Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

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This document entitled Professional Education and Training of Valuers is submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy by publication and comprises an overview based on twenty publications by the candidate and the research which underpins those publications. The publications are presented within the themes of property taxation, the mutual recognition of professional qualifications and the teaching of valuation. The development of the research from the earlier work which led to an MPhil award is clearly identified. The reflective overview is divided into five sections. Section one introduces the work and analyses the publications. Section two describes and critically examines the research methodology which underpins the publications and the research from which they emerged. Section three demonstrates the co-herence of the submission, while identifying the key issues within the publications. Section four identifies the specific contributions to knowledge which the candidate has made and describes how the research will be developed in the future; and section five provides a brief closing statement.

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Property theory has long explored the meaning and content of private property. Similarly, one finds no shortage of analysis of common or communitarian property. In the theoretical literature, however, one finds very little writing about public property, a third, very significant, type of property. This lack of attention is not due to a lack of examples; on the contrary, examples abound. This thesis offers a theoretical analysis of one such example: Crown land in Australia. Crown land is a largely forgotten and therefore under-analysed aspect of Australian real property law. This lack of analysis has produced significant confusion in recent judicial developments concerning Australian common law native title. In order to alleviate the potential for confusion, this thesis fills a long-standing gap in the literature of Australian real property law. In order to fill this gap and to provide a much-needed analytical account, it is necessary to make use of working definitions of private, public and communitarian property. This thesis provides each. First, using JW Hams' Property and Justice, it constructs a working definition of private property. From that, by way of contrast, a working definition of public property is offered. Finally, by way of contrast to both private and public property, a working definition of communitarian property is also developed. Armed with working definitions of private, public and communitarian property, the thesis provides an analytical account of Crown land in Australia. It describes Crown land as the quasi-ownership use-privileges and control-powers which the Crown, by virtue of its prerogative power over land, enjoys in Australian land. The Crown enjoys differently packaged bundles of such privileges and powers over many different sorts of land, such as those which have never been allocated for any use, specific natural resources such as minerals or petroleum, those over which Australia's Aboriginal peoples enjoy native title, and even those over which private persons hold freehold estates or statutory leases. All such lands, due to the Crown's quasi-ownership privileges and powers therein, can be called Crown land, which embraces a continuum of locations, each defined by a unique package of such privileges and powers over the relevant type of land. The thesis calls this the Crown land continuum, which, in its totality, is a working example of public property.

The aim of this research is to contribute to the concept of authenticity for the conservation of historic places. The focus of this work is a development of a set of criteria to assess authenticity in order to contribute towards the conservation of historic places in Western Europe.The purpose is to define a set of authenticity criteria. Firstly, this thesis describes the concern of the concept of authenticity in conservation of the built environment and, based on a review of relevant research and theories on how authenticity criteria fit in conservation in general and how it is important to define a set of authenticity criteria in order to conserve historic places in Western Europe. Based on this review of relevant research and theories, the researcher understood the need to define a set of authenticity criteria in order to facilitate the conservation of historic places in Western Europe. The set of criteria to assess authenticity in the conservation of historic places is based on the spirit of UNESCO criteria to test authenticity with the definitions of the criteria used by the USA Parks Service to evaluate integrity of the property in order to be listed. The initial set of criteria is composed of seven qualities as follows: Location, Settings, Design, Workmanship, Materials, Feelings and Association. Linked to the "state of the art " of Conservation of Historic Places in Western Europe, these criteria were applied to four case studies that showed the evidence in all of them, but strongly demonstrates that Location, Feelings and Association are not important criteria for Western Europe. However Function / Use is an important criteria for all Europe. According to the case studies' conclusions and the review of literature, the model of research created is based on five parameters which define the qualities to assess authenticity in conservation. Four of these parameters (Design, Materials, Workmanship and Settings) are based on USA Parks Service definitions.The fifth parameter (Function / Use) is based on the case studies' conclusions. With the support of a sounding board of experts, the author developed a conceptual model for checking the propositions. This model and the propositions were checked by the Delphi Process with a further group of twenty experts from Western Europe and through a continuous analysis of the data. The set of authenticity criteria established was sent to the Delphi panel of experts in Portugal, the UK and West European organisations involved in the conservation of the built heritage with statements in order to find an agreement on the evidence and definition of each criterion. This procedure was based on the assumption that the achievement of a consensus was possible. Consensus was, in fact, obtained about the criteria. The final criteria achieved highlight the emerging importance of function and use in historic places for the future. The final criteria are: Material Design Workmanship Function/Use Setting DEFINITIONS The physical elements that were combined or deposited during a particular period of time and in a particular pattern or configuration to form an historic property. Combination of elements that create the form, plan, space, structure, and style of a property. The physical evidence of the crafts of a particular culture or people during any given period in history or prehistory. The degree of continuity of original or significant uses in a property. The physical environment of a historic property. Due to the fact that the sounding board of experts and Delphi members were made up of people with different backgrounds, ranging from Academia, Architecture, Construction, Industry of Culture, NGOs (Non Governamental Organizations) and other built heritage organizations (UNESCO, ICCROM, ICOMOS, Europa Nostra and Council of Europe) the final set of criteria to assess authenticity for conservation of historic places in Western Europe has an holistic point of view.

