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1
Wilson, P. "The socio-legal dynamics of HIV and AIDS." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.282066.
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Bendall, Charlotte Louise. "Gender in intimate relationships : a socio-legal study." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2016. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/7034/.
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This thesis explores the extent to which the incorporation of same-sex relationships into formal regulatory domains is working to reinforce heteronormativity. It focuses on this issue in relation to the provision of legal advice on civil partnership dissolution. It concentrates on three main questions: 1) How can same-sex relationships, in light of civil partnerships (and, by extension, same-sex marriage), help to challenge social and legal constructions about the gendered nature of roles in intimate relationships? 2) To what extent do solicitors construct the issues and legal framework as being identical in same-sex matters to different-sex cases? 3) How do lesbians and gay men understand and experience the law of financial relief? It is argued that heteronormative conceptions of gender have been carried over from (different-sex) marriage into civil partnership proceedings, and that lesbians and gay men have, to a large extent, been assimilated into the mainstream. That said, civil partner clients have also resisted the imposition of heterosexual norms on their relationship, preferring to settle dissolution matters on their own terms, and opposing substantive financial remedies such as maintenance and pension sharing. In this way, civil partnership dissolution does still pose some novel challenges for family law.
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Roy, Archie W. N. "Developmental change in socio-legal perception : the effects of cognitive and socio-cognitive conflict." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.249024.
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Stegerhoek, Nina A. "The socio-legal and comparative study of welfare acts." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.287558.
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Ahuja, Monika Sangeeta. "Public interest litigation in India : a socio-legal study." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1996. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/1417/.
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Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in India began in the late 1970s. For the first time the rights of prisoners, bonded labourers, other neglected peoples and issues were considered in the judicial forum. Using their inherent powers under Articles 32 and 226 of the Constitution, a few judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts made access to justice easier. Anyone acting in the public interest was permitted to file a petition on behalf of those unable to do so themselves, or for issues of grave public importance. Lawyers, social activists, concerned individuals and even judges approached the courts. Aside from locus standi, other procedural norms were relaxed, including the need to file a proper petition. Once admitted, attempts were made to resolve litigations using a conciliatory form of justice. Offending state authorities were encouraged to co-operate with the Court, which in turn took on the role of fact-finder, when appropriate, and appointed commissions of enquiry. Most of the reported and many unreported PIL cases, filed from its inception until April 1994, have been examined. Interviews with petitioners and lawyers have revealed much about PIL, and have resulted in the discussion of many unreported cases. Interviews of Supreme Court Judges, administrative officials in the courts and analysts of Indian law have enabled the study to extend to all aspects of the legal process as it relates to PIL. This new form of litigation in the courtroom thus provides a focal point for the study of the Indian legal system. The perception that inequities could be resolved through the legislative or administrative processes had given way to a belief that recourse to legal action was the only mechanism through which rights could be upheld. Thus, the initial agenda was to introduce the social justice considerations of poverty and inequality into the court, whilst making legal institutions more accessible. The hundreds of documented PIL cases reflect a huge range of issues and concerns. While many do fulfil the initial mandate, PIL has often been used as another available legal tool that facilitates access to the courts and increases the public profile of the petitioner. For many of those who have used PIL in an effort to counter serious violations of rights, the inherent limitations of legal action and the poor implementation of favourable Court orders have rendered PIL a meaningless exercise. For some, PIL has provided necessary short term redress or has focused attention on issues never before discussed in a national forum. Whatever the outcome, PIL has necessitated the recognition that every Indian citizen should have access to justice.
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Singh, Gurjeet. "Consumer protection law in India : a socio-legal study." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.273774.
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Ho, Chih-Hsing. "Socio-legal perspectives on biobanking : the case of Taiwan." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2012. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/501/.
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This thesis investigates in depth the phenomenon of biobanking from an anthropological and socio-legal approach. In recent years there has been an evertighter alliance formed between discoveries in life sciences and capital accumulation. The rapid advances in genomics introduce a new form of capital in the development of technoscience. In order to find biomarkers for genetic association studies in the susceptibility of common complex diseases, the generation of large-scale population resources is deemed to be an important step to support the development of genomics which now transforms its imagery from informatics to therapeutics. Biobanks - collections of human biological materials linked through genetic information - have attracted considerable attention across the globe. These global assemblages of capital and vital politics have led to innovative institutions and arrangements in fields of technoscience and ethics. Though biobanking is an apparently global phenomenon, diverse political innovations and ethical configurations emerge from the specific social and cultural milieux, in which its establishment and operation are situated. This thesis uses recent developments of a longitudinal population-based research resource in Taiwan as a specific instance to analyse the delicate entanglement between politics, capital and life sciences. It explores not only the legal and ethical issues posed by biobanks, such as consent, privacy and property, but also the political and economic aspects of the biobanks that are embedded in the broader global bio-economies. This emphasis, focusing on the way in which biovalue is produced, politico-scientific decisions are made and ethical configurations are framed, allows an opportunity to reassess law and ethics, capital and politics, as well as the role of the state and its populations in this new form of biotechnology.
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Ouyang, Wei. "Governing the Chinese medical profession : a socio-legal analysis." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/8761.
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As the first systematic and in-depth study in any language on the subject, this thesis makes original contributions by unravelling the relationship between Chinese healthcare state governance, health law and medical practitioners, and casting a spotlight on the ethically problematic medical practices raised by cases of SARS and others. More specifically, this thesis examines the role of state governance and regulation in China’s healthcare system and their impact on professional practices and ethics. The thesis addresses the issues from a social-legal perspective. It provides evidence from an integration of historical, empirical and theoretical approaches to explore the role of Chinese medics in their relations with healthcare state governance and law. It explores the character of power relations and the consequences of imbalance of power in these relations. Diagrammatic models are used throughout this work to illustrate the findings from the above approaches and to represent the changing nature of the author’s thinking about the dynamics at work in the relationships under scrutiny. The basic principle advocated in this thesis is that the effective formation and delivery of healthcare is facilitated by ethically-based systems of policy, rules and regulation. More particularly, it is argued that the roles of medical professionalism and patient control are central to good governance of healthcare in China. Set within this context, the thesis has three main goals. First, it aims to contribute to the development of theories about the relationship between the medical profession and the Communist state of China, examining the relatively powerless position of medical professionals in China as demonstrated by both historical and original empirical evidence generated by the research undertaken for this thesis. Secondly, the thesis examines the nature and extent of de-professionalisation among Chinese medical professionals. More particularly, it considers the consequences of challenges to Chinese medics’ professional autonomy which have occurred as a result of the Chinese healthcare power structure. Ultimately, it is argued that a re-structured model which places Chinese medical practitioners in a more professional and responsible role is urgently required.
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Salwani, Farah. "A socio-legal study on organ shortage in Malaysia." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2012. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/341443/.
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Human organs are the most valuable gifts of life. Until today, through organ transplantation, thousands of lives have been saved and many more blessed with hope and happiness through a better quality of living. However, rapid developments in transplant technology will be meaningless if supply of the needed organs remains scarce and organ transplantation procedures cannot take place accordingly. This global problem of organ shortage is also faced by Malaysia. Despite campaigns and initiatives introduced by the Malaysian authorities, the problem remains unresolved and the situation is worsening. Malaysia is reported to have less than one donor for every one thousand of the population (Lela Yasmin Mansor, 2007). However, statistics from the National Transplant Registry Malaysia confirm a steady increase in the number of registered potential donors each year. This suggests that certain factors must be preventing potential donors from becoming actual donors. Therefore, this study will not only discuss the current scenario of the organ shortage problem in Malaysia, highlighting its underlying factors, but will also scrutinise legal and social factors causing actual donations to remain relatively small, despite the promising number of potential donors registering each year. The study will suggest practical solutions to help solve organ shortages in Malaysia, particularly by utilising brain-dead patients from serious road traffic accidents as a potential source of cadaveric organs. Clarification on the Islamic perspective concerning organ donation is also included, as Islam is the main religion professed in Malaysia.
