Vladislava Stoyanova

Human Trafficking and Slavery Reconsidered
Conceptual Limits and States' Positive Obligations

Datum för disputation: måndagen den 20 april 2015
Fakultetsopponent: professor Cathryn Costello, University of Oxford, Storbritannien
Ämne: folkrätt

Abstract

The support for the fight against ‘human trafficking’ has evolved rapidly and comprehensively. There has been, however, no overarching critical evaluation of the efforts to make ‘human trafficking’ a focus of international law. The study addresses this gap and questions the usefulness of the international law definition of human trafficking and the legal framework built around this definition. It shows how by moving to the concept of human trafficking, the international community side-lined the older and more established human rights law concepts of slavery, servitude and forced labour, a development urgently requiring rectification.

I propose two steps to reverse these negative developments. The first is to address the terminological confusion and the definitional indeterminacy that surround the concepts of human trafficking, slavery, servitude and forced labour in international law. In relation to this, the study shows that the concept of human trafficking is ineffective. Thus the study seeks to place renewed emphasis on the human rights law concepts of slavery, servitude or forced labour and to determine their definitional scopes. The second step implies clearer understanding of states’ positive human rights obligations flowing from the human trafficking and the human rights legal frameworks. In this regard, the study demonstrates the values and the limitations of both frameworks, while at the same time maintaining that the way forward is to work within the human rights system.

These objectives are addressed from the perspective of European law with focus on the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Human Trafficking and Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The relevant EU law is also considered.

Olena Bokareva

Multimodal Transportation under the Rotterdam Rules:
Legal Implications for European Carriage of Goods and the Quest for Uniformity

Datum för disputation: fredagen den 17 april 2015
Fakultetsopponent: professor emeritus Marc Huybrechts, Antwerpens universitet, Belgien
Ämne: civilrätt

Abstract

A constantly growing intercontinental trade and modernization of transport infrastructure transformed the traditional patterns of carriage of goods globally. The majority of manufactured goods nowadays are transported in by sea in containers; however, transportation by land precedes and follows the sea carriage. These developments have created the preconditions for the development of multimodal transportation, which implies door-to-door delivery of goods by different modes of transport under a single contract.

The existing transport conventions deal with one specific mode of transport, such as sea, road, rail, air and inland waterways, while an international mandatory convention related to multimodal transportation is lacking. The previous attempts to create an international legal instrument to govern this type of carriage have not been successful. In respond to that a new transport convention was adopted in 2008 - “United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea” (The Rotterdam Rules). This Convention has introduced the new concept of “maritime plus”, and thus will govern the whole of a contract of carriage, which comprises an international sea leg, including those segments that are to be performed by other transport modes. The controversies surrounding the “maritime plus” regime of the Rotterdam Rules have provided the impetus for the EU to instigate discussions on whether it needs to adopt its own legislation concerning multimodal transport and not just wait for an international solution.

The principal purpose of this thesis is to examine and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the “maritime plus” regime under the Rotterdam Rules. The analysis will include a critical review of existing international conventions and their provisions pertaining to multimodal transportation and the “maritime plus” regime of the Rotterdam Rules. A key issue in this thesis is uniformity and harmonization in transport law which will be complemented by examining the regional harmonization in the context of EU law-making and jurisprudence in the field of international transport. The author will also critically examine how the Rotterdam Rules as a Convention can contribute to universal uniformity on carriage of goods, in light of the carriage being “maritime plus” instead of multimodal and also implications for the European carriage of goods.

Linnea Wegerstad

Skyddsvärda intressen & straffvärda kränkningar
Om sexualbrotten i det straffrättsliga systemet med utgångspunkt i brottet sexuellt ofredande

Datum för disputation: fredagen den 20 mars 2015
Fakultetsopponent: docent Monica Burman, Umeå universitet
Ämne: straffrätt

Abstract

I den här doktorsavhandlingen undersöker Linnea Wegerstad hur sexualbrott urskiljs från andra typer av våld och kränkningar i straffrätten. Författaren utforskar hur sedlighetsbrott blev till sexualbrott under första hälften av 1900-talet och hur ett särskilt skyddsvärt intresse då skapades: den sexuella integriteten. Genom att också undersöka lagstiftningsreformer från brottsbalkens tillkomst år 1965 till 2013 års sexualbrottsreform synliggör avhandlingen motstridigheter kring vad som bör rymmas i den sexuella integriteten. Vidare utforskar författaren hur sexualbrotten skapas genom att ta utgångspunkt i brottet sexuellt ofredande. En analys av domstolsavgöranden rörande sexuellt ofredande visar att en handlings sexuella karaktär ofta är något som är underförstått i straffrätten. Men när frågan ställs på sin spets är det gärningspersonens motiv och avsikt som blir avgörande för om en handling är ett sexuellt ofredande.

In English

What is considered a sexual offense and what constitutes the sexual integrity protected by Swedish criminal law? Through a comprehensive historical, theoretical and doctrinal analysis, this thesis considers the question of how distinctions between sexual and other forms of violence, abuse or harassment are made in criminal law.

Firstly, the thesis explores the emergence of sexual offenses in the period when modern criminal law was formed. In parallel with the law’s own narrative of the history of sexual offenses the thesis shows that a different story can be discerned whereby sexual offenses are created through erotic sexuality. This means that sexuality is formulated as something positive and in itself worthy of protection. It also reveals contradictions in the understanding of sexual offenses when sexual offenses are described both in terms of gendered violence and in terms of gender neutral sexuality.

