This thesis is about corporate attribution in private law. Unlike human persons, companies are artificial legal persons. They lack a physical body with which to act, and a mind with which to think. English law therefore developed the concept of attribution so that legal rules could be applied to companies. Attribution is the process of legal reasoning by which the acts and states of mind of human individuals acting for a company are treated as that of the company, so as to establish the company’s rights against and obligations owed to other parties. This thesis examines the rules of attribution across the private law of obligations, focusing on the law of contract, tort, unjust enrichment, and selected aspects of equitable liability. Three main arguments are made in this thesis. First, there is a sharp distinction between the rules of attribution and the substantive rules of private law to which they apply. The former belongs in the law of persons, and it concerns when the acts and states of mind of an individual can be attributed to a company. The latter belongs in the law of obligations. Second, the same rules of attribution should be, and have largely been used across the entire expanse of private law. Regardless of the area of private law in which the question of attribution arises, the same question is being asked, and so the law’s answer should be the same. Like should be treated alike. This is normatively desirable, because it ensures coherence across private law. Third, it is therefore possible to state the rules of attribution that apply in private law. The acts of an individual A will be attributed to the company C where they were (i) specifically authorised (‘specific authority’), (ii) where A performs an act within the class of acts that A has power to do on behalf of C, even if A is acting in breach of duty (‘actual authority’), or (iii) where A has either been placed in a position or been held out by C such that a reasonable person in the position of a third party would reasonably believe that A had the power to act for C (‘apparent authority’). A’s knowledge will be attributed to C where it is material to the class of acts that A had specific or actual authority to do on behalf of C. Although commonly thought to be a series of diverse, disparate rules found in different doctrines and different areas of law, the rules of attribution form a remarkably coherent, consistent whole across private law.

The thesis focuses on the Czech regulation of forwarding contract. The aim of this thesis is to answer the question whether planned legislation in The New Czech Civil Code is type of modern legislation, which takes into account the needs of freight forwarders and international developments in the unification and harmonization of forwarding contract. The answer is based on analysis of the current legislation of forwarding contract, jurisprudence and comparison with regulation abroad.

The basis of any contract is the agreement of two or more parties. In traditional Swedish and English contract law theory, a contract is formed through the reciprocal exchange of an offer and a corresponding acceptance. Together, these declarations of will represent the common intent of the parties, which binds them to their respective contractual obligations and determines the contents of the contract. In the contemporary commercial sector, the use of standard forms (i.e., sets of terms that have not been individually negotiated) has become more prevalent. This has led to the rise of a particular legal issue, called the “battle of forms”: a situation where both parties refer to their own, conflicting, standard forms during the formation of contract, where after they proceed in fulfilling their contractual obligations. Consequently, the exchanged declarations of will lack conformity in these cases, and there is no discernible common will of the parties. In order to conclude that a contract has been formed, and to decide its contents, this conflict needs to be resolved. The traditional approach to resolving the issue of battle of forms in English law is to regard the last referenced standard terms in the contractual negotiations as an offer (or counter-offer), and the other party’s conduct as an acceptance. This approach largely corresponds with how the issue likely would be resolved according to traditional Swedish contract law principles. However, in the legal scientific environments of both Sweden and England, ideas and concepts of a modern contract law has developed. Included therein is the idea of taking a more flexible stance with regard to the formation of contract. When viewing the contractual relationship holistically, and partly liberated from the offer-acceptance approach, the battle of forms can be resolved by letting the court construe the different sets of terms together, and re-place conflicting terms with suitable substitutes by implication. These modern concepts have partly manifested in recent English precedence regarding the battle of forms. Considering that the patterns of development with respect to the modern law of contract are similar in Swedish and English law, there is reason to believe that a similar “new” approach to the battle of forms might be adopted by Swedish courts as well.

This thesis attends to CTO established and run by municipality. The main theme of this work is legal regulation of activity of the CTOs according to their legal forms and contractual relations which come into being in connection with existence and activity of the CTO. This legal regulation in The Czech Republic was compared with legal regulation of activity of the CTO in Slovakia. This thesis also adverts to advancement of segment of these organizations which is reflected at explored CTOs. With regard to main function of CTO which means offering information for free, this thesis mentions non-profit sector.

