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Flera saknade länkar i Europas transportnät definierades på mitten av 1980-talet som nödvändiga att bygga för att bidra till att uppnå de EU-politiska målen om fri rörlighet inom gemenskapen, större och jämnare transportflöden inom och mellan medlemsstaterna, ekonomisk tillväxt, en friktionsfri och välfungerande inre marknad, hållbar utveckling samt territoriell, social och ekonomisk sammanhållning. EU och medlemsstaterna initierade mot denna bakgrund transportinfrastrukturprogrammet "Trans-European Networks for Transport", eller det transeuropeiska transportnätverket (TEN-T) på svenska, som en följd av Maastrichtfördraget 1992. I Norden ska den s.k. Nordiska triangeln, som både har pekats ut som ett särskilt prioriterat transportinfrastrukturprojekt i de nu gällande och sannolikt inom kort i de nya EU-riktlinjerna för TEN-T, bidra till att uppnå de ovanstående politiska målen. Syftet med projektet är att sammanbinda Norge, Sverige, Danmark och Finland via uppgraderade och gränsöverskridande vägar, järnvägar och maritim infrastruktur. Förutom att projektet anses förbättra förbindelserna för gods och passagerare inom Norden, skapas bättre möjligheter för större och snabbare transportflöden till och från Centraleuropa, Ryssland och de baltiska länderna. Det västra benet i den Nordiska triangeln, dvs. korridoren Oslo-Göteborg-Köpenhamn, har varit föremål för diskussion sedan 1980-talet då en högklassig motorväg, järnväg samt en fast förbindelse över eller under Öresund och Fehmarn Bält föreslogs av "European Round Table of Industrialists". Syftet med infrastrukturpaketet var att förbättra transportinfrastrukturen inom korridoren samt få en fast förbindelse till kontinenten. Merparten av paketet har genomförts men en del kvarstår, däribland uppgraderingen av järnvägen, vars planläggning försvåras av det faktum att nationsgränserna medför utmaningar och hinder mot ett förverkligande av detta gränsöverskridande projekt. Syftet med uppsatsen har varit att identifiera och analysera dessa utmaningar och hinder, liksom att ge underlag för förslag i effektiv hantering och motverkan. Med utgångspunkt i institutionell teori och i transaktionskostnadsteori har studien visat att bristen på samordning och internationalisering i transportinfrastrukturplaneringen, med stor sannolikhet, utgör centrala faktorer i förklaringen till varför de tre berörda skandinaviska länderna sedan 1980-talet inte har realiserat en sammanhängande och av alla parter upplevd högklassig järnväg. För att kunna motverka och hantera dessa utmaningar och hinder på ett effektivt sätt bör Norge, Sverige och Danmark överväga att ta större hänsyn till gränsöverskridande infrastrukturplanering i framtida organisations- och styrmodeller för transportinfrastruktursektorn. Anledningen är att den nuvarande institutionella ramen för tillhandahållandet av transportinfrastruktur, förefaller ge upphov till höga transaktionskostnader som försvårar och förhindrar effektiv planering på inter-/multinationell nivå. Ett faktum som kan leda till att eventuellt nödvändig och lönsam transportinfrastruktur inte byggs. En organisatorisk lösning som diskuteras i uppsatsen, och som kan reducera dessa transaktionskostnader, är bildandet av ett Skandinaviskt Trafikverk med internationaliserade och harmoniserade planeringsprocesser. / A number of missing links in the European transport network was, during the mid 1980ies, defined as crucial for the smooth functioning of the internal market, and for ensuring sustainable development, economic growth, improved accessibility as well as economic, social and territorial cohesion. This lead in 1992 to the inclusion of a specific legal basis for the "Trans-European Networks for Transport" (TEN-T) in the Maastricht Treaty. The Nordic Triangle has, since the initiation of TEN-T in 1992, been considered as a priority transport infrastructure project. This is stated in the current and in the proposal for new EU-guidelines for TEN-T. The aim of the project is to contribute to the achievement of the above-mentioned political goals by building and upgrading roads, railways and maritime infrastructure between the Nordic countries. This is thought to improve the passenger and freight transports within the Nordic region but also to central Europe, the Baltic countries and Russia. The western leg of the Nordic Triangle, i.e. the corridor Oslo-Gothenburg-Copenhagen, has been of interest since the 1980s when a continuous motorway, high-speed railways and fixed links over/under the Oresund and the Fehmarn Belt were proposed by the European Round Table of Industrialists. The aim of the infrastructure package was to improve the transport infrastructure in the corridor, and via the above-mentioned tunnel/bridge projects, receive fixed links to central Europe. The majority of these plans have been implemented but some remain unrealized, including the railways, whose planning is complicated by the fact that the national borders poses challenges and obstacles to the realization of this cross-border infrastructure project. The aim of this paper has been to identify and analyze these challenges and obstacles, and provide proposals on how to restrain and mitigate them. Based on institutional theory and transaction cost theory it was found that the lack of coordination and internationalization in transport infrastructure planning, are two key factors, that explains why the countries in question have not managed to plan and build a continuous and sufficient railway. In order to restrain and mitigate these challenges and obstacles in an efficient way, one must consider to take greater account of cross-border planning in organizational and governance models for the transport infrastructure sector. The fact that the current institutional framework for the provision of transport infrastructure seems to give rise to high transaction costs, that impede or prevent efficient cross-border planning, makes this reasoning even more relevant. An organizational solution that is discussed is the formation of a transnational Scandinavian Transport Administration.

