South African company law is currently the object of comprehensive review. One o f the areas under scrutiny is that of corporate governance. Control over management is vital in the interests of the company itself, its shareholders and its creditors. Effective accountability should be balanced against the need to allow those who manage a certain measure of freedom and discretion in the exercise of their function. Company directors are subject to various duties. This thesis concentrates on their fiduciary obligation. It is suggested that this sui generis obligation is owed to the company as a separate entity. Interests of other groups may sometimes merit con­ sideration. Against the background o f a com parative investigation, a "corporate opportunity" is defined as any property or economic opportunity to which the com­ pany has a claim. South African law protects a company’s claim to an opportunity if it is in the company’s line of business and if the company has justifiably been relying upon the director(s) to acquire it or to assist in its acquisition for the company. The application of established fiduciary principles suffice to resolve corporate opportunity matters. Essentially the application o f these rules amount to a determination whether the director has complied with his fundamental duty to act in the company’s best interests. There seems to be no need for a separate doctrine of corporate opportunities.' A director should only be absolved from liability on account of the company’s inability to pursue an opportunity or its rejection by the company if there was no real conflict of interest. The appropriation of corporate opportunities should not be ratifiable, both because the ratification constitutes a fraud on the minority, and because the decision to ratify cannot be regarded as being in the interests of the company. The relationship between the appropriation of corporate opportunities, misuse of confidential information and competition is investigated. These aspects fre­ quently overlap, but should be distinguished because their bases, and accordingly their appropriate remedies, may differ. Effective control may benefit by a restatement of directors’ fiduciary duties in the Companies Act. To this end certain amendments to the Act are recommended. / Mercantile Law / LLD

La mesure de la forme 3D du visage est une problématique qui attire de plus en plus de chercheurs et qui trouve son application dans des domaines divers tels que la biométrie, l’animation et la chirurgie faciale. Les solutions actuelles sont souvent basées sur des systèmes projecteur/caméra et utilisent de la lumière structurée pour compenser l’insuffisance de la texture faciale. L’information 3D est ensuite calculée en décodant la distorsion des patrons projetés sur le visage. Une des techniques les plus utilisées de la lumière structurée est la codification sinusoïdale par décalage de phase qui permet une numérisation 3D de résolution pixélique. Cette technique exige une étape de déroulement de phase, sensible à l’éclairage ambiant surtout quand le nombre de patrons projetés est limité. En plus, la projection de plusieurs patrons impacte le délai de numérisation et peut générer des artefacts surtout pour la capture d’un visage en mouvement. Une alternative aux approches projecteur-caméra consiste à estimer l’information 3D par appariement stéréo suivi par une triangulation optique. Cependant, le modèle calculé par cette technique est généralement non-dense et manque de précision. Des travaux récents proposent la super-résolution pour densifier et débruiter les images de profondeur. La super-résolution a été particulièrement proposée pour les caméras 3D TOF (Time-Of-Flight) qui fournissent des scans 3D très bruités. Ce travail de thèse propose une solution de numérisation 3D à faible coût avec un schéma de super-résolution spatio-temporelle. Elle utilise un système multi-caméra étalonné assisté par une source de projection non-étalonnée. Elle est particulièrement adaptée à la reconstruction 3D de visages, i.e. rapide et mobile. La solution proposée est une approche hybride qui associe la stéréovision et la codification sinusoïdale par décalage de phase, et qui non seulement profite de leurs avantages mais qui surmonte leurs faiblesses. Le schéma de la super-résolution proposé permet de corriger l’information 3D, de compléter la vue scannée du visage en traitant son aspect déformable. / 3D face measurement is increasingly demanded for many applications such as bio-metrics, animation and facial surgery. Current solutions often employ a structured light camera/projector device to overcome the relatively uniform appearance of skin. Depth in-formation is recovered by decoding patterns of the projected structured light. One of the most widely used structured-light coding is sinusoidal phase shifting which allows a 3Ddense resolution. Current solutions mostly utilize more than three phase-shifted sinusoidal patterns to recover the depth information, thus impacting the acquisition delay. They further require projector-camera calibration whose accuracy is crucial for phase to depth estimation step. Also, they need an unwrapping stage which is sensitive to ambient light, especially when the number of patterns decreases. An alternative to projector-camera systems consists of recovering depth information by stereovision using a multi-camera system. A stereo matching step finds correspondence between stereo images and the 3D information is obtained by optical triangulation. However, the model computed in this way generally is quite sparse. To up sample and denoise depth images, researchers looked into super-resolution techniques. Super-resolution was especially proposed for time-of-flight cameras which have very low data quality and a very high random noise. This thesis proposes a3D acquisition solution with a 3D space-time non-rigid super-resolution capability, using a calibrated multi-camera system coupled with a non calibrated projector device, which is particularly suited to 3D face scanning, i.e. rapid and easily movable. The proposed solution is a hybrid stereovision and phase-shifting approach, using two shifted patterns and a texture image, which not only takes advantage of the assets of stereovision and structured light but also overcomes their weaknesses. The super-resolution scheme involves a 3D non-rigid registration for 3D artifacts correction in the presence of small non-rigid deformations as facial expressions.

