Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / The objective of this thesis is to provide an aircraft with an optimal route to its destination that avoids encroaching into surface-to-air weapons killing envelopes in real time. The optimal route computed will be updated dynamically, depending on the location of the vehicle and the location of the Surface to Air Missile (SAM) sites. The problem was solved using heuristic algorithms instead of the conventional Dijkstra's & Bellman Ford algorithms, which are computationally expensive. Data fusion techniques such as spatial correlation and triangulation algorithms are presented in detail. Such techniques are important for situational awareness in a real time combat environment. Important information provided by onboard sensors are merged with the preplanned data to provide the operator with a better integrated picture of the combat environment. / Civilian, Singapore Ministry of Defense

Les partis politiques sont devenus les piliers de la démocratie moderne. De simples groupes inorganisés, ils sont devenus des structures hiérarchisées dont l’objectif est la conquête puis l’exercice du pouvoir. Les contingences historiques ont montré la nécessité pour les démocraties de se doter d’un appareil juridique pour se protéger des partis, mais également pour garantir leurs droits et libertés. Les partis ont donc été consacrés dans les Constitutions d’après-guerre. Cette constitutionnalisation s’est accompagnée de l’adjonction de Lois des partis ainsi que de dispositions législatives règlementant le droit des partis. La question du statut constitutionnel des partis se posait, alimentée par les décisions du juge constitutionnel, amené à se prononcer sur les droits, libertés et exigences des partis, dans le cadre du contrôle de constitutionnalité.Dès lors, il était intéressant d’aborder une approche comparatiste des partis politiques, sous l'angle du droit constitutionnel comparé, en l’occurrence du contentieux constitutionnel. La constitutionnalisation structurelle opposée à la consécration fonctionnelle permet de mettre en relief les grands principes directeurs du droit des partis. Ont ainsi été dégagés les principes de liberté, d’égalité, ainsi que celui de la transparence. Les partis sont confrontés aux exigences et aux interdictions, issues aussi bien des textes constitutionnels que législatifs. Les Cours constitutionnelles allemande, espagnole, italienne, française et portugaise apportent leurs appréciations, dont les travaux proposent une analyse détaillée. Le juge constitutionnel a certes remplit sa mission de protecteur de la Constitution en assurant la protection des principes démocratiques, mais dans le même temps, il s’est révélé le protecteur des droits et libertés des partis / Les partis politiques sont devenus les piliers de la démocratie moderne. De simples groupes inorganisés, ils sont devenus des structures hiérarchisées dont l’objectif est la conquête puis l’exercice du pouvoir. Les contingences historiques ont montré la nécessité pour les démocraties de se doter d’un appareil juridique pour se protéger des partis, mais également pour garantir leurs droits et libertés. Les partis ont donc été consacrés dans les Constitutions d’après-guerre. Cette constitutionnalisation s’est accompagnée de l’adjonction de Lois des partis ainsi que de dispositions législatives règlementant le droit des partis. La question du statut constitutionnel des partis se posait, alimentée par les décisions du juge constitutionnel, amené à se prononcer sur les droits, libertés et exigences des partis, dans le cadre du contrôle de constitutionnalité.Dès lors, il était intéressant d’aborder une approche comparatiste des partis politiques, sous l'angle du droit constitutionnel comparé, en l’occurrence du contentieux constitutionnel. La constitutionnalisation structurelle opposée à la consécration fonctionnelle permet de mettre en relief les grands principes directeurs du droit des partis. Ont ainsi été dégagés les principes de liberté, d’égalité, ainsi que celui de la transparence. Les partis sont confrontés aux exigences et aux interdictions, issues aussi bien des textes constitutionnels que législatifs. Les Cours constitutionnelles allemande, espagnole, italienne, française et portugaise apportent leurs appréciations, dont les travaux proposent une analyse détaillée. Le juge constitutionnel a certes remplit sa mission de protecteur de la Constitution en assurant la protection des principes démocratiques, mais dans le même temps, il s’est révélé le protecteur des droits et libertés des partis

Cette thèse, consacrée à l’expression de l’interdiction en russe moderne, étudie les différents types d’énoncés prohibitifs. L’acte de langage d’interdiction correspond à un énoncé performatif et contraignant incitant au non-accomplissement d’une action perçue comme indésirable par le locuteur. Cet énoncé crée, pour l’allocutaire, une obligation qui jusque-là n’existait pas. L’expression de l’interdiction se fait à différents niveaux de communication et par des moyens linguistiques de natures diverses : pragmatique, syntaxique ou lexicale. Outre les énoncés performatifs, l’interdiction peut être exprimée par des énoncés comportant une valeur illocutoire d’interdiction, y compris par des actes de langage indirects.Si les types d’énoncés prohibitifs sont nombreux, ils ne sont pas interchangeables. D’une part, ils ne peuvent être employés indifféremment dans n’importe quel contexte et ils relèvent de niveaux de langues différents. D’autre part, les disparités existant dans la force illocutoire des différents énoncés prohibitifs