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This is a thesis about the applicability of the jus in bello to armed conflicts involving non-state armed groups. The thesis focuses on the thresholds of applicability. These are the definitions of actors and situations that activate the applicability of the jus in bello. The aim is to illuminate and critique the regulatory rationales behind the different definitions of actors and situations in the different thresholds. The evolution of the thresholds is reviewed chronologically. Accordingly, the enquiry ranges from the 19th century doctrines of recognition of belligerency and insurgency, through common article 3 and Additional Protocols I and II, to the law developed by the ICTY and included in the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court. While the thresholds constitute the centre of the enquiry, their meaning and function are further elucidated by the analysis of the process of their assessment, as well as the extent of the substantive legal regime they activate. The central question of the thesis is whether there has been a gradual shift from a status-based rationale to one focused on the humanitarian protection of individuals, in the evolution of the thresholds of applicability. A status-based rationale fits with a system of horizontal regulation of state-like collective entities and allows considerations and perceptions of the ascription of status through legal regulation to determine the threshold of applicability. A humanitarian-protection rationale is more related to a system of vertical regulation irrespective of status and links the applicability of the law to the individual and her protection. The argument proposed is that such a gradual shift is indeed visible, if tempered by the continuous role that considerations of status have in conflict situations and the still largely decentralised system of assessment of the applicability of the law.

This thesis examines the current technological and legal issues concerning orbital debris (space debris). The unique physical characteristics of the space environment are identified and explained. The thesis then explores the causes of orbital debris and examines the risk posed by debris to the most frequently used orbital areas. Significant environmental, legal, political, and economic consequences of orbital debris are described. The current technical and legal controls on the creation of debris are discussed and evaluated. Finally, proposed solutions are considered and critiqued. The thesis concludes with a non-binding treaty-based proposal for a new legal debris control regime that can encourage compliance and enhance accountability.

Despite its importance, and the length of the annexed bibliography, Telecommunications is a topic which has been reilatively neglected in legal writing. Partially this may be explained by the numerous extra-legal factors which play a part in the regulation of telecommunications and partially it is due to the initial unattractiveness of the subject. This thesis examines the legal infrastructure of space telecommunications. The need for new communications channels and the technology developed to meet this situation are outlined. [...]

The Warsaw Convention of 1929, effective since February 13, 1933 (1), is the most widely accepted treaty on international commercial law. It was in force in eighty-two states as of January 10, 1966. (2) [...]

The airspace over the high seas is not a lawless domain. Although the theory of the freedom of the air has been challenged since the beginning of controlled flight, yet 'as regards the air above the high seas, the principle of freedom was never successfully challenged.' [...]

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Even though international cooperation traditionally is a concept encountered in public international law, it has an important role to play in the private satellite communications sector. Satellite communications being activities that intrinsically have a global outreach, mutatis mutandis they require legal rules that would not focus on purely regional or local interests. National and international space law have for the past decade encountered criticism with respect to obvious insufficiencies that in turn affected space activities. The first reaction of learned space lawyers was to call for some redrafting of international space law. A second thought about it had them take into account national legislation in this possible harmonization process, but in any case this was to primarily be of concern for States. / However, the new millennium has brought its share of intellectual renewal and in the field of space law it has been translated in the acknowledgement that the private sector would have an important role to play, on the international scene, for the improvement of space law. It is this new legal thinking that has been characterized as "international cooperation" as applied to the private sector, that is the subject of this study. Hence, what is looked at is the position of the satellite communications sector on the international scene and what expertise it has to share with public fora for the overall improvement of space law and space activities.

International criminal courts do not operate to the exclusion of national legal orders, but co-exist with them. The present thesis provides an in-depth analysis of the above relationship. By examining the concepts of primacy and complementarity on the basis of which the ad hoc international criminal Tribunals and the permanent International Criminal Court seize jurisdiction, the foundations of the interface are explored. As effectiveness is a key concept to international criminal justice, the relationship between international criminal courts and national legal systems is tested, by examining the co-operation regimes envisaged in the Statutes of both the Tribunals and the ICC, as well as the problems that arise in practice. Moreover, the way the UN Security Council affects State interplay with international criminal justice institutions is crucial for a holistic understanding of the limitations of the interaction. The final part of the thesis focuses on national incorporation efforts and provides a detailed analysis of implementing legislation of a number of key States with a view to discerning some common approaches and highlighting problem areas. The present thesis argues that despite the different constitutional bases of the Tribunals and the ICC, similar questions of interface with national courts arise and the challenges presented could be better tackled by aiming for a "functional or workable interaction". Overall, the originality of this thesis lies in its analytical approach. By scrutinising a number of crucial aspects of the relationship between international criminal courts and national legal orders an overview of the research question posed is achieved. Moreover, the examination of the legal principles and their practical application is complemented by a comprehensive discussion of national implementing legislation which has not previously been attempted in a similar manner. [Files associated with the accompanying CD-ROM (print version) are available on request to subject librarian.]

This thesis reviews in detail the powers, practice and effectiveness of the United Nations in the maintenance of international peace and security since its inception over forty years ago. The work not only contains an examination of the constitutional powers of the the two United Nations' organs responsible for this area - the Security Council and the General Assembly - and of how these powers have been developed in practice, but also of the significant political factors operating to limit the ambit and effectiveness of those powers. To this end Part 1 of the work examines the Security Council, Part 2 the General Assembly, whilst Part 3 contains a study of the peacekeeping function of the United Nations. Each Part is roughly divided into an analysis in terms of political factors, constitutional considerations and finally effectiveness. Peacekeeping is examined separately because it raises a host of particular problems - both constitutional and political – which would be difficult to encompass in the other two Parts. Generally, each chapter contains a conclusion at which point the various threads are drawn together not only to produce a summary but also to provide guidance as to the future use and development of the powers possessed by the United Nations in this field.