Framing 'Piracy': restitution at sea in the later Middle Ages

The focus of the thesis is the diplomatic and legal implications of the capture of ships at sea in the later Middle Ages. It challenges key assumptions in much secondary literature concerning the definition of piracy, seeking to explore several major themes relating to the legal status of shipping in periods of war or diplomatic tension in this period. The thesis draws primarily on diplomatic, legal and administrative records, largely those of English royal government, but also makes use of material relating to France, Holland and Zealand, Flanders and the Hanse. The majority of studies on this subject stress the importance of developments which occurred in the fifteenth century, yet I have found it necessary to follow the development of the law of prize, diplomatic provisions for the keeping of the sea and the use of devolved sea-keeping fleets back to the start of the thirteenth century. This thesis questions the tendency of historians to attach the term ‘piracy’, with its modern legal connotations, to a variety of actions at sea in the later Middle Ages. In the absence of a clear legislative or semantic framework a close examination of the complexity of practice surrounding the judgement of prize, the provision of restitution to injured parties, and diplomatic mechanisms designed to prevent disorder at sea, enables a more rounded picture to emerge. A detailed examination of individual cases is set within the broader conceptual framework of international, commercial and maritime law. Chapter 1 provides a study of the wartime role of devolved flees by means of a case study of Henry III’s Poitou campaigns of 1242-3. It demonstrates that private commissioned ships undertook a variety of naval roles including the transport of troops, patrolling the coast and enforcing blockades. Further, it argues that it is anachronistic to criticise private shipowners for seeking profit through attacks on enemy shipping as booty was an integral incentive in all forms of medieval warfare. Chapter 2 provides a detailed examination of the application of letters of marque, one of the principal means of obtaining redress for injuries suffered at the hands of the subject of a foreign sovereign. It demonstrates that far from being a justification for ‘piracy’ letters of marque were highly regulated legal instruments applied in the context of an internationally accepted body of customs. Chapter 3 examines the concept of neutrality and the relationship between warfare and commerce through a study of Anglo-Flemish relations during the Anglo-Scottish wars between 1305 and 1323. It argues that universal standards of neutrality did not exist in this period and that decisions on prize took place within the context of an ever-changing diplomatic background. Chapter 4 focuses on the provision of restitution once judgement had been made through an examination of a complex dispute between English merchants and the count of Hainault, Holland and Zeeland spanning the opening decades of the fourteenth century. It emphasises the ad hoc nature of restitution with a variety of means devised to compensate the injured parties and the difficult and often inconclusive process undergone by litigants against a backdrop of competing interests, both local and national. The thesis concludes that the legal process surrounding the capture of shipping was civil rather than criminal in nature. The plaintiff’s need to obtain restitution was the driving force behind such actions rather than the state’s desire to monopolise the use of violence at sea. The reliance of the English crown on devolved shipping made such a policy fiscally impractical

Social benefit bonds: financial markets inside the state

The provision of social services in Australia has changed dramatically in recent decades. Governments have expanded social provision without expanding the public sector by directly subsidising private provision, by contracting private agencies, both non-profit and for-profit, to deliver services, and through a number of other subsidies and vouchers. Private actors receive public funds to deliver social services to citizens, raising a range of important questions about financial and democratic accountability: 'who benefits', 'who suffers' and 'who decides'. This book explores these developments through rich case studies of a diverse set of social policy domains. The case studies demonstrate a range of effects of marketisation, including the impact on the experience of consumer engagement with social service systems, on the distribution of social advantage and disadvantage, and on the democratic steering of social policy

Assess for Less: A Solution-Oriented, Ground-Based Geomorphic Analysis of an Urban Watershed in the Piedmont of North Carolina

2008 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Addressing Water Challenges Facing the State and Regio

Who can exercise the option of justice?

Robert Meister’s book is subtitled ‘A democratic theory of finance for the 21st century’. At first glance, there are odd juxtapositions expressed in the title: justice and democracy on the one hand; finance and options contracts on the other. How can they be integrated? That is the challenge Meister sets. It isn't an easy read – the richness of the analysis requires that it be digested carefully – but it will, for many people, change the way they understand the political meanings, and potentials, of financial analysis

Editorial

No abstract available

What Happens after Technology Adoption? Gendered Aspects of Small-Scale Irrigation Technologies in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Tanzania

A wide range of agricultural technologies are promoted to increase or stabilize yields and incomes, improve food security or nutrition, and even empower women. Yet a gender gap in adoption remains for many agricultural technologies, even for those that are promoted for women. This paper complements the gender and technology adoption literature by shifting attention to what happens after adoption of a technology. Understanding the expected benefits and costs of adoption from the perspective of women users can help explain the technology adoption rates that are observed and why technology adoption is often not sustained in the longer term. Drawing on qualitative data from Ethiopia, Ghana, and Tanzania, this paper develops a framework for examining the intrahousehold distribution of benefits from technology adoption, focusing on small-scale irrigation technologies. The framework contributes to the conceptual and empirical exploration of jointness in control over technology by men and women. It does this by identifying a series of decisions following technology adoption, and how these decisions affect how the technology is used, by whom, to whose benefit, and with what costs. Given the focus on technology adoption as a strategy for agricultural development and women’s empowerment, understanding the intrahousehold distribution of costs and benefits and the jointness of control over a technology can help guide technology promotion in a way that advances programming objectives, rather than simply interpreting technology adoption as an end in and of itself

Feed the future innovation laboratory for small scale irrigation (FTF-ILSSI) project notes

Small-Scale Irrigation (SSI) interventions, like other development interventions, need to take into account men’s and women’s context-specific roles in agriculture and their related gender-based preferences and challenges. Understanding gender differences related to SSI technologies can help us improve targeting and better anticipate and monitor the impact of technologies on different people. Gender analysis is relevant to any SSI program, whether it seeks to avoid harm to women, to serve both men and women, or to advance women’s empowerment

Integrating Gender into Small-Scale Irrigation

Integrating Gender into Small-Scale Irrigatio