ont été mises en évidence. La force illocutoire d’un énoncé prohibitif résulte du choix du type d’énoncé retenu, mais aussi des moyens linguistiques qui peuvent être employés pour le moduler.Cette étude a permis d’établir une typologie des énoncés prohibitifs. Ces énoncés peuvent se répartir en trois catégories : les énoncés qui signifient l’interdiction par exception, les énoncés habituellement prohibitifs et les énoncés invariablement prohibitifs.S’y ajoute la question de l’évolution de la langue, notamment par un effet de contamination des langues européennes. Cette évolution se traduit par le recours moins fréquent aux tournures les plus catégoriques, ainsi que par l’introduction de formules de politesse de plus en plus fréquentes. / This thesis is dedicated to prohibitive commands in modern Russian and studies the various speech strategies expressing negative commands. Prohibitive speech acts correspond to compulsory and performative utterances urging the non-accomplishment of an action perceived as undesirable by the speaker. Due to this utterance, the addressee has no other option than compliance, which was not the case before.Prohibitive commands are expressed at various communication levels and by a wide range of linguistic means: pragmatic, syntactic or lexical.Besides performative utterances, prohibition can be expressed by utterances with a prohibitive illocutionary force, including indirect speech acts. Although negative commands can be expressed by various strategies, they are not interchangeable. On the one hand, any negative command cannot be used in all contexts and in addition, the registers are different.On the other hand, the disparities in the illocutionary force of command of the various prohibitive strategies could be established. The illocutionary force of a prohibitive command both results from the selected linguistic strategy, but also from the means of modulation that can be used.This study enabled us to establish a typology of negative commands. The latter can be displayed in three categories: utterances whose prohibitive meaning occurs exceptionally, usually prohibitive utterances and invariably prohibitive utterances. Furthermore, the evolution of the Russian language has to be taken into account, among others by a contamination effect from European languages. This evolution leads to a less frequent resort to the strongest prohibitive commands, as well as to the increasing use of politeness strategies.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T20:23:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria de Fatima Vicente.pdf: 931895 bytes, checksum: 411623fa873351963074ca75769e9ffa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-06-09 / This thesis deals with the social symptom Brazilian popular Music - MPB between 1965 and 1972 and its ethical incidence on the Brazilian society under dictatorship (1964-1985) as effect of its condition of social symptom. The sonority is a central element of the Brazilian society and instituted itself in earthly, corporal sonority, opposite to the sublime one. In the turn of century XIX, by the force of the conditions of the musical scene and the social-political scene, it was articulated based on the orality and for the percussion when, stabilished the frame song as the predominant way of the Brazilian musical culture. It points out as intrinsic factor to the definition of this frame the insurmountable presence of the singer, decisive element for the effect of symbolic mediation of the social link accomplished by this music, in special when the institutionalization of the MPB. The format song safeguarded the place of the body, as the frame supports itself the intonation of everyday speach, and instaurates the body of the singer as object of the circulation of the word, diction limited for the interdiction. Which alows to point out the acts of the singers as singular acts due to relation in this social symptom that the singer establishes with his public: situated in the lack of the object by the effect of musical silence, homologous position to the psychoanalyst in the cure, producing decoposed and understandable effects of the social reality. It was concluded that the vicissitudes of social MPB symptom in that social-political conjuncture, read by the paradigm of singer s interpretation , had happened in the society as acts that drive away the death and had accomplished understandable possibilities of the instituted social-political order / Esta tese trata do sintoma social Música popular brasileira MPB entre 1965 e 1972 e de sua incidência ética sobre a sociedade brasileira sob ditadura (1964-1985) como efeito de sua condição de sintoma social. A sonoridade é um elemento central da sociedade brasileira e se instituiu em sonoridade terrena, corpórea e avessa ao sublime. Na virada do século XIX, por força das condições da cena musical e da cena político-social, articulou-se pautada pela oralidade e pela percussão quando, estabilizou o formato canção como o modo predominante da cultura musical brasileira. Sobressai como fator intrínseco à definição desse formato a presença incontornável do cancionista, elemento decisivo para os efeitos de mediação simbólica do laço social efetivado por essa música, em especial quando da institucionalização da MPB. O formato-canção salvaguardou o lugar do corpo, uma vez que esse formato se apóia na entoação da fala cotidiana, e instaura o corpo do cancionista como objeto da circulação da palavra, dicção limitada pela interdicção. O que permite situar os atos dos cancionistas como atos singulares devido à relação que nesse sintoma social o cancionista estabelece com seu público: situado na falta do objeto por efeito do silêncio musical, posição homóloga à do psicanalista na cura, produzindo efeitos de escansão interpretantes da realidade social. Conclui-se que as vicissitudes do sintoma social MPB naquela conjuntura político-social, lidos pelo paradigma da interpretação do cancionista, incidiram na sociedade como atos que afugentam a morte e efetivaram possibilidades interpretantes da ordem político-social instituída

