. The AU should also ensure that member states ratify the relevant treaties and protocols (the Maputo Nature Convention and the Protocol establishing the African Court of Justice and Human Rights) that have not yet been ratified in order that they may become operational. The Maputo Nature Convention puts sustainable development in the forefront of attention as a reaction to the potentially conflicting environmental and developmental challenges facing the continent (such as climate change), but it is not yet in force. This work finds that human rights law can strengthen the AU's role in addressing climate change through its normative framework. The human rights approach to climate change under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (the Banjul Charter) is a viable avenue because human rights law forms the basis for states' responsibility based on human rights obligations and principles. The extraterritorial application of the Banjul Charter presents an avenue for AU institutions such as the Human Rights Commission and the African Human Rights Court to curb the effects of climate change through a human rights lens. The future of the AU is presented within the context of a set of recommendations that identify strong African regional integration as an avenue through which the AU can foster the cooperation of member states to address the consequences of climate change in the AU's and RECs' normative frameworks. General recommendations are made on the need for the international climate change regime to pay more attention to issues of funding, capacity building and technology development and transfer on the basis of the vulnerability principle and in relation to the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. Also, the AU needs to strengthen its legal and institutional structures to ensure deep African integration that is capable of addressing common challenges such as the consequences of climate change. / PhD (Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

La double incrimination est une condition « classique » en droit pénal international, que l'on trouve formulée dans les instruments normatifs relatifs à la coopération pénale internationale, ainsi que dans ceux consacrés aux compétences extraterritoriales. Dans ces deux domaines la condition de la double incrimination est considérée comme remplie lorsque les faits en question sont punis par les droits internes des deux États concernés (État requérant et État requis, ou État de poursuite et État de commission). Toutefois, l'application de cette condition n'est pas sans poser de difficultés, aussi bien sur un plan substantiel que sur un plan procédural. Des difficultés qui ont conduit les États européens à la remettre en cause, du moins pour partie ; une remise en cause totale de la double incrimination s'avérant, en l'état, impossible. / Double criminality is a “classic” condition in international criminal law, which is found in normative instruments relating to international cooperation in criminal matters, as well as those relating to extraterritorial jurisdiction. In these two fields, the condition of double criminality is considered fulfilled when the conduct in question is punishable under the domestic law of both states (the requesting state and the requested state, or the prosecuting State and the State in which the act was committed). Moreover, the application of this condition continues to pose difficulties, not only in substance but also in procedure. The difficulties have driven the European states to call the condition into question, at least partially; even though a total removal of the condition in its current state is impossible.

L’application de la compétence internationale pénale dans l'affaire Pinochet à laissé un précédent important dans le domaine de la lutte contre l'impunité, comme le démontre la procédure mise en œuvre par l'Audiencia Nacional d'Espagne, ainsi que par la Cour d'Assises de Paris avec application du principe de la personnalité passive. En effet, avec le mandat d’arrêt international aux fins d'extradition émis par les autorités judiciaires espagnols, qui a permis l'arrestation de Pinochet à Londres, la négation de son immunité par la chambre des Lords et le jugement par défaut en France de son administration militaire, le droit international connait un avant et in après. Le droit international pénal est ainsi mis en exergue en tant que fondement juridique de la compétence extra-territoriale des Etats. Il permet d'utiliser tant le principe de la compétence universelle que celui. Il permet d'utiliser tant le principe de la compétence universelle que celui de la personnalité passive, toutes deux appliquées, dans cette affaire précise, dans le but d'exercer une justice internationale. / The application of the criminal international jurisdiction in the Pinochet case left an important precedent in the area of the fight against impunity, as shown by the procedure brought into play by the Spanish Audiencia Nacional and also by the Cour d'Assises of Paris, with the enforcement of the passive personality principle. Actually, with the international arrest warrant for extradition issued by the Spanish judicial authorities, which made possible the arrest of Pinochet in London; the denial of his immunity by the House of Lords and the judgment in absentia in France of his military organization, the international law has a before and an after. The international criminal law is under lined as the juridical foundation of the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the legal authorities of a state. It allows the application as well of the universal jurisdiction principle as of the passible personality principle, both used, in this precise case, with the objective to exercise an international justice.