<p> The purpose of this Paper is twofold: First, to explore the somewhat contradictory, and perhaps convoluted approaches by the Supreme Court and Federal Circuit to patentable subject matter since the early 1970&rsquo;s to the present; and Second, to investigate two theories of how to fix&mdash;if it can be considered to be broken&mdash;the current state of the law regarding patent eligibility. In regard to the second aspect, it is the Thesis of this Paper that the only practicable solution to the current quagmire is a legislative approach that will correct the legal definition of patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. &sect; 101. </p><p> In addition, it has become common, since the decision of <i>Alice </i> and others to state &ldquo;software patents are dead.&rdquo; This is not even remotely true. What has happened, as will be discussed, is that because of the expansion of the definition of the abstract idea exemption of patentable subject matter, it has become increasingly difficult&mdash;sometimes impossible&mdash;to get patents awarded for certain technology areas. One reason for this is because so-called abstract idea innovations can be best expressed in terms of algorithms and in software. Consequently, software patents have achieved a negative reputation&mdash;sort of a &ldquo;guilt by association&rdquo; narrative. The truly unfortunate result&mdash;the unintended consequence - is that perhaps many applications for innovations have either not been filed, or have been unfairly rejected and abandoned.</p><p>

M.Comm. / The for-profit business must maximise owners' wealth over the long term. It is accomplished by legally structuring the lease to minimise tax liability. Accounting profits and tax liability arising from the lease are determined in different ways: different lease structures could result in similar accounting profits, but different tax liability. A lease's accounting profits may be preestimated with relative certainty, but it's difficult to pre-estimate its tax liability. It's especially difficult with long-term leases that stretch over a number of accounting periods and tax years. There isn't a specific framework with which tax liability arising from the lease of immovable property may be determined and minimised. This study focuses on determining and minimising income tax liability within the context of the leasing of immovable property in South Africa. The workings of the factors that give rise to the tax liability are distinguished. Different types oflease agreements, reflecting the commercial objectives, are identified. A framework is then constructed from these factors to simplizy determination of the tax liability, and to structure the lease so that tax liability may be reduced. The different types of lease agreements are imposed on the framework to subordinate the reduction of tax liability to the parties' commercial objectives.

LL.M. (Human Rights Law) / This research considers the potential for conflict between human rights and intellectual property rights (IPRs) in South Africa. I argue that this conflict is brought about by the fact that the interests which are served by these two areas of law are different. Human rights have a broader outlook in that they seek to provide conditions required for people to lead lives that are worthwhile, while IPRs are narrower in that they primarily seek to reward inventors or creators of works. The first chapter looks into the nature of human rights and IPRs and also traces some of the origins of the clashes between the two rights. The second chapter attempts to determine if IPRs are considered human rights in South Africa. This chapter also reviews the first case where human rights and IPRs were considered together in South Africa. In the third chapter, medical patents are considered with a view of deriving some learnings from other developing countries. This work will conclude with the proposition that where there is conflict, certain human rights must take priority over IPRs.