This dissertation examines how ordinary people in England and Russia form their perceptions of legal institutions in their experiences with lower courts. This work is based on a qualitative study involving interviews and observations in county and magistrates' courts in England and courts of Justices of the Peace in Russia, a number of focus groups with the court users and the judges, as well as a variety of secondary sources. The goal of this study is to investigate the inner workings of the English and Russian legal cultures through the analysis of stable attitudes towards legal institutions and their interplay with the people's perceptions of their individual experiences. My examination of these complex sets of ideas and images includes the analysis of people's preconceptions about institutions of justice, people's perceptions of administrative and procedural models, their interaction with court administration and legal professionals, and evaluations of the final outcomes of their cases. I argue that perceptions of legal institutions even at the lowest level are linked to the traditional images of courts in the Russian and English societies. The perceived position of legal institutions within the framework of the state, i.e. the level of their independence and impartiality, is one of the leading factors that shape people's long-standing attitudes of trust in legal institutions. The availability of administrative and procedural mechanisms that create and reinforce perceptions of transparency, equality, and reliability of legal institutions in people's everyday experiences contributes to the creation of stable attitudes of institutional trust. People’s perceptions of the English and Russian lower courts reflect how ordinary citizens see the law and the institutions of justice in their countries, and how they perceive their own ability to obtain justice with the use of official legal mechanisms. These perceptions reveal the underlying relationships between people, law, and legal institutions in different societies and, therefore, contribute to our understanding of legal cultures.

Corporate governance practice has recently become an important topic around the world and specifically within the emerging stock markets in order to avoid expropriation by corporate management at the expense of minority shareholders. Although corporate governance is considered to be tremendously important in many countries, whether developed or developing, corporate governance does not exist in Kuwait as a mean of shareholder protection. This thesis intends to provide a regulatory analysis to laws and regulations that should be implemented to regulate corporate governance practice in Kuwait in private companies and in the State-Owned Enterprises. The second chapter draws a theoretical framework of corporate governance. These theories must be discussed, because this thesis is the first to address corporate governance from a legal perspective and will help Kuwaiti practitioners and those involved in corporate governance practice to gain a better and more comprehensive understanding of and appreciation for effective corporate governance. The third chapter provides an overview of the corporate governance practice in the emerging markets. The fourth chapter presents the characteristics of a corporate culture to lay the groundwork for adopting corporate governance that will fit within the Kuwaiti culture. The fifth chapter offers an assessment of the institutional settings necessary to establish a sound corporate governance system in Kuwait, including legal and political institutions. The sixth chapter will examine corporate governance practice in the State-Owned Enterprises in Kuwait. The seventh chapter focuses on the best practices of corporate governance and the protection of shareholders in companies listed in the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) by analysing the regulations and laws that apply to the KSE and that should relate to corporate governance. Chapter eight offers recommendations for corporate governance reform that derive from the assessment made in this thesis in both public and private sectors in Kuwait. Finally, chapter nine provides the general conclusion of the thesis and the contribution of this study.

No description available.

No description available.

Recent research suggests that financial system development is important for economic development and for reducing financing constraints of firms (Levine, 2005). Consequently, researchers started investigating the factors that determine financial system development. A group of factors that have been identified are institutional factors. Many researchers have investigated the theoretical and empirical links among historical institutional factors, current institutional factors, and financial system development (Beck and Levine, 2005). There are, however, few studies that have investigated extensively the theoretical and empirical links among institutional factors and financial system development within the African context. Africa provides an interesting context to empirically validate and refine many of the theories that have been postulated to explain the relationships among historical and current institutional factors and financial system development. This is because Africa is in the process of developing its institutions and reforming existing ones and offers an opportunity to examine the impact of institutional factors on financial system development in nascent contexts. Therefore, this dissertation investigated the following research question: To what extent are institutional factors determinants of financial system development in Africa? To answer this research question, this study empirically evaluated the effects on financial system development of historical institutional factors that have been identified by four theories: legal origins theory, disease endowment theory, religion-based theory, and ethnic fractionalisation theory. Moreover, current institutional factors identified by the law and finance theory as possible determinants of financial system development were empirically examined. Furthermore, the links among historical and current institutional factors were empirically studied. The results show that the disease endowment variables are the only historical institutional factors that explain cross-country variation in financial system development in Africa. Additionally, this study finds that the institutional enforcement quality and efficiency of the judicial system are the only current institutional factors that explain cross-country variation in financial system development in Africa. Current institutional factors such as the efficiency of the legal property system and the quality of the credit information infrastructure do not appear to have effects on financial system development. Moreover, the institutional enforcement quality seems to be one of the possible channels through which disease endowment affects financial system development in Africa. This study also reveals that there are few statistically significant links among historical and current institutional factors within the African context. To my knowledge, this is the first study to show some of these empirical links among historical institutional factors, current institutional factors, and financial system development for the African context. The main conclusion of this dissertation is that institutional factors seem not to be determinants of financial system development in Africa to a large extent. In essence, institutional factors appear to matter for financial system development in Africa, but not as much as might have been expected judging from many calls for institutional reforms from the World Bank and others. The theoretical and policy implications of the findings of this dissertation are discussed, and future areas of research are also proposed.

