Mediation, as a prominent 'alternative dispute resolution' (ADR) process, has been spreading across various legal jurisdictions in Australia and overseas. Because both the process and the outcome are seen to be 'owned' by the disputants, it has been assessed by Australian governments as being appropriate to the decentralised industrial relations systems developed in the 1990's. This led to proposals to create independent mediation services that would supplement the conciliation-arbitration service available in the Federal and South Australian industrial relation commissions. This study canvassed these proposals in light of the various benefits claimed for mediation and explored the confused usage of the terms mediation and conciliation in relation to industrial disputes. The specific focus, however, was to examine the possible effect of the imbalance of power inherent in the employer-employee relationship upon the fairness of outcome from mediation - and how the method of paying the mediator might impact upon this fairness. / thesis (MConflictManagement)--University of South Australia, 2002.

An understanding of ownership is an important aspect of child development because it helps to promote harmonious social interactions. People are typically restricted from using objects belonging to others. Respecting others’ ownership rights is necessary for socially appropriate behaviour. Because of the frequent property disputes that children engage in, it might be expected that preschoolers’ appreciation for ownership is limited and that adult input is needed to teach children about ownership rights. In three experiments, I demonstrate the opposite. Preschoolers value ownership rights more strongly than do adults and support ownership rights in property entitlement disputes between a possessor and an owner. An additional two experiments demonstrate that although children strongly value ownership rights above other principles of entitlement, they show some flexibility in their reasoning about ownership rights when provided with sufficiently compelling reasons to consider disregarding these rights. These findings show developmental differences in children’s ability to determine when ownership rights should be disregarded. Older children and adults disregard ownership rights when they are provided with compelling enough reasons do so, whereas younger children often uphold owners’ rights to the exclusion of all other factors. Together, these studies challenge the intuitive view that children learn about ownership from adult input. Rather than strengthening children’s appreciation of ownership rights, adult input may serve to teach children about situations where it is socially appropriate to disregard ownership.

The properties of Construction Engineering include: (1) high building cost, (2) unpredictability of construction risk because of the fact that the period of executing the contract is long and the external environment is easy to change, (3) the phenomena that disputes and conflicts happen easily since a construction project normally requires a large number of constructing units, each of which owns their complicated construction technology and expertise. As the process of the construction project involves various risks, the awareness of these risks and the method of diversifying the risks become important. This dissertation focuses on study of the legal aspects of the construction contact; It first tries to analyze the properties of the construction contract, its related properties which cause higher risks than contract with consideration, and different types of disputes and conflicts in common dispute decision and arbitration judgment in construction projects. Then it studies the commitment resulting from the disputes, and the comments on disputes of same kind in the real cases. Further it makes a basic proposition to the comments. Finally it examines the feasibility of the proposition through interviewing with some experts (adopting the method of Delphi). Meanwhile it modifies the proposition and adds more comments onto it proposition, in the hope that both of the owner and the contractor can prevent the disputes at the time of making contract.¡@ In most of the real case, the owners normally transfer the risks they should have taken to the contractors. This way of distributing risks may not either bring efficiency or benefits to the contract; instead it brings more losses to both sides. There are no many clauses in the section Hire of Work in Civil Code regarding distribution of risks. Those clauses leave incomplete resolution of various risks likely to happen in the contract. Therefore it is necessary to emphasize the principles of risk distribution in the construction contract¡Gmainly the just and reasonable principle, principle of change of circumstances, and principle of good faith, etc. The construction conventions can be referred too, such as convention of project fact, and the commom law which ie formed of the opiom by the court¡Barbitration judgment¡Bmediation¡C

