The prescription period applicable to a debt secured by notarial bond

CITATION: Loubser, M. 2016. The prescription period applicable to a debt secured by notarial bond. Stellenbosch Law Review, 27(2):374-392.The original publication is available at https://journals.co.za/content/journal/jlc_slrThere are conflicting judgments on the question whether the 30-year prescription period provided for in section 11(a)(i) of the Prescription Act 68 of 1969 (“Prescription Act”) for “any debt secured by mortgage bond” also applies to debts secured by a notarial bond. The matter turns on whether the words “mortgage bond” as used in section 11(a)(i) should be interpreted to include a “notarial bond” and concerns various rules of interpretation and important policy considerations. This article contains an analysis of the recent cases with reference to the relevant rules of interpretation and policy considerations. The following sub-sections deal with the relevant policy considerations; the rules or canons of interpretation to determine the meaning of “any debt secured by mortgage bond”, specifically grammatical or literal interpretation, context, purpose and policy of differential prescription periods, and different language texts of a statute as an aid to interpretation . The judgments are then considered critically, followed by conclusions .Publishers versio

Organisational mechanisms in peer production : the Case of Wikipedia

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Delay Tolerant Networking for Sensor Networks

The Delay Tolerant Networking Architecture (DTN) has been proposed for use in challenged networks that suffer from intermittent connectivity or high delay. The DTN architecture and the bundle protocol presents a standard method to interconnect heterogeneous challenged networks using asynchronous message switching. It provides a framework for dynamic routing, contact scheduling, naming, reliability and transmission status reports. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are often viewed as challenged networks as nodes operate at low power, often with weak or intermittent radio communication. WSNs are an important application area for DTN. In this work I present ContikiDTN, a TCP/IP based prototype implementation of the DTN architecture and bundle protocol. ContikiDTN aims to evaluate the suitability of the DTN bundle protocol as a solution for messaging inside a TCP/IP WSN and as a way of connecting the WSN to the Internet. I discuss the design and implementation of ContikiDTN using the Contiki operating system. I highlight the issues in implementing the bundle protocol with TCP and Contiki. I show that the event-driven Contiki kernel is very suitable for an asynchronous message forwarding application. I use ContikiDTN to communicate with a full PC platform implementation of DTN and show that it can be used as a gateway to the Internet. I present a simulation and experimental results showing the performance of multi-hop TCP based DTN as compared to only TCP. I show that the core propositions of the DTN architecture hold in a WSN and that it is feasible to implement DTN on resource constrained devices using TCP/IP and Contiki

Liability for products in the Consumer Protection Bill 2006: a comparative critique

CITATION: Loubser, M. & Reid, E. 2006. Liability for products in the Consumer Protection Bill 2006 : a comparative critique. Stellenbosch Law Review = Stellenbosch Regstydskrif 17(3):412-453.The original publication is available at https://journals.co.za/content/journal/ju_slrINTRODUCTION: The Draft Consumer Protection Bill, recently published by the Department of Trade and Industry, encapsulates a vision for a ‘‘new consumer law’’, which has as its objective the establishment of ‘‘a fair, accessible and sustainable marketplace for consumer products and services’’. The cultural change necessary to address South Africa’s lack of ‘‘a vibrant and strong consumer movement’’ requires to be underpinned by legal certainty and accessibility. This is particularly important in areas of liability ‘‘characterised by imbalances in information and bargaining power between businesses and consumers’’. An important dimension to the proposed reform is therefore the creation of a strict liability framework to provide redress for consumers who have suffered harm due to defects in products.Die verbruikersbeskermingswetsontwerp 2006 maak voorsiening vir skuldlose aanspreeklikheid van vervaardigers en andere teenoor verbruikers van defekte produkte. Tot op hede is aanspreeklikheid vir skade weens defekte produkte gegrond op skuld, meestal nalatigheid. In Wagener and Cuttings v Pharmacare Ltd 2003 (4) SA 285 (SCA) was die Hoogste Hof van Appe` l nie bereid om af te wyk van die skuldgrondslag vir hierdie soort aanspreeklikheid nie in die uitspraak is geso˜ dat ree¨ ls ten opsigte van skuldlose aanspreeklikheid vir defekte produkte deur die wetgewer geskep sal moet word. Hierdie Wetsontwerp skep nou sulke ree¨ ls, soortgelyk aan reSˇ ls wat reeds in talle ander regstelsels geld. Prominente voorbeelde van sulke ree¨ ls is te vinde in die Amerikaanse Restatement Third, Torts: Products Liability en die Europese riglyne vir produkteaanspreeklikheid van 1985, wat tot die aanname van ooreenstemmende wetgewing in al die Europese lidlande gelei het. Die Verbruikersbeskermingswetsontwerp volg in ’n groot mate die Europese model, in besonder die Consumer Protection Act 1987 van die Verenigde Koninkryk. In hierdie artikel word aangevoer dat ’n stelsel van skuldlose aanspreeklikheid vir defekte produkte in Suid-Afrika om beleidsredes geregverdig is, maar dat die Europese model nie as ’n ongekwalifiseerde sukses ervaar is nie en dat die onkritiese navolging van hierdie model sekere onduidelikhede skep; en dat die beoogde ree¨ ls in sekere opsigte nie goed aanpas by die beginsels van die Suid-Afrikaanse deliktereg nie. Besondere vrae wat vanuit hierdie perspektief bespreek word, sluit in die volgende: Ten opsigte van watter produkte in die Wetsontwerp genoem ‘‘goods’’ - moet skuldlose aanspreeklikheid erken word (ook vir defekte in grond en gebrekkige inligting?); wanneer moet ’n produk as ‘‘defek’’ beskou word (is die maatstaf van verbruikersverwagtinge ‘‘consumer expectations’’ ’n geskikte een en is dit versoenbaar met die onregmatigheidsvereiste vir deliktuele aanspreeklikheid?); wie moet as verweerders teenoor die verbruikers van ’n defekte produk aanspreeklik wees (vervaardigers, verspreiders en ook andere?); vir watter soort skade moet aanspreeklikheid erken word (moet buiten vergoeding vir saakskade en liggaamlike besering ook ekonomiese verlies vergoed word?); watter verwere moet vir die vervaardiger of verspreider beskikbaar wees (ook die sogenaamde ontwikkelingsrisikoverweer ‘‘development risk defence’’?); en vrae oor spesiale ree¨ ls vir kousaliteit en verjaring.Publishers versio

Mining for practices in community collections: finds from Simple Wikipedia

Abstract. The challenges of commons based peer production are usually associated with the development of complex software projects such as Linux and Apache. But the case of open content production should not be treated as a trivial one. For instance, while the task of maintaining a collection of encyclopedic articles might seem negligible compared to the one of keeping together a software system with its many modules and interdependencies, it still poses quite demanding problems. In this paper, we describe the methods and practices adopted by Simple Wikipedia to keep its articles easy to read. Based on measurements of article readability and similarity, we conclude that while the mechanisms adopted by the community had some effect, in the long run more efforts and new practices might be necessary in order to maintain an acceptable level of readability in the Simple Wikipedia collection