Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, January 2010. / Electronic version restricted until 28th January 2015.

<p> Across the United States, at least 1,600 local governments in 40 states have enacted stormwater fees since the mid-1960s. Many of these local governments enacted stormwater fees to finance costly infrastructure upgrades required by increasingly stringent federal and state regulation of stormwater systems and combined sewer overflows. The sustained spread of stormwater fees across the United States over the past five decades reflects a significant shift of fiscal responsibility for operating, maintaining, and improving key public infrastructure systems to the local level. This dissertation investigates the emergence, diffusion, and form of stormwater fees enacted by local governments in the United States over the past 50 years. Structured by several theoretical frameworks and utilizing a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, this research identifies key vertical and horizontal intergovernmental dynamics influencing the enactment of stormwater fees by local governments across the country. While underscoring the strong influence that federal and state regulation of municipal stormwater systems has played in popularizing stormwater fees among local governments in the United States, my research also highlights the crucial role that state-level statutory law, case law, and administrative approaches have had on expanding or contracting the options local governments have for implementing stormwater fees individually within their own jurisdictions and collectively across metropolitan regions. My case studies of stormwater fee form suggest that the challenges to broadly scoped collective action characterizing stormwater management and finance in highly fragmented metropolitan regions may present transaction cost barriers too high to be surmounted without coercive intervention from a higher level of government, but that collective action of more limited scope can be achieved in relatively self-organized manner. This research also demonstrates the enduring and important role that consulting firms and professional industry associations have played in influencing stormwater fee enactment by local governments across the United States over the past half-century.</p><p>

It has become almost universal practice for countries to adopt written constitutions that include a bill of rights. Yet we know little about the origins and evolution of the practice of constitution-writing on a global scale. Are bills of rights defining statements of the nation’s character and identity? Or are they more standardized documents that are similar across countries, and vary only at the margins? Are substantive constitutional features rooted in the society for which they are written, or are they borrowed from elsewhere? What are the origins of the world’s “words of liberty”? This thesis presents the first-ever systematic substantive exploration of the world’s written constitutions. It introduces a new database, based on the coding of the constitutions of 188 countries, for the period 1946-2006. With this data, it explores the historical trajectory of the world’s written constitutions and offers explanations for their substantive content. This thesis's most important finding is that constitutions are inherently “transnational” documents. As it turns out, substantive constitutional choices are remarkably unrelated to local needs and values. Constitutions do not express identity or national character. Instead, the most important predictor of whether any particular country adopts any particular constitutional provision is whether other countries previously did the same thing. Constitutions do not tell stories of the nation’s history, but rather tell stories of transnational interactions and international politics. As a result, constitutions have become at least partly standardized documents that vary along a small number of underlying dimensions. But this thesis also shows that not all constitutions are the same, and that there exists no evidence of a global constitutional convergence. Instead, the world’s constitutions divide in a limited number of constitutional families. This thesis is not currently available in ORA.

Even though the Korean War has been labeled by some as a forgotten war, scholars continue to seek the root of the Sino-U.S. confrontation and Mao's decision to enter the war in Korea. Among the five interpretations I examined, Steven Goldstein compares Mao's intervention to a Greek tragedy. In my opinion, this comes closest to explaining this historical puzzle. However, this interpretation has been largely overlooked by scholarship in the field. My dissertation relies on an understanding of “Mao's American strategy” to comprehend Mao's motivation to enter the war. Mao developed his American strategy in late 1944 and by mid-1945 it was established as the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) approach to the United States. The CCP's concept of the United States was based on its analysis of Washington's long-term strategic interests in China after World War II. Washington's strategic objective was to insure its influence on China through a pro-America government. The best means to reach this objective was to establish a coalition government, which would follow America's multi-party democratic system. Considering its obvious weakness at that time, the CCP leadership welcomed a coalition government in which the CCP and the Guomindang (GMD), could enjoy equal power. However, after analysis of GMD-CCP relations, Mao reached the conclusion that Jiang would not abandon autocracy no matter how hard Washington pressed him. Therefore, a GMD-CCP clash was inevitable. The United States took the position that it had no choice but to stand on the side of the GMD and to interfere with the Chinese revolution sooner or later. Truman's blockade of the Taiwan Straits, and the United Nations troops' crossing the 38th parallel and marching toward the Yalu in 1950 triggered Mao's intervention. To meet an unavoidable clash, Mao decided to dispatch his army to Korea. In addition to explaining Mao's American strategy, I introduce an international factor: the clash between the National Independence Movement and the constraints of the Cold War. With Mao's American strategy as a chronological line and the international factor as a horizontal circumstance, this dissertation asserts that Mao's involvement in the Korean War can be seen as inevitable—a Greek tragedy.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The present dissertation endeavours to outline and analyze the evolution of the legal regulation of the status of civil servants from the end of the 18th century to 1938, with an emphasis on the understanding of the advent and change of the status of the so-called statutory civil servants in the Czech Lands. It examines certain issues in the history of the Service Law and their points of departure, and defines the terms 'civil servants', 'civil service, and 'bureaucracy', and their tasks, including state and public service. It puts forward a more comprehensive view of the history of this legal theme. Legal regulation of the status of civil servants in the Czech Lands has a long- established tradition which evolves in line with the evolution of the entire legal system and adopts to changes in society, economy, and the individual normative systems, including the law. The origins of the modern form of the Service Law go back to the 18th century, to the Age of Enlightenment, the reign of Marie Theresa and in particular, the reign of Josef II. Some institutes continued to an extent in the regulation of the absolutistic feudalism and that of the estates, while others represented completely new institutes and have been preserved to this day. There was a common principle that applied until the end of the...