At present, there are different Electronic Identity (eID) systems utilized in EU, resulting in difficulties to carry eID information and transfer eID data of e-learning systems from one EU country to another. A project entitled Secure idenTity acrOss boRders linKed (STORK) was launched to address this problem, by installing a Pan European Proxy Service (PEPS) server. Currently, Logica, a Swedish company, cooperates with Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV) to implement the PEPS at DSV. This thesis aims to build various testing cases for the PEPS server installed at DSV. The PEPS is well-developed and separate packages working together with the Service Provider (SP) and Identity Provider (IDP) to implement its respective functionalities. The tests performed on PEPS are used to test the whole PEPS infrastructure: SP, PEPS and IDP, that is, the communication between these packages. The purpose of implementation of PEPS is to support the Ilearn@DSV to connect with STORK. Hence, the SP in this thesis is Ilearn@DSV system embedded with SP package. This thesis first introduces the background of eID, e-learning and the e-learning system Ilearn@DSV. Then, it describes the test hierarchy and test requirements, and completes data collection step. The details of various test cases are provided for the predetermined test items in test plans. Test plans and test cases must abide by the IEEE test format and meet the IEEE Standard 829-2008. Finally, test cases are validated against depth, breadth and effectiveness. / För närvarande finns det olika elektroniska identitetssystem (eID) som används inom EU, vilket resulterar i svårigheter att använda eID-information och överföra e-lärande systems eID-data från ett EU-land till annat. Projektet Secure idenTity acrOss boRders linKed (STORK) lanserades för att lösa detta problem, genom att installera en Pan European Proxy Service (PEPS)-server. Nu samarbetar Logica, ett svenskt företag, med Institutionen för data- och systemvetenskap (DSV) för att implementera PEPS på DSV. Detta examensarbete syftar till att bygga olika testfall för PEPS-servern installerad hos DSV. PEPS är välutvecklat och separata paket som arbetar tillsammans med Service Provider (SP) och Identity Provider (IDP) för att implementera respektiv funktioner. Testerna som utförs på PEPS används för att testa hela PEPS-infrastrukturen: SP, PEPS och IDP, det vill säga kommunikationen mellan dessa paket. Syftet med implementeringen av PEPS är att stödja Ilearn@DSV för att få kontakt med STORK. Därför är SP i detta examensarbete Ilearn@DSV-systemet inbyggt i SP-paket. Detta examensarbete först introducerar bakgrunden till eID, e-learning och e-learning-systemet Ilearn@DSV. Sedan beskriver den testhierarkin och testkraven och slutför datainsamlingssteget. Detaljerna för olika testfall tillhandahålls för de förutbestämda testobjekten i testplanerna. Testplaner och testfall får följa IEEE-testformatet och uppfylla IEEE Standard 829-2008. Slutligen valideras testfall mot djup, bredd och effektivitet.

