This study examines the operating costs of, and intentional compliance with, the value added tax (VAT) in Ethiopia. The study focuses on assessing the magnitude and nature of operating costs, identifying areas in the design and administration of the tax that contribute to the operating costs and the problems in the operation of the tax at large, and also on the link between VAT compliance costs and intentional output VAT reporting compliance decisions. The study adopts a mixed methods research approach to test a series of hypotheses and answer research questions that emerge through the review of existing literature and the experiences of the researcher in respect of the Ethiopian tax system. Specifically, the study uses surveys of taxpayers and tax practitioners, experimental design, interviews with tax officials and documentary analysis. The study statistically analyses the data elicited from the surveys and experimental design. It also analyses the results of in-depth interviews with tax officials and examination of documents held by tax authorities and other institutions. The results of this combined research methodology reveal that VAT operating costs in Ethiopia in the fiscal year 2005/06 appear to be relatively low. However, this low level of operating costs may not imply that the VAT system in Ethiopia is simple. In particular, in the case of administrative costs it is argued that it may indicate that the tax authorities are under-resourced which in turn may have affected their ability to accomplish the responsibilities entrusted to them. In respect of compliance costs, although the total costs seem to be low, it is contended that their regressiveness is likely to impact on the equity of the tax system as a whole. Further, the results show that VAT compliance costs and intentional VAT reporting compliance decisions are inversely correlated; but this correlation is statistically weak. The results also identify several concerns in the design and administration of the tax that have bearing on the operating costs and the operation of the tax. Specifically, the existence of the relatively high registration threshold, the high frequency of VAT reporting, the use of the invoice method of accounting (the latter two pertain mainly to small businesses) and weak administration are noted. iv The thesis suggests a series of measures which could be taken by the government and by the tax authorities in particular, to address the various problems identified in the study. These measures include strengthening the administration; allowing small businesses to adopt the cash basis of accounting and report less frequently; and reducing the registration threshold. The use of tax education is also emphasised as a strategy to improve compliance.

This study investigates the impact of aspects of tax design on the operating costs of the tax system. The thesis focuses on the Australian and UK regimes for taxing the capital gains of individuals. It contends that the compliance burden faced by personal taxpayers and the administrative costs incurred by revenue authorities are directly influenced by the design of the capital gains tax ('CGT') regimes in each country. The study bridges the divide between theoretical analysis of CGT and empirical studies on tax operating costs. It uses a hybrid research design to test a series of hypotheses that emerge from a review of the literature and the experience of the researcher. It combines a technical analysis of the relevant Australian and UK legislative provisions (including an analysis of the policy and other background data that underpins those provisions) with empirical research on the views and experience of practitioners who are responsible for the operation of the legislation in the two countries. The results obtained from this combined methodology indicate that the operating costs of taxing capital gains in Australia and the UK are directly affected by the design of the legislative provisions. Moreover, the study outcomes indicate that operating costs in both countries are high (on a number of comparative measures), have not reduced over time, and are both horizontally and vertically inequitable. The research indicates that the primary factors that cause the high operating costs include the complexity of the legislation and the frequency of legislative change, together with record-keeping and valuation requirements. The thesis identifies specific legislative changes that would address operational cost concerns. These include the phasing out of the 'grandfathering' exemption together with the introduction of an annual exempt amount, and the rationalisation of business concessions in Australia; and the abolition of taper relief and its possible replacement with a 50% exclusion in the UK. More importantly, it seeks a more principled approach to the taxation of capital gains in both countries, and emphasises that legislative change can and should only be enacted with a full and clear understanding of the operating cost implications of that change.