ABSTRACT Trigged with the democratic movements, Taiwan¡¦s society had evolved in the past 15 years that citizen had more opportunities to participate in public policy decisions. As different objects, values and ideologies existing between stakeholders, conflict of the cognitive nature besides interests (i.e. difference in goals) becomes popular in many local development issues. How to analyze and aid such decision-makings then becomes an important public affairs management topic of study. The study uses the cable car issue in Kaohsiung as the task and local stakeholders like citizens, government officers, councils and environment protect group are interviewed and surveyed using the Social Judgment Theory (SJT) as the guiding methodology. Social judgment theory mainly plumbs the issue of ¡§understanding¡¨ which generated from the discrepancy between decision maker¡¦s subjective cognition and objective environment, and the issue of ¡§conflict¡¨ which resulted from the discrepancy of every decision maker¡¦s subjective cognition, as well as seeks for what causes the cognitive conflict in public policy decisions and explores the method to reduce the cognitive conflict. To survey the conflicts¡¦ degree in every decision maker and provide suggestions to government for consultation to draw up relative policies while facing similar controversial issue is what the study for. Key words¡Gcognitive conflict, public policy disputes, social judgment theory¡]SJT¡^

In regard to ¡§The disputes of the South China Sea¡¨, Taiwan and China hold similar positions and advocacies. The complicity of the South China Sea sovereignty was mainly caused by the geopolitics of the East Asia region and the potential economic resources in the area. After the Cold War, the changing status of affairs in the Southeast Asia region and the arrangement of power from neighboring nations have made the dispute over the South China Sea a critical conflicting regional hot spot. America, China, Japan and other great powers have been very concerned about the conflicts of the region due to the potential vast amount of sea mineral resources and freedom of navigation of the international waters. At present, the common consensus of the claiming nations over the South China Sea dispute is to leave aside the dispute of sovereignty and jointly develop this region. However, under the so-called ¡§Peaceful¡¨ dialogue, most claming countries were building military facilities behind each other¡¦s back. Basically, the idea of ¡§Joint Development¡¨ was an excuse for the balance of power. The expectation of this thesis is to find the answers of the following functions. First, the status quo of the South China Sea and the sovereignty asserts from the claiming states, and the use of the resources and interests of the claiming states will be analyzed. Second, the true intention and reason of ASEAN helping the claiming states to solve the South China Sea dispute will be examined. Third, the evaluation of China¡¦s interests over South China Sea should be explored. Fourth, what are the views from the U.S. and Japan on the disputes. Finally, what strategy that Taiwan should adopt in order to depend the national interests.

Since the implementation of Government Procurement Act, the competent authority ¡X Public Construction Commission, Executive Yuan ¡X had set up 40 kinds of sub-laws and more than ten of related operation regulations so as to be the foundation of handling procurement for procuring organs and suppliers. The regulations of government procurement are therefore more complete. While under this circumstance, the dispute of government procurement is increasing day by day. What are the real causes behind the phenomenon? When the two parties had the dispute about procurement, it will incur numerous extra human and substantial costs. If we do not choose corrective approaches to resolve these disputes, not only the two parties waste resources, but also seriously impact the performance of dealing procuring dispute for organs. This situation will be more obvious to the port authority in our study that is located in the key position of sea transportation and transshipment. In this study case, the port authority will deeply suffer the dispute of procurement because it has to provide superior service for shipping company to match the tendency of vessels¡¦ type enlargement. This study explored the ever-happened dispute cases in a port authority and sorted out causes, types, settling ways of procurement dispute and performance of resolving procurement dispute from literatures, and then discussed with main professionals in related business fields to draft adequate questionnaire, going on survey to the members who real did the procurement duty in the port authority. This study got 105 copies of effective surveys, and then preceded factor analysis, correlation analysis, and path analysis to not only verify the hypotheses proposed, but also understand the practices and views of members in the port authority. The conclusions from this study included: 1. Most of procurement dispute happened in the stage of contract implementation. There is huge ratio of concerning cases from representatives. The usual way of resolving procurement dispute is through the appeal to Complaint Review Board of Government Procurement. 2. Different kinds of members got different cognitions in some dimensions. 3. The result of factor analysis shows that there are four significant factors, including perfect regulations, regulations¡¦ acknowledge, training enhancement, and complete documentation. But the primary factors affecting types of procurement dispute are regulations¡¦ acknowledge and training enhancement. Among all four factors, regulations¡¦ acknowledge has the most effect on type of procurement dispute. 4. Type of procurement dispute has positive effect on way of resolving procurement dispute. 5. Way of resolving procurement dispute has positive effect on performance of resolving procurement dispute.

