This thesis deals with performance of law protection function and a subsequent recoverability in the field of debt collection. The subject of this work is to compare debt collection effectiveness via judicial proceedings and private entities. Exercise of judicial power is one of the basic functions of the State; however, given the knowledge of the low success of the recovery procedure, it is extended to alternative methods of dispute resolution. Private executors focusing on exercising judicial power, debt collection agencies dealing primarily with extrajudicial debt collection and arbitration facilitating extrajudicial dispute resolution by means of independent arbitrators all provide other means of law enforcement. This work focuses on and analysis of the above mentioned systems and comparison of their effectiveness with regard to their efficiency and success when attempting to protect creditors' rights. The aim of the mentioned comparison is to prove a debt collection efficiency increase caused by an entry of private entities into the market (alternative ways of dispute resolution).

Notre thèse de doctorat porte sur la crise de Semana Santa, un soulèvement militaire qui a provoqué l’une des plus grandes mobilisations populaires du XXème siècle argentin, entre le 16 et le 19 avril 1987. Elle s’introduit dans les histoires respectives du système judiciaire, de l’Armée, des partis politiques, des médias et du Mouvement des Droits de l’Homme afin de rendre compte de la complexité de l’événement. Elle démontre comment la mobilisation populaire est le résultat d’un changement culturel, qui implique tous les acteurs susnommés, initié avec le nouveau régime démocratique fondé en 1983. Notre thèse cherche aussi des méthodes pour replacer le peuple, comme acteur politique, dans l’historiographie actuelle. Pour cela elle s’inscrit dans l’historiographie de la mémoire, à laquelle elle apporte le concept de « mémoire active » qui permet de dépasser l’approche commémorative du phénomène mémoriel. / The subject of our doctoral thesis is the crisis of « Semana Santa », a military rebellion that triggered one of the most massive popular uprisings of the Argentinian Twentieth Century, April 16th and April 19th, 1987. This crisis penetrates the respective histories of the judicial system, the Army, the political parties, the media, the Human Rights Movement, in order to account for the complexity of the event. The thesis demonstrates how the popular mobilization was the result of a cultural transformation that involved all the actors mentioned, and that was pioneered under the new democratic regime founded in 1983. Our thesis is a methodological attempt to restore, in current historiography, the people as a political actor. For that purpose it is connected with the historiography of memory, to which it contributes the concept of “active memory” that allows to surpass the commemorative approach of the memorial phenomenon.

The topic of this dissertation focuses on the arrangement of the court system in the Czech Republic. The aim of the thesis is to present a basic, comprehensive view of the organisation of the system of courts, elaborated with a closer analysis relating to the personnel composition and overall functioning of the individual courts. The introductory section of the thesis deals with the historical development of the judicial system within the territory of today's Czech Republic, in particular the organisation of the court system during the period of the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938). The court system of the First Republic followed on to a large extent from the legal arrangement of the Austro-Hungarian judicial system, on the basis of the adoption of the Reception Act no. 11/1918 Coll. A gradual unification took place regarding the different arrangement of the court organisations in the Czech lands and in Slovakia. The court system of the First Republic was distinguished by a high degree of specialisation, the courts were divided into regular, specialised and arbitration courts. The system of general courts is formed by district, regional and high courts, the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court. The thesis also includes a description of the functioning of judicial councils, the...

