International Franchising Arrangements and Problems in Their Negotiation

Franchising is little understood in legal circles. Almost certainly the reason for the lack of any common jurisprudential approach to franchising is that franchising relationships simply do not fit neatly into any of the common law moulds with which we are all familiar. Franchising typically partakes of a number of these relationships while not totally embracing any of them. For example, it partakes of, but does not totally embrace, the concepts of (1) employer and employee; (2) distributorship; (3) licensor and licensee; (4) agency; or (5) vendor and purchaser, to varying degrees, depending upon individual transactions. Because of the scope of franchising, and particularly of international franchising, the basic problems involved in negotiation of franchising agreements are most frequently not inherently legal in nature. They are more likely to be problems of business, psychology, politics, and culture or problems of a technical and scientific kind. Above all, they are likely to be problems of tact, diplomacy, strategy, and tactics

International Franchising Arrangements and Problems in Their Negotiation

Franchising is little understood in legal circles. Almost certainly the reason for the lack of any common jurisprudential approach to franchising is that franchising relationships simply do not fit neatly into any of the common law moulds with which we are all familiar. Franchising typically partakes of a number of these relationships while not totally embracing any of them. For example, it partakes of, but does not totally embrace, the concepts of (1) employer and employee; (2) distributorship; (3) licensor and licensee; (4) agency; or (5) vendor and purchaser, to varying degrees, depending upon individual transactions. Because of the scope of franchising, and particularly of international franchising, the basic problems involved in negotiation of franchising agreements are most frequently not inherently legal in nature. They are more likely to be problems of business, psychology, politics, and culture or problems of a technical and scientific kind. Above all, they are likely to be problems of tact, diplomacy, strategy, and tactics

Extraterritorial Effects of United States Commercial and Antitrust Legislation: A View from Down Under

British Commonwealth lawyers, in general, and Australian lawyers, in particular, traditionally maintain a conservative view of the extraterritorial reach of commercial legislation. As a result of the Alcoa decision in 1945, if not earlier decisions, the United States courts have espoused fairly grand ideas on the stretch of their judicial writ. In fact, the effects doctrine was first proclaimed in 1909 by the United States Supreme Court in American Banana Co. v. United Fruit Co. In this case, the Court proclaimed that the United States has the power to punish acts done outside [the] jurisdiction but intended to produce and producing detrimental effects within it. Although the international community was cool to the Court\u27s position, it did not react too violently in the 1950s and 1960s. The reach of United States commercial legislation at this time appeared bearable. This somewhat mild response to the expansive reach of United States laws may have been grounded in the standing of the United States as the giant of the international trading world. The United States quickly filled the trading vacuums left by World War II when the prewar cartel arrangements and, to some extent, prior colonial links had broken down. During this period, practically anyone who could produce and deliver scarce goods was welcome. The United States was one of the countries able to meet the demand. Its companies actively developed worldwide branches and subsidiaries. The United States remains an international trading giant but, as the United States itself is beginning to realize, other countries and trading blocks now have the ability to retaliate if they regard the reach of United States laws as an unwarranted extension of jurisdiction

The biology of species of the genus Pseudophryne (Anura: Leptodactylidae)

Most of the recent studies on Australian amphibia have been on species occurring in south-western Australia. These studies include work on speciation within various genera, principally Crinia (Main, 1957; Main et al., 1958; Littlejohn, 1959), the behavioural and physiological adaptations of desert-inhabiting species (Bentley et al., 1958; Main et al., 1959; Main and Bentley, 1964; Packer, 1963) and general biology (Calaby, 1956, 1960; Main, 1965; Main and Calaby, 1957). In contrast, the eastern Australian species have been little studied since the early work of Fletcher (1889, 1890, and subsequent papers) and of Harrison (1922). Recently, Moore (1961) and Jacobson (1962, 1963) have dealt with certain aspects of the biology, specially embryological development, of eastern New South Wales species. Littlejohn and Martin have reported on the natural history of a number of species found in Victoria (Littlejohn, 1963; Martin, 1965) in addition to their studies on speciation (Littlejohn, 1964, 1965; Littlejohn and Martin, 1964, 1965). Despite all these studies, much remains to be known about the ecology of any one species or a group of species

