Maia and Mandos: Tools for Integrity Protection on Arbitrary Files

We present the results of our dissertation research, which focuses on practical means of protecting system data integrity. In particular, we present Maia, a language for describing integrity constraints on arbitrary file types, and Mandos, a Linux Security Module which uses verify-on-close to enforce mandatory integrity guarantees. We also provide details of a Maia-based verifier generator, demonstrate that Maia and Mandos introduce minimal delay in performing their tasks, and include a selection of sample Maia specifications

Do We Value Our Cars More Than Our Kids? The Conundrum of Care for Children

Formal child care workers in the United States earn about $21,110 per year. Parking lot attendants, in contrast, make$21,250. These relative wages are telling: the market values the people who look after our cars more than the people who look after our kids. This article delves below the surface of these numbers to explore the systemic disadvantages of those who care for children—and children themselves. The article first illuminates the precarious economic position of U.S. children, a disproportionate number of whom live in poverty. The article then shows both that substantial care for children is provided on an unpaid basis in households, predominantly by women, and that care for children is undervalued when provided through the market. After presenting three distinct perspectives on market payments for care for children—(1) a public goods analysis, (2) a patriarchy analysis, and (3) a gift analysis— the article proposes a set of income tax breaks for jobs involving care for children

Personhood, Property, and Public Education: The Case of Plyler v. Doe

Property law is having a moment, one that is getting education scholars’ attention. Progressive scholars are retooling the concepts of ownership and entitlement to incorporate norms of equality and inclusion. Some argue that property law can even secure access to public education despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s longstanding refusal to recog- nize a right to basic schooling. Others worry that property doctrine is inherently exclusionary. In their view, property-based concepts like resi- dency have produced opportunity hoarding in schools that serve affluent, predominantly white neighborhoods. Many advocates therefore believe that equity will be achieved only by moving beyond property-based claims, for instance, by recognizing education as a public good or human right. The Court has upheld a constitutional right of access to public schools on just one occasion. In Plyler v. Doe, the Justices found that Texas could not bar undocumented students from schools or charge them tuition. The Court did not declare education a fundamental right or alienage a suspect classification. Instead, the opinion relied on several rationales, some property-based and some not. Residency, for instance, featured prominently in the case, but so did a trope of childhood innocence. Recently, there have been calls to revisit Plyler, making this an opportune moment to evaluate how its reasoning will fare. Despite growing interest in property-based entitlements as a strategy for inclusion, Plyler’s fate will likely turn on considerations that transcend property: the blamelessness of children, the cruelty of relegating them to a lifetime of illiteracy, and the implications that such deliberate indifference has for our democratic integrity

'Show me the money’ : a discussion of the cryptocurrency market and its potential regulation in South Africa.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.The developments of the internet and electronic communication, have created a platform that enables the trade of goods and service through the internet. This connects consumers and businesses to facilitate safe and efficient transactions. Unremitting electronic advances have also brought to light the inadequacies of the current trading system, which struggles to keep abreast with these new developments. Cryptocurrency is one such new technology creating challenges for trade and legal systems regarding confidentiality, security, legal certainty and predictability. The virtual, decentralized nature of this technology and the absence of a specific legal monitoring entity makes the application of traditional legal frameworks untenable and the enforcement of any new legal framework tenuous. For these reasons, the current regulatory status of decentralized cryptocurrencies, or digital currencies, is perplexing. The cryptocurrency platform offers a solution to developing trade issues as cryptocurrencies transcend borders and are international by design. The anonymity of cryptocurrency systems have the ability to surpass current restrictions and allow for virtually instantaneous cross border transactions thereby making it more attractive than traditional monetary systems. This offers some advantages and disadvantages as this system is not without challenges such as its potential use for criminal activities. As such, there are countries that are well ahead in regulating cryptocurrencies and have legislative and institutional frameworks in place. However, a uniform approach to the regulation of these so-called virtual currencies (which differ from the traditional monetary systems) is needed as these differing approaches by governments in their attempts to nationalise regulation, is of great concern. In particular, South Africa has a well-developed money-lending environment, institutions and legislation and it has plans to develop its current institutional and legal framework to accommodate these advances. This thesis examines the legal nature of cryptocurrency in the international electronic commerce economy and treatment by national governments. This thesis will endeavour to discover whether international harmonisation of initiatives by the major international regulatory organisation can develop a universal guideline to harness the potential of this new technology

Exploring the link between law and the fair trade movement: how can law be opened to reflect values from a social movement to benifit the world's poor?

PhDThe fair trade movement has been established to create a mutual equality among people in a global pane to offset a gap of inequality and poverty exacerbated by the effect of globalization. One of the main principles of fair trade is based on the value of fairness and social solidarity to create a tie between business corporations and impoverished producers. While the livelihoods of small-scale producers depend on trading interactions with the business world, the main concern is that the nature of corporations in their profit-seeking behavior might result in abuses of resources, labor malpractices, and environment degradation in developing countries. In order to offset the danger that global business poses on the poor, the relationship between law and the fair trade movement has raised my interest in conducting this thesis so as to consider the extent that legal approaches can be argued to embrace legitimacy from emerging social norms. Legal imperatives from CSR and soft regulation will be explored to propose the weight of fair trade in shaping corporate practices to take ethical and moral commitment towards sustainability of human development. The uniqueness of the fair trade movement is to be explored in the light of legal theories concerning community and solidarity. Philosophical ideas of scholars like Selznick and Cotterrell argue for ‘bottom-up’ legitimacy grounded in community power that seeks for a responsive role of bureaucracy towards new demands in an ever-changing society. Their legal arguments have been greatly influential in a modern legal analysis on emerging concepts of regulation. The thesis is set out to propose that the fair trade movement possesses a distinctive set of social forces capable of influencing regulatory strategies and policies to render fairness and justice to the poor

Clark Memorandum: Fall 1990

Clark Memorandum: Fall 1990 Acquired by Character, Not by Money Fundamentals and Initiatives Christ and the Code Truth: a Shield to Memoryhttps://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/clarkmemo_gallery/1020/thumbnail.jp

Clark Memorandum: Fall 1990

Acquired by Character, Not by Money (Kenneth W. Starr) Fundamentals and Initiatives (Elder Russell M. Nelson) Christ and the Code (Joseph G. Allegretti) Truth: a Shield to Memory (Elder Marion D. Hanks)https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/clarkmemorandum/1007/thumbnail.jp

United States civil-military relations: Finding equilibrium in the changing national security environment

There has been an ongoing debate for several years on the crisis that has developed in American civil-military relations. The U.S. military has been criticized for inappropriate behavior and insubordination to civilian control. Some scholars believe that the American military has become an independent bureaucracy, more concerned with its own interests as opposed to national security; While there is evidence of problems demanding attention, these issues are more symptomatic of the traditional ebb and flow of American civil-military relations. Although there is no crisis , the American military\u27s attempts to dictate when and where it will intervene with force (i.e. the Powell Doctrine) is very disturbing in light of the changing national security environment. Civilian leaders need to ensure they increase their understanding of the military and the role it plays in national security to help alleviate this potential problem