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T14:58:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria de Fatima Vicente.pdf: 931895 bytes, checksum: 411623fa873351963074ca75769e9ffa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-06-09 / This thesis deals with the social symptom Brazilian popular Music - MPB between 1965 and 1972 and its ethical incidence on the Brazilian society under dictatorship (1964-1985) as effect of its condition of social symptom. The sonority is a central element of the Brazilian society and instituted itself in earthly, corporal sonority, opposite to the sublime one. In the turn of century XIX, by the force of the conditions of the musical scene and the social-political scene, it was articulated based on the orality and for the percussion when, stabilished the frame song as the predominant way of the Brazilian musical culture. It points out as intrinsic factor to the definition of this frame the insurmountable presence of the singer, decisive element for the effect of symbolic mediation of the social link accomplished by this music, in special when the institutionalization of the MPB. The format song safeguarded the place of the body, as the frame supports itself the intonation of everyday speach, and instaurates the body of the singer as object of the circulation of the word, diction limited for the interdiction. Which alows to point out the acts of the singers as singular acts due to relation in this social symptom that the singer establishes with his public: situated in the lack of the object by the effect of musical silence, homologous position to the psychoanalyst in the cure, producing decoposed and understandable effects of the social reality. It was concluded that the vicissitudes of social MPB symptom in that social-political conjuncture, read by the paradigm of singer s interpretation , had happened in the society as acts that drive away the death and had accomplished understandable possibilities of the instituted social-political order / Esta tese trata do sintoma social Música popular brasileira MPB entre 1965 e 1972 e de sua incidência ética sobre a sociedade brasileira sob ditadura (1964-1985) como efeito de sua condição de sintoma social. A sonoridade é um elemento central da sociedade brasileira e se instituiu em sonoridade terrena, corpórea e avessa ao sublime. Na virada do século XIX, por força das condições da cena musical e da cena político-social, articulou-se pautada pela oralidade e pela percussão quando, estabilizou o formato canção como o modo predominante da cultura musical brasileira. Sobressai como fator intrínseco à definição desse formato a presença incontornável do cancionista, elemento decisivo para os efeitos de mediação simbólica do laço social efetivado por essa música, em especial quando da institucionalização da MPB. O formato-canção salvaguardou o lugar do corpo, uma vez que esse formato se apóia na entoação da fala cotidiana, e instaura o corpo do cancionista como objeto da circulação da palavra, dicção limitada pela interdicção. O que permite situar os atos dos cancionistas como atos singulares devido à relação que nesse sintoma social o cancionista estabelece com seu público: situado na falta do objeto por efeito do silêncio musical, posição homóloga à do psicanalista na cura, produzindo efeitos de escansão interpretantes da realidade social. Conclui-se que as vicissitudes do sintoma social MPB naquela conjuntura político-social, lidos pelo paradigma da interpretação do cancionista, incidiram na sociedade como atos que afugentam a morte e efetivaram possibilidades interpretantes da ordem político-social instituída

En posant la question de l’influence des ONG sur la décision du gouvernement français d’adopter le traité d’interdiction des armes à sous-munitions à Oslo en décembre 2008, cette thèse offre l’occasion de revisiter tout un ensemble de travaux de Relations Internationales sur les conditions de succès des mobilisations transnationales dans la production et l’adoption des normes internationales. Alors que les théoriciens de relations internationales travaillent presque exclusivement sur ce qui se joue à l’échelle internationale, entre les ONG et les Etats, ce travail propose au contraire de resserrer la focale uniquement sur la prise de décision politique française. Il propose ainsi de chercher les raisons du « succès » des mobilisations transnationales non pas dans leurs caractéristiques propres, mais plutôt dans les logiques politiques et institutionnelles qui façonnent les décisions politiques nationales. Cette thèse décrit un processus de décision politique en partie imposée aux pouvoirs publics par une mobilisation transnationale. Elle montre ainsi comment l’espace des choix se restreint au point d’obliger les pouvoirs publics à adopter un traité de désarmement auquel ils auraient largement préféré se soustraire. Mais elle révèle également comment l’Etat n’en reste pas moins doté d’une capacité de gouverner qui lui permet de récupérer subtilement la main. C’est cette tension que signifie l’expression gouverner sans choisir. / In posing the question of the