Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2003. / Title from title screen (viewed Apr. 8, 2009) Degree awarded 2003; thesis submitted 2002. Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Dept. of Government and International Relations, Faculty of Arts. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Köln, Universiẗat, Diss., 2008.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University. BLDSC no. DXN058049.

Zugl.: Hildesheim, Univ., Diss., 2006 / Hergestellt on demand

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Music. / Includes index. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-77).

In 2009 and 2010, the major drug regulatory bodies, the European Medicines Agency and the Food and Drug Administration in the USA, issued requests for the generation of information relating to the absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, efficacy and safety of investigational drugs in pregnant women prior to approval. In the wake of thalidomide, research involving pregnant women other than for obstetric or gynaecologic purposes became rare, and studies of investigational drugs practically unknown. Consequently, none of the legislation applicable in the UK and few of the guidelines introduced in the last 40 years properly addresses the conduct of clinical trials of investigational drugs in this population. This thesis questions whether the legal protection for the foetus is adequate in clinical trials. The answer appears to be a qualified “no”. Arguments persist regarding the moral standing of the foetus, particularly regarding abortion. That will not be the intent of such trials, and a moral case is made for the conduct of clinical trials in this population by analogy with the neonate, and the pregnant woman’s autonomy. Legally, we already recognise the foetus has ‘interests’ which crystallise upon live birth, and that compensation is recoverable for harm inflicted in utero manifesting as congenital injury. The essence of research is quite different from medical practice, and the extent to which this is understood by trial participants is unclear. The approvals processes contain a number of inadequacies which have the potential to expose the foetus to harm and affect the consent of the pregnant woman. The recovery of compensation in the event of children born injured following clinical trials during pregnancy in many ways may be more complex than other personal injury cases. The conclusions of this thesis are that the existence of a foetus does merit recognition by the law in this setting and that morally such studies are justifiable. However, the present legislation and approval processes potentially expose the foetus to avoidable risk and may not be appropriate to enable the recovery of compensation, thereby creating potential to deter future trial participants. A proposal is made regarding an approach to simplify the process for recovery of compensation, and thereby strengthen the approval and consent processes.

This thesis examines access to justice in summary criminal proceedings by considering the ability of defendants to play an active and effective role in the proceedings. Summary proceedings are those which take place in magistrates’ courts, and are decided by lay magistrates or a district judge (magistrates’ courts) without a jury. The study uses ethnographic fieldwork to explore the structural/cultural intersection of public services by considering both the effects of structural changes in criminal proceedings in magistrates' courts and the agency of the courtroom workgroup. While the cultural practices of magistrates’ courts have always tended to exclude defendants from active participation in the process, I argue that the structural influences of neoliberalism, in terms of demands for ever more efficient practices and emphasis on individual responsibility as a function of citizenship, have exacerbated the inability of defendants to participate in the process of prosecution. I also observe that, for a number of reasons, the professional workgroup has tended to absorb and adapt to, rather than resist, the neoliberalisation of summary criminal justice. Thus, the combination of structural and cultural influences on magistrates’ court proceedings perpetuates the marginalisation of defendants. Further, in light of neoliberalism's preference for market based approaches to government, there is little political motivation to address the identified problems of access to justice.

This is the first in-depth empirical research into the UK “innocence movement,” which refers to the establishment of innocence projects (IPs) across the UK. IPs are university clinics in which students investigate cases of alleged miscarriages of justice. The Innocence Network UK (INUK) was founded in 2004 and assisted in the development of thirty-six IPs across the UK. This thesis utilised empirical methods undertaking semi-structured interviews with past and present leaders of IPs and other criminal appeal units. It provides three original insights into the UK innocence movement. First, it explored the distinctive model of IPs offered in the core literature and identified several underlying tensions within it. However, the research found the majority of sampled IPs did not conform to this model. Thus for heuristic purposes, and to examine the contrasting aims and objectives of criminal appeal clinics, the thesis sets out two ideal types and uses the evidence from interviews to place the sampled projects along a continuum between these. This section illustrated that the tensions within the literature model of IPs resulted in the sampled projects either evolving away from this approach, or not adopting it in the first place. Secondly, the thesis asks whether the innocence movement can be seen to follow a “rise and fall” trajectory, as the initial expansion of INUK was followed by its closure and the demise of several IPs. Instead, it is argued that the movement is better understood as having undergone a reconfiguration, and that the future landscape for miscarriage of justice work looks likely to be very different from that portrayed in the literature. Finally, the thesis adapts Luhmann’s Social Systems theory as a theoretical framework for examining the evolution of the UK innocence movement. The analysis concludes that this can provide theoretical insights into why the original aims and objectives of IPs were not realised. Insight is also drawn from Nobles and Schiff and their account of systems theory, which is used to further explore the tensions within the IP concept. The thesis conclusion reflects on the findings and offers suggestions for future research opportunities in these areas of legal education and analysis.