Post-occupancy evaluations represent an important missed opportunity. While POEs are often used to inform design guides, and to support facility management, they are seldom used to support design decision-making. While there are several technical, methodological, and cultural impediments to the ongoing use of POE results in design, characteristics of POE data and data structure is an important, and often overlooked, impediment. Some evaluators have attempted to resolve this problem by involving actively as consultants in design teams or involving users, such as Placemaking or Process Architecture. Recent advances in conceptual data modeling provide another strategy to interface POE findings and design decision-making. This thesis uses EXPRESS modeling language to develop a conceptual data structure for POE data, and integrate POE data with as-built building descriptions. While this effort has the potential to develop an improved way to structure POE data and make it more useful, it is also an extension of ISO-STEP. This study develops a data structure based on post-occupancy evaluations of state and federal trial courtrooms conducted by the researcher. Thirty-one courtrooms were evaluated, resulting in usable data from 93 courtroom users in 26 courtrooms. An EXPRESS-G schema was developed and was translated into a relational database for holding data and running queries. The investigator illustrated a range of query-generated outcomes to support decision-making during design and design review. Such outcomes include exploring existing courtrooms, comprehending the types of design decisions implemented across federal and state courtrooms, identifying design decisions that have been rated favorably or otherwise by courtroom users, rating design decisions based on evaluation data from existing courtrooms, and predicting a designed environments supportiveness to task performance. Further, multivariate analysis of the POE data provides the first scientific investigation of courtrooms as work settings. Finally, eight key performance indicators of courtrooms were developed based on the POE data.

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is found to occur in alarming proportions worldwide. In South Africa, children represent almost half of the victims of known sexual abuse, and this is becoming a great concern, even being described as a silent epidemic. This alarming fact as well as the researcher’s experiences as a social worker in this field, resulted in her reviewing literature, in order to gain further insight into the current situation in South Africa. It was discovered that the number of successful CSA court cases reported to the Childline Western Cape centres, was significantly low, and that numerous complaints were being received by her colleagues at Childline from caregivers, regarding their dissatisfaction with the judicial system after reporting CSA. This dissertation therefore serves as a qualitative exploration of caregivers’ experiences of the South African judicial system after CSA has been reported. For the purpose of this study, the researcher used a descriptive qualitative research design so as to thoroughly describe the caregivers’ experiences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants to gain rich descriptions of their experiences in this area. Three main themes that emerged through the content analysis were: the experiences with officials from the SAPS as part of the judicial system; the experiences with regard to social service delivery; and the experiences with the court and personnel as part of the judicial system. Several conclusions were drawn. The first was that there were both positive and negative experiences with officials from SAPS. A further conclusion was that the lack of knowledge about procedures needing to be followed in cases of CSA, as well as the uncertainty shown by some SAPS officials with regard to how to go about dealing with child victims of sexual abuse, gave some participants the impression that SAPS officials lack adequate training in this regard The researcher concluded from the empirical findings and the literature that there is a general sense that CSA investigations are poorly conducted. Another conclusion was that literature on statutory social service delivery in South Africa and the evaluation thereof seemed sparse. However, from the empirical findings regarding the participants’ descriptions, their experiences, particularly with statutory social workers, were negative. Finally, the researcher concluded that though literature indicated that several changes had been made in the judicial system so as to better deal with child victims of sexual abuse, the experiences of the participants indicated that challenges are still being experienced. The empirical findings indicated that caregivers of child victims of sexual abuse and their children had experienced great frustration when dealing with the judicial system after CSA had been reported. These frustrations were due to the investigation of CSA cases, the court process, and the lack of communication from prosecutors and other professionals in the judicial system. / Thesis (MSW)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is found to occur in alarming proportions worldwide. In South Africa, children represent almost half of the victims of known sexual abuse, and this is becoming a great concern, even being described as a silent epidemic. This alarming fact as well as the researcher’s experiences as a social worker in this field, resulted in her reviewing literature, in order to gain further insight into the current situation in South Africa. It was discovered that the number of successful CSA court cases reported to the Childline Western Cape centres, was significantly low, and that numerous complaints were being received by her colleagues at Childline from caregivers, regarding their dissatisfaction with the judicial system after reporting CSA. This dissertation therefore serves as a qualitative exploration of caregivers’ experiences of the South African judicial system after CSA has been reported. For the purpose of this study, the