Building the Machine: The Importance of Governance in Obesity Policy

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is a small Australian jurisdiction with a single tier of government and a population of approximately 400,000 people. Despite enjoying comparatively high levels of income, education, physical amenity, and access to nutritious food, overweight and obesity is the most prevalent risk factor for chronic disease in the ACT. From 2011, the ACT Government Health Directorate (ACT Health) led the development of a whole of Government plan (the Action Plan) to address obesity. A political imperative to take such action and recent administrative reform assisted the development of a plan with specific actions to be undertaken by different government agencies. Obesity is a “wicked problem” with a diversity of opinion about its causes and potential solutions. These opinions remained influential even when an official course of action had been decided upon. Strong decision making and accountability processes were therefore necessary to support the development of the Action Plan. A lack of understanding beyond the health sector in relation to the evidence for effective, population level interventions to address obesity and a tendency to try and address population health risks by scaling up client-centered models of Government services also proved problematic. This experience highlights the critical importance of designing obesity policy within a robust governance framework in order to ensure progress is made in a highly contested environment. Whilst the observations included here are strongly influenced by local contextual factors, there are important lessons which can be applied elsewhere

Strategies for Growing Canola in Low Rainfall Environments of Australia

Canola ('Brassica napus') production in Australia, although generally successful, is not well developed in the low rainfall environments of the eastern wheat belt. Whilst there are varieties being developed to allow increased canola production in these areas, there is limited understanding of the relationship between sowing time, variety, soil moisture and plant growth. The experiments detailed in this thesis set out to examine these issues and provide an understanding of which of these factors, or a combination of these, limit canola production in low rainfall environments. Two field experiments were conducted comparing plant growth, yield and yield components and water use of several canola varieties sown across a series of sowing times, under two water regimes, one involving the application of supplementary water using irrigation. These were conducted during 2002 and 2003 at Condobolin in the central western district of New South Wales. ... The results from this study illustrate that early sowing of canola in low rainfall environments of Australia could increase canola production and that correct varietal choice might further increase grain yields. However, caution must be extended when considering how much earlier canola should be sown than the current recommendations, as there may be other factors which could alter plant growth and yield that were unable to be investigated in this thesis

Building the Machine: The Importance of Governance in Obesity Policy

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is a small Australian jurisdiction with a single tier of government and a population of approximately 400,000 people. Despite enjoying comparatively high levels of income, education, physical amenity, and access to nutritious food, overweight and obesity is the most prevalent risk factor for chronic disease in the ACT. From 2011, the ACT Government Health Directorate (ACT Health) led the development of a whole of Government plan (the Action Plan) to address obesity. A political imperative to take such action and recent administrative reform assisted the development of a plan with specific actions to be undertaken by different government agencies. Obesity is a “wicked problem” with a diversity of opinion about its causes and potential solutions. These opinions remained influential even when an official course of action had been decided upon. Strong decision making and accountability processes were therefore necessary to support the development of the Action Plan. A lack of understanding beyond the health sector in relation to the evidence for effective, population level interventions to address obesity and a tendency to try and address population health risks by scaling up client-centered models of Government services also proved problematic. This experience highlights the critical importance of designing obesity policy within a robust governance framework in order to ensure progress is made in a highly contested environment. Whilst the observations included here are strongly influenced by local contextual factors, there are important lessons which can be applied elsewhere

Soil and Crop Management Practices to Minimize the Impact of Waterlogging on Crop Productivity

Waterlogging remains a significant constraint to cereal production across the globe in areas with high rainfall and/or poor drainage. Improving tolerance of plants to waterlogging is the most economical way of tackling the problem. However, under severe waterlogging combined agronomic, engineering and genetic solutions will be more effective. A wide range of agronomic and engineering solutions are currently being used by grain growers to reduce losses from waterlogging. In this scoping study, we reviewed the effects of waterlogging on plant growth, and advantages and disadvantages of various agronomic and engineering solutions which are used to mitigate waterlogging damage. Further research should be focused on: cost/benefit analyses of different drainage strategies; understanding the mechanisms of nutrient loss during waterlogging and quantifying the benefits of nutrient application; increasing soil profile de-watering through soil improvement and agronomic strategies; revealing specificity of the interaction between different management practices and environment as well as among management practices; and more importantly, combined genetic, agronomic and engineering strategies for varying environments