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Rush, Peter. "The trials of men : sexuality and socio-legal politics." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/20162.
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This thesis describes the ways in which it has been demanded that men put their masculine sexuality in question. This demand and the various responses to it are traced, not at a general level, but by way of several in-depth studies of particular problematiosations in contemporary sexual politics. The studies are prefaced by an initial chapter. It describes the emergence of men's groups, the inscription of their discourse by the law of narrative in the academic genre of men's studies, and the parallel refusal of narrative meaning by an anti-representational genre of male feminist criticism. As such, the chapter provides a context for the analysis of the law of masculinity and sexual difference in the subsequent chapters. At the same time, it introduces in more general terms the debates and theoretical resources that inform the thesis. The resources are primarily post-structuralist - and in particular, the ways in which it radicalises the implications of a general theory of language for the human sciences. The 'sciences' which provide the thesis with its privileged interlocutors are feminism, psychoanalysis, queer theory and legal theory. Each of the subsequent essays are however not designed as illustrations of a post-structuralist approach. Rather, they are essays which attempt to contribute to the analysis of the intersections of law and sexual politics. In this respect, discrete problematisations are addressed in depth.
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Adler, Michael. "Treating people fairly : a socio-legal approach to administrative justice." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/26324.
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This thesis consists of a critical review of a portfolio of eight journal articles and book chapters on normative aspects of decision making in education and social security (Chapter 1); an overview of the most important research on procedural fairness and administrative justice that I have undertaken (Chapter 2); and the portfolio of papers referred to above (Chapters 3-10). Chapter 2 develops a socio-legal approach to procedural fairness, which sees it in terms of the ‘trade-offs’ that are made between a number of competing conceptions of administrative justice, and illustrates its power by outlining empirical research on the computerisation of social security in the UK, discretionary decision-making in Scottish prisons, the assessment of special educational needs in Scotland and England, and the aims and consequences of computerisation of social security in 12 OECD countries. Chapters 3-5 are concerned with education and are based on a programme of research on the socio-legal and policy implications of parental choice legislation in Scotland which concluded that it had not produced an optimal balance between the rights of parents to choose schools for their own children and the duties of education authorities to promote the education of all children of school age. Chapter 3 outlines an alternative approach which takes choice seriously but avoids some of the adverse consequences of the existing legislation. Chapter 4 puts forward a set of institutional changes which would, it is argued, produce a better balance between the legitimate concerns of all the interested parties by involving teachers in the process of deciding which school would best facilitate a given child’s learning and thus promote that child’s interests. Chapter 5 provides some critical reflections on the programme of research, reviews subsequent policy developments, and considers how further research could respond to them. Chapters 6-10 are concerned with social security.
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Phang, Andrew Boon Leong. "The development of Singapore law : historical and socio-legal perspectives /." Singapore : Butterworths, 1990. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb36677455r.
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Chakraborty, Gangotri. "Socio-legal consequences of divorce under hindu marriage act, 1955." Thesis, University of North Bengal, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/558.
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Nkwanyana, Thabani Silomo. "The socio-political and medico legal and socio political practice of medicine in South Africa post 1994." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/60078.
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Africa?s socio-political and medico-legal landscapes have dramatically changed since 1994 with the dawn of democracy and peaceful transition from apartheid South Africa to a Constitutional democracy, and the birth of the democratic South Africa. Considerable social progress has been made towards reversing the discriminatory practices that prevailed in most, if not all, aspects of life before 1994. The dawn of democracy brought with it changes in the healthcare policy and design andmade it to almost become intuitive to think that human rights, equality and access to healthcare should be entitlements we should all enjoy, without exceptions, prejudice, fear or favour. But this has not been without challenges especially with regards to access to healthcare, health privilege, equality, distributive justice and medical ethics.Our healthcare system has evidently continued to be marked with the inequalities, poor service delivery and lack of resources, corruption, prejudice and reversal of fortunes. Majority of people, especially Blacks and Coloureds in South Africa are still underserved and disadvantaged compared with their White and Asian counterparts. Arguably, there also have been increasing tensions in the medico-legal space, especially in the sphere of access to health care, health provision and management, quality of health care, medical malpractice and negligence, and medical research, experimentation and bio-ethics. At the same breath, and despite government commitment to equal medical care for all, regardless of financial or political considerations, the quality and accessibility of health services in South Africa are, in some instances, still dependent on the ability to afford, socio-political standing, political connectedness or status. It is not uncommon for some persons to get more attentive, responsive, and reputedly, competent health and medical care than it is available to general public and the majority. For celebrities, the rich or high-ranking officials, preferential treatment is still routinely provided and there still seem to be imposition of politics and ideology on the practice of medicine and ethics. This paper thus intends to explore the other ugly heads that have since surfaced with the dawn of democracy in the sphere of medical ethics and law.Mini Dissertation (MPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2016.
Public Law
MPhil
Unrestricted
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VALADEZ, C. RODRIGUEZ GONZALEZ. "ADR AT THE INTERNATIONAL OIL & GAS INDUSTRY, THE PEMEX CASE. (A legal and socio-legal analysis)." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2434/214753.
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This thesis deals with two subject matters: the petroleum industry, also known as Oil & Gas industry, and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Methods, well known for its acronym “ADR”. The problem which is the object of this research is indeed: the necessity to adapt the ADR mechanisms to the actual situation of the Oil & Gas industry in Mexico, considering not only the legal development but also the cultural, social, legal and political barriers that, in some extend, are blocking the use of such an extraordinary way to settle disputes. The research is focused on the case of Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) which is the Mexican Oil & Gas Company, with a major impact at the international Oil & Gas market. PEMEX is the biggest enterprise in Mexico and Latin America and the highest fiscal contributor to the country. It is one of the few oil companies in the world that develops all the productive chain of the industry, upstream, downstream and final product commercialization. With headquarters in Mexico City, PEMEX is the sole supplier of all commercial gasoline (petrol/diesel) stations in Mexico.
This research was thought to deal with legal and socio-legal aspects. The socio-legal science is hardly considered when resolving an international Oil & Gas dispute. Aspects such as: legal culture; human rights; the real justification of the ADR used; the contextualization of the case; the deep analysis of the leading cases; the economic, social and political repercussion of the award, not only for the country but also for the individual unconnected to the dispute; the role of the arbitrator and mediator as the decision-maker; and the perspectives of international Oil & Gas arbitrations and mediations, are some aspects highly recommended to be considered by the ADR participants in an Oil & Gas dispute. This research represents an opportunity to go deeper, in different extends, on the analysis of some of the before mentioned aspects.
PEMEX has shown, throughout history, to be a company which disputes were only resolved by national courts and since a pair of decades ago ADR have been lightly considered. Recent history has also shown that PEMEX faces socio-legal obstacles that have prevented it from developing such an advisable industry of the ADR. The previous statements have been the base and justification for the research herein developed, having the target to detect such obstacles to be able to propose some legal and practical solutions to overcome the problem, improving the usage of ADR when resolving PEMEX disputes. The case-law analyzed in this research has served to determine precedents, as well as to set up statistics as for the type of contracts from which the dispute arose, nationality of the parties, the lawyers, the mediators and arbitrators, the amount of the dispute and finally the direction of the award or mediators opinion.
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Dunn, M. C. "Substitute decision-making in residential social care : a socio-legal analysis." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.598698.