Secondly, Niklas Luhmann's theory of law as an autopoietic system is used to show how sexual offenses are created anew – reproduced – through every communication of the legal system. Particular attention is given to the crime of sexual harassment (ch. 6 sec. 10 Penal Code). The reason is that this is a crime in which a specific requirement has been articulated by courts, namely that the act has a sexual nature. By showing that meaning is given to this requirement at the moment it refers to the system’s environment, the tautology of the legal system is unveiled: this is sexual harassment because (the court says) it is sexual harassment. However, court decisions are structured by recursive references to what has been decided before in the legal system. Through this structuring sexual offenses are understood as grounded in the body, particularly the genitals, but also related to the victim’s integrity and the motive and mind of the offender. It is concluded that the outer limit of sexual offenses and the sexual integrity it aims to protect become dependent upon the perpetrator’s sexual interest in performing the act.

Johan Adestam

Den dokumentvillkorade garantin

Datum för disputation: fredagen den 23 januari 2015
Fakultetsopponent: justitieråd, ledamot av Högsta domstolen, docent Stefan Lindskog, Stockholms universitet, Sverige

Ämne: civilrätt

Abstract

Den dokumentvillkorade garantin, som i praktiken vanligen betecknas som självständig, kännetecknas av att villkoren i utfästelsen väsentligen endast innefattar villkor som refererar till att vissa angivna dokument presenteras för garanten. Dokumentvillkorade garantier förekommer vanligtvis i avtalsstrukturer som involverar ett flertal olika avtal och parter. De typer av avtal som omfattas av sådana avtalsstrukturer ger upphov till speciella rättsliga frågor. Avhandlingen belyser ett antal sådana frågor ur ett svenskt perspektiv, genom att beskriva rättsnormers utformning och tillämpning på olika typer av fall. Särskild vikt läggs vid att upprätthålla ett språkbruk som möjliggör att detta sker på ett motsägelsefritt och rättvisande sätt.

En fråga av grundläggande betydelse är hur garantier kan klassificeras på ett sätt som bidrar till att besvara nyss nämnda typ av frågor. En sådan klassifikation, baserad på garantiers innehåll, klargör vad som skiljer den dokumentvillkorade garantin från andra typer av garantier. När det gäller den rättsliga relationen mellan parterna till ett avtal i vilket det föreskrivs att den ena parten, gäldenären, ska låta ombesörja att det ställs ut en garanti till motparten, berörs i synnerhet frågan under vilka omständigheter motparten är fri att begära fullgörelse av garantin och frågan under vilka omständigheter det uppkommer en återkravsrätt för gäldenären gentemot motparten (beneficienten). I fråga om den rättsliga relationen mellan garanten och beneficienten behandlas särskilt frågorna hur man genom tolkning avgör om en garanti är dokumentvillkorad eller inte, hur dokumentvillkoren i en dokumentvillkorad garanti ska tolkas och i vilken mån det finns speciella rättsnormer tillämpliga på dokumentvillkorade garantier. Ytterligare en fråga rör tillämpningen av den tvingande regeln om rättsmissbruk, enligt vilken beneficienten saknar rätt till fullgörelse av garanten om det föreligger rättsmissbruk. Såvitt avser den rättsliga relationen mellan uppdragsgivare och uppdragstagare i uppdrag som relaterar till utfärdandet av en dokumentvillkorad garanti berörs i synnerhet frågan under vilka omständigheter en uppdragstagare har regressrätt gentemot sin uppdragsgivare. En fråga av allmän betydelse är vad som i olika avseenden krävs för att intresset av att uppdragstagare till sådana uppdrag inte ska ha incitament att undersöka svårbedömda omständigheter ska tillgodoses.

In English

Documentary guarantees, in practice usually described as independent guarantees, are characterized by the fact that they essentially contain only conditions referring to whether or not certain specified documents are presented to the guarantor. A documentary guarantee is usually only one part of a contractual structure involving several contracts and parties. Such contracts give rise to special legal questions. The dissertation addresses a number of such questions from a Swedish perspective, by describing the contents of legal norms and their application on different types of cases. Particular emphasis is placed on applying a language which allows this to be done in a non-contradictory and accurate manner.

A question of central importance is how guarantees can be classified in a way which facilitates answering questions of the kind mentioned above. Such a classification, based on the contents of guarantees, clarifies what distinguishes the documentary guarantee from other types of guarantees. When it comes to the legal relation between the parties to a contract which obliges one party, the debtor, to arrange for the issuance of a documentary guarantee towards the other party, the questions in focus in the dissertation is in particular under what conditions the other party is free to demand payment under the guarantee and under what conditions the debtor has a right to repayment from the other party. In respect of the legal relation between the guarantor and the beneficiary, the main questions considered in the dissertation are how it is determined whether or not a guarantee is to be interpreted as a documentary guarantee, how documentary conditions in documentary guarantees are interpreted, and to what extent there are special legal norms applicable to documentary guarantees. A further question concerns the application of the mandatory rule providing that the beneficiary does not have a right to performance from the guarantor if the beneficiary’s demand is fraudulent. When it comes to the legal relationship between the parties to a mandate relating to the issuance of a documentary guarantee, the conditions under which the service provider has a right to indemnification is of particular importance. A question of general importance is, further, how legal norms can be designed in order not to give service providers in mandates relating to documentary guarantees incentives to investigate circumstances which are difficult to assess.