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The aim of this thesis is to clarify the issue of enforceability of mediation settlement agreements with the focus on the field of commercial law. The thesis presents the main problems and interpretation divergences and the author argues his own opinions. In the first chapter, i.e. in the introduction, the reader is familiarised with the notion of mediation settlement agreement as a mere private agreement, which is not directly enforceable in most of the jurisdictions. In the second chapter, the thesis deals with different methods of making the mediation settlement agreement enforceable in Czech, Slovak and marginally also in Austrian legal system. There are basically three means of conversion of mediation settlement agreement in all three legal systems. First, it is possible to have the agreement approved by a state court in the form of court settlement. Second possibility is to have an arbitral award on agreed terms issued. However it is not clear, whether it is possible to start arbitral proceedings only for the sake of having an enforcement title if the parties have already settled. Third option is to get a notarial deed with permission to enforcement issued. In the third chapter, the thesis concerns with the enforcement of foreign mediation settlement agreements, which are enforceable in another state...

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / The Government of Namibia has been responsible for facilitating the resettlement of destitute and landless people since its independence in 1990. The provision of resettlement is a very contentious issue in Namibia. The bulk of land is still in the hands of minority white communities and foreigners. It is against this background that the study examined the land reform process in Namibia. The objectives of the study was to investigate to what extent the land reform process has been successful in one of Namibia's regions, and what factors are relevant for success, and identify ways to improve the process; to examine the original government objective/policy and how/why it changed over time. / South Africa

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The lowland area of Delta Municipality in Southwestern British Columbia comprising some 50 square miles with a population of 4,000 is one of the main suppliers of food to the Vancouver market. Although 10,000 acres classified as peat are unsuited for agricultural purposes, the remaining area has a fertile soil. In addition the area has a mild climate suited to the development of a dairying economy. Settlement of Delta started in 1868 and proceeded rapidly for several years. It was the wealth of the Fraser River fisheries rather than the agricultural productivity of the land that brought early prosperity to Delta and to Ladner, the municipal centre, in particular. After the decline of the fishing industry following the Hell's Gate disaster in 1913, agriculture became the economic mainstay of the district. As a result of poor internal transportation and a lack of fresh water in the western half of the municipality early agricultural practises differed in East Delta and in West Delta. Dairying developed in the east whereas cattle ranching became prominent in the west. In both sections similar field crops were grown. The opening of a road network after 1875 and the installation of a municipal water system in 1910 resulted in dairying gradually becoming the principal industry of Delta. In recent years a diversified agriculture has become the outstanding characteristic of the land use pattern in Delta. The major uses of land are for pasture, hay and oats, with lesser amounts devoted to potatoes, peas, and a variety of other crops. Most of the farm revenue comes from the sale of fluid milk to the Greater Vancouver market. There is some industrial activity in the area. Prior to 1913 salmon canning was important but declined consequent upon the diminishing of the Eraser River salmon runs. Between 1942 and 1944 two peat processing plants commenced operations upon the peat bog. They have become the largest industrial c concerns in Delta. A vegetable canning factory, a grass dehydration plant, and a grist mill are the local industries based upon agriculture. Ladner is the municipal centre and owes its prosperity to the surrounding farming community. Originally Ladner grew in response to the fishing industry. Summer resorts have grown up at Beach Grove and Boundary Bay. Sunbury is a small fishing community along the river and Tswassen is an Indian reservation. Since 1941 an area of 1,100 acres has been used for military purposes. The conclusions arrived at in the thesis were that the area should remain as agricultural land. Danger from flooding and the limited amount of good agricultural land near the city of Vancouver are two factors which should operate against urbanization of the fertile lowlands of the Fraser Valley. In the event that urban development should come a plan to provide the necessary services and to prevent friction with the farming community has been recommended. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

