Relations Between Europe and Latin America: In Search of New Agendas and Formats

The countries of Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, seen traditionally as ‘natural partners’ and linked by a ‘strategic partnership’, have developed a new network of contacts and exchanges in tandem with the EU’s new role as a global player. But these relations between Latin America/Caribbean and the EU seem to have entered into a phase of stagnation

Critical Labour law: then and now

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Techniques implemented to meet the demands of custom modernisation and trade facilitation in South Africa.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.South Africa has been an actively participating member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) since 1 January 1995 as well as that of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) since 13 June 1948, and an official member of the World Customs Organization (WCO) since 24 March 1964. By signing these conventions, South Africa indicated its intention to take the necessary steps to abide by the terms of the conventions. In the same sense, South Africa committed to refrain from acts that would defeat the objectives and purpose of the conventions, given that these conventions have a binding effect on signatories. The South African Revenue Services, Customs and Excise department is administered and regulated in terms of the Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964. The extensive evolution of technology over the past 50 years rendered the statute obsolete and inept, thus beckoning the basis of its amendment in forming new legislation. The revised legislation would align with international best practice; as customs authorities globally had since modernised systems, including legislation, in line with the advancing technology. The anticipated new Customs Control Act 31 of 2014 adheres to the demands of the conventions also being propelled by the advancing technology, which ensures additional benefits to support the South African National Development Plan (NDP) in the promotion of exports, business competitiveness and the stimulation of domestic activity. However, this legislation alongside the Customs Duty Act 30 of 2014 and the Customs and Excise Amendment Act 32 of 2014, issued in the Government Gazette in July 2014, will be enforced on a date to be decided on by the President. This dissertation aimed to recognise comparative attributes of countries that have implemented best customs practices and their possible relationships with practices explored in South Africa. The focus of this research is given to the customs administration situation of the Republic, within the greater context of transport management. Techniques linked to South Africa customs legislation, together with those implemented by the country considered as having the „best practices‟ as defined by international organisations are explored

A systems theoretical and reflexive law framework for the regulation of religious family life

What is the best institutional relationship between law and religion in family life? This question arises in response to a double-bind: some individuals within religious groups experience discrimination in their communities. However, in seeking civil remedies these individuals may be forced to abandon parts of their religious identities: they struggle to express themselves as both religious individuals and bearers of human rights because the systems that mediate their experience of the world make absolutist demands upon them. This Thesis makes three central contributions based on reflexive law: First, it identifies reliance on direct, command and control interventions in religious and family life as a common thread across existing models. Despite different conceptual positions on the relationship between law and religion, these interventions have tended to rely on and assume direct forms of State regulation. Second, it argues that systems are resistant to these direct, external interventions, leading to a trilemma: ineffectiveness, unresponsiveness or incoherence. This Thesis uses the trilemma as an analytical lens to deconstruct the examples of mahr agreements and religious divorce across four example jurisdictions: UK, Canada, India and Israel. This analysis establishes two criteria to structure decisions about the circumstances and manner of State interventions in family life: first, interventions should preserve functional differentiation and communicative freedoms. Second, interventions ought to be justified according to the normative criteria of relational autonomy, substantive equality and care. These criteria – reflexive and normative - are interwoven: reflexivity is underpinned by values and in turn these values are necessary for this vision of a functionally differentiated society. Third, this Thesis proposes a reflexive model for devising particularised, indirect interventions intended to alter these systems and modify power structures. This Thesis defends an arrangement that promotes bounded self-regulation of religious family life through a decentralised, collaborative and democratically experimental model

Learning to work and think for life

Master's Project (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2019This paper explores literature related to the use of restorative discipline and restorative practices in school communities. It draws heavily on the ideas presented in Ron and Roxanne Claassens’ book, Discipline that Restores, in order to illustrate why students, staff, administrators, families and the community connected to a traditional public high school, such as West Valley High School, in Fairbanks, Alaska, would benefit from shifting to a restorative approach to discipline. The paper also examines numerous sources to demonstrate why embedding lessons related to social justice and restorative practices into content areas is logical and beneficial and attainable and that both these embedded courses and this approach to discipline support and foster content related to a Career Technical Education pathway focused on Education, Public & Human Services

Keeping promises in federal systems: the legal status of intergovernmental agreements with special reference to Belgium and Canada

Intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) represent one of the most formal and commonly used instruments for managing intergovernmental relations within federal systems. Through an analysis of the Belgian and Canadian cases, this thesis was designed to test the following hypothesis: while IGAs apparently play similar functions in different federal regimes, the public law systems of different federations treat these negotiated instruments in a radically distinct fashion. While the first branch of the hypothesis is largely confirmed, the second branch requires more by way of nuance. In both federations, IGAs are indeed used to articulate the exercise of exclusive but interconnected competences, to allocate responsibilities, share resources or channel funds from one order of government to another. They are used to create joint organs and outline processes for information-sharing, consultation and dispute resolution. But IGAs also perform less overt functions. They help redesign federal structures on the margins of constitutional norms. They are used to circumvent the formal distribution of powers and to introduce asymmetrical arrangements. They act as substitutes for constitutional reform or serve to by-pass constitutional amendment procedures. They can have a strong symbolic value as a matter of federal realpolitik. The divergence in the legal character of IGAs was assessed in the face of this convergence of functions. The issue of legal status is tackled from three distinct angles. First, intergovernmental agreements are examined as contractual instruments between federal partners. From this perspective, the differences are more a matter of contrary presumptions than of radically different legal status. Indicia for locating IGAs on either side of the threshold of juridicity, taking these presumptions into consideration, as well as limitations germane to the respective public law systems, are identified. Differences in legal status are more notable when IGAs are considered as normative instruments, that is as mechanisms for affecting the rights and obligations of third parties. In Canada, very few of the dozens of IGAs concluded each year are formally given the force of law through the proper technique of statutory incorporation. In Belgium, by contrast, cooperation agreements are mainly conceived as a novel – if ill defined – type of negotiated norm of public law. Legislative assent is frequently granted, which confers on Belgian IGAs legal force erga omnes in the legal orders of every party to them. Finally, the main difference between the two systems may lie in the place which IGAs occupy in the hierarchy of norms. In Canada, federal partners may legislate in contradiction with an IGA. While the issue remains unresolved in Belgium, doctrinal arguments have been advanced to seek to protect cooperation agreements from unilateral repudiation. These differences concerning the hierarchy of norms reflect a distinct way of resolving the tension that exists between democratic freedom – including the power of assemblies to change their mind – and the stability of intergovernmental relations within a federal regime

Will tax havens survive in the new international legal environment

The main question raised in this thesis is whether tax havens and Offshore Financial Centre’s (OFCs) will survive in the new international legal environment. The conclusion supports the contention that tax havens will survive, although with a reduced volume of business. The main reasons for this conclusion are that tax havens do provide many legitimate uses for their banking and financial services that are used by foreign governments as well as individuals and Multi-National Enterprises (MNEs). The thesis then examines four subsidiary research questions that have a direct bearing on the survival of tax havens. The first question asks whether the international income of Australian residents should be taxed on a ‘worldwide’ or ‘territorial’ basis. The simple basis for this question was that if it was so difficult for the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to detect Australian resident taxpayers that were using tax havens then why spend millions of dollars trying to achieve an almost impossible task. The research indicated that a territorial system of taxation was inherently inequitable. Therefore, the conclusion contended that the current Australian system was good in that it was equitable and yet exempted active foreign business income from further tax in Australia. The second subsidiary research question asked whether the OECD’s ‘harmful tax competition project’ was now part of the current international taxation law. In this context the issue was that if it is ‘soft’ international law is that one of the main reasons why many tax havens and OFCs were complying with the guidelines on transparency and exchange of information. This issue is important because many tax havens may not be able to convince their own Parliament to amend their bank secrecy laws. If the bank secrecy laws are not amended to allow for the exchange of information on non-resident taxpayers then tax havens and OFCs will continue to operate unfettered. The third subsidiary research question concerned the reason why the Australian government has deliberately blurred the distinction between tax avoidance and tax evasion; the former being a legal activity and the later being unlawful. The conclusion was that one of the main reasons for the blurring of the distinction was to overcome any concerns on the part of tax havens and OFCs that all banking activities by Australian taxpayers constituted criminal conduct. This issue has implications for the future of tax havens and taxpayers wishing to use foreign banking services. The fourth subsidiary research question focuses on the rights of taxpayers that use tax havens and OFCs to hold their wealth when these nations are now entering into information exchange agreements (TIEAs). It became clear from the research that taxpayers are able to protect the confidentiality and privacy of their financial details only if they are able to show that the information is protected by legal professional privilege. The future of tax havens and OFCs is arguably dependent upon them being able to protect the confidentiality of non-resident taxpayers through their bank secrecy laws. This impacts on the survival of tax havens

Economic crisis and the relevance of matriliny and chiefship among the Asante of Pranum District, Ghana

This thesis explores the continued relevance of matriliny among the present-day Asante of Pranum District in Ghana. At the core of this investigation is Domeabra-Owerriman Traditional Area which is in a state of crisis caused by the decline in cocoa production and the superimposition, by government edict, of the World Bank's 'Structural Adjustment Programme'. An examination of household economic strategy in Domeabra-Owerriman reveals that, as in the traditional past, in the face of ecological and economic catastrophes Asante continue to invoke matrilineal notions. These days such notions are especially pertinent in respect of the organisation of overseas migration. The thesis reviews the organisation of the traditional chiefship institution, and examines its continued relevance to Asante. Engaging with the anthropological literature on matriliny, it argues that, in the present-day world, chiefship crucially supplies legitimacy and value to matriliny, and thus underpins it as an important institution for the articulation of Asante affairs. As a citizen of Domeabra-Owerriman myself, an overseas migrant in both Norway and Britain, and a recent contestant for a local chieftaincy, my own vivid impression and experiences supply much by way of the ethnography reported in this thesis