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This PhD thesis reports on a project that explores the ways substitute health and welfare decisions are made on behalf of adults who lack the mental capacity to make one or more such decisions autonomously. Drawing on socio-legal analysis within an empirical ethics approach, the project aims to examine how the introduction of a statutory legal framework to regulate substitute decision-making interfaces with the practical and ethical dynamics associated with the everyday provision of support in a residential care setting. There are three parts: 1) An historical and interpretative legal analysis of developments in the regulation of substitute decision-making in England and Wales. Particular consideration is given to the new framework for substitute decision-making introduced under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, the ‘best interests’ principle codified within this legislation, and a range of legal, ethical and practical tensions relating to the implementation of a statutory framework. 2) An empirical qualitative study of the ways substitute decisions are made by support workers providing support to men and women with intellectual disabilities who live in residential care homes. By taking a grounded theory approach involving both observation and interview methods, it is proposed that support workers situate substitute decision-making within a broad account of their care role, rather than in terms of their legal responsibilities. It is argued that support workers orientate the substitute decisions they make to help residents to live ‘a life like ours’. 3) An ethical analysis of support workers’ accounts of substitute decision-making. This analysis aims to facilitate a normative judgement about whether these accounts will lead to the ‘best’ decisions being made, and is complemented by an exploration of the observed discrepancies and dissonances between the legal duties placed upon support workers and the ways they account for the substitute decisions they make.
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van, Zyl Nicole. "Domestic Workers and their access to childcare: A Socio-Legal study." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29226.
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This dissertation explores how domestic workers within the Cape Town area access childcare. From this exploration, the argument that the state should provide childcare to mothers as a redress measure under s9(2) is developed. This argument is drawn from the proposition that universal access to childcare has the potential to reduce gender inequality by removing the care burden that women bear. By providing universal access to childcare, and thereby removing or reducing the care burden, women are better empowered to access income earning activity. This qualitative enquiry utilises a literature review and one-on-one interviews as modes of data collection. Eight interviews were conducted on the experiences of domestic workers. A feminist methodology was adopted in the collection and analysis of the data, which led to the finding that greater state intervention is needed into the lives of domestic workers so that they may realise substantive equality. This Constitutionally based legal analysis is used as a means of understanding social transformation through the experiences of the participant group.
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Michailakis, Dimitris. "Legislating death socio-legal studies of the brain death controversy in Sweden /." Uppsala : Stockholm : [Uppsala University] ; Distributor, Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1995. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/32780657.html.
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Akinkugbe, Olabisi Delebayo. "Revisiting the Economic Community of West African States: A Socio-Legal Analysis." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/37040.
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Recent years have seen a growing scholarly interest in the conditions of emergence of regional trade agreements in Africa. These analyses have advanced our knowledge on a range of technical issues, from specific institutional transformation of regional economic communities such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to broad legal issues relating to the provisions of the regional trade agreements. Most literature on ECOWAS is, however, informed by legal formalism that interprets the text of the treaties strictly and without context, leading to a dominant interpretation of failure. By contrast, this thesis adopts a socio-legal approach and argues that the dominant narrative’s conceptualization of ECOWAS is narrow and under-representative of the broader contexts of the social relations in which ECOWAS Treaties and their implementation are embedded. The failure narratives do not adequately account for the complex social, historical, and political factors that shape the implementation of the ECOWAS Treaties. By combining socio-legal approach with insights from International Relations on new regionalism, the thesis reconceptualizes regionalism in ECOWAS as a social phenomenon. It approaches the ECOWAS Treaties as embedded in the socio-political relations, power struggles, and social structures of the Community. To differentiate the thesis from existing research on ECOWAS, it incorporates national, regional, and international factors in illuminating the complex and multifaceted confluence of circumstances that shape the implementation of the ECOWAS Treaties. Simultaneously, the thesis enriches our understanding of the theories of new regionalism by deepening the analysis in relation to ECOWAS. Seen from this perspective, the thesis concludes that ECOWAS cannot be regarded as a straightforward failure and that its achievements are not to be found primarily in economic integration but in other socio-political factors that it enabled. Finally, the analysis opens new opportunities for future normative analyses that interrogate the effectiveness of ECOWAS by taking into account the socio-political contexts in which it is embedded.
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Walsh, Emily. "Obsolete restrictive covenants : a socio-legal analysis of the problem and solutions." Thesis, University of Portsmouth, 2016. https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/obsolete-restrictive-convenants(95d268d7-a6b4-4790-8548-3a00fdb32ad6).html.
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Debates concerning the perceived problems regarding restrictive covenants have engaged the legal academic and reform community for almost fifty years. Law reform committees, in recent years the Law Commission, have consulted and reported many times yet significant reform has not been forthcoming. Whilst other jurisdictions have also considered the problem there has been little in the way of detailed comparative research between England and other countries and no research that could be considered to be empirical. This research aims to analyse the problem of obsolete restrictive covenants using a socio legal approach in order to assess the extent of the problem and to provide potential solutions. As a philosophical position, utilitarianism judges law in terms of the extent to which it provides the greatest happiness to the greatest number. In this research utilitarianism provided a measure against which to assess the current law and procedure and from which to contemplate law reform. Quantitative analysis using inductive coding of a large data set of land registry titles produced a reliable measure of the types of covenant burdening land in England and Wales across time. This analysis provided the basis for consideration of the extent of problem of obsolete restrictive covenants. Thematic analysis of expert interviews and responses to the Law Commission’s most recent consultation in both England and Scotland produced themes relating to both the perceived problem and also the potential solutions. The conclusions to this research are twofold. Firstly, that reform of restrictive covenants would be beneficial from a utilitarian perspective. To this end a number of reforms of the law and procedure, beyond those proposed by the Law Commission, are suggested. These include recommendations to remind land owners to check their titles for restrictions prior to commencement of development, a notice procedure to ‘flush out’ objections to proposed breaches of covenants, a ‘sunset rule’ to make old covenants which lack usefulness easier to remove and a more general reform of the legislative procedure for removal of restrictive covenants. Secondly, this research concludes that legal reformers could benefit from a more thorough use of social science methodology in analysis of legal problems and suggestions are made for further consideration in this regard.
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Lawan, Mamman Alhaji. "The paradox of underdevelopment amidst oil in Nigeria : a socio-legal explanation." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2008. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/1992/.
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The trend in development discourse is to explain underdevelopment in terms of bad governance which lack of rule of law brings about. Development in this sense is understood as economic growth while rule of law is limited to an institutional version which is market-oriented. In this thesis, development is examined from a people-centred perspective. Abject poverty, dysfunctional educational and health systems sitting side by side with reasonably sufficient oil wealth is the problematic premise which the thesis seeks to explain. While acknowledging that it could be explained from a range of disciplines and perspectives, this thesis offers a socio-legal explanation in terms of public corruption spurred by absence of rule of law in practice. Corruption is high in Nigeria though national law has criminalised it and the country has ratified international law frowning at it. Among its myriad upshots is depleting resources for development. It is a dependant variable; and this thesis links it to absence of rule of law in practice. But because the orthodox rule of law privileges the market, it is inappropriate in explaining corruption in the public realm. The thesis therefore departs from it and instead proposes a rule of law version which would ensure management of resources for human development. It constitutes the following elements: supremacy of the law; equality before the law, trusts over public funds; code of conduct for public officers; and restraint on executive powers. The thesis argues that the Constitutions in Nigeria have made adequate provisions for this version of rule of law. However, the provisions have either been suspended or substantially breached over the years. For a large part of its existence, Nigeria was under military rule which is antithetical to rule of law through its subordination of the constitution, sacking of the legislature, and muzzling of the judiciary. Despite the existence of the Constitution and democratic institutions during civilian regimes, the rule of law provisions remained largely unimplemented. In both regimes, the executive arm of government, unto which public funds are entrusted, enjoyed absolute powers. This situation, the thesis argues, explains the development-impeding corruption.
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Grac¸a, Ana Sofia Grilo Carapeto. "Portuguese women's responses to domestic violence in England : a socio-legal analysis." Thesis, University of Kent, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.633525.
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The dissertation concludes that Portuguese women's invocation of law is complex, but with a clear preference for using informal mechanisms to address domestic violence. This has consequences for the development of practical ways of helping Portuguese women living in England deal with domestic violence, and informs the recommendation made in the final chapter of the dissertation.