This thesis describes the change in the pattern of service centres in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia at various periods during a century of European occupance. The study of settlement evolution in this region involves an examination of hierarchical change as indicated by variations in postal revenue. The attempt to focus both in time and space is one of the inherent difficulties in any dynamic study of the urban hierarchy, for it presents a basic problem in establishing an adequate and readily available index of centrality. Tertiary revenue would provide the best index, but it is neither available for the smaller centres nor through time. These disadvantages are not apparent in postal revenue which closely correlates with tertiary revenue. It is inferred that postal revenue reflects the tertiary activity of the great majority of service centres in British Columbia. Since the end of the nineteenth century the North American post office, with its low condition of entry, has been an essential part of all except some of the lowest order centres. Postal revenue data is available,throughout Canada, from Confederation onwards, but it presents some problems of utilization as dollar values change through time. The suggested method of expressing the revenue for each given year as a percentage of that for an areal unit is illustrated by its application to the Lower Mainland. However, while the Lower Mainland can be thought of as a physical entity, it must be considered as being part of a larger functional region which changes both functionally and areally. The province has been taken as the continuing functional unit. The idea would seem to be supported by the graphic analysis. The whole period, from 1858 to 1961, has been broken down into five eras, in each of which a common means of transport has predominated. The first era up to 1880 covers the years of initial exploitation and settlement of the region by Europeans, a period when water transport predominated. The second era (1881-1900) is a period of transition from water to rail: the first trans-continental railway merely duplicated the existing water facilities, but its construction encouraged a rapid expansion of settlement even before it actually opened. The turn of the century heralded a decade of feverish rail-way construction, culminating with the opening of the second trans-continental railway in 1915. The railway era ends with the close of hostilities in 1918, and the following era embraces the inter-war years, a period of transition from rail to road. The final era commences in 1940 for, although the steam railway and electric interurban assumed a new lease of life during the war, it was merely a temporary resurgence and road transport was soon predominant. The wartime incentive spurred a tremendous growth of the regional economy, a growth which has continued, somewhat sporadically, up to the present. Throughout the century, settlement change reflects the changes in the economy and transport facilities in the Lower Mainland. The economy of the region has passed from primary exploitation to that of a metropolitan complex with a growing secondary component. The Vancouver area has formed a distinct economic unit within the regions since the arrival of the railway in 1886. The growing functional concentration on the city led to the attainment of metropolitan status by the end of the first decade of the twentieth century. This attainment was expressed in the physical as well as the functional growth of the city: by 1910 it possessed over 30% of the provincial population and greater than 40% of the tertiary activity, more than double the proportions of a decade earlier. The interaction between the metropolis and the smaller centres, with the metropolis playing the dominant role, has given rise to the present urban hierarchy. The settlement pattern has varied from discrete and independent settlements, during the phase of primary exploitation, to a metropolitan-dominated complex. The discrete pattern changed to an increasingly depends hierarchy following the growth of Vancouver and New Westminster as market and distribution centres. The growth of these centres linked them into a common metropolitan area, while the external expansion of this area has resulted in the functional and physical domination of most of the region by the metropolis: a trend that has resulted in the supplanting of the central place hierarchy by an inter-urban complex. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

