VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Controlling the party or controlling the media? How intra-party dynamics moderated, and reinforced, particularism in Croatia, 2000-2014

This thesis explores the shape, the dynamics, and the main reasons for media capture and collusion in Croatia since the second transition in 2000. Using principal-agent theory to refer to the basic relation-ship between politicians, media and citizens, I intend to explain why politicians make use of particularism - behaviour aiming at the limitation of horizontal accountability – to force the media into cooperation with politicians (media capture) or to engage in an illicit, mutually agreed deal (collusion). Located in the literatures on democratization, party research and media studies, I aim to connect these fields in arguing that intra-party dynamics such as party leaders' rootedness, contestation and the institutionalization of rules play an important role in incentivizing executive politicians to capture or collude with media outlets. The empirical outcome of the study showing drastic failures of horizontal accountability contradicts dominant narratives of Croatia's high level of democratic consolidation between 2000 and 2014 and therefore challenges the suitability of indicators primarily designed to capture the institutionalization of institutions rather than the institutionalization of particularism.
Croatia is a particularly appropriate case to study in this context since none of the traditional incentives such as Europeanization, inter-party competition, a strong civil society or economic modernization can fully explain shifts in the way politicians limit or reinforce horizontal accountability of the media. In order to address this puzzle I adopt a two-pronged research strategy based on both qualitative and quantitative elements in order to reliably and validly measure the shape and development of media capture and collusion.

Advisor: Whitefield, S
Democracy and the justification of political authority

This thesis investigates the place of democracy in the justification of political authority. The investigation of the thesis proceeds in two parts. The first part considers the lines of argument that being democratic is necessary for political authority to be fully justified. Anna Stilz argues that the subjects have general obligation to obey the law only if they are free from political domination, which freedom is available only in the democratic State. Philip Pettit argues that the freedom from domination does not affect the subjects' obligation to obey the laws, but is constitutive of their obligation to 'accept a regime', i.e. to refrain from revolting against a regime. David Estlund argues that the State's right to enforce the laws is justified independently of its capacity to obligate the subjects to obey the laws, and that the former right is uniquely conditional on the political decision-procedures' being democratic. Thomas Christiano argues that it is the ruler's 'right to rule', i.e. a claim-right correlative with the subjects' obligation to obey, which turns on the existence of a democratic assembly. These arguments fail to make sufficient room for the fundamental principle of political authority: as outlined in John Finnis's argument, political authority is required for the solution of a community's co-ordination problems for the common good, and it is to be exercised by those who have efficacious capacity to do so. Democracy does not change what it is to be justified authority in accordance with the fundamental principle. The second part supplements the fundamental principle by identifying two important ways in which democracy bears on the legitimacy of the State. First, democracy affects political legitimacy if and only if democracy is viable in the relevant community. Secondly, it is the laws that regulate legal change—as distinct from laws that regulate other official and social conduct—that depend for their authority on democracy.

Keywords: political legitimacy
democracy
authority
Advisor: Ekins, R
Preventive terrorism offences

The aim of this thesis is to assess the justifications for various extensions of the criminal law introduced to combat terrorism, in particular those extensions that go beyond the existing remit of inchoate offences and extend liability to earlier acts and intentions. Its method is to begin by exploring the principles of criminal law theory that ought to apply to such extensions; to interrogate the definition of terrorism; and then to examine four recent classes of offence in counter-terrorism legislation that extend the criminal law beyond its legitimate boundaries. These offences are collectively referred to in this thesis as 'preventive terrorism offences' to reflect the fact that the primary rationale for their enactment is to prevent terrorism. The thesis concludes by assessing the place of these offences within the government's overall counter-terrorism strategy, focusing in particular on the Prevent leg of the strategy, which aims to reduce extremism and tackle the root causes of terrorism.
The preventive terrorism offences display several very troubling features, most notably that they have the potential to criminalise non-wrongful conduct. It is argued that by virtue of their ability to criminalise non-wrongful conduct the offences under examination diminish the legitimacy and moral force of the criminal law. Furthermore, by extending inchoate liability to very remote acts of preparation, possession, encouragement, and association, the criminal law occupies the same operational space as measures under the Prevent strategy that are intended to be reintegrative. This overlap has the potential to render the offences counterproductive to the larger counter-terrorism endeavour by creating the perception that the Prevent strategy is in fact a covert surveillance mechanism to gather intelligence for future prosecutions. This perception leads to further mistrust and alienation of individuals and communities who feel disproportionately targeted by these measures. Thus, the offences not only offend criminal law principles and values, but also have the potential to offend the very preventive justification that is given for their enactment.
A law and economics analysis of corporate opportunities doctrines from a comparative perspective