In the late twentieth century international trade moved from a political multi-polar system based on the nation-state to a system featuring unified regional trading regimes. An inevitable feature of increased cooperation through bilateral, regional and international arrangements is the emergence of disputes over the interpretation and implementation of the agreed upon commitments. Accordingly, reliable mechanisms for the settlement of trade related disputes have become necessary to ensure the effective and continued functioning of these arrangements. Over the years these dispute settlement mechanisms have evolved from the relatively simple, diplomacy based structures called for in the GATT, to the detailed, legalistic, adjudication based mechanism found in the WTO. Bilateral and regional initiatives, such as NAFTA and MERCOSUR, as well as the EU, have similarly adopted dispute settlement mechanisms which adopt, in varying degrees, legalistic adjudicatory processes. Since 1967 ASEAN has spearheaded the creation of a regional trading bloc in the South East Asian region. As in other trading blocs, this has inevitable led to the need to develop effective and workable dispute settlement mechanisms. This thesis examines the development of trade dispute settlement mechanisms in ASEAN tracing its development from a model based on pragmatic diplomacy to a legalistic adjudicatory system with particular reference to the ASEAN context. It examines the extent to which the ASEAN context has influenced the content and the adoption of trade dispute settlement mechanisms in the region, as well as the extent to which the recently adopted 2004 Enhanced Protocol on Dispute Settlement can adequately address trade disputes in the region while remaining sensitive and responsive to the ASEAN context. Based on a comparative examination of dispute settlement mechanisms in other trade agreements, a range of key procedural issues are identified and examined with a view to identifying the prospects and challenges which ASEAN faces in the implementation of its dispute settlement mechanism. The thesis analyses the prospects and challenges of implementation the 2004 Enhanced Protocol on DSM.

This dissertation is an historical and philosophical study on the development of a subjective concept of individual rights. It takes the form of a history of ideas informed by genealogical methods of inquiry. Rather than seeking an origin for and underlying truth to human rights, it treats human rights as a product of various historical developments which are capable of being investigated in terms of their contingency as well as their continuous traditions. The thesis begins with an analysis of political theory in ancient Greek thought, primarily as a means of suggesting possible alternative political philosophies to the rights-based approach dominant in modern Western societies. The thesis then considers the theologicalpolitical discourse on sovereignty in the early Middle Ages, revolving around the doctrine of divine right and influenced by the function of the Christian Church in defining the nature of government. This is followed by an examination of the emergence of hierarchical, feudal relations and the formulation of feudal rights as based on proprietary notions and coinciding with individual liberties. In the following chapter there is a discussion of the juridical construction of sovereign power that emerged from the reception of Roman law and the development of canon law, the influence of legal textuality on the granting of rights and liberties, and the emergence of a discourse on public right as a way of defining the relationship between the prince and his subjects and thus delimiting sovereign authority. Finally, the thesis considers the legacy of the theory of natural rights and its relationship to forms of liberty, with an analysis of: firstly, the idea of natural rights that developed through canon law and the discussions surrounding the Franciscan poverty disputes; secondly, the role of property rights in the formulation of the rights of liberty; thirdly, the Christian understanding of liberty as a subjective attribute or power through the theo-ontological theory of human nature as represented by the free will; and fourthly, the transformation in Renaissance and early modern legal and political theory of the concept of liberty into a political doctrine about individual autonomy and inherent freedom. The purpose of the dissertation is to describe the multiple and complex historical processes from which the idea of subjective rights has emerged, as a means of understanding how human rights have come to play a seemingly essential role in modern legal and political discourses and practices.

In the late 1990s a number of law firms and other organisations began to market online products which &quotpackage&quot legal knowledge. Unlike spreadsheets, word processing software and email, these products are not designed to provide efficiency improvements. Rather, online legal knowledge products, which package and apply the law, were and are viewed by many as having the potential to make major changes to legal practice. Many used the term &quitrevolution&quot to describe the anticipated impact. Like any new technology development, many intersecting factors contributed to their development. In many ways they built on existing uses of technology in legal practice. The various information technology paradigms which underpin them - text retrieval, expert systems/artificial intelligence, document automation, computer aided instruction (CAI) and hypertext - were already a part of the &quotcomputerisation of law&quot. What is new about online legal knowledge products is that as well as using technology paradigms such as expert systems or document automation to package and apply the law, they are developed using browser-based technologies. In this way they leverage the comparative ease of development and distribution capabilities of the Internet (and/or intranets). There has been particular interest in the impact of online legal knowledge products on the legal services provided to large commercial organisations. With the increasing burden of corporate compliance, expanding role of the in-house lawyer and pressure to curb costs, online legal knowledge products should flourish in commercial organisations and many have been adamant that they will. However, there is no convincing evidence that anything like a &quotrevolution&quot has taken place. Success stories are few and far between. Surprisingly few have asked whether this &quotrevolution&quot has failed, or seriously analysed whether it lies ahead. If it does lie ahead, what factors, if any, need to taken into account in order for it to take place? If there is to be no revolution, what value should be placed on online legal knowledge products? In this dissertation I use the findings of my own empirical work, supported by a literature survey, to demonstrate that the impact of online legal knowledge products has been modest. I argue that in order to build successful online legal knowledge products it is necessary to appreciate that a complex system of interacting factors underpins their development and use,and address those factors. I propose a schematic representation of the relationships involved in producing an online legal knowledge product and use the findings of some empirical work, together with a review the literature in related fields, to identify the factors relevant to the various components of this framework. While there are many interacting factors at play, four sets of considerations emerge from my research as particularly important: integrating different technology paradigms, knowledge acquisition, usability, and implementation. As a practical matter, the implication of these findings is that some online legal knowledge products are more likely to be successful than others, and that there are other technology applications that may represent a better investment of the limited in-house technology budget than many online legal knowledge products. I also argue that while most of the challenges involved in integrating different technology paradigms, improving usability, and effective implementation can be addressed with varying levels of effort, the problem of the knowledge acquisition bottleneck is intractable. New approaches to knowledge acquisition are required to overcome the knowledge acquisition bottleneck. I identify some potential approaches that emerge from my research: automation, collaboration and coalition, phasing and simple solutions.

