The certainty of tax in insolvency: Where does the ATO fit?

There are several ways that the Commissioner of Taxation may indirectly obtain priority over unsecured creditors. This is contrary to the principle of pari passu, a principle endorsed by the 1988 Harmer Report as one that is a fundamental objective of the law of insolvency. As the law and practice of Australia's taxation regime evolves, the law is being drafted in a manner that is inconsistent with the principle of pari passu. The natural consequence of this development is that it places at risk the capacity of corporate and bankruptcy laws to coexist and cooperate with taxation laws. This article posits that undermining the consistency of Commonwealth legislative objectives is undesirable. The authors suggest that one means of addressing the inconsistency is to examine whether there is a clearly aligned theoretical basis for the development of these areas of law and the extent that alignment addresses these inconsistencies. This forms the basis for the recommendations made around such inconsistencies using statutory priorities as an exemplar

Review of The Mill on the Floss on The BBC in 1978

The 2010 London conference on The Mill on the Floss was designedly conscious of its distance in time from its subject - this distance being measurable by a round number. It was as important to keep in mind, however, the distance between the novel\u27s composition and its setting. As it happens, this was the same as that between the conference and the 1978 BBC TV adaptation of the novel on which this paper reflects. For Eliot, the temporal setting corresponded to her childhood, as it would have done for some of her readers, and as will also be true of 1978 for some readers of this article. For others 1978 corresponds to a period of adulthood, whilst for others it precedes consciousness. This variable inevitably affects viewers\u27 responses to the serial: those in whose adulthood it was made will have a wider and deeper empirical understanding of its context than anyone else - but it will also be wider and deeper than Eliot\u27s own understanding of the period in which her novel is set. Eliot\u27s acute consciousness of this distance may have been inflected by her anxiety about underestimating the otherness of a period which she did not see with mature eyes. By contrast, our own awareness of our distance in time from the serial is likely to be relatively dull, since the program-makers were doing their best to efface their presence and present. They also did their best to efface the distance between 1860 and the 1820s - as a result of which audiences are encouraged to soar over both 1978 and 1860 to land in the 1820s, where they are invited to relax in their modern sofas and feel at home. Although 1978 was on the threshold of the take-off decade for English costume dramas, British audiences had already begun to be accustomed to the preceding century, in the eighteen teens of War and Peace (BBC, dir. David Conroy, 1972), the eighteen-forties of Vanity Fair (BBC, dir. David Giles, 1967), and the eighteen-seventies of Anna Karenina (British Lion Films, dir. Julien Duvivier, 1948). This o’erleaping of the time in which artistic creation actually occurred is only made possible - insofar as it is - by the excision of Eliot\u27s narrator. This narrator keeps the readers of 1860 constantly aware of their distance from the events narrated, partly in order to invite and indulge, and rather more in order to satirize, a self-satisfied amusement at the 1820s equivalent of flares and large sideburns in male fashion. In The Mill it is female fashions which are the targets: Mrs. Glegg\u27s use of fuzzy curled fronts on weekdays in order to save her glossy curled front for Sundays is merely ridiculed, whereas when Maggie submits \u27to have the abundant black locks plaited into a coronet on the summit of her head, after the pitiable fashion of those antiquated times\u27, a similar kind of ridicule is parodied (p. 294). Either way, Eliot\u27s younger readers, and such readers as Eliot imagined she might have in the future, are educated in what the fashions of those times actually were, and reminded of the past\u27s nature as a place in which things are differently done

Disaster Resistance at Two Canadian Universities: Case Studies of the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University

Since its emergence in 2000, the Disaster Resistant Universities (DRU) concept has been influential in assisting universities understand and prepare for the risks of natural and man-made disasters. Although mostly an American initiative to date, most of the details of the concept are applicable beyond American borders. In recent years, a number of Canadian universities have been re-evaluating their disaster preparedness and management plans, in part due to greater awareness of the need for disaster preparation brought on by the DRU concept. This research examines the state of disaster preparedness in two Canadian universities: the University of Waterloo (UW) and Wilfred Laurier University (WLU), using the DRU concept as a method of evaluation. Both universities are important research centers, and combined, have a student population of approximately 55,000. They are located in the southern Ontario city of Waterloo approximately one kilometre apart. Because of the geographic location of these institutions, the most likely natural hazards are winter blizzards, severe summer storms (lighting, high winds, hail and tornados), floods and disease outbreaks. Possible human-caused disasters include fire, transportation accidents, structural collapse and violence/disturbances. For this study, the researchers designed and applied a DRU best practices evaluation framework to the disaster management plans of both case study Universities. The framework was developed by consulting key DRU documents, the disaster management plan of the Region of Waterloo, and other academic/applied sources. The research was initiated in September 2012, and will conclude in February 2013 so final results are not yet available, however, preliminary results suggest that hazard preparedness has been focused on winter disasters and disease outbreaks (e.g. influenza) at both universities, with limited attention allotted to the assessment and implementation of a plan to mitigate the impacts of remaining potential hazards. Recommendations will be provided to assist the universities in developing a more comprehensive disaster management document based on the evaluation framework