This thesis examines the law relating health care in South Africa rather than medical law which is a subset of this field. It attempts to synthesise five major traditional areas of law, namely international, constitutional, and administrative law, the law of contract and the law of delict, into a legal conceptual framework relating specifically to health care in South Africa. Systemic inconsistencies with regard to the central issue of health care across these five traditional fields are highlighted. The alignment of the various pre-existing areas of statutory and common law with the Constitution is an ongoing preoccupation of the executive, the judiciary, the legislature and academia. In the health care context, the thesis critically examines the extent to which such alignment has taken place and identifies areas in which further development is still necessary. It concludes that the correct approach to the constitutional right of access to health care services is to regard it as a unitary concept supported by each of the five traditional areas of law. The traditional division of law into categories of public and private and their further subdivision into, for instance, the law of delict and the law of contract is criticized. It promotes a fragmented approach to a central constitutional construct resulting in legal incongruencies. This is anathema to a constitutionally based legal system. There is no golden thread of commonality discernible within the various public international law instruments that contain references to rights relating to health and it is of limited practical use in South African health law. The rights in the Bill of Rights are interdependent and interconnected. The approach of the courts to the right of access to health care needs to be considerably broader than it is at present in order to fully embrace the idea of rights as a composite concept. Administrative law, especially in the public health sector, offers an alternative basis to pure contract for the provider-patient relationship. It is preferable to a contractual relationship because of the many inbuilt protections and legal requirements for administrative action. Contracts can be unfair but courts refuse to strike them down purely on this basis. Administrative action is much more likely to be struck down on grounds of unfairness: The law of contract as a legal vehicle for health service delivery is not ideal. This is due to the antiquated approach of South African courts to this area of law. There is still an almost complete failure to incorporate constitutional principles and values into the law of contract. The law of delict in relation to health care services has its blind spots. Although it seeks to place the claimant in the position in which he or she found himself prior to the unlawful act whereas the law of contract seeks to place him in the position he would have occupied had the contract been fulfilled, in the context of health care this is a notional distinction since contracts for health services seldom guarantee a specific outcome. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Public Law / unrestricted

Please read the summary in the front pages of the file named 00dissertation / Dissertation (LLM (Procedural Law))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Procedural Law / unrestricted

The thesis analyses the concept ‘fairness’ in consumer contracts regulated by the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, mainly from the perspective of a freedom and fairness orientation. It discusses the evolution of ‘fairness’ as background to a more detailed discussion of the classification of fairness into substantive and procedural fairness. The thesis examines dimensions of fairness, factors which play a role in the determination of fairness, and fairness- oriented approaches in an attempt to formulate a framework for fairness in consumer contracts. The main aspects that should be taken into account to justify a finding of fairness, or to determine whether a contract is fair, are identified. This analysis addresses, too, the extent to which the fairness provisions of the Consumer Protection Act are appropriate (with reference to the law of South Africa, Europe, and England). / Mercantile Law / LL.D.

L'indagine cerca di verificare la sussistenza di norme o la praticabilità di riforme o interpretazioni evolutive che consentano di riconoscere al lavoratore un ruolo efficamente preventivo rispetto a illeciti che possano prodursi nel corso dell'attività di impresa. Le due direttive principali lungo le quali corre l'analisi svolta sono quelle del diritto della sicurezza sul lavoro e delle segnalazioni (oggetto di comparazione con la normativa statunitense), con riferimenti ad alcune tematiche ritenute fondamentali della teoria generale del reato, così come ad aspetti significativi del contratto di lavoro subordinato. / The investigation is about the existence of laws or the possibility of reforms or evolutive interpretations that would allow a reconstruction of the role of the workers whithin an enterprise as a gatekeeper in front of illicit risks and conducts. While the focus is on health and safety at work and on whistleblowing laws (which are compared to the U.S.A. ones), the development of the thesis passes even through some fundamental themes of the general theory of the crime and some relevant profiles of the employment contract.

The legal historical development of fairness in the South African common law of contract is investigated in the context of the political, social and economic developments of the last four centuries. It emerges that the common law of contract is still dominated by the ideologies of individualism and economic liberalism which were imported from English law during the nineteenth century. Together with the theories of legal positivism and formalism which are closely related to parliamentary sovereignty and the classical rule of law, these ideals were transposed into the common law of contract through the classical model of contract law which emphasises freedom and sanctity of contract and promotes legal certainty. This approach resulted in the negation of the court’s equitable discretion and the limitation of good faith which sustain the social and economic inequalities that were created under colonialism and exacerbated under apartheid rule. In stark contrast, the modern human rights culture grounded in human dignity and aimed at the promotion of substantive equality led to the introduction of modern contract theory in other parts of the world. The introduction of the Constitution as grounded in human dignity and aimed at the achievement of substantive equality has resulted in a sophisticated jurisprudence on human dignity that reflects a harmonisation between its Western conception as based on Kantian dignity and ubuntu which provides an African understanding thereof. In this respect, ubuntu plays an important role in infusing the common law of contract with African values and in promoting substantive equality between contracting parties in line with modern contract theory. It is submitted that this approach to human dignity should result in the development of good faith into a substantive rule of the common law of contract which can be used to set aside an unfair contract term or the unfair enforcement thereof. / Private Law / LL. D.

The thesis analyses the concept ‘fairness’ in consumer contracts regulated by the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, mainly from the perspective of a freedom and fairness orientation. It discusses the evolution of ‘fairness’ as background to a more detailed discussion of the classification of fairness into substantive and procedural fairness. The thesis examines dimensions of fairness, factors which play a role in the determination of fairness, and fairness- oriented approaches in an attempt to formulate a framework for fairness in consumer contracts. The main aspects that should be taken into account to justify a finding of fairness, or to determine whether a contract is fair, are identified. This analysis addresses, too, the extent to which the fairness provisions of the Consumer Protection Act are appropriate (with reference to the law of South Africa, Europe, and England). / Mercantile Law / LL.D.