Conflict of interest allegations became a prominent part of the political and public sector in the 1980s and 1990s in Australia and elsewhere. The arena of policing was not immune, and in Victoria, the Ombudsman drew particular attention to the problem and expressed concern about the rise in public complaints relating to alleged conflicts of interest on the part of police officers. Against this background, permission was granted by Victoria Police for a major study of conflict of interest complaints against police officers within their jurisdiction. Access was granted to all public complaint case files where conflict of interest was the focus of the allegations, from the period 1988???1998. A total of 377 usable complaints files were examined, involving 539 police officers. Through extensive examination and analysis of these complaint case files, a comprehensive map of the particular kinds of interest involved, the nature of the conflicts with official police duties, and the particular contexts within which conflicts of interest emerged, was developed. Analysis of the case files identified 25 different types of problems related to conflict of interest. These were spread across the private and public realms of police officers??? involvements. Previous studies of conflict of interest have focused largely on the opportunities for misconduct arising in the public realm of police work and police duty, largely neglecting attention to the private realm of the relationships and involvements of a police officer that give rise to conflicts of interest. In this study, the specific private interests that gave rise to problems were able to be identified in 35 percent of all cases. Three broad problem areas were identified: (i) outside employment, private business interests, political, social, and sporting interests and involvements; (ii) family-based involvements, especially those involving family law problems; and (iii) problematic personal relationships, including relationships with criminals, informers, and persons of ill repute. These conflicts of interest were related to a range of breaches of official police duty, including the misuse of police authority for personal or family benefit, the use of police position to facilitate personal relationships, and inappropriate disclosure of confidential police information. When the conflict of interest identified related specifically to a police officer???s official or public role as a member of the police force, the main types of misconduct identified included three broad areas: (i) the use and abuse of police powers and authority; (ii) the use and abuse of police resources, including information; and (iii) the receipt of gratuities and breaches of the law. These problems were shown to play out in a range of ways, encompassing such behaviours as misuse of the police identity, inappropriate accessing of police information, involvement in investigations where the police officer concerned has a personal interest in the matter, failing to take appropriate police action against friends, family, or associates, the exercise of improper influence in civil matters, and engagement in harassment and discrimination. This study offers some important conceptual developments in relation to the notion of conflict of interest, focusing on the importance of the distinction between a conflict of interest and an associated breach of duty. The study noted that it is often erroneously assumed by police that if there is no breach of duty evidenced, then there is no problem of conflict of interest. The study also offers an important insight into the oversight and accountability processes involved in Victoria Police, emphasising the importance and effectiveness of the oversight role of the office of the Victorian Ombudsman. Evidence also suggests that the internal review processes within Victoria Police are by-and-large stringent, and that senior police management are genuinely interested in making police officers more accountable for their actions. However, it is concluded that both front-line operational police officer and police management often have a limited understanding of conflict of interest, and problems attendant to conflicts of interest. The study???s insights into the problem of conflict of interest are significant insofar as this problem is related to police misconduct???ranging from minor to serious???of various kinds. Attention to the problem of conflict of interest may be an important element in preventing ???upstream??? police misconduct and corruption.

