Thesis (LL.M.)--The Judge Advocate General's School, United States Army, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (LLMC Digital, viewed on Mar. 22, 2010). "April 2007". Includes bibliographical references.

Rostock, Jur. Diss. v. 6. Febr. 1914, Ref. Matthiass.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Rostock. / "Literaturverzeichnis": p. [vii]-viii.

Thesis (LLM)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

LL.M. / This study seeks to investigate the extent to which the state fails to comply with its constitutional and legal duties, and the impact of this failure on democracy. The study determines the effect of such failure and assesses the effectiveness of existing compliance mechanisms in ensuring the state fulfills its constitutional and legal duties. The duties imposed on the state must be complied with to ensure the legitimacy of the Constitution remains intact. State compliance with these duties forms an essential foundation of the Constitution. It is accepted in this study that the manner in and extent to which the state fails to comply with its duties impacts the status of the Constitution and the development of democracy in South Africa. There are two ways in which the state may fail to comply with its duties: 1. The first instance is where the state bona fide misinterprets legislation. 2. The second instance is where the state negligently ignores its duties or wilfully disregards its duties or takes on “imagined powers”. This study concerns itself with this second instance of non-compliance. The question not only concerns the extent of state non-compliance with its duties. The question also becomes, what are the ramifications if the state does not comply with its duties? What would be the consequences if the state wilfully, with mala fide intent or by the use of “imagined powers” neglects or ignores its duties? What would be the effect on the development and sustainability of democracy in South Africa? What are the existing compliance mechanisms and are they effective enough to ensure state compliance with its duties? The study endeavours to explore these questions. The study looks at a series of court cases illustrating the extent to which the state has so far failed to act in compliance with its duties. The study attempts to determine whether such non-compliance was merely a mistake or whether the state acted with some form of wilfulness or neglect. The study looks at the existing mechanisms and watchdogs that ensure state compliance with the Constitution and briefly examines whether they are effective. Other possible mechanisms that may strengthen control over state compliance are also considered. The study first looks at the duties of the state and the existing control mechanisms. Then a selection of cases are analysed to determine in what manner and to what extent the state is failing to comply with its constitutional duties. The study then assesses the current control mechanisms to determine whether they are effective in enforcing state compliance with its duties. Lastly, the study examines other possibilities and alternative mechanisms that may be introduced to secure state compliance.

Over the years, the lending procedures of microcredit has evolved. The original joint liability group lending with simultaneous financing (loans released at once) has been replaced by sequential financing (loans released one by one). Moreover, recent studies suggest individual liability lending in groups to be the optimal choice. While numerous theoretical studies provide thorough models of each of these approaches, none presents a comparative analysis. In this study, we model these three schemes using the framework by Van Tassel (1999) and compare them. Further, we add exogenous peer monitoring costs and within-group heterogeneity of loan sizes to our models. Our findings prove that, in the presence of information asymmetry, group lending with joint liability dominates individual liability lending in groups. Furthermore, the interest rate of the sequential model is more sensitive to changes of monitoring costs or opportunity costs of capital than in the sequential model. On the contrary, sequential approach allows for higher degree of within-group heterogeneity of loan sizes. It is ambiguous which model achieves higher profit and lower interest rate. Our results confirm that the choice of optimal financing approach is determined by the characteristics of borrowers. JEL Classificiation G2 Keywords...

Class of 2005 Abstract / Objectives: To quantify the initial short-term market response of product liability litigation in appellate courts against vaccine manufacturers between 1987 and 2003. Methods: This project used a retrospective data analysis. The study analyzed appellate court decision found searching the legal research section of Lexis-Nexis® between 1987 and 2003. A single index market model was used to examine an event window of (-1, +1) and calculate a cumulative abnormal return for one of three categories; outcome in favor of the plaintiff, outcome in favor of the defense, or case dismissal. Results: Overall, this study investigated vaccine-related litigation. Thirty-three lawsuits were found involving 12 separate parent companies and ultimately lead to 82 separate incidences. A majority of the cases involved litigation concerning thimerisol (n =12, 36%). Following inclusion and exclusion criteria for the appellate court rulings, 9 cases were in favor of plaintiff, 10 cases were in favor of the defense, and 14 cases were dismissed. Appellate rulings favoring the plaintiffs were found to be negative and statistically significant, with cumulative abnormal returns equaling -1.39% during the (-1,+1) event window (p < 0.05). The mean cumulative abnormal returns for rulings favoring the defense or case dismissals were statistically insignificant at 0.49% and -0.29%, respectively Implications: Product liability litigation against vaccine manufacturers can produce significant negative short-term security price returns, which can be a disincentive for corporations to invest in vaccine development and production.