Much has been written about various aspects of the long presence of the Knights of the Order St John on the island of Malta. Nonetheless, throughout this literature there is one noticeable omission - a study of the commercial development of the harbour area during the first decades of the Order’s rule. Despite Malta’s small size, the presence of the Order of St John (1530 -1798) ensured an inflow of foreign resources which eventually permitted very dense human settlement and an international projection beyond the island’s shores which was largely disproportionate to what would normally have occurred in such a small and sterile island. The maritime nature of the Order and the heavy dependence on imports hastened the creation of an efficient maritime communication system. The development of all these economic activities resulted in a prime economic means of generating wealth and served as a pull factor to a large number of enterprising individuals, both local and foreign. Early modern Hospitaller Malta eventually saw the consolidation of an enterprising business class, which, out of sheer necessity, grew accustomed to operating well beyond its narrow confines. In turn, this contributed to the island becoming more open to connectivity with the outside world. Hence, the main aim of this thesis is to explore in detail various economic activities taking place in Malta during this particular period which spans from 1530 to 1565. The year 1565 has been chosen as a marker since during this year there was a break in the normal chain of events due to the turmoil created by the Great Siege. In order to reach this goal the practical functioning of commerce with its agreements and disputes, its currencies, its trading posts and its nodal points shall be analyzed. Furthermore, this thesis strives to show how notarial evidence, together with that derived from records of various tribunals set up on the island at the time, supplement each other and help to fill in gaps. While discussing different methodological approaches to the study of the Mediterranean, the first chapter of this study shall also assess Malta’s place within the wider Mediterranean historiographical framework. It shall also trace the development of Maltese historiography and its contribution to the study of legal, economic and social issues relating to the sixteenth century. Furthermore, this study shall place the various series of primary sources used for its compilation in their proper context, thus allowing the reader to evaluate better the significance of the information provided. The second chapter shall evaluate how the arrival of the Order provided for the setting up of new institutions and for the promulgation of new laws in order to consolidate its authority over the island despite repeated promises to respect and honour ancient rights and privileges. The following three chapters shall each be dedicated to a particular case study which will try to address specific topics that have been largely neglected in Maltese historiography. Thus, starting with an analysis of the grain trade, which was of the utmost importance for a sterile island with an ever-increasing population, it will be followed by another case study which seeks to evaluate the role of women, their legal persona and how this affected their contribution to the island’s economic activities. The final chapter will try to establish whether there were any commercial links between Malta, often described as the frontier and bulwark of Christianity, and its neighbouring Ottoman North African territories. If such trade existed, how did merchants, both Christian and Muslim, manage to overcome religious antagonism which should have inhibited the easy flow of trade? The objective of this study shall therefore be to shed much-needed light on economic activities taking place in and around the harbour area during a largely unexplored period in Maltese history. Moreover, it shall seek to provide a better understanding of Mediterranean commercial relations since the Maltese harbour was a point of intersection not only for people of different nationalities, but even for people of different faiths, such as Muslims, Jews and Christians of different denominations. All had one common goal which unified them, that is, trading and making profit out of it.

