In order to answer the research question, the dissertation is divided into four parts. Part I examines the ratio legis of the 1999 Montreal Convention to determine to what extent uniformity is a... Show moreIn order to answer the research question, the dissertation is divided into four parts. Part I examines the ratio legis of the 1999 Montreal Convention to determine to what extent uniformity is a principal aim of the convention that must be pursued in its application. Part II analyses the factors which already existed at the time of the signing and prevented its uniform application. Part III scrutinizes the fragmentation factors that only appeared during the lifespan of the convention. Part IV makes different suggestions to improve the uniform application of the convention and to reduce its fragmentation. The author concludes the research with a list of not less than 10 recommendations to protect the aim of uniformity of the international air carrier liability regime established by the convention. Show less
This thesis explains the dynamics and nature of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq’s (KRI) de facto statehood since its inception in 1991, in particular the vicissitudes de facto independence since then.... Show moreThis thesis explains the dynamics and nature of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq’s (KRI) de facto statehood since its inception in 1991, in particular the vicissitudes de facto independence since then. This dissertation characterises de facto statehood in Kurdistan, and uncovers the dynamics of de facto statehood in Iraqi Kurdistan at internal, national and international levels. Kurdistan’s de facto statehood (such as territorial control, monopoly on the use of violence, and engagement with the international community) is shown to be inherently characterised by fluidity. In this thesis, fluidity is defined as a highly unstable nature of de facto statehood in the relational context of non-recognition. The dissertation reports on interviews with a number of high profile politicians and policy makers from the region to provide unique insights, among others the three main factors at play in the fluidity of the de facto state of Iraqi Kurdistan: the balance of power between the regional capital of Erbil and the Iraqi national capital of Baghdad; the level and form of internal fragmentation; and the change of strategies to gain international recognition. Show less
Looking for a global and corrective measure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from international civil aviation has been facing legal obstacles. These obstacles took the form of conflicts of... Show moreLooking for a global and corrective measure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from international civil aviation has been facing legal obstacles. These obstacles took the form of conflicts of norms linked to the general challenge of the interactions between international aviation law, climate change law and the law of the European Union. Using evolutionary interpretation of the Chicago Convention in order to reconcile norms of substantive and institutional nature emerged as the best solution. However, this method perpetuates legal uncertainty and poses the general challenge of flexibly and elasticity of the Chicago Convention in response to the climate change challenge. This study examines the above mentioned issues of interactions between legal orders and provides recommendations to restore legal certainty needed to ensure sustainable development of international civil aviation. More specifically, this study reveals the underestimated relevance of the ongoing distinction between the legal regimes of air navigation and international air transport, which is a key legal element in the search for a global and corrective solution to the impact of international civil aviation on climate change. Show less
Central to this research is the Urban Future-project, which consists of a large archive of artworks made from 2002 until now. The original question underpinning this project was: what... Show moreCentral to this research is the Urban Future-project, which consists of a large archive of artworks made from 2002 until now. The original question underpinning this project was: what influence do chaos, entropy and fragmentation have on the viability of the rapidly developing urbanizing world? In the course of the research project, the (literature and field) explorations led to the assumption that there is a demonstrable and necessary link between the quality of life in the city and vital social cohesion on the one hand and chaos, entropy and fragmentation on the other. In the artistic part of the research focuses on the question: is it possible to make the supposed connection between quality of urban life and chaos, entropy and fragmentation visible in artwork and, if so, how? In the written dissertation, working methods and strategies are contextualized and analyzed. The visual part derives from an artist's position which uses non-verbal, sensorial strategies to reach new insights. It mainly focuses on the visual and aesthetic possibilities of aspects of fragmentation, chaos and entropy because Scholten considers these aspects, as productive forces, to be the core of the experience of urbanization. Show less
Several different topics related to the CHORUS experiment at CERN are presented. CHORUS has searched for neutrino oscillation between νμand ντwith mixing probability down to 2⋅10-4 and ∆ m-2 >0... Show moreSeveral different topics related to the CHORUS experiment at CERN are presented. CHORUS has searched for neutrino oscillation between νμand ντwith mixing probability down to 2⋅10-4 and ∆ m-2 >0.5 eV2. Chapter 1 discusses the discovery of neutrino oscillations by several other experiments. Chapter 2 describes the experimental setup with 770 kg of emulsion followed by electronic detectors to measure energy and momentum. The emulsion records the tracks and decays of short-lived particles with very high resolution. It is scanned with computer-controlled microscopes. New developments in microscope hardware and associated tracking software are given in chapter 4. Several algorithms are described that reconstruct tracks from about 105hits in a few seconds. These algorithms are based on multi-dimensional search trees to quickly build a connection graph. To improve the suppression of background, a honeycomb drift-tube tracker was added to CHORUS. Its read-out stores a stream of over--threshold samples in four separate memory banks. This solution is very fault tolerant. More than 2000 charm decays were reconstructed in the emulsion. For identified D0 decays, the experiment has looked for associated π+particles from D*+->D0π+decays. From the number of found events, the cross-section for D*+production in νμcharged-current interactions is determined. Show less