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Rahman, Saira. "The socio-legal status of Bangali women in Bangladesh : implications for development." Thesis, University of Kent, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.267407.
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Caltekin, Demet Asli. "A socio-legal analysis of the right to conscientious objection in Turkey." Thesis, Durham University, 2017. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12471/.
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Arguably, existing literature has hitherto offered no socio-legal analysis of conscientious objection in the context of Turkey. Most studies have focused either on the legal or on the sociological aspects of conscientious objection. As such, the impacts of social norms on the legal process remain largely neglected. This research, therefore, offers a socio-legal analysis of conscientious objection, with a particular focus on the domestic law’s compatibility with international standards and the impacts of militarism on society. It takes interviews as a method to explore the cultural tools maintaining the compulsory military service. The findings of the research illustrate that the military’s influence is the product of Turkey’s specific cultural, social, and political structures.
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Fortes, Pedro Rubim Borges. "Collective action in comparative and empirical perspective : towards a socio-legal theory." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3c9abe3c-5430-4ef6-9db7-e771268cf9f6.
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This DPhil thesis enhances existing understandings of collective action through a comparative and empirical study. Empirical analysis of economic, political, juridical, and social dimensions of the Brazilian experience reveals that some central understandings in existing literature are not borne out in this empirical context. In particular, the assertion that low monetary incentives for individuals hinder growth in use of collective action is strongly challenged. The Brazilian experience is contextualised through comparative analysis of three legal traditions of collective action: class actions; collective redress; and civil public actions. The Brazilian system presents a setting with potential for regulatory enforcement of consumer protection law, but rare episodes of consumer compensation or the imposition of punitive damages on corporations. With low monetary incentives, the growth of collective actions is explained by non-monetary incentives and investment in social capital through development of institutional trust and legal institutions. Collective actors develop their organisational infrastructure and perform their roles as representatives through institutional dynamics of concentration, competition, cooperation, and deference. The coexistence of multiple institutional actors in the regulatory space reduces agenda control, increases opportunities for consumer participation, and increases oversight of regulatory capture. The categories of diffuse, collective, and homogeneous individual rights explain the role of law in establishing procedural pathways and special features. This study is broadened through analysis of the legal environment and the potential regulatory impact of collective actions on the social relationships between businesses and consumers. I also evaluate limitations and possibilities regarding access to justice, judicial economy, compensation, and deterrence. This thesis indicates the possibility of developing a socio-legal theory of collective action, which would enhance our understanding of the complex dynamics at play by going beyond analysis of the consumer experience as merely an economic transaction or a legal object, analysing them instead as a complex social relationship.
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Slepcevic, Reinhard. "Litigating for the environment EU law, national courts, and socio-legal reality." Wiesbaden VS, Verl. für Sozialwiss, 2008. http://d-nb.info/994548494/04.
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Houlihan, Annette. "(Ill-legal) Lust is a Battlefield: HIV Risk, Socio-Sexuality and Criminality." Thesis, Griffith University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/367922.
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Not so suddenly, HIV diagnoses have become markers of criminality. Since the discursive and clinical histography of HIV infection, desiring/desirable bodies are placed within labyrinths of socio-legal pathology. Dis-eased bodies are punished, not just because of their health status, but due to a conglomerate difference of HIV serodiscordance, interracial and same-sex desire. The HIV transmission offending body is a projection of cultural, medical and legal panics about miscegenation and queer sexuality.
The HIV transmission story is reflected and imagined through the textual crimes of offences against the person. But, this crimino-legal tale also flickers its own imagination onto a new cultural milieu, in such a fashion that HIV transmission crimes are culturally anticipated. Consensual desires are silenced in honour of the tragedy of the reckless or intentional HIV transmission offender. HIV infectivity is translated as an injury committed by one party against another. But, the crimino-legal narrative of HIV transmission offences speaks about the policing of desire, just as much as it does about the regulation of Other infectious bodies – as illness and illegality.
This thesis maps the socio-legal trajectory of HIV transmission criminality, beginning from a nucleus of HIV transmission charges in the Australian state of Victoria and replicated within other western jurisdictions. A capillary of prosecutions, all point to the Eurocentric, heteronormative interests of HIV transmission crimes. This thesis produces the only documentation of HIV transmission offences in Australia and outlines the case law in Australia, with references to similar prosecutions in western countries (ie the common law jurisdictions of England, Canada and New Zealand, as well as cases in the United States). Further to this, it provides an intertextual, poststructural critique of HIV transmission jurisprudence. It also demonstrates how the juridical imagination of these crimes is coordinated within scientific, medical, cultural and legal pathologies of disease and desire.
In retrospect of the crimino-legal fiction of HIV transmission, science and medicine created a path of pathology where certain bodies, spaces and behaviours were named and blamed. The epidemiological cast of characters, at fault for HIV transmission, predominately named Africa/Africans and homo/bisexuals/gay communities. These hyper-infectious characters (and the spaces they discursively inhabited) were sites/sources of HIV, transporting the virus outside themselves and placing Eurocentric heteronormativity at risk. Early in the socio-medical discovery of HIV, an urban legend emerged in Patient Zero (gay, Canadian, airline steward Gaeton Dugas). The Patient Zero legend was questioned and re-examined, demonstrating the flaws of hydraulic and linear graphing of risk. Yet, this flawed narrative underpins contemporary HIV transmission prosecutions.
Antiquated HIV theories survive in law, but also in culture to produce HIV risk culpable/exculpated bodies. In the moment of pleasure, consensual sex is rearranged to create Other bodies as responsible (for their own infection) and irresponsible of their (legally imposed) HIV risk duties. The HIV transmission myth is much larger than just the intersections of law and the sciences. Miscegenation, queer desire and HIV experience a familiar place in film and television. Appearances of Other racial and sexual desire have uncomfortable locations, the collectivity of HIV and Other desire renders the body culturally culpable.
Consent has distinct crimino-legal definitions, especially within the jurisprudence of HIV transmission. To understand criminal law’s definition of sexual consent requires a silencing of mutual desires/pleasure. Claims that sexual and racial transgression is policed through law are evidenced in the exculpation of Eurocentric, heteronormative desires in cases such as R v Clarence. But, this thesis also juxtaposes these crimes of sexual disease risk against prosecutions of sadomasochism (s/m). The preeminent case in this area is R v Brown, where esoteric same-sex desire created imagined HIV panics. This case is compared to heterosexual s/m cases where actual harm/violence is explained away.
The thesis concludes with an overview of recent HIV transmission prosecutions. The cast of (HIV criminal) characters is shifting, but the criminal law still punishes Other desire. The thesis also explores how the criminalisation of HIV transmission impacts on HIV/AIDS service providers, describing the mixed metaphors and fragmented discourses about HIV risk, sexuality and responsibility. New directions in HIV transmission crimes are slippages to socio-legal memories, when Other desires were illicit. But, the ill-legality of HIV glosses over the local, ordinary aspects of HIV infectivity and consensual desire.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Griffith Law School
Griffith Law School
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Monciardini, D. "QUELLO CHE CONTA. A SOCIO-LEGAL ANALYSIS OF ACCOUNTING FOR SUSTAINABLE COMPANIES." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2434/239247.
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During more than three decades, corporate non-financial and sustainability reporting has been widely conceived as a voluntary practice, a matter of going beyond the requirements of the law. Therefore, it has been traditionally overlooked by legal and socio-legal scholars. However, during the last decade things have rapidly changed. We are currently witnessing the emergence of a mix of mandatory and voluntary regulatory approaches to Corporate Sustainability Accounting (CSA) and the integration of some elements of non-financial reporting into accounting standards. What explains these changes in CSA regulation within the EU arena, at different levels of regulation and through varying modes of governance? More specifically, which political and socio-economic actors are driving the current emergence of CSA regulation? What are their interests? How are these different actors organizing and mobilizing themselves? How and why they succeeded in creating regulatory changes?