Business opportunities are a chance for a company to grow its activity and to further the aggregate welfare of the society as a whole. Corporate opportunities rules and their functional equivalents should enable companies to develop their business activities when directors discover those business opportunities. Companies need to be certain that they can legally appropriate those business opportunities. A company should have this ability when it is the best potential exploiter of the opportunity at issue, which is likely when the opportunity is a chance to expand the company's line of business or to pursue vertical integration. In fact, a company's appropriation of new business opportunities justifies a company's sunk costs that stem from its specific investments. Hence, the tests adopted for identifying corporate opportunities in US (Delaware), German (line of business test), UK, French, Spanish and Italian corporate laws (interest test) reflect the need to further efficiency by way of diminishing hold-up costs. Remedies against misappropriations of corporate opportunities by directors should both pursue maximum disclosure of new corporate opportunities by directors and preserve the possibility of alternative allocations of a corporate opportunity, when a company's director can exploit the opportunity more efficiently than the company. Such an alternative allocation may occur through negotiation or through efficient breach of duty. It is suggested that a differential remedial system (higher sanctions for breach of duty following non-disclosure) would maximize both disclosure and efficient allocation. This approach is closer to the one that exists in Anglo-American law than to the one adopted in most civil law jurisdictions. The present differences in various corporate laws may be connected to the existence of institutional complementarities, which should be taken into account in future reforms.

Advisor: Davies, P
Religious communities of the Near East from Roman to Islamic rule: sectarianism and identity in an age of transition (5th-8th C)

This study endeavors to set Christian writing about Islam from the period of the Islamic expansion in the broader context of Christian theological development in Late Antiquity. To this end, this study traces elements of continuity in Christian thought from the Christological debates of the fifth and sixth century, particularly from the Council of Chalcedon in 451and the resulting emergence of the communities of Chalcedonians and anti-Chalcedonian Monophysites as the dominant strands of Christianity in the Near East at the rise of Islam. In order to understand how Christians began to integrate the Islamic expansion into their thinking, this study focuses particularly on Christian writings about Islam and the descriptions of Muslims in Christian writings from the rise of lslam, through the seventh and early eighth centuries, up to the Abbasid revolution in 750. It also considers the contemporary descriptions of Christians in the Qur'an, in order to illustrate that these descriptions have both a different starting point and a different focus, suggesting that both Christian discussions about Muslims and Muslim discussions about Christians were internal discussions, taking place within each tradition, and do not represent true inter­ religious dialogue. In this way, this study attempts to illustrate how the rise of lslam, the emergence of the caliphate and the resulting separation of the Near Eastern churches from the Christian hierarchy in Rome and Constantinople influenced Christian identity in the Near East. The writings of the seventh century, and the Christian identity they preserve, emerge as a hybrid, integrating elements of the competing, pre-Islamic concerns of doctrinal purity versus church unity, but also attempting to address, in a variety of ways, the initial fear over Muslim victory and the eventual acceptance of Muslim rule as the new status quo in the Near East

Keywords: Monophysite
Chalcedonian
Chalcedon
Advisor: Booth, P
Baun, J
Investigation of genetic determinants of drug response in a Plasmodium falciparum genetic cross using a high-throughput screening method

The emergence and rapid spread of artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum in southeast Asia highlights the importance of identifying genetic determinants of drug response and discovering novel potent antimalarials. In support of these efforts, the parental lines and progeny of the 803xGB4 genetic cross were characterized by pharmaceutical compound screening and whole-genome sequencing (WGS). Results of the compound screen identified 52 highly-active compounds with potential for development as antimalarials. A confirmatory screen was performed to more accurately define parasite responses to 384 of the 2,816 compounds in the primary screen. Linkage analysis revealed 25 genetic loci significantly associated with parasite response to 61 compounds. A locus on chromosome 5 containing pfmdr1 was linked to response to six compounds, including the widely-used antimalarial mefloquine and the potential antimalarial triclosan. Progeny bearing the 803 allele at this locus were less sensitive to all six of these compounds. Results from RT-PCR experiments indicated increased transcription of pfmdr1 in 803 in the absence of copy number variation (CNV), implicating a possible promoter polymorphism. Analysis of WGS data suggested the presence of several possible CNVs, including a deletion of Rh2b in 803 inherited by a proportion of progeny, and a non-Mendelian amplification of Rh2a and Rh2b in three progeny. Results from PCR and RT-PCR experiments confirmed the deletion event, and indicated increased Rh2a and Rh2b transcript levels in one of the progeny with the amplification. High-throughput compound screening and WGS enable the discovery of parasite biological responses that have the potential to further malaria elimination efforts.

