Scholarship on education and social reform has studied how communities with a history of literacy and employment in pre-colonial state administrations adjusted to the new socio-political order brought about by the British Empire in India. My work shifts the attention to the Indian aristocracy and mercantile communities and examines why they promoted modern education. I argue that rulers of Indian states adapted to the colonial environment quite effectively. Instead of a break from the past, traditional ideas of rajadharma (duties of a king) evolved and made room for reformist social and economic policies. This dissertation examines why many Indian princes (kings and queens) adopted liberal policies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I argue that English-educated rulers of Indian states became reformers and modernizers to enhance their monarchical authority. The main audience for princes was their own state population, neighboring princes, imperial officials, and Indian journalists and politicians. I have carried out research at government archives and public and private libraries in India and the United Kingdom. Sources used include official records and correspondence, annual administrative reports, newspaper accounts, social reform journals, and weeklies and monthlies dedicated to educational topics. I have also consulted memoirs and biographies of kings, queens, diwans (prime ministers) and merchants. My source material is in English and Gujarati. I draw evidence from princely states across India with a focus on Hindu Rajput and Pathan Muslim states in the Gujarat (specifically Saurashtra) region of western India, neighboring the former Bombay Presidency. Due to Gujarat's strong mercantilist tradition, commercial groups played an influential role in society. I examine how and why merchants in princely states supported their ruler's educational policies. I also discuss how mercantile philanthropy crossed political and religious boundaries with the Gujarati (Hindu, Muslim and Jain) diaspora across India, Africa and Burma supporting educational institutions in Gujarat. My dissertation examines the interactions between the English-educated upper caste Hindus, the Anglicized Rajput rulers and the Gujarati merchants to understand how they all contributed to the shaping of modern Gujarati society. / text

This dissertation reintegrates the Mediterranean into the history of the development of the early modern British Empire. During the seventeenth century, the Mediterranean emerged as a distinct political, legal and commercial space within the wider currents of English expansion. The political and legal regimes of the sea shaped the evolution of the English presence there and the rulers of the Ottoman Empire, the North African regencies, and Italian states such as Tuscany and Genoa limited the expansion of English sovereignty. As a result, the sea offers a different perspective on the history of English expansion than that found in imperial histories set in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The development of the English presence in the Mediterranean highlights the relative weakness of the early modern English state and the extent to which other polities limited the expansion of its sovereign authority. However, this dissertation also aims to move beyond an imperial historiography that distinguishes the wider development of English trade and navigation from the growth of English empire. Through the latter half of the seventeenth century and first half of the eighteenth, the Crown's claims to jurisdiction over its subjects and their ships projected English authority into the Mediterranean. This dissertation examines how the English state extended its authority within a pluralistic maritime environment that lay largely beyond the reach of its claims to empire. By studying the jurisdictional contests that arose when the Crown’s claims to authority over its subjects and their ships collided with the sovereignty of Mediterranean polities, it shows how the intersection of diverse sovereign and legal authorities defined the organization of English trade and navigation. Moreover, as the English state extended its authority overseas during the early modern period, it called into question the location of sovereignty and jurisdictional authority in Mediterranean waters as well as in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. English expansion in the Mediterranean and the political evolution of the sea were part of a global process whereby states and empires sought to establish their authority over oceanic space and networks of trade. / History

Tatarstan’s degree of political, economic and cultural sovereignty within the Russian Federation is the result of Soviet era ethno-national politics. The re-adoption of the ethnic federal state model in 1992 by Russia allowed ethnic regions such as Tatarstan to challenge the federal authorities for con-federal relations within the Federation. The Tatar leadership has attempted to work within the institutional and legal framework of the Russian Federation in an attempt to codify their state sovereignty within the Russian Federation. The political and economic concessions gained through tedious negotiation with the center have provided the Republic with the means to build a culturally distinct and semi sovereign state in the heart of the Russian Federation. / text