This research has been based on three main sources of data: documents analysis; literature review; in-depth élite interviews (26). It has also been strengthened by a participant observation of five months at the EU Commission, collaborating to the legal drafting and Impact Assessment of the new EU directive on non-financial reporting. The criteria for designing the fieldwork have been based on the idea of mapping the position of six groups of actors interested in shaping the emergence of CSA regulation. The groups of actors considered are: managers of large corporations; organized labour; civil society and NGOs; institutional investors; public authorities; and professional experts (accountants; financial analysts; lawyers). The analytical framework deployed by this study is a Bourdieusian reflexive socio-legal approach (see Madsen and Dezalay 2002; Madsen 2011), used as an over-arching research strategy in conjunction with the existing literature (see Gourevitch and Shinn 2005; Graz 2006; Crouch 2011; Streeck 2011).
The study claims that the struggles for regulating CSA should be seen as a lens for analyzing broader changes in the field of European corporate governance regulation and in the relation between business and society. A main finding of the Doctoral Thesis, something that has been argued for throughout the study, is that the accounting field has developed a historically specific relation of structural homology with the economic field. Therefore, Chapter 3 argues that the emergence of ‘social accounting’ regulation, in the 1970s, mirrored contemporaneous debates about ‘industrial democracy’. Similarly, the ‘financialisation’ of the 1990s and 2000s has mirrored the structuration of accounting standards narrowly focused only on financial information. Today, the emergence of ‘sustainability accounting’ regulation in Europe reflects and constructs the political attempt to build a regime of capital accumulation aimed at creating longer-term and ‘sustainable’ growth.
More specifically, drawing on interviews with key informants and documents analysis, the study argues that financial turbulences and corporate scandals at the beginning of the 2000s fostered the inception of a European ‘transparency coalition’ (see Gourevitch and Shinn 2005) led by investors and including NGOs and part of the trade unions, which drove a series of reforms in the areas of corporate governance and corporate responsibility. The 2008 financial crisis worked as a catalyst for strengthening this regulatory trend and for fostering a stronger role of the state in its regulatory role. Therefore, we are also witnessing the integration of corporate sustainability in company law and corporate governance regulation and the convergence of financial and non-financial aspects in the regulation of corporate reporting. However, it is too early to say whether this coalition will overcome the opposition of managers, who favour a voluntary approach and are lobbying against mandatory non-financial reporting. The study also questions the potential of the ‘transparency coalition’ to build a new regime of governance of the economy, not just corporate governance.
The dissertation consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 introduces objectives, questions and key concepts. It contains a preliminary conceptualization of the field of research and the research questions. Chapter 2 has been focused on the critical review of the literature and of existing explanations of the emergence of CSA regulation. Furthermore, it presents the socio-legal reflexive methodological and epistemological approach that has been adopted to explain the emergence of this new multi-level regulatory framework. In Chapter 3, the reader can find a summary of the long-term development of non-financial reporting during over four decades, starting from the 1970s’ (see also Annex I). Chapters 4 and 5 narrow down the empirical research, focusing on a more limited periodisation (mid-1990s to 2011) and on the case study of the struggles for shaping an EU-level regulatory framework for non-financial reporting. The aim of Chapter 4 and 5 has been to empirically strengthen the broader analysis outlined in Chapter 3, on the basis of the data collected during the fieldwork. Chapter 6 concludes summarising the key arguments and offering some reflections on future researches.
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Klambauer, Eva. "Sex work regulation and legal consciousness : a comparative socio-legal study of England (UK) and New South Wales (Australia)." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 2018. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/sex-work-regulation-and-legal-consciousness(19913efc-81d7-4515-88d2-e4cb34875ef1).html.
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The regulation of sex work is a contested, emotive, and polarising policy issue. Sex workers are commonly excluded from the political debate regarding the regulation of sex work. While sex workers’ rights organisations are gaining ground internationally, the voices of sex workers who are not politically active are rarely heard. Yet, the experiences of sex workers provide the most accurate narrative of how the regulation of the sex industry affects those whom sex work policy commonly claims to protect. Drawing on 138 interviews with sex workers and key stakeholders, this study investigates the relationship between sex work, its regulation, and sex workers’ legal consciousness. Based on a socio-legal, interpretivist, and comparative case study of England, which can be classified as a neo-abolitionist legal framework of sex work, and New South Wales (NSW) in Australia, where the sex industry is largely decriminalised, this thesis demonstrates that the legal framework of sex work matters for sex workers’ working conditions, safety, and access to rights far beyond the direct impact of the written law. Despite discrepancies between statute and implementation, the differing degrees of legality of sex work in England and NSW profoundly impact on sex workers’ sense of legal entitlement. Additionally, this study found that sex workers’ grievances differ between sectors of the industry according to their legal and social status. Different groups of sex workers not only put forward diverging, but in many cases also contradicting legal claims. Although decriminalisation is the far more appropriate legal framework for ensuring sex workers’ safety, well-being and autonomy, additional protective measures are crucial for balancing out differences in the bargaining power of street-based, brothel-based and independent indoor workers.
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Fassi, M. N. "Living in the legal limbo. A socio-legal approach to sex workers and waste pickers' claims for labour recognition." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2434/362161.
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This thesis explores the relationship between work, criminality and law. It does so by understanding how the legal/illegal dividing line shapes, and is shaped, by the moving borders between work/non-work and crime/non-crime. The groups described in this thesis exist in an area of in-between in which socio-legal dynamics of power and resistance emerge. The notion of ‘legal limbo’ that is defined an explored in the thesis refers to activities, situations or orientations that are neither legal nor illegal in a specific legal system. In the search for an empirical account of the notion of legal limbo, this research uses income-generating activities that are not protected by labour law nor are they conceived as crime, as its primary focus of analysis: sex workers and waste pickers in the city of Córdoba-Argentina.
In order to empirically assess these two groups’ dynamics in the legal limbo, this thesis adopts a qualitative methodology. The fieldwork has been divided in three stages: first, a pilot study with groups whose income generating activity was in the legal limbo in the city of Córdoba; second, the fieldwork with sex workers and waste pickers; and third, series workshops to facilitate contextual debates about what these groups want from the law. Empirically, then, the thesis explores the betwixt socio-legal position of those workers. Therefrom, the key research question that therefore guides this inquiry is: What are the socio-legal dynamics of power and resistance around sex work and waste picking in the city of Córdoba-Argentina?
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Frynas, Jedrzej George. "Litigation in the Nigerian oil industry : a socio-legal analysis of the legal disputes between oil companies and village communities." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/15160.
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This thesis analyses legal disputes between village communities and oil companies in Nigeria. We have three principal aims. First, the thesis is an attempt to provide a detailed analysis of the nature of legal disputes between oil companies and village communities in Nigeria, particularly in the light of the rise in oil related litigation. Second, the study of litigation is meant to serve as a window to an understanding of social conflicts between village communities and oil companies. Third, the thesis is aimed at making a contribution to the research and the debate on the role of multinational companies in developing countries and on the day-to-day operations of African legal systems. The thesis is organised as follows. Section two analyses the political context of oil operations. Section three provides an introduction to the legal framework by discussing Nigeria's formal legal institutions and oil related statute law. An analysis of a survey of Nigerian lawyers in section four is aimed at evaluating the constraints and opportunities faced by potential and actual litigants in oil related litigation which can either encourage or discourage litigants from engaging in litigation. Focusing on issues such as oil spills and compensation payments for land acquisition, factual evidence from court cases in section five illustrates the adverse impact of oil exploration and production on village communities with a view to identifying the sources of conflict between oil companies and the local populace. A detailed analysis of litigation in section six reveals the principles of tort law upon which oil related cases are based, the legal defences employed by oil companies and legal innovations in oil related cases. Section seven concludes the thesis.
