The separation between public and private spheres has structured much of our thinking about human organizations. This collection of essays explores how the public-private divide influences, challenges, and interacts with law and law reform.

Markets are taken as the norm in economics and in much of political and media discourse. But if markets are superior why does the public sector remain so large? Avner Offer provides a distinctive new account of the effective temporal limits on private, public, and social activity. Understanding the Private–Public Divide accounts for the division of labour between business and the public sector, how it changes over time, where the boundaries ought to run, and the harm that follows if they are violated. He explains how finance forces markets to focus on short-term objectives and why business requires special privileges in return for long-term commitment. He shows how a private sector policy bias leads to inequality, insecurity, and corruption. Integrity used to be the norm and it can be achieved again. Only governments can manage uncertainty in the long-term interests of society, as shown by the challenge of climate change.

A comparative study covering all continents, this book explores the role of health rights in advancing greater equality through access to health care.

This book analyses one of the most pressing issues of modern international law : the relationship between the international legal order and the domestic legal orders of sovereign states. It contains different perspectives on the legal complexity that results from the interactions between the international and domestic spheres.

This book analyses the way in which international human rights law (IHRL) and international investment law (IIL) are deployed – or fail to be deployed – in conflict countries within the context of natural resources extraction. It specifically analyses the way in which IIL protections impact on the parallel protection of economic, social and cultural rights (ESC rights) in the host state, especially the right to water. Arguing that current responses have been unsatisfactory, it considers the emergence of the 'Protect, Respect and Remedy' framework and the Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (jointly the Framework) as a possible analytical instrument. In so doing, it proposes a different approach to the way in which the Framework is generally interpreted, and then investigates the possible applicability of this 'recalibrated' Framework to the study of the IHRL-IIL interplay in a host country in a protracted armed conflict: Afghanistan. Through the emblematic example of Afghanistan, the book presents a practical dimension to its legal analysis. It uniquely portrays the elusive intersection between these two bodies of international law within a host country where the armed conflict continues to rage and a full economic restructuring is taking place away from the public eye, not least through the deployment of IIL and the inaction – or merely partial consideration – of IHRL. The book will be of interest to academics, policy-makers, and practitioners of international organisations involved in IHRL, IIL and/or deployed in contexts of armed conflict.

A COMPANION TO HEALTH AND MEDICAL GEOGRAPHY A Companion to Health and Medical Geography provides an essential starting point for anyone interested in studying the role of geography and of geographers, both past and present, in promoting an understanding of issues relating to health and illness. Whilst thoroughly mapping out the territory covered by the sub-discipline and examining changes in focus and terminology, this book offers a discussion of the major themes from differing methodological and theoretical perspectives. Questions of class, ethnicity, gender, age, and sexuality are covered throughout the text and case studies within chapters draw upon scholarship from around the globe in order to illuminate key points. Organized to promote dialogue and encourage health and medical geographers to rethink sub-disciplinary boundaries, this Companion provides a unique account of the history of the field and its future potential and possibilities.

This yearbook contains articles from an international team of contributors. Each section of essays covers a topical subject, focusing mainly on environmental law, and the year-in-review section offers a round-up of world-wide legal developments.

This text is a study of the public/private law divide in the common law tradition. Its starting point is that substantive duties of legality, fairness and rationality are imposed by the common law on bodies discharging public functions, but not always on bodies discharging 'private' functions.

Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, is known for its bustling street life. Public spaces, such as streets and sidewalks, are appropriated by citizens mostly for small-scale economic activities. Green parks are privatized in order to cater to the growing demand for leisure space. At the same time, official spaces like Ba Dinh Square or Ly Thai To Square are occupied by Hanoi's residents for sports and gatherings. This dissertation takes a close look at the practices and the meaning of public spaces and the development of public spheres in Hanoi. Dissertation. (Series: Southeast Asian Modernities - Vol. 13)

In The Network Society, Darin Barney provides a compelling examination of the social, political and economic implications of network technologies and their application across a wide range of practices and institutions. Are we in the midst of a digital revolution? Have new information and communication technologies given birth to a new form of society, or do they reinforce and extend existing patterns and relationships? This book provides a clear and engaging discussion of these and other questions. Using a sophisticated model of the relationship between technology and society, Barney investigates both what has changed, and what has remained the same, in the age of the Internet. Among the issues discussed are debates concerning the emergence of a 'knowledge economy'; digital restructuring of employment and work; globalization and the status of the nation-state; the prospects of digital democracy; the digital divide; new social movements; and culture, community and identity in the age of new media. This book provides an accessible resource for a thoughtful engagement with life in the network society. It will be essential reading for students in sociology and media and communication studies. This will be a valuable textbook for undergraduate students of sociology and media and communication studies.