The persistence of water conflicts in many arid regions is not simply a matter of water shortages, but rather the lack of equitable agreements that govern the allocation of disputed water resources to mitigate the adverse impacts of hostility and resentment. As such, equity is at the heart of many trans-boundary water disputes. Mindful of the dynamics and implications of inequitable water allocation on inter-state relationships and overall regional stability, this research aims at eliciting and developing theoretical criteria for equitable distribution of water (process equity) responsible for creating equitable outcomes and perception. This research makes the distinction between “process equity” and “outcome equity” and their impact on attaining and sustaining water security, peace, and hydro-stability. These parameters of equitable processes will be developed through a review of current literature addressing the issues of water equity in arid regions, coupled with case study analyses and cross-case comparisons and semi-structured interviews of key water negotiators. These key cases will be selected through a systematic screening methodology that analyzes nine pertinent cases. Collectively, employing these methods will yield in-depth analysis and findings applicable to other international water dispute cases in the context of arid regions. Proposing an alternative strategy that views water as a catalyst for peace and cooperation rather than conflict and altercation, this research further advocates for the development and adoption of an interdisciplinary, transformative approach to conflict resolution to advance water disputes to plausible and implementable agreements. Aiming to inform the theory and practice of hydro-diplomacy along disputed water resources, this approach encapsulates three key components, including rules of engagement, mechanisms of engagement, and neutral third-party mediation. Water satiety is identified as a major characteristic of equitable water allocation agreements that ensure the level of satisfaction of all involved stakeholders and the extent to which acceptable agreements, durable implementation, and sustainable relationships among co-riparians are attained and maintained. / text

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

Interstate arbitration is commonly viewed as an essentially judicial process, suitable for the resolution of legal questions but inappropriate to deal with “political” issues. This conception, however, arguably flies in the face of both the origins and historical function of interstate arbitration and the complex legal-political nature of most interstate disputes. This paper offers an alternative account of interstate arbitration, which views it as a sui generis hybrid mechanism that combines “legal” and “diplomatic” dimensions to effectively resolve all aspects of interstate disputes. The paper examines this proposed account by analyzing four complex interstate territorial disputes that were submitted to arbitration and assessing the extent to which these two dimensions were recognized and employed, and how this may have affected the resolution of the disputes. Based on this analysis, the paper offers a two-dimensional operative framework intended to guide states and arbitrators in the resolution of future complex interstate disputes.

An understanding of ownership is an important aspect of child development because it helps to promote harmonious social interactions. People are typically restricted from using objects belonging to others. Respecting others’ ownership rights is necessary for socially appropriate behaviour. Because of the frequent property disputes that children engage in, it might be expected that preschoolers’ appreciation for ownership is limited and that adult input is needed to teach children about ownership rights. In three experiments, I demonstrate the opposite. Preschoolers value ownership rights more strongly than do adults and support ownership rights in property entitlement disputes between a possessor and an owner. An additional two experiments demonstrate that although children strongly value ownership rights above other principles of entitlement, they show some flexibility in their reasoning about ownership rights when provided with sufficiently compelling reasons to consider disregarding these rights. These findings show developmental differences in children’s ability to determine when ownership rights should be disregarded. Older children and adults disregard ownership rights when they are provided with compelling enough reasons do so, whereas younger children often uphold owners’ rights to the exclusion of all other factors. Together, these studies challenge the intuitive view that children learn about ownership from adult input. Rather than strengthening children’s appreciation of ownership rights, adult input may serve to teach children about situations where it is socially appropriate to disregard ownership.