<p>Personal conflicts of interest among contractor employees are an increasingly visible and controversial area of U.S. Government contracting, given the U.S. Government&rsquo;s expanded reliance on contractor personnel. On November 2, 2011, the FAR Council issued a final rule on preventing personal conflicts of interest for contractor employees performing acquisition functions and issued a request for information regarding whether other privately contracted services in addition to acquisition support present sufficient risk to the integrity of the U.S. Government procurement process to warrant additional regulation. </p><p> This paper will review the defects in the new rule; will evaluate what lessons can be learned from the new rule to enhance future rules governing the personal conflicts of interest of U.S. Government contractors&rsquo; employees; and recommend better integration of U.S. Government compliance regulations to include conflicts of interest rules, protection of proprietary information, and the mandatory disclosure rule to reduce contractor compliance cost and promote implementation efficiencies through integration. </p>

<p> Since 2002, the United States has been conducting drone strikes as an integral part of its war on terror against al Qaeda. This paper discusses the evolution of that practice and considers the legal implications of the targeted killing of alleged members of al Qaeda and its affiliate organizations in non-battlefield situations. It argues that the U.S. is negatively influencing international law at a time when the law is unsettled with regard to non-battlefield targeting of members of armed opposition groups. Further, some of the strikes conducted by the U.S. violate the principles of distinction, proportionality and military necessity. The paper suggests that the U.S. should alter its course of actions, support a more restrained view of the boundaries of targeted killing, and limit any targeted killings to high-level members of terrorist organizations.</p>

Literature on legislatures in developing countries shows two opposing views on their effectiveness and efficiency. In the light of these views, this study chronicles the rise of the GCC States' assemblies, focusing on their role, structure, legitimacy and mechanism, as well as their relevance and contributions to the GCC States' political system. Studying national assemblies is important for understanding the GCC democratic experience, in which the assemblies played a pivotal and positive role. This study leads to the conclusion that despite the fact that the constitutional framework of the GCC States imposes limitations on the functions of the assemblies, they laid the groundwork for institutionalising the legitimacy of the political system of the GCC States, allowing room for various groups to participate in the policy process. Indeed, the GCC parliamentary experience can be appreciated when it is viewed as part of a political system aimed to reduce GCC State's vulnerability and contain external and internal threat. However, viewing the experience in the context of the Islamic teaching and from the perspective of Western democratic principles, the relevance and contribution of the GCC States' legislatures is not only elusive and intangible, but insignificant and undemocratic.

Thesis (J.S.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-05, Section: A, page: 1975. Adviser: Thomas S. Ulen. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 349-370) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (J.S.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Lawrence B. Solum. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 179-216) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Philosophy, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