Having the author been involved in banking and finance for almost 25 years, this thesis intends to reflect on the role of banks with emphasis on cross border lending and credit rating, their effectiveness and the impacts of cultural differences. Perhaps this would not differ substantially from a researcher or a scholar, yet the exploratory approach taken in this research will be somewhat different as it deliberately seeks to answer a number of questions relevant to practitioners in today’s banking. In trying to achieve this goal, this thesis hopefully may find its way to international bankers wondering about the perspectives of their business in general and their profession in specific. It even may perhaps improve the understanding of their clients. The Basel committee which published the new Basel II framework on bank regulation and supervision was the result of long and careful discussions, wide consultations and comprehensive impact studies. Whereas Basel II covers the entire risk profile and supervision of financial institutions, this research is limited to the cross border lending by banks to companies and provides the views from both practicing international bankers and their customers on their 3 expectations regarding Basel II, credit rating and the relevance of context and culture differences. Bankers all over the world are being trained on how to read balance sheets, yet less attention is being paid as to by whom they are being created and how precisely these balance sheets came into existence, other than the accountancy standards applied. Bankers furthermore seem to agree on the fact that credit risks in large part are related to the management competencies, effective corporate governance and integrity of management and organization. The argument could be made that the assessment of management capabilities, governance and integrity may be hindered in those cases where the culture is little understood. In a three days conferences titled; “The Future of Relationship Banking”, 80 senior executives from international banks and large companies were gathered in Punta del Este, Uruguay and were asked to speak about these aspects. A transcript of the conference is provided as annex to this thesis (Annex 1) and serves to triangulate the findings of the research. Main findings of three management papers were presented by the researcher during the conference. A survey was performed during the conference and in addition, through an online survey, in total over 100 practitioners in the field participated in the survey. Results show a variation of conclusions, but very especially seem to confirm the view, contrary to the approach taken in Basel II, that cultural differences and context are felt to be highly relevant in cross border lending.

Yes / The aim of the study is to investigate two relatively underexplored factors, namely, the R&D (research and development) capabilities of target firms and the strength of intellectual property (IP) institutions in target economies, that influences the choice of equity ownership in cross border acquisitions (CBAs) undertaken by multinational enterprises (MNEs) from BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) economies. We develop our key hypothesis on foreign market entry through CBAs by incorporating insights from transaction costs economics, the resource-based view and institutional theory to investigate the determinants of full versus partial equity ownership. Using logistic regression estimation methods to a sample of 111 CBA deals of BRICS MNEs in 22 European countries, we find that BRICS MNEs are likely to pursue full rather than partial acquisition mode when target firms have high R&D capabilities. However, the greater the degree of strength of IP institutions in target economies and higher the target firms’ R&D capabilities, the more likely it is for BRICS MNEs to undertake partial, rather than, full acquisition mode. We provide interesting theoretical insights and managerial implications that might underlie some of the key findings on CBAs by emerging market MNEs.

Yes / The establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has opened new avenues of research interest in International Business and International Management. However, scholarly work in this fledgling area of research has been disparate and often lacking in the assessment of core international business implications of the emergence of the AfCFTA on member states as well as non-member states. This is because, as yet, no systematic attempt has been made to explore the AfCFTA in the context of IB research, or project future IB research directions. Hence, in this paper, using the PRISMA method we have systematically identified the current published research and scholarly work on the AfCFTA and provided a robust picture of the current state of knowledge and available literature on the AfCFTA while at the same time outlining potential areas for future international business research

and Key words Title - Right to Have Children and Cross-border Reproductive Care Key words - cross-border reproductive care, reproductive tourism, assisted reproduction, access to reproductive care, causes of cross-border reproductive care, consequences of cross-border reproductive care, law evasion, right to procreate, right to have children Abstract - Children give a meaning to man's life. In today's world where more than 10 % of women suffer from infertility, assisted reproduction treatment (hereinafter referred to as "ART") occupies an important place. The topic of human reproduction is particularly delicate. There is no consensus on which ART methods are ethically acceptable and to whom ART should be provided. Therefore each and every state holds its own position in these matters. Difference among legal approaches results in patients seeking desirable treatment abroad. According to available data, most of the ART recipients travel abroad in order to evade legal barriers in their state of origin. Although in the most cases the ART abroad does not constitute any difficulties, in some cases problems may arise in connection with the treatment. States may try to prevent patients from traveling abroad in order to obtain the ART. They may try to protect themselves by refusing giving effect to legal...

La fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la guerre froide, la cohabitation pacifique, les mouvements d’indépendances, la fin du monde bipolaire, les crises multiformes et successives (culturelle, sociale économique et financière), voici autant d’événements qui ont changé les conceptions et la vision même du monde. L’initiative privée est à nouveau plébiscitée sur la scène mondiale. En effet, la rencontre entre le savoir-faire (financier et technique) du secteur privé et un secteur public ambitieux mais très limité, symbolisée dans le sigle « PPP », devient la formule gagnante.De nouveaux espaces font leurs apparitions, encouragées par le vent de l’intégration régionale et économique. Le mouvement de décentralisation propulsant celui de la coopération transfrontalière, nous assistons de plus en plus à une lente mais très prometteuse reconfiguration des dynamiques transfrontalières un peu partout dans le monde. Certaines régions offrent des perspectives très intéressantes, aussi bien sur le plan de la coopération transfrontalière que des PPP. C’est notamment le cas de la région francophone de l’Afrique des Grands Lacs. Cerner les PPP et la coopération transfrontalière, vérifier leur complémentarité et enfin suivre le mécanisme de réappropriation de ces deux concepts dans la région francophone de l’Afrique des Grands Lacs : voici les principaux objectifs que s’est assigné ce travail de recherche. / The end of the Second World War, the cold war, the peaceful cohabitation, the movements of independences, the bipolar end of the world, the multi-form and successive crises (cultural, social economic and financial), here is so many events which changed the designs and the vision of the world. The private initiative is again approved by a large majority on the world scene. Indeed, the meeting enters the know-how (financial and technical) of the private sector and the ambitious but very limited public sector, symbolized in the initials "PPP", becomes the winning formula.New spaces make their appearance encouraged by the wind of the regional and economic integration. The movement of decentralization propelling that of the cross-border cooperation, we assist more and more a slow but very promising reconfiguration of the cross-border dynamics almost everywhere in the world. Certain regions offer very interesting perspectives, as well from the point of view of the cross-border cooperation as the PPP. It is in particular the case of the French-speaking region of Africa of Great Lakes. Encircle the PPP and the cross-border cooperation, to check their complementarities and finally to follow the mechanism of reappropriation of these two concepts in the French-speaking region of Africa of Great Lakes: here are the main objectives that assigned this research work.

The thesis is dealing with development and evaluation of the Cross-Border Cooperation within the EU, as a part of the EU Cohesion policy, with Focus on the Czech Republic. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the cross-border cooperation programmes in the Czech Republic from the applicants' and selected implementation structure subjects' point of view. These selected subjects are the Ministry for Regional Development of the CR, the Centre for Regional Development of the CR and administrative regions of the CR. The first part of the thesis refers to the history and development of the Cross-Border Cooperation within the EU and the CR and to the reasons which led to its establishment. The last part is focused on the description and the evaluation of applicants' and selected implementation structure subjects' experiences with cross-border cooperation programmes and their perception of the Cross-Border Cooperation in the CR. As a method for the evaluation of the cross-border cooperation programmes in the CR were used the following procedures: an analysis of the available publications and internet sources, interview with representatives of the Ministry for Regional Development of the CR and the Centre for Regional Development of the CR, and an inquiry via questionnaire among the administrative regions of the CR.

The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which existing law could provide a legal basis for the protection of cross-border, climate change displaced persons, with a particular focus on Southern Africa. Before such an analysis can be made, however, it is important first to determine what climate change displacement exactly implies. By means of integrating and refining existing legal terminology and ideas the study attempts to disentangle the international contention on the subject and proposes that individuals who are forced from their countries of habitual residence as a reaction primarily to climatic push factors which pose an existential threat to their right to life are most in need of protection and may be referred to as cross-border climate change displaced persons. As climate change displacement is expected to occur primarily on the sub-regional geopolitical level of governance, the inclusion of regional, AU, and sub-regional, SADC, elements is important for the practical feasibility of this study. Southern Africa's particular vulnerability to the effects of climate change, making the advent of large numbers of climate change displaced persons in the area a reasonable prediction for the future, further justifies this study's chosen scope. After analysing the different legal branches of refugee law, human rights law and environmental law for each geopolitical level of governance referred to, this study concludes that: While there are several potential provisions in law that could provide protection to persons displaced by climate change, a sufficient protection framework can be derived only from the composite characteristics of different branches of law. Therefore, it is recommended that a matrix approach is followed when providing legal protection to climate change displaced persons. Because different fields of law provide more prominent protection in different spheres of governance, it is also recommended that the configuration of a legal protection matrix be adjustable to particular circumstances. It is therefore suggested that a legal protection mechanism is developed for each geopolitical sphere, and that different mechanisms are coordinated internationally. / LLM (Environmental Law and Governance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014