Project finance has become a vital financing vehicle for undertaking capital-intensive and infrastructure investments. In 2017 alone, the value of deals signed using project finance was estimated at approximately $229 billion. Despite its increasing importance, little is known regarding the impact of project-level, and country characteristics on the loan terms. This thesis proceeds in examining these determinants along three empirical essays. The first essay (Chapter 3) focuses on how domestic lead arrangers certification (in emerging markets) impact the pricing of project finance loans. Using a sample 1270 project finance loan tranches signed between 1998 and 2011, and worth over $300 billion, the chapter posits that domestic lead arrangers certification reduce search and information cost, which in turn, reduces the financing cost. The results, after controlling for endogeneity of certification decision, indicate a reduction of 47 basis points in the spread offered on PF loans. The magnitude of this reduction differs across industries, geographic region, and income classification of the project countries. The second essay (Chapter 4) examines the relationship between PF contractual structures and loan outcomes, using a sample of 5872 project finance loan tranches signed between 1998 and 2013, and worth approximately $1.2 trillion. The chapter hypothesises that (i) non financial contracts (NFCs) (that is, contracts used to manage the various project functions), reduces overall project risk, (ii) the involvement of project sponsors as key counterparties to the non-financial contracts is an additional signal of project s potential worth, and (iii) the effects observed in (i and ii) are stronger, if sponsor counterparties have verifiable credit ratings. After matching loan tranches with NFCs to those without, the results indicate that the use of NFCs reduce both the loan spreads and leverage ratios. This impact is higher if the sponsor counterparties are credit-rated. The results are also stronger for developing countries. The third essay examines the impact of country-level institutions on project finance loan spread and leverage ratio, using a sample of 3,362 loan tranches signed between the year 1998 - 2012. The chapter investigates whether political and legal institutions are substitutes (or complements), that is, if improvement in one absorbs the weakness of the other, and vice versa. Further, the essay examines if project finance network of contracts substitutes for these institutions. The results indicate that political and legal institutions are substitutes. Specifically, improvements in political institutions lead to a reduction in both the loan spread and leverage ratio for countries with weak legal and governance institutions. The chapter also finds that where NFCs are included in PF, the impact of political institutions on loan spread reduces. On the other hand, the impact of political institutions on leverage ratio is higher when NFCs are used. The findings from the three research chapters provide interesting insights on how lenders and sponsors create value through contract design.

Over the last couple of decades or so, comparative public law scholars have been reporting a dramatic increase in the power and influence of judicial institutions worldwide. One obvious effect of this “judicialization of politics” is to highlight legitimacy concerns associated with the exercise of judicial power. Indeed, how do courts attain and retain their legitimacy particularly in the context of their increasing political relevance? To answer this question I develop a novel theory of strategic legitimacy cultivation. The theory is developed through an application of the institutionalist branch of the rational choice theory which suggests that institutional structures, rules, and imperatives provide behavioural incentives and disincentives for relevant actors who respond by acting strategically in order to attain favourable outcomes. The theory shows that courts cultivate legitimacy by exhibiting strategic sensitivities to factors operating in the external, political environment. In particular, legitimacy cultivation requires courts to devise decisions that are sensitive to the state of public opinion, that avoid overt clashes and entanglements with key political actors, that do not overextend the outreach of judicial activism, and that employ politically sensitive jurisprudence. The theory is tested in the context of the Supreme Court of Canada through a mixed-method research design that combines a quantitative analysis of a large number of cases, case-study approaches, and cross-policy comparisons. One of the central findings of the dissertation is that understanding judicial institutions and judicial policymaking influence requires taking close accounts of external contexts within which courts operate.

Over the last couple of decades or so, comparative public law scholars have been reporting a dramatic increase in the power and influence of judicial institutions worldwide. One obvious effect of this “judicialization of politics” is to highlight legitimacy concerns associated with the exercise of judicial power. Indeed, how do courts attain and retain their legitimacy particularly in the context of their increasing political relevance? To answer this question I develop a novel theory of strategic legitimacy cultivation. The theory is developed through an application of the institutionalist branch of the rational choice theory which suggests that institutional structures, rules, and imperatives provide behavioural incentives and disincentives for relevant actors who respond by acting strategically in order to attain favourable outcomes. The theory shows that courts cultivate legitimacy by exhibiting strategic sensitivities to factors operating in the external, political environment. In particular, legitimacy cultivation requires courts to devise decisions that are sensitive to the state of public opinion, that avoid overt clashes and entanglements with key political actors, that do not overextend the outreach of judicial activism, and that employ politically sensitive jurisprudence. The theory is tested in the context of the Supreme Court of Canada through a mixed-method research design that combines a quantitative analysis of a large number of cases, case-study approaches, and cross-policy comparisons. One of the central findings of the dissertation is that understanding judicial institutions and judicial policymaking influence requires taking close accounts of external contexts within which courts operate.