researcher used a descriptive qualitative research design so as to thoroughly describe the caregivers’ experiences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants to gain rich descriptions of their experiences in this area. Three main themes that emerged through the content analysis were: the experiences with officials from the SAPS as part of the judicial system; the experiences with regard to social service delivery; and the experiences with the court and personnel as part of the judicial system. Several conclusions were drawn. The first was that there were both positive and negative experiences with officials from SAPS. A further conclusion was that the lack of knowledge about procedures needing to be followed in cases of CSA, as well as the uncertainty shown by some SAPS officials with regard to how to go about dealing with child victims of sexual abuse, gave some participants the impression that SAPS officials lack adequate training in this regard The researcher concluded from the empirical findings and the literature that there is a general sense that CSA investigations are poorly conducted. Another conclusion was that literature on statutory social service delivery in South Africa and the evaluation thereof seemed sparse. However, from the empirical findings regarding the participants’ descriptions, their experiences, particularly with statutory social workers, were negative. Finally, the researcher concluded that though literature indicated that several changes had been made in the judicial system so as to better deal with child victims of sexual abuse, the experiences of the participants indicated that challenges are still being experienced. The empirical findings indicated that caregivers of child victims of sexual abuse and their children had experienced great frustration when dealing with the judicial system after CSA had been reported. These frustrations were due to the investigation of CSA cases, the court process, and the lack of communication from prosecutors and other professionals in the judicial system. / Thesis (MSW)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Comprendre, décrire et documenter les comportements informationnels des juristes béninois tant dans le champ académique que professionnel. C’est le principal objectif de cette thèse qui a choisi le positionnement des pratiques informationnelles en sciences de l’information notamment dans l’étude des usagers en contexte. Ce travail a mobilisé à la fois des études théoriques qu’empiriques. Quatre études théoriques ont été menées pour comprendre le contexte du droit et de la justice au Bénin, les évolutions induites par les technologies de l’information et de la communication (Tic) dans le secteur juridique et judiciaire, les pratiques informationnelles en termes de modèles et les théories spécifiques dans le champ du droit. Ces approches théoriques ont été confrontées à quatre études empiriques dont deux quantitatives et deux qualitatives. En ce qui concerne l’approche quantitative, 375 étudiants et 60 enseignants-chercheurs des facultés de droit des universités du Bénin ont été interrogés. Quant aux études qualitatives, elles sont faites d’entretiens semi-directifs à l’endroit de 35 magistrats des tribunaux et cours de la partie méridionale du pays et 15 avocats à Cotonou. Au terme de ces études, il est clair que les juristes béninois dans le cadre de leurs activités professionnelles recourent à l’information. Ils le font pour régler des problèmes juridiques. Ils se réfèrent en premier lieu aux sources imprimées que sont les livres et ouvrages juridiques ; ensuite aux sources électroniques en l’occurrence Internet et enfin consultent leurs collègues, confères ou camarades. Les critères qui gouvernent ces sources d’information sont d’abord l’accessibilité-disponibilité de l’information, la pertinence-utilité de l’information et le contenu de l’information. L’ensemble des juristes interrogés partagent l’information mais font face à plusieurs obstacles pour accéder à l’information. Au nombre de ces obstacles, on peut citer : le coût excessif de certains ouvrages juridiques, l’instabilité de l’énergie électrique, la coupure de la connexion à Internet, la vétusté de certains documents. / Understand, describe and document the information behavior of beninese lawyers in both the academic and professional fields. It is the main objective of this thesis that has chosen the positioning of informational practices in the information sciences especially in the study of users in context. This work has mobilized both theoretical and empirical studies. Four theoretical studies have been conducted to understand the legal and justice context in Benin, developments in information and communication technologies (TIC) in the legal and judicial sector, information practices in terms of models and the specific theories in the field of law. These theoretical approaches were confronted with four empirical studies, two quantitative and two qualitative. Regarding the quantitative approach, 375 students and 60 teacher-researchers from the law faculties of the universities of Benin were interviewed. As for qualitative studies, they are made up of semi-directive interviews with 35 magistrates of courts and courts in the southern part of the country and 15 lawyers in Cotonou. At the end of these studies, it is clear that Beninese lawyers in the course of their professional activities make use of information. They do it to solve legal problems. They refer in the first place to printed sources, namely books and legal works; Then to electronic sources, in this case the Internet, and finally consult their colleagues, confreres or comrades. The criteria governing these sources of information are primarily the accessibility-availability of information, the relevance-usefulness of information and the content of information. All lawyers surveyed share information but face several barriers to accessing information. Examples of such obstacles include the excessive cost of certain legal works, the instability of electric power, the breakdown of the Internet connection, the obsolete nature of certain documents.