No presente trabalho, analisaremos as ideias jurídicas de José de Alencar (1829-1877), procurando demonstrar que este não foi somente um dos mais proeminentes vultos das letras pátrias e um dos mais destacados publicistas, políticos e oradores do Brasil de seu tempo, mas também um importante jurista. Embora o jurisconsulto José de Alencar seja inegavelmente menor do que o literato e mesmo que o homem de Estado, não deixa ele de ter sua relevância, merecendo, pois, ser mais conhecido e reconhecido do que tem sido. Em nossa exposição de suas ideias em diversos campos do Direito, nos concentramos mais naquelas que reputamos mais importantes social, política e historicamente, particularmente naquelas referentes à relação entre a Lei Natural e a Lei Positiva, à Constituição Imperial, ao Poder Moderador, à representação política, à abolição da escravatura, à codificação civil e à propriedade. / In this work we will analyse the juridical ideas of José de Alencar (1829-1877), seeking to demonstrate that he was not only one of the most prominent figures of the Brazilian literature and one of the most distinguished journalists, political writers, politicians and orators of the Brazil of his time but also an important jurist. Although the jurisconsult José de Alencar is unquestionably smaller in importance than the writer and even the man of State he does not lack relevance, thus deserving to be more known and recognised. In our exposition of his ideas in different fields of law we will concentrate more on those that we consider more important socially, politically and historically, particularly on the ones which refer to the relation between Natural Law and Positive Law, the Imperial Constitution, the Moderator Power, the political representation, the abolition of slavery, the civil codification and the property.

This thesis analysis in social practise the Language Management Theory - it deals with pedagogical activity of Czech language teachers at secondary schools, based on corrections of writen language tests. The goal of this paper was to find out whether the norm of czech standard language which is contained in codices correspond with the norm that is presented by teachers. This thesis uses modern metdological approaches from the sociolinguistic sphere, especially the method of so called 'Follow-Up Interview'. It also uses the concept of the Social Power Field by Ulrich Ammon and the Language Management Theory by J. V. Neustupný as general methodological basis. As the source of information served authentic tests which has been filled by fifty students of a secondary school a and then corrected by eight czech language teachers. Other sources were Follow-Up Interviews with the teachers and questionnaires. On the basis of these sources the Language Management Theory was researched and also the idea of the teachers about the norm of standard language. This idea was compared to the opinions of other three instances of the Social Power Field. In cases there was something unclear the information were completed from the Follow-Up Interviews. The research has proved that in the most cases the norm presented by teachers...