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Suriya, Senaka K. "Combatting hate?, a socio-legal discussion on the criminalization of hate in Canada." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape15/PQDD_0002/MQ32382.pdf.
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Jones, Samantha Jane. "Compensating victims of mass accidents : a socio-legal analysis of the settlement process." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.334348.
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Cooper, Debbie. "Special measures for child witnesses : a socio-legal study of criminal procedure reform." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2010. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11319/.
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This thesis is a socio-legal study of police and prosecutorial decision-making in the context of special measures support for child witnesses in criminal proceedings. It presents the findings of an empirical research project conducted with the Crown Prosecution Service which examined the implementation of Part II of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999. Under that Act children may be assisted to testify in criminal proceedings though any feasible combination of: video-recorded evidence; live television link; screens; communication aids; intermediaries; and giving evidence in private. Using a small-scale, primarily qualitative, study involving semi-structured interviews with Crown Prosecutors, this thesis investigates how the attitudes, beliefs, motivations and work practices of the police and prosecutors affect the provision of special measures to children. It does so in the context of a highly directive legal framework which purports to curtail prosecutorial and judicial discretion. The thesis explores the problems that child witnesses encounter within the criminal justice system and the legislative and policy response to their difficulties. It then presents the findings of the current research study in relation to, first, the video-interviewing patterns of police officers and, second, the rate of prosecutors’ applications for special measures. In addition to the statistical data, the thesis explores prosecutors’ own reflective accounts of the factors which shape police and prosecutors’ decision-making. The thesis concludes that where the rules on special measures are highly prescriptive, we have witnessed a radical expansion in their use for children, but that the rigid system has drawbacks which raise pressure for reform. Reform proposals must be carefully considered in the light of infrastructural weaknesses in inter-agency liaison and information-management identified in this thesis. We might also be wary that reform will undermine the criminal justice system’s recently consolidated cultural acceptance of special measures for child witnesses.
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Shirzad, Morteza. "A socio-legal study of judicial independence in the Islamic Republic of Iran." Thesis, University of Essex, 2018. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/22684/.
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Schultheis, Eric (Eric Waibel). "Socio-spatial entanglement theory, the I2S2A method, and civil legal service realized accessibility." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107082.
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Thesis: Ph. D. in Urban and Regional Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2016.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Page 174 blank.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 165-173).
Most spatial and social service accessibility studies are unidimensional; they examine one dimension of service accessibility in isolation. These unidimensional studies are not responsive to the realities of service usage. This is because unidimensional service accessibility studies implicitly assume that spatial and social service accessibility factors are not entangled with one another. Everyday experience and common sense conflict with a unidimensional conceptualization of service accessibility. For instance, the ease of traveling twenty five miles to receive a service is different for the single dad receiving public assistance with no car and the single adult who has stable employment and a car. In fact, many types of differences between users could result in substantive differences in how service accessibility is experienced. In this thesis, I develop a theory, socio-spatial entanglement theory, and method for realized service accessibility research. Socio-spatial entanglement theory is a way of theorizing service accessibility that accounts for the why and how of service accessibility. Socio-spatial entanglement theory posits that spatial and social service accessibility factors are necessarily entangled and that these entanglements capture and explain the lived-experience of service accessibility. This theory is based on applied Critical Realist conceptions of the ontology of the social world. I also develop a method, the integrated, interactive socio-spatial accessibility (12S2A) method, to explain socio-spatial entanglements and generate explanations of the why and how of realized service accessibility. The 12S2A method is informed by Critical Realist understandings of how researchers can know the social world. Lastly, I apply socio-spatial entanglement theory and the 12S2A method to explain the factors and causal mechanisms that mediate civil legal service usage amongst low-income households. These explanations allow policy makers and civil legal service providers to design interventions that target the underlying phenomena that impact service usage in furtherance of increasing realized access to civil legal services.
by Eric Schultheis.
Ph. D. in Urban and Regional Studies
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Sergi, Anna. "The socio-legal identity of organised crime policing in England and in Italy." Thesis, University of Essex, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.654472.
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The fight against organised crime is today a very fertile ground for policy making at various levels. On one side, manifestations of organised crime have historically shaped social and institutional perceptions of local and national threats, while on the other side - because of the perceived transnationality of the phenomenon - national states have been inclined to develop harmonised and coordinated responses, struggling towards agreed definitions of organised crime. This research is a socio-legal comparative · investigation carried out in England and in Italy through thematic analysis of in-depth interviews and official documents, wishing to compare the evolution of two national policing models against organised crime. For the purposes of this research, criticisms of the label of 'organised crime' as a unique or collective category have not been assumed but have instead been assessed throughout the research process. Clearly, definitional issues around terminology of organised crime and mafia identities occupy a large part of the study. The research findings are aligned with the theoretical framework of comparative research in criminal justice, with a first stage analysis of the systems under scrutiny and a second stage analysis of the convergences and divergences between the two systems. At the first level are therefore be the two national models - the Italian Structure Model and the English Activity Model - constructed on the basis of legislation and institutional perceptions gathered from interviews and documents. At the second level is the' proper comparative effort to identify convergences and divergences of policies and practices between the two states. Such comparative exercise does not only improve our understanding of national approaches, beyond cultural, linguistic and legal 'boundaries, but can also improve the dialogue towards concerted efforts at the international level. Nevertheless, globalisation of criminal markets and internationalisation of policies have influenced perceptions of organised crime and related policing tactics also at national levels. This research has considered the influence of international perspectives on convergences and divergences between the two models. Including international perspectives completes this study through an enhanced understanding of both models and with a view to highlight policy recommendations for both countries.
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Picton-Howell, Zoe. "UK paediatricians' medical decision-making for severely disabled children : a socio-legal analysis." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/33061.
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This thesis aims to illuminate how paediatricians in the United Kingdom (UK) make difficult medical decisions when treating severely disabled children with complex health conditions. In particular, it examines the part played, if any, by law, rights, and ethics in those decisions. After drawing on jurisprudence of the English and European Human Rights Court, together with existing scholarship, to analyse the doctors' decision making, this thesis adopts a legal consciousness theoretical approach. Using this it looks at how the paediatricians make sense of and conceptualise law when making these decisions. It examines how decisions are, by the paediatricians' own accounts, commonly made at present and what the paediatricians say about how they and their colleagues make such decisions. This thesis addresses the following research questions: i) Which decisions do UK paediatricians find particularly difficult when working with disabled children and what makes those decisions particularly difficult? ii) What factors do UK paediatricians take into consideration when making difficult decisions for disabled children and what weight do they put on those factors? iii) What formal education in law, rights, and ethics have the doctors received and to what extent, if any, can we discern how this education impacts on their difficult decisions for disabled children? iv) How do UK paediatricians construct and understand the law, rights, and ethics when making their difficult decisions? This thesis makes an original contribution, being the first in-depth socio-legal study examining UK paediatricians' medical decision-making for severely disabled children, by identifying two distinct styles paediatricians adopt when approaching best interest decisions, and by recommending a new category of legal consciousness. It concludes by recommending research and changes both in doctors' training and approach to best interest decision-making to address the current challenges paediatricians describe facing when deciding for severely disabled children.
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Tunduc, Anamaria. "When intimate partner violence becomes femicide : A socio-legal analysis of the Romanian legal framework in light of the Istanbul Convention." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Juridiska institutionen, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-173855.
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Woolaston, Katie M. "Legal Responses to Human-Wildlife Conflict: Individual Autonomy vs Ecological Vulnerability." Thesis, Griffith University, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/392407.