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Bibliography: pages 105-107. / Information Systems, both paper-based and computer-based, are integral in the management of irregular settlements and the process of delivering low-cost housing in South Africa. An Irregular Settlement can be defined as an area where the 'shacks' have no fixed street address. Due to policies by previous regimes, under whose rule irregular settlements were almost ignored, there is often little or no spatial or socio-economic data available about existing irregular settlements. Thus for the use of the community, or to organisations interested in helping to improve the quality of life of the residents living in these settlements. As a prerequisite to quality of life, the basic need of shelter, along with food, healthcare and education need to be made available. The emphasis today is thus being placed on the provision of low-cost housing. A need thus arises to have up-to-date information about these irregular settlements in order to plan either for the upgrading of the settlement or for the relocation to new low-cost housing developments. Currently mostly paper-based systems are being used in these developments. There are two opportunities where computer-oriented information systems could be used at this time in 1996 and 1997 to assist with the management and upgrading of irregular settlements. The first is the stage of managing an existing irregular settlement; the second is managing the process of housing provision, taking advantage of the project-linked subsidy scheme. Two Cape Town based projects provide case studies for the application of information systems at the two stages identified above. The first is the Marconi Beam 'From Shacks to Houses' project located in Milnerton. The second is the Integrated Services Land Project (iSLP) of the Cape Flats. The Marconi Beam Settlement is an irregular settlement that has been accepted as part of the 'Project-Linked Subsidy Scheme' for the provision of new low-cost housing. Previously only paper-based systems were being used to manage the settlement and its move to the new Joe Slovo Park formal housing development. There was also found to be a lack of appropriate tools and awareness of which technology could be used in the process. Some of the specific application areas in which we were able to provide solutions in Marconi Beam included: ■ the identification of people directly affected by the fire that swept through the settlement in October 1996; ■ the residents who would be affected by the construction of a new road through the one area of the settlement could be identified, facilitating their movement away from the area; and ■ a system of tracking the internal moves of residents was devised by which we were able to maintain a record of the internal movements of residents whilst the system of the lottery was in place. Subsequently, with the use of the Block System, the identification of residents who were required to come in and have their applications for new houses processed, as a result of their spatial location in the settlement, was accomplished. The Indlu Management System, a computer based system, resulted from the need to keep track of, and process, large amounts of socio-economic data in order to speedily process the large number of applicants applying for national housing subsidies. As a result of the implementation of this system, the processing times per applicant have been reduced from 30 minutes to 10 minutes per applicant. The successful use of these systems in the two projects demonstrate that there is thus a definite role to be played in the use of information systems in relation to the management of irregular settlements and the provision of low-cost housing.

Global displacement is accelerating‭. ‬Climate change is proposed to be a main driver of migration‭, ‬together with conflict‭, ‬poverty‭, ‬and a promise of a better life in wealthier parts of the world‭. ‬This builds on a legacy of an extractive geopolitical relation between the Global North and the Global South and the general response from the field of architecture has been to offer temporary solutions‭, ‬such as tents and containers organized in Refugee Camps‭. ‬This way of responding is highly problematic as it is stigmatizing refugees to become temporary victims‭, ‬motivating a migratory reception build on the idea of a visit rather than a long-term stay‭. ‬Regardless of the circumstances of displacement‭, ‬this report argues for a response that moves between a temporary and permanent condition‭, ‬based on concepts of affordability and local affiliation‭. ‬Building on a conversation on vernacular architecture‭, ‬the project proposes to expand vernacular knowledge to meet present standards‭, ‬in terms of construction methods‭, ‬material use‭, ‬and climatic strategies‭,  ‬both responding to meet the needs of displacement‭, ‬and a degrading environment‭. ‬ The project is set in rural Turkey‭, ‬addressing a situation where informal‭, ‬migratory workers of the agriculture sector are currently living scattered in tent settlements‭, ‬in the province of Torbali‭, ‬Izmir‭. ‬It suggests a housing proposal‭, ‬more specifically‭ ‬a dormitory for seasonal communities‭. ‬In its essence‭, ‬it acts as a theoretical proposal intended to contribute to a discussion on the role of architecture and the potential of the vernacular‭, ‬in a situation of displacement‭. ‬

The Illyrians were an Indo-European group of people who once inhabited a large expanse of the western Balkans. As interactions with the Greeks and, later, the Romans increased, the traditional way of life and sociopolitical organization of the Illyrians were undoubtedly altered. This thesis takes a geospatial approach in order to address how interactions with other groups of people influenced Illyrian settlement patterns. Specifically, how Greek colonization followed by Roman incorporation affected Illyrian settlement patterns in Albania? Due to its peripheral location in the Mediterranean, Albania provides a unique case study for investigating colonization, integration, and interaction between different cultures.