Advisor: Kwiatkowski, D
Fairhurst, R
Carbon-carbon bond formation via rhodium-catalysed C-S activation processes

In the following thesis, new methodologies towards harnessing C-S activation processes are documented. These methods utilise rhodium catalysis and are focused on the activation of aryl methyl sulfides.
Chapter 1 provides an overview of the development of metal-catalysed C-S activation chemistry, with a focus on the catalytic systems, reagents and starting materials used to facilitate various C-C bond forming transformations.
Chapter 2 describes a novel rhodium-catalysed cross-coupling reaction of aryl and alkyl terminal alkynes with simple aryl sulfides. This resulted in a Sonogashira-type transformation which exhibited orthogonality with traditional palladium catalysed Sonogashira chemistry.
Chapter 3 documents a new catalytic system which allowed for the practical and efficient alkyne carbothiolation reactions of ketone-baring methyl sulfides. The carbothiolation products can be conveniently utilised in a one-pot three-component reaction to form highly substituted isoquinolines.
Chapter 4 discusses the potential for future work.
Chapter 5 presents the experimental data.

Advisor: Willis, M
Seneca's De Ira: a study

This thesis offers new philosophical and literary interpretations of Seneca's De ira. It takes as its starting-point the observation that both the philosophical position on which the text relies and the way in which it is organised appear to be chaotic, and it investigates how far and why this is the case. It shows that a coherent philosophical position underlies the text but that the text presents it as incoherent, and that it does this for therapeutic purposes. Similarly, it shows that the text is organised in a far more orderly way than has been previously appreciated, and it explains how the (apparent) disruption of that organisational system serves the text's therapeutic function. In making these arguments, it presents new readings of the De ira that reveal the text's philosophical and literary qualities, arguing that it constitutes a more sophisticated response to Seneca’s philosophical predecessors than previous accounts have claimed, and that the text, as it progresses, introduces new therapeutic strategies that provide 'safety nets' should its earlier principal strategies have failed. The thesis aims to be methodologically innovative in using Seneca’s descriptions of emotional responses as well as more explicit theorising to reconstruct his philosophical position and in suggesting a new approach to interpreting the role of interlocutors and addressees in didactic and dialogic texts.

Advisor: Reinhardt, T
Victim participation in international criminal justice: the case of the extraordinary chambers in the courts of Cambodia: real power or empty rhetoric?

This thesis critically examines the role, scope and implications of victims' participation in international criminal proceedings, drawing from the development of human rights doctrine, victimology and practices in domestic and international criminal justice systems. The comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the complex and multifaceted legal mechanism of victim participation is conducted primarily through the lens of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), examination of which constitutes the core of this thesis. In light of the specific characteristics of international criminal law, this thesis analyses the statutory and jurisprudential developments that have defined the ambit and boundaries of the participation of victims in international criminal proceedings. The research is conducted against a theoretical and case law backdrop, drawing on interviews conducted with judges, lawyers and victims at the ECCC.
The interpretation of victims' participatory rights in international criminal proceedings has been significantly diffuse and at times divergent, betraying a far from cohesive and consistent approach, and making the study of civil party participation at the ECCC an excellent medium through which to explore the breadth of victim participation as a legal mechanism. Victim participation is still in its infancy in international criminal proceedings, and as such, the trials at the ECCC have appeared more as ‘experimenting laboratories' than as processes guided by sound and well-crafted rules and procedures. This thesis argues that whilst the apparent benefits of participation seem self-evident, and may lead, at least in theory, to the realisation of the aspiration of restorative justice for victims, the manner in which civil party participation has been crafted and interpreted in the trials before the ECCC has raised some important issues and questions regarding its role and impact with respect to the functionality of court proceedings, the rights of the accused, and the rights of victims themselves.