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This thesis employs socio-legal critical analysis to deconstruct the problem of human-wildlife conflict. Biodiversity is in crisis, and a large part of the crisis is the relationship that people have with wildlife. The current species extinction rate is one hundred times higher than it would be without human occupation of the planet. Human-wildlife conflict is a primary contributor to global biodiversity loss because it is a manifestation of the destructive relationship that humans have with wildlife. It is considered that human-wildlife conflict is a cause of biodiversity loss because it usually ends in wildlife being killed, but also because the long term effects of negative interaction with wildlife are detrimental to a conservation ethic in people at the forefront of the conflict. Traditionally, the study of human-wildlife conflict focused on problematising wildlife and managing their behaviour, movements, population size and density, and genetics, combined with measuring the values and attitudes of people towards wildlife so that the most acceptable wildlife management techniques could be employed. By critically analysing the problem of human-wildlife conflict and it’s representations in law and policy, this thesis aims to transform the way in which human-wildlife conflict is viewed and managed.
While many wildlife managers and ecologists are conducting studies on differing human values and attitudes towards wildlife and management practices, and are moving toward interdisciplinary collaboration, the studies are often conducted without an adequate understanding of the philosophy surrounding human relationships with each other, society, and the greater environment. Without an adequate conceptual framework that discusses and theorises the different dimensions of the human side of the conflict, there is little hope of uniting stakeholders and implementing a consistent, cohesive outcome to situations of conflict. A theoretical understanding of the role society and relationships play in the conflict is necessary to formulate an effective model of action that addresses the greater societal influence over human attitudes to wildlife.
This thesis utilises Martha Fineman’s theory of vulnerability, together with social eco-feminism to provide an account of the dynamic natural relationship between humans and wildlife and outline how current management strategies deviate from that dynamic yet natural state. It posits that humans and wildlife have individual and interconnected vulnerabilities that are not accounted for by current management policies. Instead, legal institutions ensure separation through the promotion of false individual liberal autonomy. Furthermore, that autonomy is not universally attributed to all humans. Instead, autonomy is something that is considered relevant to those that already hold the power over the concept itself, are most likely to benefit from it, and are already considered to have it (although as this thesis will demonstrate, no-one can ever be autonomous).
This thesis concludes that legal institutions structurally deny human-wildlife conflict around the world, whilst simultaneously exacerbating conflict by promoting values consistent with individual autonomy. The way to rectify this paradox and return the human-wildlife relationship to its natural state is to promote State responsiveness to the interconnected vulnerabilities of people and wildlife, by shifting institutional focus from autonomy to eco-vulnerability. Methods of achieving this shift include establishing the relevance of non-human vulnerability to the problem of conflict, acknowledging all interconnected oppressions with a conflict scenario, their historical bases and barriers to recovery, implementing community collaboration and some devolution of state decision-making power, increasing positive wildlife experiences and emotional connections, and finally, promoting the leadership of alternate epistemological communities, such as local and indigenous groups.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Griffith Law School
Arts, Education and Law
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Kwok, David. "Underworld justice in Imperial China and its continuing influence in Hong Kong." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:ea37d049-21b2-4a3d-895f-4311d0c1d89a.
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This thesis explores the imagery of underworld justice, and its associated beliefs and practices, as they developed throughout Chinese imperial history. Certain elements of the Chinese imperial legal system, including judges and trials, and laws and codes, were borrowed by the Daoists and applied to their construct of the afterlife. Underworld justice beliefs and practices flourished throughout China's imperial past, and are still influential to some devotees in today's Hong Kong. Among the various questions that are explored, this thesis examines the place of underworld justice in the legal consciousness, or everyday law, of the devotees in contemporary Hong Kong. There are two dimensions to this thesis: historical and empirical. In the historical part, I trace the development of underworld justice beliefs and practices in imperial China. I analyse some of the characteristics and rituals of underworld justice, and relate them to the imperial laws and procedures upon which they were modelled. Such tracing allows us to discern the considerable overlap between the imperial legal system and underworld justice beliefs and practices. In the empirical part, I present data gathered at mainly three City God temples in Hong Kong. Such data involve conversations with Daoist and Buddhist priests, temple keepers and devotees. The data gathered not only shed light on the general state of City God veneration in contemporary Hong Kong, but also the influence of underworld justice on the devotees' understanding of law. The data reveal that the studied devotees regard underworld justice, which administers the law of karma, as superior to the state legal system. Hence, underworld justice is not considered as an informal dispute resolution process alternative to that of the state, but as a mechanism that can intervene in court cases, due to its being more authoritative.
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Kabeberi-Macharia, Janet W. "Reproducers reproduced : socio-legal regulation of sexuality and fertility among adolescent girls in Kenya." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1995. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/36420/.
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This study analyses socio-legal issues pertaining to sexuality and reproduction within the context of the realities and lives of Kenyan women and in particular, Kenyan adolescent girls. The study explores the regulatory mechanisms relating to adolescent sexuality and fertility, and examines how these have been historically constructed both to limit and to open up the knowledge and choices of adolescent girls regarding their sexuality and reproduction. It examines the historical nature of the actors and the regulatory mechanisms (within the specific contexts), how these define the status of women within their families and communities, and their ability to regulate their sexuality and fertility. It unearths the intricate nature of the interrelationship between the actors and regulatory mechanisms, and develops a framework of analysis for this task. The study argues that regulation of adolescent sexuality and fertility is complex and multi-dimensional. Thus efforts at regulation must consider the nature of sexuality, its construction, the gender relationships, and the power relationships between the social actors. The study concludes that more qualitative studies that focus on the regulation of adolescent sexuality and fertility, the plural nature of law and its relationship with other non-legal forms of social regulation are crucial, if the complexity of this process is to be better understood.
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Wilson, George Robert. "Investigating the idea of a European Union minimum wage policy : a socio-legal perspective." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2018. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/22333/.
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This thesis investigates the idea of a European Union (EU) minimum wage policy, exploring what it might look like given the significant obstacles that stand in the way of its realisation. The idea of a minimum wage policy for the EU has a long and varied history and can be traced to the inception of the Single Market. Over the course of European integration, suggestions have been made for the Union to coordinate wages in Member States, against both absolute and relative values. Justifications for intervention have varied but predominately focus on the prevalence of low wage work in Europe. However, the limited competence of the Union to act in the area of pay, coupled with the heterogeneity of industrial relations systems in Member States, makes the realisation of an EU minimum wage at the hands of the Union highly unlikely. In light of these impediments, this thesis articulates an alternative policy. This policy would be instituted by the European social partners and implemented by an 'autonomous' European social partner agreement. Given the scope of social partner agreements, this approach would lead to a more 'transnational' wage policy akin to collective agreements signed between European industry federations and employers' associations organised across national boarders. In outlining the contours of this policy, valuable insights are gained into the operation of the European social dialogue and its potential to serve as an alternative space for societal governance. Furthermore, a potential 'hybrid' regulatory form for such a policy is suggested - between an autonomous agreement and 'new' governance processes - that would improve the effectiveness of its implementation.
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Neofytou, Aikaterini. "A comparative socio-legal analysis of responses to surrogacy in Greece and the UK." Thesis, University of Kent, 2018. https://kar.kent.ac.uk/69428/.