influence of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the French government’s decision to adopt the treaty banning cluster munitions, in Oslo in December 2008, this thesis offers the occasion to revisit a number of studies in International Relations on the factors behind transnational mobilizations’ success in creating and adopting international norms. While theorists of international relations work almost exclusively with such conditions at the international level, between ONGs and states, this study proposes, on the contrary, to shift the focus to the French political decision-making process. It seeks the reasons for “successful” transnational mobilization not in their proper characteristics, but rather in the political and institutional logic shaping national political decisions. This thesis describes a process of decision-making imposed, in part, on the public authorities by a transnational mobilization and it shows how the realm of choices narrowed to the point where the public authorities were forced to adopt a disarmament treaty that they would have overwhelmingly preferred to avoid. However, this thesis also reveals how the state nonetheless retained its capacity to govern and to subtly recover its power. It is this tension that provides the expression to govern without choosing.

This dissertation addresses five fundamental resource allocation problems on networks, all of which have applications to support Homeland Security or industry challenges. In the first application, we model and solve the strategic problem of minimizing the expected loss inflicted by a hostile terrorist organization. An appropriate allocation of certain capability-related, intent-related, vulnerability-related, and consequence-related resources is used to reduce the probabilities of success in the respective attack-related actions, and to ameliorate losses in case of a successful attack. Given the disparate nature of prioritizing capital and material investments by federal, state, local, and private agencies to combat terrorism, our model and accompanying solution procedure represent an innovative, comprehensive, and quantitative approach to coordinate resource allocations from various agencies across the breadth of domains that deal with preventing attacks and mitigating their consequences. Adopting a nested event tree optimization framework, we present a novel formulation for the problem as a specially structured nonconvex factorable program, and develop two branch-and-bound schemes based respectively on utilizing a convex nonlinear relaxation and a linear outer-approximation, both of which are proven to converge to a global optimal solution. We also investigate a fundamental special-case variant for each of these schemes, and design an alternative direct mixed-integer programming model representation for this scenario. Several range reduction, partitioning, and branching strategies are proposed, and extensive computational results are presented to study the efficacy of different compositions of these algorithmic ingredients, including comparisons with the commercial software BARON. The developed set of algorithmic implementation strategies and enhancements are shown to outperform BARON over a set of simulated test instances, where the best proposed methodology produces an average optimality gap of 0.35% (compared to 4.29% for BARON) and reduces the required computational effort by a factor of 33. A sensitivity analysis is also conducted to explore the effect of certain key model parameters, whereupon we demonstrate that the prescribed algorithm can attain significantly tighter optimality gaps with only a near-linear corresponding increase in computational effort. In addition to enabling effective comprehensive resource allocations, this research permits coordinating agencies to conduct quantitative what-if studies on the impact of alternative resourcing priorities. The second application is motivated by the author's experience with the U.S. Army during a tour in Iraq, during which combined operations involving U.S. Army, Iraqi Army, and Iraqi Police forces sought to interdict the transport of selected materials used for the manufacture of specialized types of Improvised Explosive Devices, as well as to interdict the distribution of assembled devices to operatives in the field. In this application, we model and solve the problem of minimizing the maximum flow through a network from a given source node to a terminus node, integrating different forms of superadditive synergy with respect to the effect of resources applied to the arcs in the network. Herein, the superadditive synergy reflects the additional effectiveness of forces conducting combined operations, vis-à-vis unilateral efforts. We examine linear, concave, and general nonconcave superadditive synergistic relationships between resources, and accordingly develop and test effective solution procedures for the underlying nonlinear programs. For the linear case, we formulate an alternative model representation via Fourier-Motzkin elimination that reduces average computational effort by over 40% on a set of randomly generated test instances. This test is followed by extensive analyses of instance parameters to determine their effect on the levels of synergy attained using different specified metrics. For the case of concave synergy relationships, which yields a convex program, we design an inner-linearization procedure that attains solutions on average within 3% of optimality with a reduction in computational effort by a factor of 18 in comparison with the commercial codes SBB and BARON for small- and