La création du Supremo Tribunal Federal est recherché par de facteurs qui ont influencé la chute de la monarchie, l'oeuvre du Gouvernement Provisoire, les discussions à l'Assemblée constituante et les normes de la nouvelle Constitution. L'environnement politique et juridique qui commence à se développer en 1870 explique la force des groupes, des idées politiques et comment les États-Unis sont devenus le modèle de référence pour le Brésilien. Il est le rôle des positivistes, des militaires, des propriétaires fonciers, des intellectuels urbains et la naissante opinion publique des villes qui composent l'environnement pour le remplacement de l'ancien système politique. Ces éléments sont présentés afin de vérifier comment était la division de la pensée politique au Brésil et les effets de cette division dans les normes constitutionnelles républicaines. Même qui bien documenté l'histoire de la cour suprême après leur activité, ces moments de création aident a donner un aperçu des origines de la cour et les raisons de sa conception institutionnelle. La compréhension de ces moments permettent d'expliquer les conflits qui pourraient surgir lorsqu'un tribunal avec de telles compétences ont agi pendant décennies dans un contexte peu enclins à accepter les interventions et les limites aux décisions politiques. / A criação do Supremo Tribunal Federal é pesquisada por meio dos fatores que influíram na queda da coroa, implantação do Governo Provisório, discussões na Assembleia Constituinte e as normas da nova Constituição. O ambiente político e jurídico que começa a se desenvolver em 1870 explica a força dos grupos e ideias políticas e como os Estados Unidos da América passaram a ser o modelo de referência para os brasileiros. É o papel dos positivistas, militares, proprietários rurais, intelectuais urbanos e a nascente opinião pública das cidades que formam o ambiente para a substituição do antigo sistema político. Esses elementos são apresentados para verificar como se dividiam as correntes de pensamento político no Brasil e os efeitos dessa divisão nas normas constitucionais republicanas. Apesar de estar bem documentada a trajetória do Supremo Tribunal Federal após a sua atividade, esses momentos de criação ajudam a dar uma perspectiva das origens da corte e os motivos de seu desenho institucional. Compreender esses momentos ajuda a explicar os conflitos que seriam gerados quando uma corte com tais competências fosse atuar por décadas em um contexto pouco propenso a aceitar intervenções e limitações de decisões políticas. / The creation of the Supremo Tribunal Federal is researched considering the factors that influenced the fall of the monarchy, beginning of the Interim Government, discussions in the Constituent Assembly and the norms of the new Constitution. The political and legal environment that begins to develop in 1870 explains the role of groups, political ideas and how the United States became the reference model for the Brazilian. It is the role of the positivists, military, landowners, urban intellectuals and the rising public opinion in the cities that make up the environment for the replacement of the old political system. These elements are presented to verify how divided the currents of political thought were in Brazil and the effects of this division in the Republican constitutional norms. Although the history of the supreme court after its activity is well documented, these moments of creation help to give a fuller perspective of the court origins and the reasons for its institutional design. Understanding these moments helps to explain the conflicts that would arise when a court with such ample legal attributions were operating for decades in a context disinclined to accept interventions and limitations of policy decisions. / La creación de lo Supremo Tribunal Federal es investigada por medio de los factores que influyeron en la caída de la corona, la implementación del Gobierno Provisional, los debates en la Asamblea Constituyente y las reglas de la nueva Constitución. El entorno político y legal que comienza a desarrollarse en 1870 explica la fuerza de los grupos, las ideas políticas y cómo el Estados Unidos se convirtió en el modelo de referencia para los brasileños. Es el papel de los positivistas, militares, propietarios de tierras, intelectuales urbanos y la naciente opinión pública en las ciudades que conforman el entorno para la sustitución del antiguo sistema político. Estos elementos se presentan para se verificar cómo eran divididas las corrientes del pensamiento político en Brasil y los efectos de esta división en las normas constitucionales republicanas. Aunque bien documentada la historia de lo Supremo Tribunal Federal después de su actividad, estos momentos de la creación ayudan a dar una visión de los orígenes de la corte y las razones de su diseño institucional. La comprensión de estos momentos ayuda a explicar los conflictos que surgen cuando un tribunal con tales habilidades estuviera actuando por décadas en un contexto poco dispuesto a aceptar las intervenciones y las limitaciones en las decisiones políticas.