Enfin, le droit international dispose d’un ensemble de règles relatives à la responsabilité des organisations internationales pour fait internationalement illicite. Après 10 ans de travail, la Commission du droit international est parvenue, en 2011, à élaborer un projet d'articles codifiant les règles en la matière. La tâche était pourtant délicate : assujettir ces entités dont la nature et le fonctionnement sont différents des Etats, à un ensemble de règles unique dans le domaine de la responsabilité internationale. L’objet de cette étude porte sur l’œuvre de codification effectuée par la Commission dans le projet d’articles. Il s’agit plus précisément d’analyser les techniques de codification utilisées par la Commission dans l’élaboration des règles applicables : s’agit-il d’une codification stricto sensu de la pratique ou bien de l’élaboration de nouvelles règles relevant du « développement progressif » du droit international ? La réponse apportée à cette question suppose préalablement de définir les sources de la codification en ce qui concerne chacune des dispositions du projet d’articles, en se demandant si elle concrétise une pratique bien établie des organisations internationales, ou au contraire une transposition des règles du projet d’articles sur la responsabilité de l’Etat, adaptées aux particularités des organisations internationales. L’autorité du projet d’articles ne semble pas, à l’heure actuelle, faire l’unanimité, et dans ce contexte, la présente étude portant sur le rapport entre codification et développement progressif dans l’œuvre de codification de la CDI permet d’apprécier l’autorité substantielle propre à chacune des dispositions du projet d’articles. D’autant qu’on ne sait absolument pas si une convention de codification sera adoptée, qui pourra ériger les dispositions du projet d’articles en normes juridiquement obligatoires. / The international law has finally a set of rules on the responsibility of the international organizations for internationally wrongful acts. After 10 years of work, the International Law Commission was able in 2011 to elaborate a draft articles codifying the rules on the matter. However the task was difficult: subject these entities, whose nature and functioning is different from States to a single set of rules in the field of international responsibility. The purpose of this study focuses on the work of codification made by the Commission in the draft articles. This is specifically to analyze the techniques of codification used by the Commission in the elaboration of the applicable rules: is it a codification sticto sensu of the practice or a creation of new rules under the "progressive development" of the international law? The answer to this question presupposes to define the sources of codification in each of the provisions of the draft articles concerned, wondering if it embodies a well-established practice of international organizations, or rather a transposition of the rules of the draft articles on States responsibility, adapted to the features of international organizations. At present the authority of the draft articles does not seem to have unanimity, and in this context, the present study on the relation between codification and progressive development in the codification work of ILC can appreciate the substantial own authority of each provisions of the draft articles. Especially that no one knows if a codification convention will be adopted, which will set the provisions of the draft articles up as legally binding norms.

Good corporate governance should be the cornerstone of all company management. Directors ought to know in whose interests the company should be managed. This thesis attempts to answer the following question: whose interests must be granted primacy in the management of a company? In chapter 1 it is stated that shareholders' interests are traditionally granted primacy in the management of a company. There has, however, been a shift in public opinion towards recognition of a wider variety of interests that should be considered than only those of the shareholders. These interests include, inter alia, environmental interests and those of the investors, employees and consumers. This thesis thus focuses on the primary stakeholders, namely individual shareholders, creditors, employees, consumers and suppliers. In chapter 2 a theoretical foundation is provided on the nature of a company. The different theories on the nature of a company, emphasising either shareholder primacy or stakeholder protection, are discussed. A combined new theory is proposed. It is suggested that the confusion relating to the meaning of "the company" needs to be eliminated. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 provide an international comparison of the company law in Botswana, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The focus falls, firstly, on directors' duties, secondly, on the question in whose interests directors should manage a company and, thirdly, on the codification of their duties. In chapter 6 the South African position is evaluated. First, the possible stakeholders are identified and the protection currently afforded them is explained. The reports of the King Committee on Corporate Governance, the Policy Document on company law reform as well as the Companies Bill of 2007 are discussed. Draft clauses are recommended to be incorporated in new company legislation to provide directors with clarity on what is expected of them. It is the aim of this thesis to provide clarity on whose interests should receive primacy when directors manage a company. The outcome of this research should provide a clear indication to South African directors of what is expected of them and who the beneficiaries of their fiduciary duties are. / Law / LL.D.