medium-sized problems; and outperforms these softwares on large-sized problems, where both solvers failed to attain an optimal solution (and often failed to detect a feasible solution) within 1800 CPU seconds. Examining a general nonlinear synergy relationship, we develop solution methods based on outer-linearizations, inner-linearizations, and mixed-integer approximations, and compare these against the commercial software BARON. Considering increased granularities for the outer-linearization and mixed-integer approximations, as well as different implementation variants for both these approaches, we conduct extensive computational experiments to reveal that, whereas both these techniques perform comparably with respect to BARON on small-sized problems, they significantly improve upon the performance for medium- and large-sized problems. Our superlative procedure reduces the computational effort by a factor of 461 for the subset of test problems for which the commercial global optimization software BARON could identify a feasible solution, while also achieving solutions of objective value 0.20% better than BARON. The third application is likewise motivated by the author's military experience in Iraq, both from several instances involving coalition forces attempting to interdict the transport of a kidnapping victim by a sectarian militia as well as, from the opposite perspective, instances involving coalition forces transporting detainees between interment facilities. For this application, we examine the network interdiction problem of minimizing the maximum probability of evasion by an entity traversing a network from a given source to a designated terminus, while incorporating novel forms of superadditive synergy between resources applied to arcs in the network. Our formulations examine either linear or concave (nonlinear) synergy relationships. Conformant with military strategies that frequently involve a combination of overt and covert operations to achieve an operational objective, we also propose an alternative model for sequential overt and covert deployment of subsets of interdiction resources, and conduct theoretical as well as empirical comparative analyses between models for purely overt (with or without synergy) and composite overt-covert strategies to provide insights into absolute and relative threshold criteria for recommended resource utilization. In contrast to existing static models, in a fourth application, we present a novel dynamic network interdiction model that improves realism by accounting for interactions between an interdictor deploying resources on arcs in a digraph and an evader traversing the network from a designated source to a known terminus, wherein the agents may modify strategies in selected subsequent periods according to respective decision and implementation cycles. We further enhance the realism of our model by considering a multi-component objective function, wherein the interdictor seeks to minimize the maximum value of a regret function that consists of the evader's net flow from the source to the terminus; the interdictor's procurement, deployment, and redeployment costs; and penalties incurred by the evader for misperceptions as to the interdicted state of the network. For the resulting minimax model, we use duality to develop a reformulation that facilitates a direct solution procedure using the commercial software BARON, and examine certain related stability and convergence issues. We demonstrate cases for convergence to a stable equilibrium of strategies for problem structures having a unique solution to minimize the maximum evader flow, as well as convergence to a region of bounded oscillation for structures yielding alternative interdictor strategies that minimize the maximum evader flow. We also provide insights into the computational performance of BARON for these two problem structures, yielding useful guidelines for other research involving similar non-convex optimization problems. For the fifth application, we examine the problem of apportioning railcars to car manufacturers and railroads participating in a pooling agreement for shipping automobiles, given a dynamically determined total fleet size. This study is motivated by the existence of such a consortium of automobile manufacturers and railroads, for which the collaborative fleet sizing and efforts to equitably allocate railcars amongst the participants are currently orchestrated by the \textit{TTX Company} in Chicago, Illinois. In our study, we first demonstrate potential inequities in the industry standard resulting either from failing to address disconnected transportation network components separately, or from utilizing the current manufacturer allocation technique that is based on average nodal empty transit time estimates. We next propose and illustrate four alternative schemes to apportion railcars to manufacturers, respectively based on total transit time that accounts for queuing; two marginal cost-induced methods; and a Shapley value approach. We also provide a game-theoretic insight into the existing procedure for apportioning railcars to railroads, and develop an alternative railroad allocation scheme based on capital plus operating costs. Extensive computational results are presented for the ten combinations of current and proposed allocation techniques for automobile manufacturers and railroads, using realistic instances derived from representative data of the current business environment. We conclude with recommendations for adopting an appropriate apportionment methodology for implementation by the industry. / Ph. D.

