This study examines whether preliminary estimates of real growth of GDP and the major user side components in the Swedish quarterly national accounts are unbiased forecasts of revised estimates, and whether available information from the process of reconciling GDP from the production and user side is used efficiently to minimise revisions. Regression analysis is performed to find that preliminary GDP growth estimates are rational forecasts of revised estimates. The results are mixed for the user side components. Preliminary estimates of growth of investments and exports are rational forecasts whereas revisions of growth of government spending could be minimised by more efficiently using information about preliminary estimate values. Moreover, information about the statistical discrepancy between the GDP growth estimates from the production and user side could be used to minimise revisions of growth of consumer spending and imports, but these conclusions are sensitive to the period of volatile economic development 2008-2010.

The thesis is dedicated to the issue of the legal status of arbitrator in international commercial arbitration. Arbitration is not a new phenomenon, much of its development has taken place in the 19th century, when alongside with arbitration ad hoc an institutional arbitration has also been created and permanent arbitration courts were established. The best known permanent arbitration court is undoubtedly the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. The first chapter focuses on the insight into the history of arbitration. Certain terms relating to arbitration are defined in the first chapter in particular the concept of international commercial arbitration. The question of arbitrability, ie. admissibility of arbitration, is also addressed there. In the second chapter the types of arbitration are analyzed - ad hoc and institutional arbitration, facultative and obligatory arbitration, traditional and online arbitration, international and domestic arbitration; as well as different types of arbitration agreements - agreement on an arbitrator, the arbitration clause, unlimited compromise, asymmetric, pathological and combined arbitration clause. The third chapter is dedicated to the advantages and disadvantages of arbitration compared to proceedings in...

This thesis is focused on the characteristics of arbitration in China. The aim of the thesis is to characterize arbitration both in terms of historical and cultural analysis, as well as the terms of contemporary arbitral practice. These characteristics are compared with other Asian countries - with both the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong and with Singapore. The methods used in the thesis are mainly legal-analytical, descriptive, and comparative. Besides the introduction and the conclusion, the thesis is structured into seven chapters, which are further divided into parts. The first chapter contains the general characteristics of arbitration, the fundamental definition of the term itself and definition of the nature of arbitration within the scope of the fundamental theories. The issue of differentiation between domestic arbitration and international arbitration as well as related issues of an international element are also described. The chapter further specifies the different types of arbitration, and at the end discusses the advantages and disadvantages of arbitration as an alternative to other forms of dispute resolution. The second chapter discusses the cultural and historic context in which arbitration is based in China, especially the impact of traditional Chinese teachings....

This thesis focuses on the recent development of international commercial arbitration in international and national sphere. The aim is analysis and description of new trends in this field taking into account their implementation in legal system of the particular states and in the sources of international law. The structure of this thesis is composed by six chapters. The introductory chapter concentrates on the concept of international commercial arbitration, on its historical and theoretical bases. The advantages and disadvantages of the international commercial arbitration as the extrajudicial solution of the conflict are also covered in this chapter. Consequential chapter defines sources of law which apply to this juridical institute. It is divided into three sections according to its origin and also its function of these sources. This chapter closely describes eventual recent modification in the mentioned sources of law. The third chapter covers fundamental principles of the arbitration and its reflections. The explanation is focused on recent expressions of these principles. Second part of the thesis analyses the process of realization of international commercial arbitration. Its organization is described in the chapter four which deals with main instruments enabling process of arbitration....

