The form of a ship has changed significantly in recent decades, both structurally and technically. Despite this, one element remains constant: the crew. They have always been on board, responsible for the ship’s operation, maintenance, navigation, and safety. Recent advances in shipbuilding and automation have made unmanned vessel operation feasible. Given their economic benefits and potential for improved navigational safety over human-controlled ships, these partially or fully autonomous vessels are likely to see widespread use soon. Despite their benefits, autonomous ships also pose risks. A major challenge is the potential legal issues tied to their use, as current maritime law was designed for crew-controlled ships. The compatibility of current laws with autonomous ships remains unanswered. To address industry concerns, potential issues should be analyzed from various aspects of shipping. The purpose of this paper is to analyse autonomous ships, focusing on the carriage of goods by sea. It examines how the concept of charterparty applies to this new generation of ships; how the obligations and rights of shipowners and charterers under contracts of carriage affect by autonomous operations; and to what extent the current contractual framework, especially charter forms, must change to accommodate the carriage of goods by such vessels.

Thomas More was the first to question the application of the death penalty to a particular offence. Theft had long been classified as a capital crime in the penal codes and practices of Britain and elsewhere. In More’s Utopia, a range of arguments is marshalled against the execution of thieves, echoed by later progressive thinkers. More’s critique brings to bear a whole armoury of arguments, including proportionality, deterrence, the public good, the law of God, and the causal relationship between poverty and petty crime. His argumentation was picked up by radical thinkers in Britain in the seventeenth century and gave impetus to a movement to formulate and promote alternative punishments for trivial offences. The principal candidates were hard labour and exile, the latter involving, in Britain, transportation to America and later Australia. Transportation had obvious disadvantages, and in any case it began to be asked, ‘How can the criminal be made maximally economically useful to the mother country?’ The contribution of Sir William Petty in the first decade of the Restoration (1760s) was crucial in this, and the idea finally finds articulation in the philosophy of Jeremy Bentham.

Chapter 3 provides an extensive case study of Granada Television, considering the major contribution made by Granada, one of the original Big Four ITV companies, to television drama in general, and regional television drama in particular, from 1956-82. The chapter discusses in detail the vast output of this important and influential regional ITV company during its first 25 years, before changes in the broadcasting culture gradually eroded its regional identity. Included among the many dramas discussed in this chapter are single plays, including adaptations of the Manchester Plays, anthology series such as The Younger Generation, The Villains and City 68, plays and series by Northern writers such as John Finch and Jack Rosenthal, and popular series such as Coronation Street and A Family at War.

In the context of the complexities of the Cuban publishing infrastructure of 2008–11, this chapter presents the story of one possibly typical work of fiction, tracing its passage from conception to reception, and revealing, in the process, the many complexities, pressures and negotiations that all actors in Cuba's literary culture constantly have to confront. It shows the earlier analysis of the institutional context and the decision-making processes for Cuban writers and readers, highlighting especially the complex set of pressures that shape the normal operations of contemporary Cuban publishing and create Cuba's unusual literary culture.

This chapter assesses how far fascist ideas entered the policing profession. A major locus for public representation of the Interior Ministry Police during the fascist period was Police Day, a national celebration introduced in 1928 and held annually on 18 October. During the period of conception of Benito Mussolini's police state, opposed factions within fascism disputed whether primacy in the creation of the new civilisation should be awarded to the state or the Party. The expectation that policemen should serve the fascist state over and above all other allegiances was written into their induction formula. The chapter analyses procedures for recruitment and training of police personnel. Limited modifications to recruitment and training procedures in the regular police forces hardly responded to the major overhaul of state employment which fascist reformers had envisaged.

This chapter shows how developments such as Catholic emancipation, reform, and the rise of evangelicalism and liberalism forced Catholic authorities and the state to reconsider Catholicism's position within society. This reappraisal would result in a complete transformation of the church's existing infrastructure and change the way in which it absorbed the influence of ultramontanism. The 1830s, 1840s and early 1850s witnessed an explosion in religious voluntarism. Events such as the Disruption, which was when the evangelical Free Church split away from the established Church of Scotland in May 1843, and the Irish Famine encouraged competition between dissenting groups and denominations. Across Europe and North America, women religious successfully navigated the patriarchal terrain to achieve a level of autonomy that was unavailable to most women, let alone Catholic ones.

Floating Nuclear Power Plants (FNPPs) pose novel questions under existing international maritime and nuclear law regimes, as the international community has yet to agree on fundamental issues, such as what constitutes an FNPP. Whether categorized as a facility, a vessel, or a combination of both, such classification has a significant impact on nuclear security, nuclear nonproliferation, and the law of the sea. Their appeal for deployment in remote areas and support activities, such as offshore oil extraction, raises serious questions about the application of international ocean laws and nuclear nonproliferation norms. Utilizing floating nuclear power plants in areas such as the Exclusive Economic Zone and beyond presents challenges to adhering to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and nuclear laws, including the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials and its Amendments. What rights does the coastal state have, and what rights does the possible flag state of the FNPP possess if it is categorized as a vessel? Additionally, how would they respond in the event of a nuclear security incident? These questions underscore the connection between maritime and nuclear law and the uncertainty surrounding maritime accidents.