Review of The Mill on the Floss on The BBC in 1978

The 2010 London conference on The Mill on the Floss was designedly conscious of its distance in time from its subject - this distance being measurable by a round number. It was as important to keep in mind, however, the distance between the novel\u27s composition and its setting. As it happens, this was the same as that between the conference and the 1978 BBC TV adaptation of the novel on which this paper reflects. For Eliot, the temporal setting corresponded to her childhood, as it would have done for some of her readers, and as will also be true of 1978 for some readers of this article. For others 1978 corresponds to a period of adulthood, whilst for others it precedes consciousness. This variable inevitably affects viewers\u27 responses to the serial: those in whose adulthood it was made will have a wider and deeper empirical understanding of its context than anyone else - but it will also be wider and deeper than Eliot\u27s own understanding of the period in which her novel is set. Eliot\u27s acute consciousness of this distance may have been inflected by her anxiety about underestimating the otherness of a period which she did not see with mature eyes. By contrast, our own awareness of our distance in time from the serial is likely to be relatively dull, since the program-makers were doing their best to efface their presence and present. They also did their best to efface the distance between 1860 and the 1820s - as a result of which audiences are encouraged to soar over both 1978 and 1860 to land in the 1820s, where they are invited to relax in their modern sofas and feel at home. Although 1978 was on the threshold of the take-off decade for English costume dramas, British audiences had already begun to be accustomed to the preceding century, in the eighteen teens of War and Peace (BBC, dir. David Conroy, 1972), the eighteen-forties of Vanity Fair (BBC, dir. David Giles, 1967), and the eighteen-seventies of Anna Karenina (British Lion Films, dir. Julien Duvivier, 1948). This o’erleaping of the time in which artistic creation actually occurred is only made possible - insofar as it is - by the excision of Eliot\u27s narrator. This narrator keeps the readers of 1860 constantly aware of their distance from the events narrated, partly in order to invite and indulge, and rather more in order to satirize, a self-satisfied amusement at the 1820s equivalent of flares and large sideburns in male fashion. In The Mill it is female fashions which are the targets: Mrs. Glegg\u27s use of fuzzy curled fronts on weekdays in order to save her glossy curled front for Sundays is merely ridiculed, whereas when Maggie submits \u27to have the abundant black locks plaited into a coronet on the summit of her head, after the pitiable fashion of those antiquated times\u27, a similar kind of ridicule is parodied (p. 294). Either way, Eliot\u27s younger readers, and such readers as Eliot imagined she might have in the future, are educated in what the fashions of those times actually were, and reminded of the past\u27s nature as a place in which things are differently done

An evaluation of public participation in land use planning: a case study of Ames, Iowa

The City of Ames Iowa and the planning consultant had a strong desire to incorporate citizen participation in the Land Use Policy Plan process. The consultant proposed a plan to involve citizens. City staff and elected officials accepted and approved the plan for citizen participation. Citizen participation was an important part of the Ames Land Use Policy Plan process. A significant effort was placed on the plan to involve citizens. During the planning process citizen participation changed. This research effort assesses what the impact of the change in citizen participation had on the outcome of the plan, on the citizen\u27s perception of their involvement in the development of the plan and how effectiveness of the planning process. This study will review the Ames process, identify citizen participation in the Ames land use planning process, develop a survey questionnaire for citizens who participated in the planning process, analyze the data from the survey and develop conclusions

Taxation and the Cross-Border Trade in Services: Rethinking Non-Discrimination Obligations

This Article examines the conflict between tax and trade law principles in the tax treatment of a non-resident service provider. It explores that conflict through non-discrimination obligations found in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), regional trade agreements, bilateral trade agreements, and tax treaties. The interplay between these agreements has the potential to frustrate trade law objectives because States may impose discriminatory tax measures on non-resident service providers. Tax treaties can play an important role in providing a minimum non-discrimination obligation for tax measures impacting the cross-border trade in services. This Article proposes a new tax treaty non-discrimination obligation grounded in trade law principles