The organization of judiciary in Austria in the second half of the 19th century The main aim of this thesis is a description of the organization of the judiciary in Austria (Cisleithania) in the second half of the 19th century and its position in the broader European context. The revolution of 1848 dramatically affected the organization of the judiciary. In 1850 in some territories of the monarchy a new system of ordinary courts was activated which replaced the old system of pre-March. The new system was fully put under state control and separated from the administration at all levels. Despite the fact that this new structure was notably changed in the next half-century, the basic principles of the organization (with certain exception of the years 1855 to 1867) have not changed much. Other milestones in the development are the years 1854/1855 (the so-called Bach reorganization of the judiciary), the years 1867/1868 (the adoption of the December Constitution and application of certain principles contained therein), the years 1873/1874 (the adoption of the new Criminal Procedure Code and the beginning of its efficiency) and finally the years 1895-1898, when the reform of civil procedure and judicial organization took place. Austrian judicial system in the form it had assumed at the beginning of the last...

Cette thèse propose l'étude d'un ouvrage juridique majeur publié à la fin de l'Ancien Régime : le Répertoire Universel et Raisonné de Jurisprudence civile, criminelle, canonique et bénéficiale. Il s'agit d'une œuvre collective qui ambitionne de compiler l'ensemble du droit applicable dans le royaume. À ce titre, et considérant son historicité quasi-immédiate, cet ouvrage constitue une source précieuse pour les historiens du droit et justifie, par son utilisation abondante, une attention particulière. Précisément, notre travail, qui se limite aux deux premières éditions (1775-1785), envisage tout d'abord l'aventure éditoriale du Répertoire, dans sa dimension intellectuelle, légale mais aussi commerciale. Ainsi, on situe l'ouvrage parmi ses concurrents, tout en expliquant les modalités qui président à sa création. Notre thèse s'intéresse également aux normes qui régissent l'édition lors de la période étudiée, et particulièrement l'application des arrêts du Conseil du roi de 1777. À partir d'un exemple concret, l'articulation des droits conférés au détenteur d'un privilège d'édition avec le monopole corporatif des libraires-imprimeurs est exposée. Ensuite, la mise en lumière des différentes conceptions juridico-philosophiques affleurant le contenu constitue une préoccupation essentielle dans notre travail. Souvent qualifié d'ouvrage « classique », voire « traditionaliste », le Répertoire recèle nombre d'aspects novateurs et exprime un caractère polyphonique assumé. Enfin, en lien avec le précédent propos, les multiples collaborateurs de cette encyclopédie du droit sont identifiés et leur participation est quantifiée. Dans cette perspective, on s'attache notamment à dévoiler le parcours de son éditeur et principal rédacteur, Joseph-Nicolas Guyot, un ancien avocat et magistrat lorrain. In fine, l'objectif ultime de cette étude consiste à fournir une base de données inédite pour les nombreux chercheurs qui utilisent le Répertoire / This thesis proposes the study of a major legal work published at the end of the Ancien Régime: the Universal and Reasoned Directory of Jurisprudence Civil, Criminal, Canonical and Beneficial. It is a collective work that aims to compile all applicable law in the kingdom. As such, and considering its historicity almost immediate, this book is a valuable source for law historians and justifies, through its abundant use, special attention.Precisely, our work, which is limited to the first two editions (1775-1785), considers first of all the editorial adventure of the Directory, in its intellectual, legal but also commercial dimension. Thus, we place the book among its competitors, while explaining the modalities that preside over its creation. Our thesis is also interested in the norms that govern the publishing during the period studied, and particularly the application of the judgments of the Council of the king of 1777. Starting from a concrete example, the articulation of the rights conferred on the holder of a publishing privilege with the corporate monopoly of the booksellers-printers is exposed. Then, highlighting the different juridico-philosophical conceptions flush with the content is an essential concern in our work. Often referred to as a "classical" or even "traditionalist" work, the Directory contains many innovative aspects and expresses a polyphonic character assumed. Finally, in connection with the previous statement, the many collaborators of this encyclopedia of law are identified and their participation is quantified. In this perspective, we focus in particular to unveil the career of its editor and principal editor, Joseph-Nicolas Guyot, a former lawyer and magistrate Lorraine. Ultimately, the ultimate goal of this study is to provide an unpublished database for the many researchers who use the Directory