Implementing The National Water Initiative - A Generic Set Of Arrangements For Managing Interests In Water

Water resources law has been continuously reformed over recent years in Australia to achieve the sustainable use and development of water resources. This is an ongoing activity. The most recent statement of policy has been the Intergovernmental Agreement on a National Water Initiative of 2004. This seeks a nationally – compatible, market, regulatory and planning based system of managing surface and ground water resources for rural and urban use that optimises economic, social and environmental outcomes. To make such a system effective requires a fundamental change in legal doctrine. This publication suggests a set of arrangements for managing interests in water directed at the implementation of this policy

The influence of a collaborative procurement approach using integrated design in construction on project team performance

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to study the influence of procurement on the performance of integrated design teams. Design/methodology/approach – The research paradigm is based on Russian socio-constructivist approach to activity theory. Activity theory, as opposed to natural or social science, is a design science approach that focuses on the context aspect of project. A triangulation of qualitative research methods is used to investigate the dynamic of integrated teams in two different procurement contexts. Findings – The paper is conclusive regarding the influence of procurement on team efficiency. It demonstrates that traditional procurement processes reinforce socio-cognitive barriers that hinder team efficiency. It also illustrates how new procurement modes can transform the dynamic of relationships between the client and the members of the supply chain, and have a positive impact on teamperformance. Practical implications – The paper demonstrates first that problems with integrated design team efficiency are related to context and not process – they are not technical but socio-cognitive; second that fragmented transactional contracting increases socio-cognitive barriers that hinder integrated design team performance; third that new forms of relational contracting may help to mitigate socio-cognitive barriers and improve integrated design team performance, fourth that changing the context through procurement does not address the problem of obsolete design practices. Originality/value – The paper brings together theories of production in lean construction and social learning as a rival approach to traditional project management theory for demonstrating the importance of context on team performance

Managing Human Resources in Higher Education: The Implications of a Diversifying Workforce

Human resource capacity has become a critical issue for contemporary universities as a result of increasing pressures from governments and global markets. As a consequence, particularly where the institution is the employer, changes are occurring in the expectations of staff and institutions about employment terms and conditions, as well as the broader aspects of working life, and this is affecting academic and professional identities. Even under different regimes, for instance, in Europe, with the government in effect as the employer, institutions are giving greater attention to ways in which they might respond to these developments. This paper considers key issues and challenges in human resource management in higher education, and some of the implications of these changes

Can procurement affect design performance?

There is an emerging view in the construction industry that better performance or better value for money can be achieved by integrating teamwork for planning, design and construction of building projects. There are though, two opposing perspectives regarding how changes in traditional design practices should occur. Advocates of sustainable construction in North America posit that it is a matter of evolving processes, moving from a sequential to an iterative approach to design, whereas the British government supports the view that a change in how projects are procured is required to transform the context that dictates relationships among the members of the team. The objective of the research is to study the influence of procurement on the performance of integrated design teams. It analyses, through case studies representing these two perspectives, the influence of procurement on the performance of integrated teams. The research is conclusive in that it is the context created by contractual relationship, and not the process set up for conducting integrated design, that most influence team efficiency. It demonstrates that traditional procurement processes reinforce socio-cognitive barriers that hinder team efficiency. It also illustrates how new procurement modes can transform the dynamics of relationships between the client and the members of the supply chain, and have a positive impact on team performance

The Legal Framework of Employment Relations

The aim of this paper is to reassess the place of labour law in the wider area of employment relations research and to argue the case for labour law's importance to social scientists. We give an analytical account of the principal institutional features of labour law as a form of legal regulation, from an interdisciplinary perspective which takes into account both the internal workings of the labour law system and the social and economic context within which it has evolved. We analyze, in the manner of an internal or 'immanent' critique, the categories which are generally used within labour law discourse to describe the social and economic relations of employment; account for their emergence and evolution in historical terms; consider the origins of their diversity across different national systems; and look at future prospects for convergence or divergence.labour law; employment relations; legal diversity; legal convergence

Transnational Fiduciary Law: Spaces and Elements

In recent years, fiduciary law has increasingly moved to the center of scholarly attention in the common law world. Even a cursory review shows ample evidence of the importance of fiduciary-related norms; not only both in common law and civil law jurisdictions, but also beyond the nation state. Although civil law countries have no tradition of the trust as a legal institution, courts and scholars alike term relationships based on some kind of personal or professional trust “fiduciary”. Additionally, the trust as a legal institution is gaining ground in civil law countries, either following a national recognition of the Hague Trust Convention (e.g., Italy, the Netherlands) or because they have introduced trust legislation (Japan and other countries in East Asia). A number of more sector-specific rules and regulations issued by institutions and initiatives such as the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance and the UN report on “Fiduciary Duty for the 21st Century” are shaping legal norms and legislation. In other areas of the law with regulations and rules spreading beyond the nation state, scholars have been trying to spell out a concept of “transnational law”, determined to embrace the notion of “something being there” which doesn’t quite fit the bill of the traditional dichotomy of national law or international law. Given the phenomena described above, the question driving this Article is subsequently: Is there such a thing as transnational fiduciary law? Answering this question and mapping a research agenda proves to be a thorny issue, however. Not only is fiduciary law itself “elusive”. The same is true for transnational law and transnational legal theory. Methodologically, this makes thinking about transnational fiduciary law a daunting task. Grappling with all these issues, this Article aims to make a twofold contribution: First and foremost, it tries to lay a ground stone for transnational fiduciary law as a field, existing at the intersection of transnational law and fiduciary law. Second, it expands both transnational law and fiduciary law by establishing new perspectives on both fields. It explores how transnational law may evolve out of national norms. Additionally, the Article shows the possibility of crossing the common law-civil law divide in fiduciary law and demonstrates that, compared to the traditional common-law view, the fiduciary duty of loyalty may develop different kinds of distinctiveness in transnational settings. It builds on two main examples: horizontal transnational ordering of the trust in East Asia and vertical ordering of fiduciary law with respect to standards and principles concerning environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues

Territorial administration and political control. Decentralization in France

The paper is based on intensive longitudinal field research. It suggests an interpretative model of territorial governement in France. Relations between national and local authorities as well as policy-making processes suggest that the centralized state has face a major decline of its hegemony and that decentralization reforms have induced a polycentric dynamic. Seven basic characteristics and three key properties of the model are discussed. The emerging model is neither a new localism nor a new centralism pattern. It is the product of incremental and ongoing trade-offs between centrifugal and centripetal forces. This complexity reflects a situation that is under the rather conservative, as well tight, control of national politicians who hold multiple local elected mandatesintergovernemental relations; France; national state; local authorities; coordination, policy-making; political integration