L'étude L'arbitrage dans les contrats administratifs peut surprendre du fait que les deux notions n'appartiennent pas à la même branche de droit dans les pays de tradition francophone. De même, l'activité des personnes morales de droit public est régie par des règles exorbitantes du droit commun qui permettent à l'intérêt général de l'emporter sur l'intérêt particulier. L'arbitrage est un mode juridictionnel consenti et égalitaire de règlement des litiges. Ainsi, les juridiction étatiques devront nécessairement intervenir pour ordonner l'exequatur de la sentence arbitrale, qui permettra l'exécution forcée de la sentence. Le recours à l'arbitrage en droit administratif est fait pour certaines raisons dont la lenteur de la juridiction administrative causé par l'encombrement des tribunaux administratifs en France et au Liban. De même, la compétence technique de l'arbitre a conduit le législateur à organiser en droit interne des dérogations ponctuelles à la prohibition du recours à l'arbitrage pour les personnes morales de droit public. De même, pour le C.E. Français qui, par sa décision Sueur et autres du 29 octobre 2004, a en effet considéré que, compte tenu de la complexité de ces contra rendant nécessaire la mise en place de modalités adaptées de règlement des litiges, l'ordonnance du 17 juin 2004 qui le créait avait pu déroger au principe général du droit prohibant le recours à l'arbitrage pour les personnes morales de droit public. Le droit international a lui aussi contribué à de telles dérogations, tel que le cas de l'accord du 6 mars 2007, relatif au musée universel d'Abou Dhabi. Ces évolutions attestent l'intérêt évident des personnes publiques pour l'arbitrage auquel il est nécessaire de répondre. D'où la nécessité de démontrer que l'arbitrage peut s'adapter à la nature particulière des missions assignées aux personnes publiques et à la nature juridique des contrats publics ainsi de trouver le régime juridique adéquate. / The study arbitration in administrative contracts may be surprising that the two concepts do not belong to the same branch of law in countries of French tradition. Similarly, the activity of legal persons govemed by public law is exorbitali common law that allows the public interest to outweigh the private interest. Arbitration is a judicial egalitarian disput resolution mean. Thus, the administrative courts must necessarily intervene to order the enforcement of the awarde decision. The use of arbitration to resolve dispute arising out of administrative contracts has reason the slow action take by administrative tribunals. Similarly, the expertise that has the arbitrator led the legislature to make some exceptions the prohibition of the use of arbitration by the Public authorities. Similarly, in France, the administrative court decides t refer the famous case Sueur et autres on 29/10/2004 to an arbitrator in the view of the complexity of these contrac create the necessity of referring the case to an arbitrator for dispute resolution. Moreover, International law has aIso contributed to such exceptions as it is the case of the agreement of 6 March 2007 related to the Abu Dhabi univers museum. These developments demonstrate the obvious interest of public authority for arbitration. Hence the need demonstrate that arbitration can be adapted to the specifie nature of the missions assigned to public authorities and the legal nature of public & administrative contracts and to find the appropriate legal regime.

Magister Legum - LLM / Aims of the research paper is to examine the legal framework  of implemantation and enforcement of DSB recommendations and rulings and to investigate the trend of non-compliance with BSD recommendations and rulings where complianant  is a developing country. / South Africa

Au fil des siècles, l’arbitrage s’est développé et s’est imposé comme une véritable justice, reconnue par les parties au litige et par les États. Vanté pour sa célérité et son adéquation aux besoins du commerce international, l’arbitrage a pris un tour décisif avec la mondialisation et l’intensification des transactions commerciales internationales. Malheureusement, comme le dit l’adage « il n’y a pas de rose sans épines », l’arbitrage n’a pas que des roses, il a également ses épines. En effet, l’évolution de cette activité juridique a donné lieu à des dérives. Les pratiques frauduleuses se sont multipliées ces dernières années dans le secteur et le problème de conflits d’intérêts se pose de façon de plus en plus aigüe. Face à cette situation, il est important de rappeler à la communauté arbitrale, tout d’abord, les principes sacro-saints qui gouvernent cette justice. Ensuite, mesurer l’efficacité voire l’effectivité de ces principes dans le contexte des dérives actuelles. Ce qui nous amène à nous demander enfin, si le droit de l'arbitrage international peut-il permettre seul d'endiguer les dérives arbitrales actuelles ou bien peut-on ou doit-on faire appel à d’autres normes de conduites morales comme l’éthique pour renforcer ce droit ? Si oui, dans quelle mesure cela est-il possible ? / Over the centuries, arbitration has developed and had imposed itself has a true justice, recognized by the different parties in a dispute and the countries. Touted for his quickness and his international trade appropriateness’ needs, arbitration has taken a decisive turn with globalization and the intensification of international commercial transactions. Unfortunately, as the old saying goes “there is no rose without a thorn”, arbitration does not only have roses it also has thorns. Indeed, the evolution of this legal activity has given rise to drifts. Fraudulent practices have multiplied in recent years in the sector and the issue of conflict’s interest arises in an increasingly acute manner. To face with this situation, first of all, it is important to remind to the arbitration community, the sacrosanct principle that govern this justice. And then, measure the effectivity or even the effectiveness of these principles in actual context of deviations. This finally leads us to ask, whether if international arbitration’s law can by itself solve actual arbitration deviations or can other moral standards, such as ethics, be used to reinforce this right? If so, to what extent is this possible?