This diploma thesis focuses on relation between state and private system of debt collection. The first part of this paper briefly describes traditional role of the government in general and deals with question if it is possible to establish competition into the justice. The second part describes and analyzes four different systems of debt collection in the Czech Republic -- execution procedure by public judicial system, by judicial officer (for-profit alternative), by arbitration court and by collection agency. In this part there are also described mechanisms of how four different systems work. The analysis of efficiency of four systems arises from comparison different motivation and mechanism used by representatives of systems. The aim of this paper is to monitor present condition in the market of debt collection in the Czech Republic and to demonstrate if the protection of property rights changed by the entrance of non-state alternatives.

L’adoption grandissante des caméras portatives par les organisations policières dans les dernières années a visé plusieurs objectifs. Il est généralement attendu que l’utilisation de la technologie puisse contribuer à rendre les organisations plus transparentes, à assurer une plus grande imputabilité des policiers, ou encore à réduire l’utilisation de la force à l’endroit des citoyens. En étant activées lors des interventions policières, les caméras portatives permettraient aussi la production d’enregistrements qui pourront être utilisés tout au long de la chaîne judiciaire, que ce soit lors d’enquêtes ou de procédures judiciaires. Toutefois, la littérature scientifique s’étant largement intéressée aux impacts des caméras portatives sur les interactions entre les policiers et les citoyens, les conséquences de leur utilisation sur les tribunaux demeurent un aspect toujours sous-étudié. La présente thèse vise à mieux comprendre l’apport des enregistrements de caméras portatives au traitement des causes criminelles par les tribunaux. Quatre objectifs spécifiques sont visés : 1) explorer les représentations que se font les acteurs judiciaires de la valeur probante des images de caméras portatives ; 2) mieux comprendre le rôle des images de caméras portatives dans les pratiques des acteurs judiciaires ; 3) mettre en lumière les éléments pouvant affecter le recours aux images de caméras portatives ; et 4) évaluer l’impact de la disponibilité des images de caméras portatives sur le traitement des causes criminelles par les tribunaux, et plus particulièrement sur les verdicts de culpabilité et le temps de traitement des dossiers. Le point de départ de la thèse est un projet pilote de caméras portatives mené par le Service de police de la Ville de Montréal, et une méthodologie mixte conjuguant des entretiens menés auprès de procureurs et d’avocats de la défense (N = 22) à l’analyse statistique de données issues de dossiers judiciaires (N = 525) permet de répondre aux objectifs énoncés. D’un point de vue empirique, il est soutenu que l’apport des images de caméras portatives au processus judiciaire représente une forme de paradoxe, où la forte valeur probante étant associée aux images par les acteurs judiciaires ne correspond pas totalement à l’utilisation qui en est faite ni aux impacts qui sont observés sur le traitement des dossiers. Bien qu’une baisse significative du temps de traitement soit observée pour certains dossiers, plusieurs facteurs semblent mettre un frein à l’utilisation des images par les acteurs judiciaires. D’un point de vue théorique, la thèse propose d’approfondir les réflexions sur le pouvoir de l’image dans le processus judiciaire. En empruntant la notion de savoir autoritaire, il est soutenu que le paradoxe observé dans l’apport de l’image au processus judiciaire puisse s’expliquer par la source même de la supériorité de la preuve. Au-delà de leur contribution potentielle à la découverte des faits, les images de caméras portatives sont utilisées dans un contexte où la productivité du tribunal demeure un objectif central, ce qui peut amener les acteurs judiciaires à accorder une priorité à d’autres formes d’information, dont la version des policiers. / The growing adoption of body-worn cameras by police organizations in recent years has served several objectives. It is generally expected that the use of this technology will help make organizations more transparent, ensure greater accountability for police officers, or even reduce the use of force against citizens. By being activated during police interventions, body-worn cameras would also allow the production of recordings that can be used throughout the judicial chain, whether during investigations or legal proceedings. However, scientific literature having been mainly interested in the impacts of body-worn cameras on interactions between police officers and citizens, the consequences of their use on courts remain an aspect that is still understudied. This thesis aims to better understand the contribution of body-worn camera recordings to the processing of criminal cases by courts. Four specific objectives are targeted: 1) to