Centrée sur le droit pénal face à la migration transfrontière, la présente étude prend le parti d’intégrer en son sein deux formes de migration spécifiques : la migration irrégulière et la migration pour motif terroriste. Elle choisit également de faire du droit pénal son objet central. Ce choix conduit naturellement à renverser les perspectives initiales et à envisager, non les effets du droit pénal sur la migration transfrontière, mais l’inverse : les incidences de la migration transfrontière sur le droit pénal. À cet égard, migration irrégulière et migration pour motif terroriste ont en commun d’ébranler le droit pénal. Face à la migration irrégulière, le droit pénal subit une instrumentalisation : sa mobilisation n’est effectuée que dans une finalité administrative d’éloignement de la migration présente à la frontière (particulièrement dans les zones d’attente et frontalières). Plus encore, la politique de prévention contre l’immigration irrégulière développée à l’échelle de l’Union européenne a entraîné un véritable enchevêtrement de normes pénales, agissant dans de multiples espaces géographiques, dont certaines sont détournées afin d’entraver la migration en mer, et d’autres créées pour l’empêcher de se former sur terre, au sein des États tiers de départ. À l’inverse, le droit pénal apparaît absent face à la migration pour motif terroriste. Alors qu’il pourrait se saisir de ce phénomène, il semble au contraire dépassé par la montée en puissance de mesures de police administrative. De nature à anticiper d’une manière quasiment prédictive le risque terroriste porté par la migration transfrontière, ces mesures entraînent l’obsolescence du droit pénal. Penser le droit pénal face à la migration transfrontière permet enfin de révéler que la migration irrégulière et la migration pour motif terroriste sont liées par le droit, en étant envisagées sous le prisme du risque qu’elles portent en elle. / This study focuses on the link between criminal law and crossborder migration and will address two specific forms of migration : irregular migration and migration with a terrorist purpose. The main focus of this study is criminal law. This choice has resulted in a reversal of the original focus ; that is to say the effects of crossborder migration on criminal law as opposed to the effects of criminal law on crossborder migration. Both irregular migration and migration with a terrorist purpose undermine criminal law. With respect to irregular migration, criminal law is used as an administrative instrument to repel migrants from national borders particularly those in waiting zones and crossborder zones. Prevention policies against irregular migration implemented at the EU level have resulted in an entanglement of criminal norms, in various geographic areas, some of them were diverted to prevent migration by sea and other were created to stop migrants trying to enter by land via third countries. On the contrary, criminal law seems absent with regards to migration with a terrorist purpose. While it could effectively tackle this phenomenon, it seems overwhelmed by the rise of administrative police measures. These measures are able to anticipate in a quasi-predictive manner the risk of terrorism via crossborder migration and they in fact render criminal law ineffective. Thinking criminal law in the face of crossborder migration has allowed to reveal that irregular migration and migration with a terrorist purpose are legally contected, when they are considered through the prism of the risk conveyed.

