The question of how to best organize the governance structure of corporations in order to reconcile the various interests involved in a corporation has a long history. Legal and economic scholars from around the world have debated the issue since 1937, the year economists Adolf A. Berle and Gardener C. Means identified the agency cost problem inherent in the structure of the modern corporation (i.e. the separation of control from ownership rights). / Nowadays this debate has gained an added dimension. The consequences of the increasing globalization of economies raise the question as to whether this will also lead to the harmonization of national systems of corporate governance. / More particularly, this thesis analyses the possibility and consequently the direction of convergence between the German and the American system of corporate governance, despite significant differences in their structure, mechanisms and more generally, in the micro and macroeconomic environment.

Thesis (LL. M.)--Judge Advocate General's School, U.S. Army, 1966. / "April 1966." Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-56). Also issued in microfiche.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Columbia University, 1915. / Issued also without thesis note. Reproduction of original from Harvard Law School Library. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1971. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Purpose. This study of automated information retrieval systems was undertaken to attempt to ascertain the extent and development of a total legal information system. Overview. Historically, lawyers have searched the statutes and case law in the traditionally manual method. Given consistent high standards of editing, not too complex materials, and a collection of manageable size, this manual method will work to reasonable satisfaction, so long as a document never changes in meaning or significance. Lawyers point out that the present manual system is inadequate because with 30,000 new judicial decisions and 15,000 new statutes being promulgated each year it is becoming increasingly difficult to search the law. Methodology. The writer surveyed a selected sample of legal firms to determine the methods or aids used in the area of major management concern: (1) word processing, (2) bookkeeping, (3) timekeeping, (4) library, (5) filing, and (6) legal research. Correspondence and interviews revealed that only five firms are using a mechanical search system, while only one firm was on-line with a computer legal research system. Because law firms began addressing themselves to administrative problems only since 1960 it was necessary to make an investigation of the literature to develop an information base for this study. The proceedings of national law office management seminars were studied. Interviews were held with law firm managers, interested lawyers, the Chief Clerk of the Supreme Court of Oregon, the Administrator for the Oregon Justice Department, and computer and accounting system salesmen. Discussion. The use of the computer as the tool to use in a system for automated information retrieval for legal research was first demonstrated in 1960 at the American Bar Association's Annual Meeting in Washington, D. C. Several experiments and studies conducted since that time are discussed in this study. Two new systems seem to offer significant promise for automated legal searches, (1) the OBAR System, and (2) the Aspen System. Each is computer-oriented and offers full text ("word for word") searches. Resistance by lawyers to use an automated legal research system is expected due to professional conservatism. Recommendations and Conclusion. Law firms must continue upgrading their administrative functions in order to be ready for a sophisticated automated information retrieval system. A national organization such as the American Bar Association will have to organize a joint effort for implementation of a full information system. Law school curriculum will have to include a study of system analysis and computer technology. Law firms will have to develop a new concept of organization and work habits will need to be changed. The use of automated information retrieval systems for legal research will make lawyers more efficient and more profitable, without the need to increase client fees.

No description available.

No description available.

The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, resulted in dramatic legal changes in the U.S. As part of its investigation into the attacks, the U.S. Government detained approximately 5,000 "aliens" from predominantly Muslim countries. These detentions were characterized by minimal, and sometimes non-existent, habeas corpus and due-process protections. During times of crisis, care should be taken that panic not be allowed to prevail over long-cherished constitutional values. This thesis examines Government actions in light of constitutional principles to examine the larger question of whether the War on Terror detention practices have permanently undermined the rule of law in the U.S. / The factual and legal scenarios in this area have been changing at a rapid rate, and they will certainly continue to change. Those constant changes have presented a special challenge in writing this thesis. The facts and legal scenarios described herein, therefore, are current as of January 31, 2005.

No description available.

Contemporary American Criminal Law, as represented by the American Law Institute's Model Penal Code, defines the structure of criminal offenses in a manner that establishes certain psychological processes of the defendant as necessary conditions for criminal liability. In order to convict a defendant, the state must prove all offense elements including the voluntary act and culpability requirements. These provisions involve the actor's psychological processes, but neither the exact nature of these requirements nor the relationship between them is clearly understood. Certain general defenses, such as automatism and insanity, also address the defendant's psychological processes. It has been notoriously difficult, however, to develop a satisfactory formulation of either of these defenses or of the relationship between them and the system of offense elements. This dissertation presents a conceptual framework that grounds the Model Penal Code's structure of offense elements in philosophical action theory. On this interpretation, the offense requirements that involve the defendant's psychological processes can be understood as part of an integrated attempt to establish the criminal law as a behavior guiding institution that is uniquely appropriate to those who have the capacity to direct their conduct through a process of practical reasoning. The key offense requirements are designed to limit criminal liability to those behaviors that are appropriately attributed to the offender as a practical reasoner. Certain general defenses, including insanity, exculpate defendants when their behavior is not attributable to them as practical reasoners as a result of certain types of impairment that are not addressed by the offense elements. This conceptual framework provides a consistent interpretation of the relevant offense elements and defenses as part of an integrated system that limits criminal liability to those acts that are appropriately attributable to the defendant in his capacity as a practical reasoner. In addition, this dissertation contends that this system reflects a defensible conception of personal responsibility.