Keywords: Victim participation
Advisor: Hoyle, C
Reparation for violations of human rights and humanitarian law: the responsibility of international organizations

This thesis is concerned with reparation for human rights and international humanitarian law breaches committed by or attributed to international organizations. These breaches constitute internationally wrongful acts which according to the International Law Commission’s Draft articles on the responsibility of international organizations, give rise to an obligation on the offending organization to afford reparation. However, in practice, the obligation to afford reparation is unimplemented. The thesis explores why this is. The thesis considers how the law of responsibility intersects with the specialised regimes of human rights and international humanitarian law and particularly, their application to remedies and reparation owed to individuals. It reviews the various gaps in the normative framework and the limitations of existing redress mechanisms. The thesis analyses the cogency of the arguments and rationales that have been used by international organisations to limit institutional liability and the scope and functioning of redress mechanisms, included by the resort to lex specialis principles. It is postulated that the standards of reparation must be drawn from the nature of the breach and the resulting harms and not by who is responsible for the breach. In this respect the thesis is an exercise in the progressive development of the law. Having determined that existing redress mechanisms cannot afford adequate or effective remedies and reparation, the thesis explores how to move towards a model that achieves greater compliance. Indeed, should it be accepted that international organizations must afford remedies and reparation for breaches of human rights and IHL that correspond to the standards that exist in those specialised fields then it is argued that there is a corresponding obligation on them to put in place the modalities for that to be achieved.

Advisor: Goodwin-Gill, G
Doping a topological quantum spin liquid: slow holes in the Kitaev honeycomb model

We present a controlled microscopic study of hole dynamics in both a gapped and a gapless quantum spin liquid. Our approach is complementary to previous phenomenological works on lightly doped quantum spin liquids as we introduce mobile holes into the ground state of the exactly solvable Kitaev honeycomb model.
In the spatially anisotropic (Abelian) gapped phase of the model, we address the properties of a single hole [its internal degrees of freedom as well as its hopping properties], a pair of holes [their absolute and relative particle statistics as well as their interactions], and the collective state for a finite density of holes. Our main result is that the holes in the doped model possess internal degrees of freedom as they can bind the fractional excitations of the undoped model and that the resulting composite holes with different excitations bound are distinct fractional particles with fundamentally different single-particle properties and different experimental signatures in the multi-particle ground state at finite doping. For example, some hole types are free to hop in two dimensions, while others are confined to hop in one dimension only. Also, distinct hole types have different particle statistics and, in particular, some of them exhibit non-trivial (anyonic) relative statistics. At finite doping, the respective hopping dimensionalities manifest themselves in an electrical conductivity that is either approximately isotropic or extremely anisotropic.
In the gapless phase of the model, we consider a single hole and address the possibility of a coherent quasiparticle description. Our main result is that a mobile hole has a finite quasiparticle weight which vanishes in the stationary limit. Although this result is obtained in terms of an approximate variational state, we argue that it is also applicable for the exact ground state of the doped model.

Advisor: Chalker, J
Making law about power

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the inhabitants of some parts of Europe and the North American colonies were confronted with proto-state institutional arrangements. In certain cases, they responded ambivalently. That ambivalence is at the heart of what I will call the 'limited government tradition'. The tradition’s adherents thought that long historical experience, not to mention the events of their own times, provided ample evidence of the corrupting effects of power on those who wield it. Power-holders, left to their own devices, are likely to succumb to the temptations of power by exercising it arbitrarily. Where they are able to do so comprehensively and systematically, the upshot is tyranny. How, then, to ensure that state power is constituted in a manner that is inhospitable to tyranny? The tradition envisaged a range of measures, including a distinctive vision of 'the Rule of Law'. The Rule of Law would both define and enforce certain limits on state power. This study argues that the tradition’s hostility to political absolutism is based on moral foundations which apply with equal force to economic power. The tradition ought to examine the modern constitution of economic power to determine whether it is hospitable to arbitrariness and tyranny. If such an examination is undertaken, we learn that modern economic power poses the kind of moral dangers that the tradition’s Rule of Law project is designed to combat. However, the tradition assumes that it need not treat economic power as even a potential target of the Rule of Law. I will call that assumption the 'Consensus'. This study's first major aim is to explain the origins and stubbornness of the Consensus. Its second major aim is to persuade readers that the Consensus is mistaken: the tradition must regard economic power as, at least, a potential target of the Rule of Law.

Keywords: rule of law
Legal theory
Constitutional theory
Constitutional law
Law
Political theory
Jurisprudence
Political philosophy
Legal philosophy
constitutionalism
Advisor: Galligan, D