Powerful norms tend to define the purpose and function of higher education as a means for individual students to improve individual social mobility and to attain occupational status, and oftentimes, we assume this to be the primary intent of any college student (Baum, Ma, & Payea, 2013; Day & Newberger, 2002). For the purpose of this study, the normative framing of college as primarily an individual benefit is scrutinized to understand how this norm engages American Indian students in the college-going process. Indigenous scholars argue that infusing the concept of Native Nation Building into our understandings of higher education challenges such mainstream cultural norms and fills a space between the individual and mainstream society (Brayboy, Fann, Castagno, and Solyom, 2012). This qualitative study proposes the Individual-Independent/Political-Collective Paradox Model to understand how American Indian students navigate and make-meaning of collective values and the role of student tribal status on the college-going process. Through the voices of thirty-seven American Indian college students, the findings demonstrate the critical thinking and navigation of varying realities that American Indian students face when entering higher education institution. I present the three main findings of this study. The first finding presents how the participant's college-going process is not linear in both pathways and meaning making. Through a college-going typology, students reveal how the college-going phases have cyclical aspects, where each phase is built upon each other and influence subsequent meaning- and decision-making. The second finding demonstrates how the college-choice process is instrumental in understanding how students frame the purpose of higher education through collective values that are intricately related to students' reference of tribal enrollment. The third finding shows how collective values and tribal enrollment help inform the meaning of financial aid for students. These meanings reveal that tribal aid is not only relevant to providing access during the college exploration and choice phases, but the aid reinforces students' purpose of higher education and future goals, which both are primarily collective in nature.

This thesis interrogates the continued statelessness of more than 12 million stateless people around the world, in the face of Article 15 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which provides that everyone has a right to a nationality. Its principal argument is that the continued unresolved presence of stateless groups around the world exposes international law’s inadequate protection of the ‘right to a nationality’. It advocates the adoption of a robust approach to protect and enforce this right to nationality of stateless people. Article 15 of the UDHR has been complemented by a host of international and regional instruments relating to the right to nationality. In developing its argument, the thesis reviews the relevant instruments, as well as local and international judicial decisions relating to the right. The review is juxtaposed with local legislation and state practices on the issue of citizenship, for the purpose of determining the status of the right, and whether the right forms part of customary international law. This thesis also examines the emergence of nationality as a human right under international law and the interplay between states sovereignty and the right to nationality, for the purpose of showing the lacuna in international law that allows continued statelessness. It examines the relationship between the possession of nationality and the enjoyment of other human rights vis-à-vis the sufferings that arise from statelessness, as well as the extent to which denationalization is a step toward genocide, for the purpose of showing that protection of the right qualifies as erga omnes obligation. It also argues that suffering of stateless people must be taken seriously, as a step toward taking the right to nationality of stateless people seriously. While the thesis does not necessarily provide the final solution to all the problems arising out of statelessness, it is anticipated that it will make a worthy contribution to addressing the legal questions on statelessness and, more importantly, provide a sound basis for further discussions on the status, importance and the need to protect and enforce the right to nationality of stateless people.

The Cuban Crisis of October 22-28, 1962, pitted against each other the two world giants who have weapons that can destroy each other and at the same time all of human society. The suspenseful events of that week brought the world to the brink of World War III. As the crisis receded upon agreement of the Soviet Union to remove the offensive missiles from Cuba and by the States to refrain, under certain conditions, from invading Cuba, so did the memory of that week. [...]

Baigiamajame magistro darbe nagrinėjama suverenumo istorija, apibrėžiama globalizacija, aptariama globalizacijos istorija, globalizacijos įtaka tradicinei valstybių politikai, globalizacijos procesų kritika, apžvelgiami antiglobalistiniai judėjimai. Įvardijami globalizacijos iššūkiai Vestfalijos modelio valstybių sistemai, tautinio valstybių suverenumo taikymo ribos, atskiriama tautiškumo ir Tautos sąvokos, apžvelgiamos viršnacionalinių idėjų teorijos. Įvardinus globalizacijos procesų metamus iššūkius tautinėms valstybėms, pabrėžiama švietimo sistemos atnaujinimo būtinybė, įvertinama minėtojo modelio žlugimo galimybė. Darbą sudaro 8 dalys: Angliškas ir lietuviškas apibendrinimai, Įvadas, Suverenumo idėjos istorija, Globalizacija ir jos procesų apžvalga, Suverenumo instituto taikymo ribos, Išvados, Literatūros sąrašas. / 500 years ago both a doctrine and institution of sovereignty were created; both were changed frequently in order to meet contemporaneous political demands. After World War I a system of sovereign nation-states was formed, which has become extremely conservative and suspicious towards any change in the status quo. If history has taught us anything, it is to doubt any theory or ideology that claims to have knowledge of the end of sovereignty. Globalization processes have raised many challenges never before seen by nation states: the loss of control of both global and local economies; migration and technological advancement taking away the monopoly of information flows in and out the countries; global issues forcing states to introduce supranational organizations such as the EU and NATO. Anti-global movements arise within the frames of globalism, and therefore a paradox emerges: anti-global processes work in the global field. With this in mind we can say that they will not change the world’s tendencies towards globalism, but they can change the sources of global flows and disassociate Western capitalism and Westernism from globalization. While nation-states remain an important political structure, attention should be drawn to discussions about decreasing control and increasing the economic information and human flows that fall outside of the purview of states. The doctrine of state sovereignty has never been so ideologically – as well as legally – weak, and the limits of... [to full text]