The present master's thesis tackles the position of vulgarisms within the system of language as used in texts published in Czech and French weekly opinion magazines. The thesis takes a theoretic and empiric approach, the first part dealing with the definition of the term of vulgarism in Czech and French stylistics and the delimitation of its role in the style of journalistic texts. The second part of the thesis describes the practical approach of Czech and French weeklies to vulgarisms in their texts based on a survey among editing staff of the major publishing houses both in France and in the Czech Republic. The outcomes of the survey were compared to the analysis results conveyed on a corpus built out of texts published in Le Point and Respekt weeklies. Based on the contrastive analysis of vulgarisms used in Czech and French language corpus, following the critical criteria as outlined in the first part of the thesis, several recommendations are made about French-Czech translations of vulgarisms in journalistic texts. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This paper deals with a comparison between the Czech duty of due managerial care of a member of governing body of limited company and the Irish non-fiduciary duty to exercise care, skill and diligence of a director of limited company (hereinafter also referred as "duty of care"). The paper aims to find out a possible way to improve legislation of the duty of due managerial care on the basis of comparison with the duty of care. The duty of care sets the ground for the comparison, therefore the paper deals first with the Irish legal status of the duty of care, which has been recently changed by the Companies Act 2014. Despite of the codification of the directors' duties, the core of interpretation and application of the duty of care still rests in judicial decisions. Nevertheless, the change of source and statutory wording of the duty means that the substance of Re City Equitable [1925] does not represent a good law anymore. The standard of care of Re City Equitable [1925] has been replaced by the minimal objective standard based on the British judgment Re D'Jan of London [1994]. The content of the duty of care is determined on the case by case basis, but in any event it consists of conclusions of the British judgment Re Barings [1999], which has been accepted by the Irish courts in restriction...

This thesis deals with one of the modern topics of international law - diplomatic protection. It provides for its comprehensive assessment from a wider and deeper perspective on the background of the codification process, which culminated in 2006, when the International Law Commission (ILC) adopted 19 Draft Articles on Diplomatic Protection. In the current state of international law, diplomatic protection is based on customary international law. It is an instrument to protect nationals (be it a natural or legal person) by their state of nationality, if they injured by another (host) state in violation of international law. Under the current definition, diplomatic protection means the invocation (through peaceful means) by a state of the responsibility of another state for an injury caused to a national by an internationally wrongful act of that another state. The aim of diplomatic protection is to implement this responsibility. The application and exercise of diplomatic protection is considered to be a sovereign, discretional right of the state, although the thesis points out the some recent developments in international law towards the need to recognize the rights and interests of the individual, as well as the constitutional practice of some states guaranteeing its citizens a (domestic) right to...

Trata a presente tese da sustentação da indispensabilidade de utilização, em um sistema tributário, para almejar ser justo, da tributação indireta. E não basta a utilização dela como elemento complementar do sistema. É necessário que sua participação seja equilibrada em relação à utilização da tributação direta, igualmente indispensável à justeza do sistema. Assim, entre a tributação direta e a indireta, não se deve cogitar de qual das duas é mais justa, sim que uma e outra contribuem igualmente para que o sistema como um todo, possa ser o mais justo possível. A exposição se inicia com um escorço histórico em que se procura analisar e situar o funcionamento dos sistemas tributários na evolução e conformação das diversas sociedades que antecedem à nossa, com uma natural ênfase à civilização ocidental como a entendemos, isto é, centrada em uma corrente econômica, cultural e técnica, de linha mediterrânea e européia. Neste escorço, superada a exposição referente às origens mais remotas, foram feitos alguns destaques temáticos, o primeiro e mais importante destacando a atuação de Colbert no reinado de Luiz XIV, na França, pela sua contribuição crítica ao sistema tributário então vigente naquele país, e a reforma que implementou com a introdução de impostos indiretos e redução de impostos diretos, no sentido de institucionalizar e fortalecer o reino. Outros destaques foram feitos, merecendo especial citação Ricardo, Enno Becker e Keynes, o primeiro pela