The question this contribution sets out to address is whether law can be regarded as a science. This notion is readily accepted by many, yet it is submitted that a proper theoretical justification for such an assumption is usually missing. The traditional primary sources of law, South African case law and legislation, distinguish between legal practice and legal science, but the basis of the distinction is not clear. However, an entire body of literature in the philosophy of science has developed around the question of when a discipline will amount to science. Various demarcation criteria proposed in philosophy of science are considered. These include that science uses the scientific method, is susceptible to falsification, is puzzle-solving within a paradigm or renders beneficial results. None of these criteria offer a satisfactory solution to the problem. The proposition by a group of philosophers including Herman Dooyeweerd, Marinus Stafleu and DFM Strauss, that the answer to the demarcation question is to be found in modal abstraction, is then considered. Modal abstraction amounts to a consideration of reality (persons, things, theories and rules) from one or more defined point(s) of entry. It is an artificial and learnt manner of thinking as it approaches reality from the perspective of one of the modalities of being. For example, juridical abstraction would mean that a cow is considered as the object of someone‟s proprietary rights. An abstract idea of the cow‟s characteristics, from a juridical point of view, is formed and the rules of property law are applied. A number of South African legal philosophers, amongst others Van Zyl, Van der Vyver and LM du Plessis, have followed this approach. The South African legislature also attempted to define the terms “science” and “research”, mainly for funding purposes. These definitions are considered and the conclusion is that they do not provide the clear-cut answers one would expect. It will be argued that the nature of activities will determine whether an endeavour is scientific or not. The conclusion is that an alignment of the demarcation criterion developed by Strauss and others and the statutory definitions can provide a workable demarcation criterion. This “test” is then applied to activities of law students, academics, practitioners and judicial officers to determine when they will be practicing “science”. / MPhil, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The question this contribution sets out to address is whether law can be regarded as a science. This notion is readily accepted by many, yet it is submitted that a proper theoretical justification for such an assumption is usually missing. The traditional primary sources of law, South African case law and legislation, distinguish between legal practice and legal science, but the basis of the distinction is not clear. However, an entire body of literature in the philosophy of science has developed around the question of when a discipline will amount to science. Various demarcation criteria proposed in philosophy of science are considered. These include that science uses the scientific method, is susceptible to falsification, is puzzle-solving within a paradigm or renders beneficial results. None of these criteria offer a satisfactory solution to the problem. The proposition by a group of philosophers including Herman Dooyeweerd, Marinus Stafleu and DFM Strauss, that the answer to the demarcation question is to be found in modal abstraction, is then considered. Modal abstraction amounts to a consideration of reality (persons, things, theories and rules) from one or more defined point(s) of entry. It is an artificial and learnt manner of thinking as it approaches reality from the perspective of one of the modalities of being. For example, juridical abstraction would mean that a cow is considered as the object of someone‟s proprietary rights. An abstract idea of the cow‟s characteristics, from a juridical point of view, is formed and the rules of property law are applied. A number of South African legal philosophers, amongst others Van Zyl, Van der Vyver and LM du Plessis, have followed this approach. The South African legislature also attempted to define the terms “science” and “research”, mainly for funding purposes. These definitions are considered and the conclusion is that they do not provide the clear-cut answers one would expect. It will be argued that the nature of activities will determine whether an endeavour is scientific or not. The conclusion is that an alignment of the demarcation criterion developed by Strauss and others and the statutory definitions can provide a workable demarcation criterion. This “test” is then applied to activities of law students, academics, practitioners and judicial officers to determine when they will be practicing “science”. / MPhil, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

<p> During the Civil War, twenty northern states changed their laws to permit absent soldiers to vote. Before enactment of these statutes, state laws had tethered balloting to the voter's community and required in-person participation by voters. Under the new laws, eligible voters &ndash; as long as they were soldiers &ndash; could cast ballots in distant military encampments, far from their neighbors and community leaders. This dissertation examines the legal conflicts that arose from this phenomenon and the political causes underlying it. Legally, the laws represented an abrupt change, contrary to earlier scholarship viewing them as culminating a gradual process of relaxing residency rules in the antebellum period. In fact, the laws left intact all prewar suffrage qualifications, including residency requirements. Their radicalism lay not in changing rules about who could vote, but in departing from the prewar legal blueprint of what elections were and how voters participated in them. The changes were constitutionally problematic, generating court challenges in some states and constitutional amendments in others. Ohio's experience offers a case study demonstrating the radicalism of the legal change and the constitutional tension it created. In political history, prior scholarship has largely overlooked the role the issue of soldier voting played in competition for civilian votes. The politics of 1863-1864 drew soldiers into partisan messaging, since servicemen spoke with authority on the themes the parties used to attack their opponents: the candidates' military incompetence, Lincoln's neglect of the troops, and McClellan's cowardice and disloyalty. Soldiers participated politically not only as voters, but also as spokesmen for these messages to civilian voters. In this setting, the soldier-voting issue became a battleground in partisan efforts to show kinship with soldiers. The issue's potency became evident nationally after the 1863 Pennsylvania gubernatorial race, presaging the 1864 presidential contest. The Republican incumbent ran as "the soldiers' friend" and attacked his Democratic rival as the enemy of soldiers for opposing that state's soldier-voting law. The issue was decisive in securing civilian votes for the victorious Republican. That experience launched a nationwide push by Republicans to enact soldier-voting laws in time for the 1864 elections.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Baylor University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 329-338).