This chapter contextualises the work-based identity insecurity experienced by middle-class professionals in the public sector among the general identity-making problems of postmodernity and other cultural determinants of the group. The problem of achieving a secure identity from among the instabilities of modern life has exercised many contemporary theorists. It is pertinent to question one's capacity for deliberate action when modern life is characterised by an accelerated pace and the ever-changing conditions brought about by the short-termism and quick turnover demands of the new economy. Managing negative emotions requires the development of different strengths of character whose acquisition involves much longer and harder work. In classical psychological theory, an act of narration is required at this point as the means to clarify identity and maintain good mental health.

This chapter describes the status and 'respectability' associated with women's work in the police service. It explores a range of popular cultural representations in the media and film to demonstrate that senior policewomen played significant role in the refashioning of an image for women officers that accorded with notions of an attractive, efficient and modern 'femininity'. Representations of women police as severe, masculine and authoritarian were vividly displayed in music hall in the film Looking on the Bright Side, a vehicle for the singing talent of the new Lancashire star, Gracie Fields. The chapter examines the 'type' of woman who was considered to be 'suitable' for policing by evaluating statistical evidence relating to recruitment as well as the recollections of those women who were involved in the process. It focuses on personal testimony in order to discuss women's perceptions of themselves and the culture within which they were operating.

The ambiguities and contradictions in post-war notions of femininity afforded women a surprising degree of flexibility in the expression of alternative gender and sexual identities. An emerging lesbian consumer culture, in the context of wider social changes in accepted women's behaviour, played an important role in defining new models of lesbian identity based on butch/femme roles. The picture of lesbianism and medico-scientific research, which emerges from lesbian accounts, points to a complex interplay between the medical profession and lesbianism generally, as well as between individual psychiatrists and lesbians. Accounts of the development of a specific lesbian subculture, emerged in the 1950s, and the educational objectives of the first lesbian magazine, under-cut the notion of the 1960s as a decisive moment of radicalisation. Representations of the bar subculture and lesbian organisations such as the Minorities Research Group and Kenric, in particular challenge the accepted narrative of pre-Gay Liberation Movement politics.

This chapter examines the ways migrants depended on the sources of finance and looks at the range of preparations they undertook after having elected to migrate. It focuses on a range of shipping sources to assess claims made in personal accounts. The presence of personal networks encompassed both family and friends, and existed across time and space. Migrants availing themselves of assisted passages were also guided in their choice of destination by friends and family abroad. The decisive role of agents, assisted passages, and the presence of family and friends abroad therefore combined with other factors to affirm and facilitate a move from home. The chapter argues that the elements operated in the process of organising migration, even though certain specifics differed according to the nationality of migrants and their chosen destination.

Drawing upon the work of the Amber Film and Photography Collective, this chapter explores the relationship between performance, representation and identity. It looks at how the landscape of the former Durham coalfields is simultaneously identified and embodied through a focus on both its representation and some of the practices that affect its representation, and presents two stories. One of these stories is called 'Embodied landscape' and shows how Amber's work gives form to the Durham landscape, influencing how it is experienced. 'Embodied landscape' introduces two of Amber's projects: the film Like Father and a photographic exhibition called Coalfield Stories. The second story is called 'Landscape embodied'. The two stories are written side by side to demonstrate the impact of Amber's collaboration with people and landscapes on its work and how its practices simultaneously identify (itself and) the former coalfields.

This chapter discusses Angela MacNamara's promotion of purity, chastity and marriage in her works which were aimed at teenage readers for the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland (CTSI). McNamara's work in the 1960s represents an innovative development within the Catholic sexual discourse.

The digital realm has become a crucial space for foreign women in China to express emotions, explore entrepreneurial ventures, and seek community and support. This chapter discusses the main themes and evolving conversations within several WeChat groups created by post-Soviet wives living in China. The chapter centres on how these women navigate both digital and physical environments while managing racialised and gendered expectations around family life and social interactions under China’s patriarchal immigration policies. I explore how personal experiences and emotions shared in one-on-one conversations echo the collective subjectivities and shared sentiments fostered within these online communities. Additionally, I consider how these online interactions reflect broader geopolitical dynamics, including national borders, racial hierarchies, citizenship laws and broader structures of feeling. These affective, networked, publics form a loosely connected web that offers the women a sense of belonging and solidarity amid the constraints of their lived circumstances.