explore the representations that judicial actors have of the evidentiary value of body-worn camera recordings; 2) to better understand the role of body-worn camera recordings in the practices of judicial actors; 3) to highlight the elements that may affect the use of body-worn camera recordings; and 4) to assess the impacts of the availability of body-worn camera recordings on the processing of criminal cases by courts, and more particularly on guilty verdicts and case processing times. The starting point of the thesis is a body-worn camera pilot project led by the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal, and a mixed methods design combining interviews conducted with prosecutors and defence lawyers (N = 22) with statistical analysis of data from court cases (N = 525) is used to meet the stated objectives. From an empirical standpoint, it is argued that the contribution of body- worn camera recordings to the judicial process represents a form of paradox, where the high evidentiary value being associated with images by the judicial actors does not fully correspond to the use that is made of it or the impacts that are observed on case processing. Although a significant reduction in processing time is observed for some cases, several factors seem to put a brake on the use of recordings by judicial actors. From a theoretical standpoint, the thesis proposes to deepen the reflections on the power of images in the judicial process. By borrowing the notion of authoritative knowledge, it is argued that the paradox observed in the contribution of body-worn camera recordings to the judicial process could be explained by the very source of their superiority. Beyond their potential contribution to the discovery of the facts, body-worn camera recordings are used in a context where productivity remains a central objective to the court, which can lead judicial actors to prioritize other forms of information, including police officers’ versions.

[pt] O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar os processos de reposicionamento do Ministério Público nos campos jurídico e político brasileiros a partir de 1964. Tal investigação perpassa, para tanto, pela inquirição das condições capazes de explicar a conquista de atribuições que permitiram ao MP uma atuação progressivamente mais significativa para a organização do espaço político nacional e das estratégias que viabilizaram a conquista de autonomia e independência sem referência em ordenamentos estrangeiros. As hipóteses articuladas giram em torno do compartilhamento, entre a cúpula militar dirigente do país a partir de 1964 e o Ministério Público, da percepção de mundo e da concepção de Nação – condição que viabilizaria a atuação do MP como instrumento de institucionalização do regime militar -, do êxito na conformação, perante a opinião pública, de uma instituição efetivamente voltada à e capaz de promover a defesa do interesse público de forma apolítica e da continuidade da reprodução social da elite integrante do MP a partir da ausência de ruptura com a estratégia de recrutamento quando da transição democrática. Por fim, verifica-se o caráter fundamental da atuação do Ministério Público para manutenção da estabilidade da dominação do Estado e de suas elites dirigentes, aspectos que levam ao questionamento sobre a capacidade e motivação da referida instituição, nas suas atuais condições de organização e atuação, ao pleno atendimento das funções lhe atribuídas pela Constituição Federal de 1988. / [en] The present research aims to analyze the movements of the Brazilian Prosecution Service legal in the law and political fields since 1964. The investigation goes through, of the conditions capable of explaining the conquest of attributions that allowed the Brazilian Prosecution Service to progressively act more significant for the organization of the national political space and of the strategies that made possible the achievement of autonomy and independence without reference in foreign systems. The articulated hypotheses revolve around the sharing, between the military leadership of the country in 1964 and the Brazilian Prosecution Service, of the concept of the Nation - a condition that would make it possible for the Prosecution Service to act as an instrument of institutionalization of the military dictatorship - , of the success in shaping, before the public opinion, of an institution effectively turned to and capable of promoting the defense of the public interest in an apolitical way, of the continuity of the social reproduction of the elite belonging to the Prosecution Service from the absence of rupture with the strategy of recruitment during the democratic transition. Finally, we verify the fundamental character of the work of the Prosecution Service to maintain the stability of the domination of the State and its ruling elites, aspects that lead to the questioning of the capacity and motivation of that institution, in its current conditions of organization and performance, to the full fulfillment of the functions assigned to it by the Federal Constitution of 1988.