This research aims to study the effects of legal liability rules on auditing quality in order to devise and implement a guideline for the optimal liability rules that can be applied to the auditing profession within society, and thus encourage investment. In an emerging market like Kuwait state, there is a weakness in the legal system, which may cause users to place less reliance on financial reports and auditing services. This environment does not encourage investment. The position in Kuwait state will be studied as an example of how emerging economies can add to the understanding of the role of the auditor, for the purposes of improving audit quality and encouraging a greater amount of investment. Where this position can be understood, this study gives a strong impression of how the legal liability of external auditors can impact on the auditing quality and, importantly, the chances of obtaining investment. For this reason the study is applied in Kuwait state. This research differs from the other literature in several important ways. First, the study has been performed in an environment of weak governance. Second, it studies the effects of the civil legal liability system from two views at the same time, so the research is carried out in relation to two different sides: first, the demand side of the auditing services represented by the users of financial information; and second, the supply side of the auditing services represented by the auditors. This has been done through two questionnaires, one distributed for each side. The results of users' questionnaire revealed that the existence of civil legal liability will increase the demand for auditing service. Also, consideration is directed towards the main determinant of auditing quality, which is the legal liability system, more so than other factors. As well as, through increasing auditor liability, trust in financial information will be enhanced, subsequently prompting investment within society. Moreover, the users, besides their needs for auditing services, require auditors to provide collateral for their investment process in order to increase their investment level. On other side, the results of auditors' questionnaire detected that the auditors hold the view that the demand for auditing services by companies will not be affected by the existence or non-existence of the liability rules. However, auditors believe that the existence of legal liability rules will make financial statement users more trustful in financial information, thereby increasing the number of users of audited financial reports. Also, the auditors do not agree that their liability should be increased since this will make auditing services more costly through the need to collect more evidence, increase the time of auditing, increase the sample size, etc. The increase in liability will also limit their acceptance of risky clients, make them increase their efforts, and due care. Furthermore, the introduction of legal liability may cause them to reduce their supply of audit services. Finally, a statistical test is carried out to compare the answers of the two groups. It is found that there are differences in views concerning the effects of the existence of legal liability on the demand for auditing. As well as, there are differences regarding their preferences about the alternative civil legal rules. The results of this study will help legislators by comparing the effects of available legal rules on audit quality and investment level. Accordingly, legislators can select the appropriate legal structure for auditors’ liability that achieves benefits to the business environment.

Magister Legum - LLM / In order to understand the context of the research paper, a brief discussion has to be made as to the important fact that a director has to be appointed in a role to assist with the decision-making in running of a company.1 A director is an officer of a company that is ordinarily appointed in order to make daily business reporting, decisions and to take business risks on behalf of the company.2When taking up a position as a director, duties and responsibilities must be fulfilled. A failure to comply with these duties will result in serious consequences for the company and often for the director himself.3 Director’s fiduciary duties previously developed from our common law and was established through the precedents set by our courts.4 These duties were partially codified in the Companies Act 71 of 2008.5 It can be clearly seen that the Companies Act 61 of 1973, only mentions the duties but does not specify directly the types of duties.6 The standard of conduct expected of directors is provided for in section 76 of the Companies Act 71 of 2008.7 Furthermore, section 77 contains the liability of directors for any breach of their duties.8 This raises the point that a director can incur various type of liability for a breach of their duties. The type of liability that can be incur is personal liability and criminal liability.9

The original problem which was proposed for this study is as follows: What are some of the provisions being made for secondary schools in providing for tort liability when students engage in off-campus curricular activity for mutual benefit of private party and the student, in absence of legal provision in the California State Education Code?