This thesis provides a criminological perspective on the Australian state???s responses to unauthorised migrants. In particular, it attempts to build on recent criminological literature on state crime by contrasting the alleged deviance of unauthorised migrants with the organised and deviant human rights abuses perpetrated by the Australian state. The main argument of the thesis is that through the systematic alienation, criminalisation and abuse of unauthorised migrants, particularly refugees, the Australian state is engaged in state crime. While this can partly be measured by breaches of international humanitarian law, the acts in question are criminal according to the broader sociological understanding of state crime as ???state organisational deviance involving the violation of human rights???. The thesis develops this argument by locating the phenomena of forced and illicit migration within an increasingly globalised world economy in which the needs for international human migration are confronted by the restrictive migration policies of the dominant Western states. In this context, the Australian state has played a pivotal role in the development of three major Western exclusion zones, which are designed to contain unauthorised migrants in the developing world and are enforced by measures that systematically abuse human rights. The fundamental criminological dynamic of the Australian exclusion zone is its systematic assault on the movements and by definition, the rights, of forced migrants. This operates at a number of levels: unauthorised arrivals are alienated by their lack of legal status; they are denied access to a full refugee determination process; their status as refugees is subordinated to that of the resettled refugee; their experiences are denied and delegitimised through their construction as queue jumpers; they are criminalised through their participation in smuggling enterprises; they are punished and abused through the use of detention, dispersal and forced removal; and they are put at greater personal risk by the measures employed to enforce the zone. The thesis traces the development of this zone from the formation of the white Australia policy through to the Pacific Solution and critically analyses the ways in which current policy draws on and reinforces the exclusionist traditions of Australian nationalism.

This study is concerned with workers, workplace learning and organisations. In the current climate of techno-logisation and globalisation, change is constant. Consequently, development of workers??? capacity to grow and adapt is essential for both the employability of the individual, and the economic survival of organisations. Capacity is considered essential because it encompasses more than current ability, it enables the growth of innovative approaches to work, which are required to adapt to change. Learning is central to capacity-development and so learning skills and related ???general skills??? are vital, but these skills must be developed in a specific context to be useful tools. Learning involves balancing the chaos of uncertainty and the old grooves of experience. Learning also involves personal growth. This study explores ways of helping workers develop capacity and especially learning skills, in a context of complexity, to meet the demands of their changing environment. The methodological approach taken is two fold, including both a conceptual and an empirical component. Firstly, a framework, based on conceptual innovation, is constructed to direct the design of workplace-based programs aimed at developing workers??? capacity. This is done as guidance in tailoring a program that promotes the development of an understanding of the necessary skills and knowledge in the context of the work undertaken, how to use them effectively, and the impact they have on the worker and their environment. It is contended that this framework promotes continued and sustained growth in workers??? skills and adaptability, that is, it develops capacity. Secondly, fieldwork based on a program developed for a group of tax administrators to instantiate this framework is reported. The findings show that this workplace-based program designed for the Australian Taxation Office has precipitated the development of the participant workers??? capacity, and in so doing, has shown the empirical significance of the conceptual innovation. Finally, the broader implications of developing workers??? capacity are explored. These include the need for organisational support for workers??? capacity-development, the possibility of the development of a learning culture in organisations, and the general applicability of the framework to other organisations, professions, and industries.

The High Court decision in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) was interpreted by some as bringing to an end a history of discrimination and dispossession of indigenous peoples' lands. In this respect it was located within the new history movement in Australia - a movement which has raised awareness of the impact that colonisation has had on indigenous peoples in Australia. ln this thesis the extent to which Mabo was in fact a product of the new history movement in Australia is examined. An analysis of the results in the more recent High Court cases on native title such as Western Australia v Ward and Members of the Members of the Yorta Yorta Aboriginal Community v Victoria reveals that the promises that came with native title recognition in Mabo have not been fulfilled. ln Ward the native title claim was partially accepted; in Yorta Yorta lhe claim was completely rejected. But as the analysis further reveals the shortcomings of the native title regime as demonstrated by these cases can be partly located in the Mabo decision itself. One of the contributions that some new historians have made to the writing of Australian history has been to reveal how the perceived differences between indigenous peoples and the colonists resulted in the perception of indigenous peoples as inferior beings. In turn, such perceptions worked to legitimise their dispossession in the native title context, indigenous peoples are no longer to be perceived as inferior (the rejection of the terra nullius doctrine in Mabo was an acknowledgement that indigenous peoples did have their own laws and social organisation) However the perception that they are different remains in the way that laws for them are constructed: native title may be recognised by the common law, but it is not part of the common law. As it is argued in this thesis the perceived differences in the origins of native title and the Australian common law has resulted in the inferior r treatment of native title. Potential solutions are canvassed in the thesis. Included among them is the need to give recognition to Aboriginal sovereignty However, it is concluded that if any change is to take place it must involve changing perceptions of indigenous peoples so that the protection of their interests may be more broadly construed as being in the interests of Australia.