In recent years, there have been several proposals for large-scale human genotyping projects in the developing world. The dissertation presented here explores the motivations, opportunities and challenges of initiating locally led, large-scale genotyping projects documenting human genomic variation in the developing world. I analyze two case studies: the Indian Genome Variation Consortium in India and the University of Cape Town, Department of Human Genetics and the African Genomics Education Initiative in South Africa. These case studies, together with similar projects in Mexico and Thailand provide compelling reasons for pursuing these projects: the potential to address local health needs and reduce health care costs; the opportunity to stimulate economic development through investments in genomic sciences, and the availability of unique population resources. In an effort to capture the value of these investments and promote an equal stake in international collaborations, Mexico and India have developed guidelines and laws to protect local human genetic material as a sovereign resource, referred to here as ‘genomic sovereignty’. Critics have suggested that it can impede international collaborations and reduce access to external funding. I provide an in depth analysis of genomic sovereignty and how it may contribute to each country’s aim of achieving health equity through investments in genomics, its relation to heritage and patrimony, and its potential limitations. The debate is critical, as the knowledge generated from large-scale human genomic research will need to be interpreted in larger international collaborative efforts before it can lead to health benefits. Qualitative case study methodology is employed and the primary data source consists of interviews conducted with key informants. The research described here provides a source of empirical description and analysis that is informing the framing of policies, principles and practices on how research infrastructure and capacity are being established for human genomic sciences in developing countries.

Šiame darbe analizuojama Seimo kaip Tautos atstovybės konstitucinė samprata. Atskleidžiama Tautos suvereniteto samprata – vienintelė suvereniteto turėtoja – tęstinė tauta, kuri deleguodama dalį savo suvereniteto, legitimuoja parlamento galią veikti Tautos vardu ir interesais. Nagrinėjamos parlamentarizmo ištakos Lietuvoje, atskleidžiant, jog jau LDK laikais egzistavo parlamentarizmo užuomazgų. Aptariami Lietuvos tarpukario Seimai bei „Lietuvos TSR Aukščiausiosios Tarybos“, kodėl jos nėra ir negali būti laikomos Lietuvos valstybės parlamentais. Remiantis Konstitucinio Teismo jurisprudencija, nagrinėjami Lietuvos Respublikos Seimo teisiniai santykiai su vykdomąja ir teismine valdžiomis. Atskleidžiamas Seimo nario kaip Tautos atstovo teisinis statusas - parlamentaro mandato turinys, įgaliojimų įgijimo ir pasibaigimo teisiniai pagrindai, parlamentaro teisių ir pareigių visuma bei veiklos garantijos. Taip pat nagrinėjamos konstitucinės nuostatos, kuriomis remdamasis Seimas gali ir turi nustatyti savo struktūrą ir darbo tvarką. / This work analyses the constitutional concept of the Seimas as representation of the Nation. Under the Constitution, only Members of the Seimas are representatives of the Nation and only the Seimas is the representation of the Nation. One of the most important features according to which a state institution is to be ascribed to the representation of the Nation is that it is a collegiate state institution, which is comprised from representatives of the Nation and which adopts decisions only after debates, only by majority of votes and by taking account of various opinions. Uncovering nation’s concept of sovereignty as the only holder, continues Nation which by delegating part of its sovereignty is legitimizing the power of parliament to act on behalf of the Nation. Examined is the outcomes of parliamentary in Lithuania, disclosing the fact that might of started forming as late as times of Great Lithuanian Kingdom. Also discussed is in-between war period the Seimas as well as Highest Council of Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, why it can’t be treated as true Lithuanian parliament. Considering Constitutional Court jurisprudence, analyzed is relationship between the Seimas and executive as well as judiciary powers. Disclosed is the status of member of the Seimas as representative of the Nation, the content of his mandate, legal ground of the capacity of its authority, parliament member right and responsibilities as well as the action assurance. Also analyzed is a... [to full text]

The growth and prevalence of the private military industry has led many to conclude that the state has outsourced one of its core functions: public security. As a global non-state actor, PMSCs pose a risk to state sovereignty by undermining the democratic legitimacy of armed forces and challenging the states international monopoly over force. This study, using the tripartite model in English school theory, refutes this commonly held belief by examining the regulatory methods that have brought PMSCs squarely under state control. This study organizes regulatory efforts in a three level concept of national, international and self-regulatory methods, and based on the increased national regulatory methods, mixed with international norms and weak self-regulation, concludes that states maintain their primacy over violence in world politics.