Strike action by employees is globally used in matters of mutual interest in order to place pressure on employers to meet their demands although the right to strike is not contained in any of the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) conventions or recommendations. Two conventions of the ILO are however relevant in the context of strikes and lockouts.1 The first is the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention 87 of 1948 and the second convention of importance is the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention 98 of 1949, both of which was ratified by South Africa and accordingly binds South Africa to comply with their provisions. The ILO appointed legal experts to assist the drafters of the Labour Relations Act,2 (LRA) in order to comply with these conventions. Furthermore section 3 of the LRA provides that the LRA must be interpreted in compliance with the international law obligations of South Africa. Section 27 of the Interim Constitution3 made provision for both the right to strike and the right of employers to lockout. In the proposed text of the final Constitution the recourse of the employer to lockout was not included. The text of the final Constitution was submitted to the Constitutional Court (CC) for certification in that it had to decide whether the new text of the final Constitution complied with the constitutional principles agreed to by the different political parties as the inviolable framework for the final Constitution. The CC delivered its judgment in Ex parte Chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly: In re Certification of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa4 and concluded that the omission of a right to lockout from the final Constitution does not conflict with constitutional principles. The CC did not agree with the argument, raised by Business South Africa, based on the proposition that the right of employers to lockout is the necessary equivalent to the right of workers to strike and that therefore, in order to treat workers and employers equally, both should be recognized in the new text. The result of this judgment is that employees’ right to strike is expressly protected by section 23 of the Constitution whilst the right of employers to lockout their employees is not expressly entrenched. The employers’ right is however protected by implication through the express protection of the right to bargain collectively in terms of section 23(5) of the Constitution and section 64 of the LRA.

The creation of a binding adjudication system under the Dispute Settlement Understanding ("DSU") is one of the major successes of the WTO. However, while the Dispute Settlement Body ("DSB") has experienced a high level of compliance with its rulings, there have been enough failures to raise concerns about compliance with WTO rulings. This in turn endangers the long term viability and legitimacy of the WTO as a decision-making body. This thesis explores the possibility of more effective integration of arbitration as a means of dealing with a small number of problematic cases where compliance with a ruling is doubtful. It considers arbitration as an alternative to what has effectively become an institutionalized litigation system involving panels and the Appellate Body, and as an adjunct to the diplomatic resolution of disputes, particularly for policy driven cases where compliance with WTO rulings is more doubtful. While proposals for the use of arbitration made during the Uruguay Round of negotiations leading to the creation o f the WTO have been realized in the provisions of the DSU, arbitration has never been effectively tested as a true alternative. Further, arbitration as an alternative to the litigation system has been almost entirely ignored in the context of the current debate over reform of the WTO dispute settlement system. After over a decade of WTO decision making, it is now an opportune point to consider meaningful institutional reform that more fully incorporates arbitration as an alternative form of dispute settlement at the WTO in politically difficult cases, and that builds on the existing but underused arbitration provision in Article 25 of the DSU. This thesis challenges the predominant bias towards the litigation system involving panels and the Appellate Body as a one-size-fits-all solution. It explores the potential role of arbitration, in the context of compliance theories, a historical review of the negotiations during the Uruguay Round, and an analysis of the shortcomings of the current DSU that contribute to the problems of non-compliance. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

The recent investment policy shift, by the South African government, including, termination of bilateral investment treaties with some developed countries, is illustrative of the continued discontent by most developing countries with the status quo in the realm of international investments agreements (IIAs) regime. Balancing governments' sovereign right to implement domestic policies, in order to achieve socio-economic goals, for overall sustainable development, and the corresponding duty to protect foreign investments within the host state seems perpetually elusive, within the current bilateral investment treaty (BIT) regime. The parallel rising of free trade agreements (FTAs) incorporating investment chapters to BITs and the withdrawal from international investment arbitration by some countries, is symptomatic of continued disgruntlement with the current investment regime. South Africa is amongst the front runners of this discontentment and has voiced its concerns with the system, by cancelling some of its BITs and substituting same with adopting a new domestic investment regime instead, the investment Act of 2015. This study analyses the government's policy shift, with a view to find the extent to which the current BIT regime constrained the government's policy space towards economic transformation. This is achieved by analysing the substance and objective of the policy reform as against the international standards. Consequently, after probing the global investment regime and more in particularly the country's economic and political architecture, the study found that although South Africa's investment policy shift was labelled 'drastic and regressive' by critics, the latter is rational when subjected to substantive approach to the rule of law. Author however, concludes that it is the implementation thereof that is disproportional, as the same objectives underpinning the policy reform can be achieved through a less contentious approach. Finally author suggests a renegotiation of a model BIT as a less onerous and proportionate tool, to achieve the balance sought, and recommends policy options for enhancing international investment regime to address the challenges identified. / tm2017 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM / Unrestricted