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Surrogacy is an alternative means of reproduction that has been described as a controversial practice raising important ethico-legal considerations relating to alleged risks to autonomy, welfare and justice. However, many arguments against it are made without support from empirical data or despite such evidence as exists. Surrogacy is governed by diverse regulation worldwide, but such regulation generally has not been shaped by the perspectives of those involved in it, while the incidence of surrogacy both at national and international levels is increasing. In this thesis, I explore how surrogacy should be regulated in law through a sustained comparative socio-legal approach informed by a feminist perspective. I argue that respect for autonomy entails that individuals should be allowed to make use of surrogacy, provided that there are no good reasons for preventing them from doing so. I consider a range of such reasons - grounded in concerns for the welfare of the participants and social justice - and determine that surrogacy should be permitted, if it is properly regulated. I then go on to consider the parameters of good regulation using Greece and the UK as examples, and explore what, if anything, each regime might learn from the other and how they can most effectively reflect the experiences and protect the interests of the surrogacy participants. Greece and the UK offer the basis for a novel, interesting and fruitful comparative socio-legal study. Greek law provides for an intention-based model of parenthood founded on altruistic gestational surrogacy agreements which, if pre-approved by the judiciary, can become enforceable upon the child's birth, leading to an automatic acknowledgement of the intended parents' parenthood. UK law allows gestational and traditional altruistic surrogacy arrangements, but only regulates those taking place in UK clinics. UK surrogacy agreements are unenforceable, parenthood is based on gestation and birth, and intended parents may acquire parenthood through a post-birth parental order granted by the courts if certain conditions are met. Despite how unusual and novel the Greek legal approach is, it is poorly explored within the international literature. This thesis fills this gap. It also adds to the existing, limited data about people's experiences of surrogacy regulation in the UK, both confirming some findings of previous studies and challenging certain assumptions, as well as introducing a range of new concerns.
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Kubal, Agnieszka Maria. "Socio-legal integration of Polish post-2004 EU enlargement migrants in the United Kingdom." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:5b53eea3-1cf1-4b0d-b79a-1adbc1c510b5.
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After the Enlargement of the European Union in 2004, around a million Accession State migrants arrived in the United Kingdom, with Polish migrants constituting the largest group. There is a growing body of literature focusing on their migratory patterns, networks, labour market performance, and identity. However, little has been said so far about the Polish migrants' relationship with law in the United Kingdom. This thesis asks: how do the Polish post-2004 EU Enlargement migrants form their relationship with the law, and what are the factors that affect this? It focuses on the intricacies of migrants' choices of `semi-legal' over legal status, subsequent legalization strategies, and the interpretations of legality they result in. Socio-legal integration has so far been viewed solely via state legal frameworks, following the traditional approach of the `law-first' perspective. This thesis argues that it is not the institutional arrangements and legal architecture alone that decide the nature of migrants' semi-legal relationship with law in the host society. A more comprehensive insight into the socio-legal integration of migrants is possible only when we combine in the analysis the interplay between the structural factors of the host country's legal environment, migrants' agency and the culturally derived values, attitudes, behaviour and social expectations towards the law and its enforcement. The thesis therefore makes a case for a `proper' recognition of migrants' legal culture in the study of their socio-legal integration. The thesis concludes that semi-legality, as an initial response to the legal environment is not static, but changing. As a result, migrants' socio-legal integration is extended in time and gradual. Migrants' legality could be discussed at two levels - at the behavioural level and at the level of a value. Changing status between the two poles of legality and illegality brings with it greater appreciation of legality as a value. This research presents a strong argument that the relationship between behaviour and attitudes to law could be meaningfully investigated in an applied domain of the new socio-legal environment.
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Wilczynski, Ania. "A socio-legal study of parents who kill their children in England and Wales." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1993. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/272736.
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Ramezankhah, Forough. "Asylum stories: a socio-legal study of Iranian claims for asylum in the UK." Thesis, Keele University, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.702315.
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Saeed, Raza. "Contested legalities, (de)coloniality and the state : understanding the socio-legal tapestry of Pakistan." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2014. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/66360/.
Full textAbstract:
The study develops two significant arguments in relation to Pakistan’s socio-legal situation and analysis. First, it outlines and discusses the various prominent facets of the country’s legal architecture to formulate and present, what the thesis terms as, Pakistan’s Socio-Legal Tapestry. It considers the historical and conceptual trajectories of some of the multiple legal and normative structures that prevail in the country, their interplay and encounters, as well as their limitations and problems. It puts this socio-legal architecture at the heart of the examination, and by making the different constituents of the legal terrain explicit – components that include common law, Islamic law, colonial law, traditional law, legal ‘exteriority’ of tribal regions, and issues of ‘lawlessness’ – it makes the case for a holistic understanding of law as the necessary prerequisite to understanding the difficulties that that the country’s law, state and the wider society are faced with. The second significant argument of the study emerges from this expansion of the subject matter of (socio)legal analysis. It is argued that a shift in the understanding of what constitutes law in the context of Pakistan logically leads towards a (re)consideration of the lenses and narratives generally employed to examine it. The identification, examination and problematisation of these narratives – which include the dominant state-oriented legal narrative and the legal positivistic approach, the Islamic law narrative, legal pluralistic approach and the ascendant discourse on human rights – formulate the second substantive part of the study. It is argued that these Narratives of law differ in terms of how they perceive the context, identify their priorities, frame the problems and then propose solutions for their rectification. However, caught in a struggle to maintain their definitional consistencies, these narratives are only able to adopt a partial view of the picture and, owing to that, they generate contradictions that ultimately weaken their approach and proposed solutions. The purpose behind these two arguments is both to make a case for new avenues of context-specific legal analysis, as well as to create possibilities for it in the case of Pakistan. The problems that the country faces and the suffering that its people experience create an urgent need to recognise the deficiencies, both in our conceptualisation of law in this particular context, as well as the narratives, perspectives, theories and ideologies that we employ to approach it. This necessitates the search for alternative narratives for comprehending Pakistan’s socio-legal situation, to offer more nuanced approaches that might enable us to frame issues differently. This, I argue, is the most pressing task for those engaged in the analyses of legal, social and political spheres of Pakistan, and the necessary first step if our goal is the (re)formation of the legal and normative orders to make them more accountable to the people. By adopting the framework of colonialism and Coloniality to offer a different lens to understand Pakistan’s socio-legal peculiarities, the study presents one such attempt in this vein, with the purpose of initiating discussion and inviting critique.
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Msangi, Mwajuma Kito. "A social-legal analysis of the challenges to a durable return and reintegration of refugees : the case of Rwanda." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/12468.
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This paper analyzes the socio-legal challenges relating to the return and
reintegration of refugees. Using Rwanda as a case-study, it focuses on the conditions or factors necessary for a sustainable return and reintegration and the positive impact of the implementation of Rwanda’s post-conflict socio-legal framework. Also suggests practical solutions to addressing the challenges so as to achieve a
durable return and re-integration of Rwandan refugees.A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Kwadwo Appiagye-Atua, Faculty of Law, University of Ghana.
Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2009.
http://www.chr.up.ac.za/
Centre for Human Rights
LLM
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Umana, Camilo. "Impunity:In the Search of a Socio-Legal Concept. Elucidations from a State Crime Case Study." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/36916.
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In the contemporary world, the fight against impunity has become a fundamental political claim, a social goal and a main concern for human rights movements. However, it is unclear how we can delimit this fight, what are its aims and, ultimately, the remedies it proposes to overcome impunity. The academic studies and human rights mechanisms referring to this issue are not sufficiently clarifying. They often lack clear theoretical distinctions and stable empirical observations. Moreover, in social discourses impunity is employed with extremely vague connotations. This research addresses this lacuna, offering a conceptualization and characterization of impunity from a socio-legal perspective. With this purpose in mind, this work develops an analysis of impunity through the study of a particular kind of criminality. The study of state crime provides a prolific perspective for the analysis of the phenomenon of impunity, allowing to visualize the constitution of different blockages against the autonomous operation of the criminal justice. Particularly, this research studies an event of enforced disappearance initiated at the siege of the Colombian Palace of Justice in 1985, through a reconstruction focused on the perspective of the victims using a combination of qualitative methods. This field work, alongside different explorations of the sociological, human rights and criminological state of art of impunity, provides a sociological reflection on the concept of impunity. In the end, taking into account the problematization of the concept and its uses in social discourses, this work proposes a conceptualization apt for overcoming the vagueness of the definition of impunity as well as allowing a delimitation of the fight against it, leaving space for possible innovations on the penal rationality and possibly reinforcing a human rights agenda, concerned with the escalation of repression through punishment and committed with the restoration of social links and the victims’ rights.