sua exposição crítica dos impostos vigentes na Inglaterra em seu tempo, o segundo pela sua notável participação na elaboração da Constituição de Weimar e o terceiro pela sua atuação nos Estados Unidos após a crise de 1929 e sua participação na conferência de Bretton Woods. Findo o escorço histórico, segue-se uma exposição de natureza pessoal, historiando a forma como a presente tese se conformou, sob o título de \"Reintrodução\". A partir da conceituação de \"justiça fiscal\", a tese propriamente dita se delineia, passando-se de uma análise crítica relacionada ao objetivo maior, a justiça, para a análise do papel dos impostos indiretos e diretos e da contribuição de melhoria. Em sua parte final cuida-se do ajustamento sistêmico do problema, inspirando, além do desejável ajuste científico e cibernético, uma profunda reforma tributária, que poderia destinar-se ao Brasil, ou a qualquer outro país, em qualquer estágio de desenvolvimento que se encontre. O modelo é inspirado na reforma que, produzida inicialmente na França com a introdução da T.V.A. (\"Taxe a la Valeur Ajoutée\"), depois estendida à comunidade econômica européia, praticamente institucionalizou naqueles quadrantes um tipo de imposto único indireto, altamente simplificador desse sistema impositivo. Propõe-se desta forma, a introdução também de um imposto único similar, direto, que aliado à uma nova contribuição de melhoria, melhor instituída, e da terceirização sistêmica das taxas, dariam estrutura final a todo o conjunto tributário nacional, tendo por objetivo maior o estado de direito democrático moderno. Esta, assim, seria a \"grande síntese\" tributária passível de ser alcançada, em qualquer sistema moderno. / Cette thèse concerne le maintien du caractère indispensable de Ia tributation indirecte dans un système tributaire qui vise à Ia justice. Cependant, il ne suffit pas I\'emploie de Ia tributation indirecte en tant qu\'élement complémentaire du système. Il faut que sa participation soit equilibrée par rapport à I\'emploie de Ia tributation directe, également indispensable à Ia justesse du système. Ainsi, entre les impôts directs et les indirects, Ia cogitation est que tous les deux contribuent également pour que le système soit juste et non qu\'an entre le deux est plus juste. L\'exposition part d\'un raccourci historique dont le but est d\'analyser et placer le fonctionnement des systèmes tributaire dan I\'évolution et Ia conformation de plusieurs societés ultérieures, comprennant surtout Ia civilisation occidentale en tant que nous I\'envisageons. Ça veut dire, dont I\'axe consiste dans une chaine économique, culturelle et technique d\'origine meditarrenée et européenne. Dans ce raccourci, apres avoir surmonté I\'exposition concernant les origines les plus lointaines, on a choisi quelques groupes thématiques, dont le premier et le plus important concerne I\'action de Colbert dans le royaume de Louis XIV, en France, en raison de sa contribution critique au système tributaire lors y en vigueur, ainsi que Ia reforme qu\'il a implanté, dont I\'innovation consistait dans I\'introduction des impôts indirects et dans Ia reduction des impôts directs, de façon à institucionaliser et rendre plus puissant le royaume. Ensuite, on passe à d\'autres souslignements, et on doit mentionner de façon spéciale ceux-Ià concernant Ricardo, Enno Becker et Keynes. Le premier en raison de son exposition critique des impôts, lors en vigueur dans l\'Angleterre. Le second en fonction de sa remarquable participation dans I\'élaboration de Ia Constitution de Weimar. Et le troisième en raison de son sction aux États Unis aprés Ia débâcle de 1929, ainsi que sa participation dans Ia réunion de Bretton Woods. Apres ce raccourci historique, on passe à une exposition d\'ordre personnel, en racontant en detail le développement de cette thèse, sous le titre \"Reintroduction\". À partir de Ia conceptualisation de \"justice fiscale\", Ia thèse, en son essence, se delinée, et on passe à une analyse critique par rapport à son but majeur - Ia justice -, par I\'analyse de Ia fonction des impôts indirects et directs et Ia contribution d\'amélioration. La dernière section est consacrée à I\'ajustement systémique du problème, qu\'inspire, au-delà d\'un souhaitable couplage scientifique et cybernétique, une reforme tributaire profonde, capable d\'être employée soit au Brésil soit à un autre pays quelconque, independamment du degrée de développement qu\'il a atteint. Le modele s\'inspire à Ia reforme qui a commencé en France, avec I\'introduction par Maurice Lauré de Ia T.V.A. (Taxe à Ia Valeur Ajoutée) et, qu\'ensuite, étendue à Ia Communauté Européenne, a contribué pour I\'institutionnalisation, dans Ia pratique, d\'un genre d\'impôt unique indirect, de façon à simplifier remarquablement de système de ces impôts. On propose, donc, I\'introduction d\'un impôt unique similaire, direct, que s\'alliant à une nouvelle contribution d\'amélioration, meilleurment instituée, et de Ia concession systématique des services, serait capable de donner une structure finale à tout I\'ensemble tributaire national, en une grande synthèse, ayant pour but majeur I\'état de droit démocratique moderne.