legitimate because it is not the persistence of a secularised theological concept. Although it reoccupied mirror-image pre-Enlightenment questions, say regarding absolutism, it is not first concerned with such categories as ???sovereignty, raison d???etat, will, decision, friend-enemy??? but with ???contract, consent, liberty, law and rights???. However, in Work on Myth, he proposes that man is, and has always been, a maker of mythological magnitudes, of which there can be argued to be an archetypal form. These magnitudes are so fearsome as to allow man to convert his existential fear into fear of an entity the fate of which he can gradually bring into his own hands. In this way, there is the promise of the elimination of existential fear and of the experience of sympathetic conditions of existence. Blumenberg does not address political issues, such as the nature of the State. However, if the State can be shown to be such a magnitude and therefore a political realisation of such an archetype, then it is mythological and so is not modern, even if it is legitimate. It then needs to be criticised to allow the introduction of a radical notion of Enlightenment. The effect of such criticisms would be the replacement of the notions of fear and sympathy with that of self-responsibility as the first interest of the State. Selfresponsibility would need to be promoted progressively. It would require a reconfigured State the prime purpose of which is the promotion of respect and self-reliance of individuals. Its first concern would therefore not be the elimination of fear, which would be understood as unable to be eliminated, nor the creation by it of sympathetic conditions of existence, which would be better a matter for properly prepared and supported, selfreliant individuals. The debate then would be around this axis, where contingency is accepted and managed, not the mythological axis of liberalism and republicanism which has dominated modern political theory since Hobbes. This thesis is first an exploration of the viability of the mythological idea of the State, whether the State is a political realisation of the archetypal myth. It does this through an examination of such thinkers in the political tradition as Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Kant, Rawls and Pettit. The conclusion of this examination is, in sum, that the idea of the State since Hobbes has been, and remains, mythological since it shows all the key characteristics of a mythological entity and the arguments for it have mythological presumptions. It is still first concerned with the fear/sympathy nexus and the debates of the political tradition from Hobbes to Pettit have been carried out around that axis. Further, this is argued to be an arrangement which promotes dominant interests rather than widespread participation of non-autonomous, self-responsible individuals. But if this notion of the State as a progressively refined and dispersed mythological entity is viable, it cannot have existed only in the minds of those in the political theoretical tradition. We should expect to see evidence of it in the beliefs and practices of individual men and women. It must have been not just a political realisation of the mythological State as an idea, but an embodied notion. This thesis is also an exploration of the evidence for that embodiment. It does this by looking at Elias??? analysis of the civilising process in the Middle Ages, at Foucault???s analysis of the emergence and proliferation of the disciplines and the art of government from the 17th century and at the dispersal of the myth through cultural imperialism in the 18th century. The conclusions of these analyses are reinforced by the social ontology of Wittgenstein. Further argument for this embodiment is presented regarding both the common notion of citizenship and the perception of other cultures, that each manifest mythological characteristics. Such embodied practices can be seen as strategies promoted through the State by dominant interests, the purpose of which are the claims to generally eliminate fear and create sympathetic conditions of existence. This embodiment reinforces the initial argument that the idea of the State did emerge and has been established and gradually refined as mythological. In essence and in large part, this is a genealogy of post-Hobbesian political society as mythological. That is, as the political realisation of the archetypal mythological form and its embodiment in the material practice of individuals. The explanatory value of this way of perceiving the State is then demonstrated by its application to the complex conditions of the destruction of traditional Aboriginal culture by the colonising and civilising British, that is the dispersal of the mythological State as empire. From this, it is argued that the mythological understanding of the State is more illuminating that other approaches.