Au début des années 1970, les travailleurs de l'amiante de Thetford Mines et d'Asbestos ont entrepris un combat pour assainir leurs milieux de travail et leurs villes, dans lesquelles les mines étaient imbriquées. À Thetford Mines, ils ont mené une longue grève de sept mois et demi qui a conduit à la mise sur pied du Comité d'étude sur la salubrité dans l'industrie de l'amiante, puis, avec l'élection du jeune Parti québécois, à la Loi sur la santé et la sécurité du travail qui introduisait les principes de l'élimination des dangers à la source et de la participation des travailleurs à son application. La crédibilité de leurs syndicats s'en trouvait renforcée. Mais bientôt la montée d'un mouvement international visant à bannir l'amiante et la crise économique du début des années 1980 allaient porter un dur coup à l'industrie et entrainer un déclin que rien ne pourrait arrêter. Les travailleurs miniers, qui s'étaient unis contre leurs employeurs et parfois contre l'État dans leur combat pour la santé, s'allièrent dès lors à leurs entreprises et aux pouvoirs publics pour promouvoir le minéral et tenter de préserver leurs emplois et la vitalité de leurs régions. Ils n'ont jamais envisagé l'arrêt de la production d'amiante car ils ont toujours considéré qu'il est possible d'en maitriser les risques et ils défendirent bec et ongles leur produit en arguant du caractère sécuritaire de ses utilisations modernes, malgré un consensus international grandissant à l'encontre de cette thèse. / The asbestos workers in the cities of Thetford Mines and Asbestos launched a campaign for better working conditions and healthier living conditions despite the entanglement of the mines in the heart of their cities, in the early 1970s. The unions in Thetford Mines together led a long, seven-and-a-half month strike, which culminated with the establishment of a committee on hygiene in the asbestos industry (Comité d’étude sur la salubrité dans l’industrie de l’amiante), and then, with the election of the young Parti Québécois, with a new occupational safety and health law which implemented the principles of eliminating dangers at their source, as well as that of worker participation in the endeavour. The asbestos unions had become credible political players. But the rise of an international movement to ban asbestos, along with the economic crisis of the early 1980s, dealt a crushing blow to the industry from which it would never recover. The miners, who had come together to take on their employers - and the government in some cases – to better their health, soon sided with industry and the public authorities to promote asbestos as a way to preserve their jobs and the life of their surrounding areas. They had never considered ceasing asbestos production because they believed the hazards could be controlled, and they persisted in their steadfast defense of the safety of the product even as an international consensus formed against this thesis.

Au Moyen-âge, les hommes ont coutume de courir avec les taureaux à travers les rues de leur village. Dès le XVIe siècle, l’Eglise et la Monarchie interdisent cette pratique au motif qu’elle occasionne de trop nombreuses blessures et des pertes humaines. Toutefois, ce divertissement est tellement ancré dans les mœurs qu’il finit par être toléré. Sous la pression de la Société protectrice des animaux, la loi du 2 juillet 1850, dite loi Grammont, va sanctionner les mauvais traitements commis publiquement et abusivement envers les animaux domestiques. A cette même époque, les courses de taureaux à la mode espagnole s’implantent dans le pays. Diverses actions sont alors intentées sur le fondement de ce nouveau texte pour condamner l’ensemble des acteurs des spectacles taurins, mais certains juges refusent d’appliquer cette loi à de telles manifestations malgré la position contraire de la Chambre criminelle. Face à cette situation paradoxale, les courses de taureaux avec mise à mort sont finalement légalisées sous certaines conditions à partir de 1951. Cette exception est confirmée par la loi du 19 novembre 1963 lorsqu’une tradition locale ininterrompue est rapportée. Contestant fermement ce compromis dégagé par le législateur, les opposants à la corrida réclament la suppression de cette dérogation prévue au régime protecteur des animaux domestiques. La reconnaissance de la sensibilité et du bien-être de l’animal dans sa dimension d’être vivant par la loi du 10 juillet 1976 et le traité d’Amsterdam, va fragiliser cet équilibre instauré par le législateur français, même si l’Union européenne entend préserver les traditions culturelles propres à chaque Etat membre. / In the Middle Ages, it was commonplace for the men to run with the bulls in the streets of their villages. From the 16th century, the Church and the monarchy forbade this practice on the grounds that it caused too many casualties. Nevertheless, this entertainment was so weaved into the fabric of society that it ended up being tolerated. Following pressure from the animal welfare organisations, the Act of 2 July 1850 – or the Grammont Act - sanctioned any public ill-treatment wrongly perpetrated against domestic animals. At the same time, Spanish-style bullfights were established in the country. Various legal actions were initiated on the basis of this new law in order to condemn the bullfight actors, but some judges refused to apply this legislation to such events despite the contrary opinion of the Criminal Division. In response to this paradoxical situation, from 1951 the bullfights ending with the killing of the bull were eventually legalized under certain conditions. This exception is confirmed by the Act of 19 November 1963 when an unbroken local tradition is claimed. Firmly contesting this compromise reached by the legislator, the opponents of bullfighting asked for this derogation planned in the animal protection regime to be abolished. The recognition of the animal welfare and sensitivity by the Act of 10 July 1976 and the Treaty of Amsterdam weakens the balance established by the French legislator even if the objective of the European Union is to maintain the cultural traditions specific to each Member State.