Enquiries into the medieval history of south Wales have in the past tended to focus on the 'soap opera' history of the elite. This thesis differs in that it examines two aspects that are occasionally touched upon, and which are inextricably linked, but rarely considered in detail: namely the system of transport and trade. Due to the paucity of surviving evidence the study covers a time span of some three hundred years from the reign of Henry I (1100) to the Glyndwr rebellion (1400). It charts the development of trade in an age that saw great political changes leading to the construction of planned towns and, in some places, villages, as well as complex fortifications and the introduction of Latin monasticism. The thesis examines the respective roles of the key influences on transport and trading activity, namely: (i) the players, be they the marcher lords and the Crown, the monasteries, and the merchants and traders themselves; (ii) the places such as towns and villages, ports and landing places; and (iii) the processes that influenced trade including the linkages between settlements - with particular attention to the medieval road system - and markets and fairs. A model is advanced which describes how initially autonomous open country settlements and farmsteads were integrated into a regional network, within and between lordships, as rural commodity producers and consumers grew increasingly dependent on the retail goods and services found in the market towns. These developments are charted as the population grew and rural settlement intensified, so much so that by 1300 South Wales had achieved a level of prosperity unprecedented in its history. It was not to last. Population pressure had driven families to the margins of cultivable land. The imbalance between livestock husbandry and arable risked the danger of soil exhaustion. Disease such as the sheep scab epidemic of the 1280s and the agricultural crises which affected much of Britain between 1315 and 1322 led to famine. Political and social unrest, notably the revolts of Llewelyn ap Gruffudd in 1214, Rhys ap Maredudd in 1295 and Llewelyn Bren in 1316, allied to the decline in seigneurial influence caused the South Wales economy to repeatedly falter. Outbreaks of the plague in the middle of the fourteenth century added to the woe. The Glyndwr rebellion dealt the final fatal blow when many commercial settlements were attacked, including some that were not directly touched by earlier upsets. Prior to the Norman Conquest trade in South Wales had taken place in the open country. By 1400 the dependency that had been built in the preceding three hundred years on the transport and trading network of market towns and rural producers and consumers was shattered sending the economy into long term decline.

This thesis is the only study there is of the workings of the Financial Ombudsman Service ('FOS') and a comparison between court and FOS attitudes and approaches to insurance cases. A court and the FOS may decide matters differently because the FOS does not have to apply the law strictly, whilst a court does. The author of this thesis has examined the FOS and Financial Services Authority ('FSA') websites, handbooks and other material, and all of the near monthly journals of Ombudsman News ('O.N.') since the FOS began in 2001, analysing it against the law to determine the question of this thesis: whether the FOS should in fact apply the law strictly, and not allow principles of fairness and reasonableness to override the law in the particular circumstances of a case. Should certainty of outcome and of applying law established and modified over hundreds of years be sacrificed to allow the FOS to apply its overriding discretion in the interests of justice in a relatively few cases? Should both insurers and insureds be able to obtain legal advice on their relative positions, without that advice having to mention unpredictable outcomes if the ombudsman chooses not to follow the strict legal position? If the law does not offer the consumer insured enough protection, should the FOS be the forum that does, and if so, does it give enough protection? This study does not look at the decisions of the Insurance Ombudsman Bureau ('IOB') which preceded the FOS. Where a point is not dealt with below, it has not been highlighted in FOS publications to date and it is unclear how relevant IOB decisions on that point will be.