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The thesis provides legal analysis of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers with particular focus on military members of national peacekeeping contingents. It provides brief survey of peacekeeping operations thereby underlying their importance in the contemporary activities of the UN and describing factors that have caused or might led to sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers. Furthermore, UN action towards those acts is described and it is also evaluated whether such steps are successful, sufficient and whether more could have been done or what more can be done in the future. A part is also dedicated to international humanitarian law perspective and international human rights law. In this context, the author tries to answer the question if and when the sexual exploitation and abuse by members of national peacekeeping contingents while deployed to a UN peacekeeping mission may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity and whether there is a role to play by International Criminal Court. In the same vein, issues of extraterritorial application of human rights treaties are discussed. The question of international responsibility is the central topic of this thesis. Apart from individual responsibility of members of national peacekeeping contingents for acts of sexual...

The main purpose of this work is to investigate if the US ́s killing of Osama bin Laden on 2 May 2011 in Abbottabad in Pakistan was lawful. The background to the killing is what happened on 11 September 2001 when four US airplanes were hijacked and crashed into World Trade Center and Pentagon. Al Qaeda, a terrorist organisation led by Osama bin Laden, was immediately suspected for the attacks, which led to the starting point of the US ́s ‘global war on terror’. This work tries to give a short brief on ‘global war on terror’ and answer if there is a global war on terror and/or if a new category of war is needed. In order to get an answer to the main question of this work I had to investigate if US is in an international armed conflict or in a non-international armed conflict with Al Qaida. Another important question to investigate is if an armed conflict in one State can spill over to another State and still be consider as an armed conflict. Other important questions to answer are, if Osama bin Laden was a legitimate target under international humanitarian law, if he was a civilian or if he had a continuous combat function and what level of participation in hostilities he had? Not less important is also to investigate if human rights law is applicable when Osama bin Laden was killed, especially the fundamental right to life. Lastly I end my investigation with a quick review of the laws of jus ad bellum in order to get an answer if US had a right to resort to force in Pakistan. My conclusion is that the US was not involved in an armed conflict with al Qaeda in Pakistan where the killing took place. The conflict between the US and al Qaeda in Afghanistan is to be categorised as a non-international conflict. This conflict cannot be described as a conflict that has spilled over to Abbottabad where Osama bin Laden was killed. All people, including Osama bin Laden, has a right to life. Because of lack of information on what happened in Abbottabad when Osama bin Laden was killed it is impossible to give a clear legal answer if the US had the right to kill him. It could be lawful, but it could also be considered as a crime against international human rights law.

自美國聯邦巡迴上訴法院於一九九八年State Street Bank一案，肯認商業方法軟體得為法定之專利標的後，全球之金融業、電腦業與網路公司莫不尋求以專利作為保護其商業方法之武器，商業方法專利申請之案件遂絡繹而來。惟商業方法軟體是否得為專利之標的，至今美國學界仍有爭議而見解不一，日本專利局係採與美國專利局相同之立場，然歐洲專利局目前似仍採否定見解。對此一議題，我國已有相當文獻討論，並均採肯定之見解。惟並未對何以可專利性之理由詳予闡述，至於專利侵害之問題，亦未就我國法深入分析。 本文擬自比較法之觀點，分析美國實務運作及學界之論述、歐洲發明專利公約及專利局實務之見解、日本法之規定與特許廳之意見，汲取其中之經驗與見解以為借鏡。第二章首先就商業方法軟體加以定義，並探究現今商業方法軟體之架構及其特殊性，以作為專利標的適格性分析之基礎。第三章分析商業方法軟體之施以專利保護，對產業與實務造成之影響。包括實務所面臨的困難﹙如先前技術資料庫之建立、審查人員之訓練、法院面臨之困難等﹚，及我國軟體產業應如何調適。第四章係探討商業方法軟體之專利標的適格性分析，依次分析美國法之規定與學說實務之見解、歐洲專利公約與專利局之立場、日本特許法之規定與特許廳之態度，以及國內學說實務之見解，並由我國專利法之立法意旨與商業方法軟體架構之特殊性，論述商業方法軟體在現今軟體發展之架構下，應非發明專利保護之標的，另亦就我國智慧財產局所公布之「電腦軟體相關發明專利審查基準」，加以探討並提出個人淺見，並摘錄智慧財產局已核准若干商業方法軟體專利之個案，加以分析。第五章自發明專利保護要件之觀點，探究商業方法軟體專利保護之問題。第六章則自美國法之觀點，分析商業方法軟體於網際網路上，所發生之跨國界專利侵害問題，並試從國際私法之角度，處理此類問題。最後，於第七章提出個人對商業方法軟體專利之淺見，並就我國現行專利制度提出未來保護方向之建議，以為結論。

Jurisprudence / LL. D.